CHALLENGES OF BRAND LOYALTY IN THE GUN TRADE

DEAR GUN TRADE INSIDER,

I read the article “Specialising in the brand” in the August issue of Gun Trade Insider about gunshops specialising in a brand of guns or several brands of guns, and I just thought I’d drop a line to share my thoughts.

When we were growing the business in the early 2010s, after a few years of just trying to understand the market and find our position in the trade, we loved the idea of doing exactly this: picking a few brands and sticking to them through thick and thin, and putting all of our might behind them in the same way car brands do in the motor industry. We saw the model and thought, “It works for them, so why can’t it work for us?” After a while, we realised it doesn’t work in our trade for several reasons, some of them good and others not so good.

Firstly, we realised the wholesalers and distributors as a whole don’t have the loyalty you’d hope for when deciding to put all your eggs in their basket. We would spend a lot of time building a reputation for the brand and making sure we always had the latest and greatest that brand offered, but then suddenly the shop around the corner from us had a couple of them in stock and would make sure they were selling them slightly cheaper. You’d go back to the importer and ask why, only to be told, “They’ve got an account too,” or “They had customers interested in the brand.” Rather than sending the customer to the specialist (us), they were able to purchase it themselves and sell it on. You don’t get that in the motor trade.

Next, taking in part exchanges. Again, in the car trade, it’s common to move on the part-exchanged car straight to the specialist of that brand. That way, you haven’t got the odd Volvo in a sea of BMWs, and the Volvo specialist gets another car on their pitch. It would be lovely if things like that happened in the gun trade, but due to customers wanting too much money for their guns, and not all local gunshops getting on with each other, it wouldn’t work.

Customer loyalty, I’d say, is stronger in the gun trade than in the car trade. Most people buy a car from the local dealer and then won’t go back to purchase anything else for another few years. They might go back for a service, but generally, they don’t deal with the salesperson for that. In the gun trade, however, the customer will return to the same salesperson for everything to do with shooting, from gun parts and servicing to ammo and additional purchases. If that customer decides they ’d like a gun brand, they wouldn’t necessarily go to the shop that specialises in that brand; they ’d go back to the salesperson they ’ve built a relationship with and ask them to get it for them.

I have a few other factors to consider, but I don’t want to go on and on. Overall, I loved the idea of becoming the specialist of several brands — from shotguns and rifles to ammo and scopes — but I don’t think our industry would work with that model. I love reading the articles, so keep them coming.

Kind regards,

CHRIS LAMB

The Country Sports Shop Limited

The Old Kiln

Pottery Road

Bovey Tracey

TQ13 9DS

Tel: 01626 830031

Email: chris@thecountrysportshop.co.uk