Originally Posted by
TiHabanero
Read with a chuckle the opinion piece at roadbikereveiw covering Specialized's decision to no longer market women's specific road designs. Going after the "white male roots" of the sport and the whole social justice nonsense gave me a chuckle and I chortled reading a response to the opinion piece framing the move as a cost cutting move and SBC spinning it to stink positive like a rose. Having been a dealer for 20 years, that is exactly what is going on here.
When SBC came out with the Ruby models they made sure we dealers understood the frame tubing was not the same as the men's models, and it was tailored to the lighter weight of a woman and the smaller frames. Apparently this is no longer a need. Marketing before truth. Makes good sense, no?
I'm late to this party and don't know if it's been brought up yet. Marketing is all about the sales and bottom line, they will tell an audience anything that will help increase sales, anything.... even if it's a little white lie. Sometimes they'll even tell an out and out lie, if they believe it will increase sales. How many times have we seen "New and Improved" on something like paper towels only to see its the packaging that's been changed.
If people are talking about the propaganda that the marketing department puts out, they all pat themselves on the back. It really doesn't matter if it's positive or negative, if it increases sales.
I look at the marketing/advertising as a pig. And hey I really like pigs by the way. Arguing about marketing is like mud wrestling with a pig, sooner or later you'll find out the pig really enjoys wrestling in the mud. And he doesn't care about who wins or loses .