Interesting statement by David Fee, VP sales @ Benchmade

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harris2

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Ah... The reason for MAP pricing enforcement is revealed. It all makes sense now! :D

From an interview with David Fee, VP sales, Benchmade in the SGI Weekly Intelligence, VOLUME 5, NUMBER 37, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

... At retail, it seems that higher price points in the knife category are not deterring sales. “Right now, many brands
that are priced below $70 are seeing flat sales, whereas the $100 to $300 range is exploding,” reported Fee. “There’s
been a shift in the market. People are willing to pay more for quality and our retail partners are adjusting their assortment
accordingly.”
 
I guess so, but that does not justify raising the price of a knife that sells well at $75 to $100. It sounds like a justification to increase the quality of product on the $75 knife to make it a $100 value.
 
It's the same reason oil companies and ammo mfgs are charging the prices they are, for their products. They come to realize, their customers are willing to pay "whatever" for their product. End result, consumer screwed, company profits up.:rolleyes:
 
That article was apparently written before (9/13) the UPP rates went into effect (11/13). If this holds true then I'd say that the sales increases they saw were commensurate with the previous pricing. Benchmade has not been known for "economy" knives since they did away with the Red Class knives. While they did introduce the Harley Davidson line and expanded with the HK and Bone Collector lineups, those items were considered the economy models for the most part. The Mini Grip was the most economical knife at that point coming in around $60ish. It also doesn't take into account actual sales for whatever the new HUNT series has generated since release. It's a bit misleading.
 
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Same knives, same slack QC, and higher prices...yet they keep selling it seems...life is good for Benchmade from a business perspective.
 
The Axis Stryker is next on my list. Such a great looking knife and so comfortable in hand.
My wife will be mad but she is buying herself a Sig so she should get over it.
 
Hmmm, sounds very similar to a thought I had. Something along the lines of BM sales were down because there knives were priced too cheap.
 
I have 7 BMs and am glad to own and use them, all of them bought pre price hike.
Haven't bought one since. Just too dear now, to me.

Maybe I'm the microcosm and he's talking about the macrocosm.
Whatever. I'm still annoyed over the inflated prices. BM has lost me as a happy customer I'm afraid. A shame cos if the prices hadn't jumped I would have bought at least two more by now.
 
If it's an enforcement of MAP, is Benchmade even seeing the extra money? If their dealer prices stay the same, it seems the ones making more per knife sale are the retailers.
 
Lennyo3034 said:
If it's an enforcement of MAP, is Benchmade even seeing the extra money? If their dealer prices stay the same, it seems the ones making more per knife sale are the retailers.
Click to expand...

Benchmade probably sees it as a win, win. The retailer receives a higher profit, and Benchmade receives higher prestige. The only loser is the buyer, but as long as they continue to buy who cares. :rolleyes:
 
Lennyo3034 said:
If it's an enforcement of MAP, is Benchmade even seeing the extra money? If their dealer prices stay the same, it seems the ones making more per knife sale are the retailers.
Click to expand...

Yes it seems like it's the dealers making the extra money. But isn't Benchmade "making" them charge customers the higher prices ?
 
Lennyo3034 said:
If it's an enforcement of MAP, is Benchmade even seeing the extra money? If their dealer prices stay the same, it seems the ones making more per knife sale are the retailers.
Click to expand...

Wolverine666 said:
Yes it seems like it's the dealers making the extra money. But isn't Benchmade "making" them charge customers the higher prices ?
Click to expand...

The dealers are not paying more, and Benchmade is not making more per knife, so the dealers are the ones that make higher profit per knife. The question is whether that profit per knife increase offsets the loss in volume.

While Benchmade does not force the dealers to sell at higher prices with legal enforcement (hence, they don't "force" the dealer yo do anything), they will chose to not sell to a dealer who does not abide by the agreement that Benchmade sets forth. If a dealer wants to continue selling Benchmades then they play by the rules.

And yes, the consumer is the one who gets screwed.
 
This isn't MAP in question, it's the Unilateral Price Protection. No matter who you are or where you are, you must sell the item at a specific price, period. There is no minimum or maximum allowable advertised price any more, it is what it is, period. For example, do you ever see Chris reeve knives that are on sale for 10 or 20 percent off? No. How about Strider? Maybe other midtechs? Not really.
 
I've bought benchmade for over ten years but not since the price increase. It's getting into collectible price range rather than user tools range. I can make a functional knife in a few hours for almost nothing that is more useful for my purposes.
I'm not spending gun or ammo money on a knife.
So if BM wants to control what dealers price merchandise and to be a luxury brand like Rolex, Montblanc, or Louis Vuitton, then happy trails to them.
 
A good friend of mine is a Benchmade dealer and owns a small mom and pop type shop in a medium sized town in the midwest and really appreciates the new MAP pricing schedule. The new price schedule evens the playing field between small local shops and the high volume internet guys Bringing value, which a lot of people have fogot is differnet than cost, back to a high quality American made product is a good thing that I think this country needs more of. I've seen this happen over the past 15 years with higher end flyfishing equipment, American manufacturers are strictly enforcing end user pricing for their product, which makes the cost of admission higher, but also makes the industry more viable. I for one hope the new Benchmade pricing is the start of a trend. As an owner of more than 20 newer Benchmades i have only had one that needed sent back in for QC for a fix. Brad.
 
Bradass80 said:
A good friend of mine is a Benchmade dealer and owns a small mom and pop type shop in a medium sized town in the midwest and really appreciates the new MAP pricing schedule. The new price schedule evens the playing field between small local shops and the high volume internet guys Bringing value, which a lot of people have fogot is differnet than cost, back to a high quality American made product is a good thing that I think this country needs more of. I've seen this happen over the past 15 years with higher end flyfishing equipment, American manufacturers are strictly enforcing end user pricing for their product, which makes the cost of admission higher, but also makes the industry more viable. I for one hope the new Benchmade pricing is the start of a trend. As an owner of more than 20 newer Benchmades i have only had one that needed sent back in for QC for a fix. Brad.
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I think their change to MAP makes the American market less viable and it will ultimately hurt dealers in the long run as people progressively move to different products, often from different sources, and so the increase in revenue per sale will actually be a loss in net income. There are high quality products being produced in more countries than ever before. Fenix Flashlights, and how their fast improvement in quality took the industry by storm, is an example here.

I don't see how higher prices on the exact same product brings value? Benchmade's change did not coincide with materials changes. More or less, they changed their pricing and consumers now pay more for the same product. With that change, some Benchmades are now priced side-by-side with knives in a completely different market than they were previously, often including some flagship ZT models and even some Chris Reeves. I think that if the new Benchmade pricing is the start of a trend, the American mid/high-end production knife market will collapse, and the market for overseas knives will explode.

Benchmade could better justify these higher prices if they modified their lineup to use slightly different materials (for example, upgrade 154CM/D2/S30V/etc. to CPM-154/S35VN/ELMAX/CTS-XHP/more M4, S90V, M390/VANADIS 4 Extra/3V, etc.; or drop less durable coatings for a true tungsten DLC like what ZT uses). I don't mind paying more and think supporting American products is a great thing to do. But when a product sees a huge jump in price, I feel something should change with the product to justify the increase.
 
JohnnyO said:
It's the same reason oil companies and ammo mfgs are charging the prices they are, for their products. They come to realize, their customers are willing to pay "whatever" for their product. End result, consumer screwed, company profits up.
Click to expand...

It's a supply and demand situation. Look at the sales situation- popular knives are hard to find at retail and when offered for sale on the used market they sell very fast. There are some models that are less popular, so I suppose the trick is for the consumers to be less fickle and for the manufacturers to make more of the popular models and less of the models that are hard to sell.

As for oil and ammunition, the supplies are limited and there is a lot of demand. The producers can sell for whatever price they want to sell at. My theory is that oil companies have to sell at more reasonable prices to keep the peasants with torches and pitchforks away from their doors.
 
bdmicarta said:
It's a supply and demand situation. Look at the sales situation- popular knives are hard to find at retail and when offered for sale on the used market they sell very fast. There are some models that are less popular, so I suppose the trick is for the consumers to be less fickle and for the manufacturers to make more of the popular models and less of the models that are hard to sell.

As for oil and ammunition, the supplies are limited and there is a lot of demand. The producers can sell for whatever price they want to sell at. My theory is that oil companies have to sell at more reasonable prices to keep the peasants with torches and pitchforks away from their doors.
Click to expand...

Very good points made.
 
Only BM's I've purchased since MAP enforcement is through the secondary market. No way I'm buying new again. You guys can do that, and once you're done with them, sell them to me LNIB... hehe.

Doesn't it rub any of you the wrong way that BM knows that the only people getting hosed because of this artificial 30 to 40 percent increase is their customers? Yet they went ahead anyway and didn't even bother to offer a statement. I just watched meet your maker on BladeHQ's youtube featuring Les De Asis, the founder and he was all customer this customer that, we're all about customers...Yeah....I bet.

The knife market/community is still relatively tiny and I believe that it is still grassroots, BM earned their reputation through that and they can act like a big conglomerate knife company now all they want but I think sooner or later they will be humbled by this.
 
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