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Cold Steel Marketing

gdog363

gdog363

Joined
Mar 8, 2017
Messages
403
What is your opinion on this?

I feel that they have conned god knows how many teenagers into buying a knife based on those videos they put on YouTube, and I think that Lynn Thompson has a narcissistic personality disorder, but watching the Cold Steel Ballistic Torso compilation videos sure is a guilty pleasure of mine:D:D:D
 
I don't like how as an ignorant teenager the ads alone made me want their knives.
I knew nothing about their knives, but the YouTube ads made me think of power and badassery.
I would have no problem if I had simply seen their knives and wanted them but i didn't want the knives, I wanted the badassery I thought they would bestow apon me.

Now my opinion on this is that it works, plus they're known to make a good product so it's no harm no foul.
Even if it they are catching teenagers like bass, it's not like an as seen on TV farce such as " ever sharp " or Ginsu knives.
 
I think it's funny more than anything else. I don't bother to watch it in general, but unlike any other knife company I can think of, their advertising shows their products being used. What they're using them for can induce some major eyerolls, but it inarguably gives you more information on how their knives do at cutting things than glossy photos and ad copy does.
 
I read an interview with Lynn Thompson in which he said that the videos first started as silly, in-house goofing around before someone decided they might make for entertaining marketing. Be that as it may...

I take the ads for what they are: silliness akin to Ginsu knives. You may remember those ads. It slices a tomato! It slices a brick! Look! It still slices a tomato!

I like Cold Steel's knives and have liked them since before I ever saw their ads.
 
I get the marketing stuff allright. But I feel inclined to agree that Cold Steel's marketing is a huge shit on the knife community with all the hysteria going on currently.
 
I think LT buys into the "there is no such thing as bad PR". Maybe he was advised by Lindsay Lohan. To me, he's a selfish capitalist, since he does what he does to make profit, nothing wrong with that, but that the same time he does a disservice to the knife community given todays political climate. Then again I applaud him for doing his own thing and not changing because of outside pressure. I guess it's a the whole two sides of a coin thing. Personally, it just doesn't make me want to buy a knife any more or less and I admit aside from the over the top-ness of it, I find it interesting to see what steel does to flesh and bone, similar to what Doug does on Forged in Fire, or what they did in Deadliest Warrior. More from a scientific perspective than a "Woah bro, look I cleaved that damn hog in twain!"
 
Honestly? It sold me when I was new to the knife world. I wanted a bomb-proof knife - Cold Steel's marketing, while hilarious / mockable at times, 100% conveys the message that their products are durable and resilient. They also get notable points for not being deceptive in their marketing.

People who are sold by the more ridiculous marketing still receive a quality product, so, I see zero harm in it. Their "proof" videos are a bit silly, but, at least I have a well-made knife in my pocket that I know will absolutely not fail me if I am ever faced with free-hanging 1" ropes, car hoods that need to be ventilated, or boots filled with meat.
 
Comeuppance said:
Honestly? It sold me when I was new to the knife world. I wanted a bomb-proof knife - Cold Steel's marketing, while hilarious / mockable at times, 100% conveys the message that their products are durable and resilient. They also get notable points for not being deceptive in their marketing.

People who are sold by the more ridiculous marketing still receive a quality product, so, I see zero harm in it. Their "proof" videos are a bit silly, but, at least I have a well-made knife in my pocket that I know will absolutely not fail me if I am ever faced with free-hanging 1" ropes, car hoods that need to be ventilated, or boots filled with meat.
Click to expand...
So marketing worked on you?
 
Makael said:
So marketing worked on you?
Click to expand...

It wasn't just the marketing- the overwhelming consensus that the products were well-made and well-priced were what sealed it for me.

The marketing was what first caught my attention and got me in the door, though; my very first non-walmart knife was a Cold Steel Counter Point II, which was followed by a Large Voyager Clip Point, and that's when I started looking into the Spyderco and Benchmade catalogs more seriously.
 
The great thing about the marketing industry, whether it be YouTube, magazine ads or TV, is that I can turn a page, skip a video and turn the channel if I feel I'm wasting my time. There's too many other advertisements that may be better and more entertaining.
 
Lynn and his marketing is both one of Cold Steel's biggest attributes and it's biggest enemy. He has gotten better with it, he's gotten less confrontational now, and sort of lets the products speak for themselves. And it works, much like United and Hibben in the 90's, etc.... it's driving new people into the hobby, and if they stick around, that's a good thing.

Some makers chop railroad spikes, Thompson chops a boot filled with meat. Different strokes for different folks :).

I also respect that Thompson takes chances, the knife industry was tremendously slow to change in the 1900's - 70's. If it wasn't for guys like him, Mar, Collins, and Glesser, we wouldn't have near what we have today.
 
I have some fixed blade CS knives. I like my old Carbon V Master Hunter - a very nice blade IMO.
I recently bought a Drop Forged Hunter as my first CS knife in many years.

Other CS knives, I wouldnt own, if they were given to me. I have no need for overbuilt clown folders overly large/long for a pants pocket - be they CS, Medford or others of their ilk. I leave that to the basement ninjas and wanna be 'operators' et al. For my mundane tasks of cutting string, opening cardboard boxes, cutting leather for hobby sheath making, whittling the occasional stick and for food processing, an overbuilt folder is not what I need but then Im no operator.

I get that some of the knives and the emphasis on the 'tactical' marketing of tools is a bit much. I agree.

Suffice to say, that CS targets a certain audience and that the CS products sell.

No doubt about that.

Some of the vids with LT are a bit much but again the products sell.

Bottom line; what ever CS/LT is doing, the company is a succesful business.

The above being said; LT seems to bring out a certain animosity in a lot of people. Maybe because he rubs some knife users (using knives for more mundane tasks) the wrong way.

Today two (negative) threads on CS on the first page in GeeDee alone.
 
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