Originally Posted by
m_yates
I don't mind that "Windsor" or "Motobecane" names are being used by bikesdirect. What I think is fishy is pretending to be a separate company, which bikesdirect clearly does.
Well, many, many bicycle company owning companies does exactly that. It is almost an exception otherwise. The reason is marketing; because people associate different things to different brands. So Dorel sells beach cruisers under the "Schwinn" brand and fast road bikes under the "Cannondale" brand. Same company, perhaps even same factory, but different brands for different markets.
Originally Posted by
m_yates
The QBP brands don't do this. Visit the Surly web site, or the Civia one. If you search for Surly dealers, the web site states that they are part of QBP and most bike shops can order from them. The Civia web site has a page on the history of the company talking about how QBP decided to target the commuter market with a new brand. They don't hide the fact that they are part of QBP.
On Surly's homepage this is what I could find:
http://surlybikes.com/dealers/
" Most can. In the U.S. we sell to shops through Quality Bicycle Products, and most shops here can order from QBP."
Reading this I would only think that QBP was a distributor (which they also are), not that they owned Surly bikes and the brand.
Same with Civia and the same with Salsa, though their blog (not their contact info) talks about their relationship with QBP.
All in all they don't exactly brag about their ownership.
That "Motobecane USA" is a BD brand isn't exactly an internet secret either.
Originally Posted by
m_yates
Try visiting motobecane.com, windsorbicycles.com, cyclesmercier.com, and dawescyclesusa.com and see if you can find information anywhere stating that they are exclusively distributed by bikesdirect.com, manufactured exclusively for bikesdirect.com, and in fact owned by or part of bikesdirect.com
It is just the misleading nature of this that rubs me the wrong way.
First of all, I really think that all what those not very pretty websites do is scaring costumers away. But the owner of these brands and BD may have good business reasons to have separate web sites, including selling one of the brands to the right buyer, or start selling/distribute a particular brand to all LBS's in the future.
For the costumer I can hardly see any difference between buying an exclusive brand (only sold through a certain line of stores and web shops) and a more general brand, that may only be sold to "authorized shops". Anyway, several big bicycle retailers have websites for a particular exclusive brand that only they sell without it being obvious that this is the case. (Decathlon/Btwin bikes but I know many more). The owner of BD just does what many other bicycle brand owners do.
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Regards