Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

At 07:30 AM 6/19/2004, JANUSTUDIO@xxxxxx wrote:
> I've met lots of people just looking at the breed to
> see if it is what they want their family to get into. Here is where the QH 
> and
> Paints are way ahead of the Arabian associations. They promote what their
> breed can mean for the average rider. They promote the 'look', that so 
> many want.
> They promote the sane dispositions, the western image that we have seen since
> childhood. They capitalize on this and the average person doesn't have to
> show to get it.

Yes, Jan, that's it in a nutshell.  The other breeds are promoting to the 
average person, the average rider.  I went to the AHA website (link which 
Kristen supplied), and found that when AHA did surveys they surveyed its 
own membership to get it's statistics.  These would be a good baseline for 
a marketing program, because they show what a *non-healthy* situation for 
AHA is like.  What they should have done then was survey potential buyers - 
might be non-Arabian owners, or non-horse owners - or even look at AQHA 
statistics to see what *healthy* registry's memberships look like.  Then 
you create stats that would represent the ideal AHA situation and this 
would be the goal.  You take the baseline, compare to the goal figures, and 
figure out how to get there.  This is the basis to all planning.

I didn't see any talk of that at the AHA website - maybe marketing is doing 
that and just didn't mention it (after all, that part of the website is 
over a year old, apparently).  I hope they are, because you never use where 
you're at as the goal if you plan on changing where you end up!

I went to look at the AQHA website last night and there are photos of 
middle aged riders sitting in the outdoors on nicely groomed but not slick, 
shaved, greased, hyper-alert horses:  This is the first image you see on 
the opening page.  In other words, the AQHA site is providing an image that 
immediately plants the suggestion to the viewer that he/she could be the 
one sitting on a QH.  That's good marketing!

At AHA's site the main photos do not put the average person/rider/buyer in 
the saddle of an Arabian.  In fact, right up front, the opening page says 
"Making Dreams Possible.... Every Day".

Marketing can sell dreams (Victoria's Secret) or it can sell reality 
(WalMart).  Sure, Victoria's Secret has lots of sales, but of the two, 
which of them has the highest sales, which is growing like crazy, which has 
people lined up 10 and 20 deep at the cash registers on weekends?  Dreams 
are nice, but reality sells, reality is where the true, healthy, dependable 
market is.

AHA is selling dreams, AQHA is selling reality.  Until AHA starts looking 
at the real world and pointing it's marketing in that direction, to the 
world of the average buyer, average horse owner, AHA's "sales" - new foal 
registrations, new owners - will likely continue to fail.  That's why I 
keep coming back to distance riding and endurance for the focus of 
promotion for AHA.  Distance riding has been the reality of of horse 
ownership since the first person got on a horse's back - I don't think it's 
a passing fad, I think it's something AHA could and should take to the bank.

________________________________
   Lif Strand      fasterhorses.com
           Quemado NM USA

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There is something really special about getting to ride all day, and all
night on your horse. I know that a lot of people like to get finished, and
get it over with. Yes, it is a lot of work. But, realize that each ride,
especially a 100 is a really special gift and savor it for all it is worth. 
~  Karen Chaton

ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/

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