Does anyone else think Kel-Tec's advertising needs work?

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MatthewVanitas

MatthewVanitas

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Greetings. I have no actual background in marketing, but like to ponder the subject (I give fair warning). But does it seem to anyone else that Kel-Tec could drop a couple more bucks into their ad department?

The print ads they run in various shooting magazines have this particularly tacky orange-haze background, and often the text is rather choppy or over-detailed for an ad (conversions of the unloaded weight into kilograms, ballistic info in nano-joules, etc.). It doesn't draw the eye, or read intuitively. It just gives an overall icky impression that would lead the uninformed reader to put them into the same category as Lorcin or Bryco. And considering how successful the P32 has been, you'd think that they're at least a couple steps above the zinc-slide crowd.

(Speaking of zinc slides, it appears the High-Point hired the same ad execs as Cobray. Strong call...)

Their website has decent photography, but overall has a look similar to HTML work I did on my fan-page in 1997. Plus their flag logo (as rendered at the top of the page) looks like it was worked up on an Apple IIe.

I hasten to add: I am thrilled with my P32. I know a lot of folks like their P11s and KT rifles. I know they aren't quite Kimber or Bushmaster, but I think they could up their image a bit by revamping their ad campaign.

Anyone else in agreement? Any ad-savvy folk eager to strike a blow at one side or the other? Thanks for your time. -MV
 
The print ads they run in various shooting magazines have this particularly tacky orange-haze background, and
often the text is rather choppy or over-detailed for an ad (conversions of the unloaded weight into kilograms,
ballistic info in nano-joules, etc.).
Click to expand...
Maybe they miss something on the aesthetics, but I don't fault them for details. I live for tech details. Frankly, it's the tech details that make a P3AT worth buying: 7 shots of .380 . Under 8 oz unloaded. 9.6 oz loaded. .77 inches wide. That's the stuff that sold it for me!
 
I dont wanna beat them down, but have you looked at their website?

Its a canned MS FrontPage template, and not a good one at that.

I truly believe that some creative marketing would help them. They have a decent product and a decent value...just need a little push if you know what I mean.
 
Honestly, they seem to be doing pretty well with the ads they've got. Nicer ads may mean higher product cost and I doubt any of us want that. Their website works, and gets the information to the user, which is the most important part. Tey don't seem to be having any problem selling their guns, so they really isn't much of a point to better advertisements
 
That web site is fuuuuuuuuu-gly!

Yeah, they could do better.

Still, I think gunnies know enough to take them seriously, in spite of their poor marketing.
 
Decided I wanted a P3AT and called around

Shop 1: Had one last week, sold it the day after I got it.
Shop 2: Are you kidding me? We have P32's though.
Shop 3: They're rare as hen's teeth
Shop 4: Why yes, we have one and a P11 as well (I wanted to compare them to see which I wanted for a pocket gun/bug to my sig). :eek: Halleluah.

So here's my response to Kel-Tec

Market the P32. Everyone has them. STOP marketing the P3AT, at least until I buy mine :D
 
Does anyone not understand who pays for that high cost advertising?
Who cares if they have the info on stone tablets.
They make a good product for a good price.
Fancy ad work will just raise the prices.
 
Then there's always the possibility that I will give them a call on Monday and offer to re-make their ads. I like that company a lot. As part of my Business Communication major, I did a study on their advertising needs and probably budgets and found out exactly why they do what they do. However, my investigation didn't factor in the possibility of me helping out just because I might want to be helpful.
 
I just wish they had put a little more R&D into the P-3AT before selling it to the public. I love mine, but I've had to modify the extractor, and I have yet had the chance to try it since then.
 
Speaking as a graphic designer, yes, I agree that every single Kel Tec ad, as well as their website are Godawful eyesores.

Poor ad design costs customers. Period.

As a professional pixel pusher, I've run into my fair share of desk jockies who consider themselves graphic designers simply because they have a copy of MS Paint and think that "doing graphics is fun so I must be good at it."

:barf:

Having said that, from what I've seen and experienced Kel-Tec makes a good product.
 
Then of course there are us old fogeys who recognize their ads for what they are, a decent representation of a style which used to fill classic Herter's catalogues, Outdoor Life magazines and The American Rifleman.

This is the style of ad from a time when any fifteen year old could save his cotton picking and hay baling money and send off for a nice deer rifle plus a bottle of Herter's deer lure and an orange hat, then sit by the mailbox for four weeks waiting for a reply. :cool:
 
Similarly, I was going to suggest that the ad attributes seem to correspond with some of their products.
Click to expand...

I was going to say "ghetto ads for ghetto guns", but this is a little kinder.

I've been singularly unimpressed with the examples I've shot.
 
As a marketing kinda guy who would make the decision to change // upgrade graphic presence, I'd ask a few questions first.

--Is the company selling to and dominating its target customer base?
--Is the demand stable?
--Is the demand increasing at reasonable rates and not subject to wild swings?
--Is "out the door" quality such that only a small fraction come back for any reason?
--Does demand match supply to within, say. 10 to 15 points?
--Will increased demand force the company into a capital expansion that projected sales increases will not be able to immediately satisfy?

Quite often good advertising makes a problem much worse. There are times when the best thing to do is nothing.

Now if the question is, "How do you clean up the company's image without getting into a marketing fist-fight?" You just do it by calling Oleg.
 
Kel-Tec's page is perfect. It shows the product and the specs, is very simple to navigate, and loads very quickly.

Too many web sites are ludicrously over done and reflect the web designers ego more than any real need.

Two examples of this are Harley-Davidson's and BMW Motorcycle's websites. Both of these take forever to load, and are confusing as hell to navigate.

Kel-Tec's page is better for being simpler.

Too many web designers seem to have no awareness of the fact that people going online visit more than one web site per session. Making customers wait while endless amounts of ego-driven, gratuitously unnecessary graphical crap loads just drives those customers away.
 
"Then of course there are us old fogeys who recognize their ads for what they are, a decent representation of a style which used to fill classic Herter's catalogues, Outdoor Life magazines and The American Rifleman."

:D
 
Hiring a good graphic designer to make their ads look both more professional and make their products more attractive to those consumers who don't read gun forums (that's most of them :p ) would NOT increase costs in any appreciable way.

They are paying for 4-color ads in the magazines so their placement costs wouldn't be more and I can guarantee you they could find a good graphic designer that would redesign their stuff in trade so all they would be out is a few pistols ... maybe a rifle or two.


I would imagine that in this forum alone I could find several decent graphic designers willing to take on their print advertising and web page redesign in trade ;)
 
I'm with Cool Hand Luke 22:36 on this one. Amen, Brother!!!
I hate all those "ego driven" websites that look pretty to a computer geek, but the average guy cannot figure out.
 
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