Originally Posted by
ollyisk
They are the same thing. I'm just saying, some people in this thread seem to think that they somehow market their product by being seemingly grass roots, when it's not a faux-grass roots, it's genuine.
If I'm not mistaken Surly will help sponsor events and do other things which help with name recognition. They probably wouldn't be in a position to do as much of that without having the backing of someone like QBP. For them marketing might not mean an add on TV or in Bicycling magazine but there are people who are marketing Surly in a deliberate way.
Word of mouth has obviously been very important to their success too so I wouldn't take that away from them.