Yamaha a no show at Big East Show !!!

[vodoo child]

Reluctantly I went up to the Big East Show in Syracuse this past Saturday. I've been going since the first show some 20+ yrs. ago so it's tradition. That being said, the show has basically turned into a clothing/helmet show for Klim, FXR, 509, CKX and Mission between a few vendors. Woodies, Stud Boy/USI and Mack were selling studs and runners. Curve ski's had a booth and a Ski-Doo dealer selling OEM Doo gear! A few local clubs, a few Quebec areas along with Vermont and Maine tourism had booths. Ski-Doo had a nice display of there sleds, an ATV and a loaded up 4 seat SXS with tracks. Polaris had a good display. Cat had a good display along with there 3 new Catalyst sleds, M, Riot and ZR. ""NO YAMAHA WHAT SO EVER""!!! Thee ""ONLY"" thing I saw with the words YAMAHA on it at the show were a couple of marked down Yamaha/FXR jackets at Port Yamaha's booth! In fact Port didn't even have DuPont HyFax slides or oil change kits this yr. I did chat with Rocz for a while and of all people, Troy Halverson from Cat. We talked a 1/2 hr about sledding in general, the new Catalyst chassis, were he's ridden, were I've ridden ect. When I got around to the future of Yamaha snowmobiles he was to be expected, tight lipped. All he would say was that Cat will continue to have the Thunder Cat in there line up! All in all, for the 3hr ride, 13 bucks to get in and being able to walk thru the show in an hr. Not worth my time anymore!

 

[number1kyster]

Yamaha is done with sleds. It's sad.

I've been riding them since the 2002 Viper came out, and my Sidewinder is likely going to be my last. I'd rather support a company that is commited to the industry.

 

[RAMSOMAIR]

Dupont hasn't made/shipped slides yet to anyone!

 

[GR8BBQ]

You must have missed Shagman and Nos-Pro (Tim and Terry) at their Thunder Products booth... I spent about an hour talking with and getting tuning suggestions from them. That alone worth the price of admission and my 4 hour round-trip drive.

 

[Crossfire12]

Face it ,It’s time to just look at Arctic cats, Yamaha seems to be gone.

 

[NYTurbo]

Yamahas been gone for quite a while.

 

[2004yamahaviper]

Drove down to the show Friday as well. Was hoping to see some blue there. Picked up a few communicators from rocz that were an awesome deal. spoke with Tim at thunder for a bit as well. Went down to see the 23 srxs and nothing. Kinda disappointing to not see Yamaha at a show that large.

 

[DMCTurbo]

Dupont hasn't made/shipped slides yet to anyone!

I picked some up recently at my dealer.

 

[stgdz]

Troy H is likely saying that there will always be a thundercat as in they will just slap a turbo on their new big bore 2 stroke and call it a thundercat.

The 998 is going to go to Polaris

 

[fxnytrortxkid]

Was told that the 23’s were sold out so fast it wasn’t worth them going to say hey look at our sleds, they are not available so good luck on next years.

I don’t disagree but I do think they should have been there.

 

[earthling]

Tradeshows in general are hanging on by the skin of their teeth, not only is attendance down, much of what would have been the marketing budget for tradeshows is now going into online systems (website, databases, digital marketing, youtube lifestyle videos, etc). As someone who has had to plan product releases around tradeshows for more than a couple of decades I can tell you that they simply aren't as attractive as they used to be, it comes down to a balance between face to face (making a connection with consumers) and the ENORMOUS costs of attending the show circuit as an exhibitor. In my world, and I assume that of folks at Yamaha, a tradeshow minimum booth expense is about $100-250.00 per square foot for raw floor space, then you have to add things like marketing material, people, drayage (just across the show floor), electricity, connectivity, booth construction, the booth itself, security, etc, etc, etc.. Bigger shows come with much larger expenses. At bigger tradeshows for instance our budget is north of $1M, at smaller ones it can range from $20k for something really small to north of $100k once you factor in time, time away from the office (lost productivity), out of office expenses, floor space, union fees, exorbitant trade fees and service fees, etc.. Its all a bit ridiculous. What used to cost us $250k now cost over $1M and let me tell you, $750k goes a long way in online marketing. On top of which, it is very difficult to justify the show as it is hard to draw any correlation between the expense and the return. How many people that attended the show are likely buyers and not tire-kickers. Not making excuses for Yamaha as I am sure they are doing what they need to do and what makes sense but raising awareness for some serious issues facing manufacturers that fly under the radar.

 

[Thunder Products]

Tradeshows in general are hanging on by the skin of their teeth, not only is attendance down, much of what would have been the marketing budget for tradeshows is now going into online systems (website, databases, digital marketing, youtube lifestyle videos, etc). As someone who has had to plan product releases around tradeshows for more than a couple of decades I can tell you that they simply aren't as attractive as they used to be, it comes down to a balance between face to face (making a connection with consumers) and the ENORMOUS costs of attending the show circuit as an exhibitor. In my world, and I assume that of folks at Yamaha, a tradeshow minimum booth expense is about $100-250.00 per square foot for raw floor space, then you have to add things like marketing material, people, drayage (just across the show floor), electricity, connectivity, booth construction, the booth itself, security, etc, etc, etc.. Bigger shows come with much larger expenses. At bigger tradeshows for instance our budget is north of $1M, at smaller ones it can range from $20k for something really small to north of $100k once you factor in time, time away from the office (lost productivity), out of office expenses, floor space, union fees, exorbitant trade fees and service fees, etc.. Its all a bit ridiculous. What used to cost us $250k now cost over $1M and let me tell you, $750k goes a long way in online marketing. On top of which, it is very difficult to justify the show as it is hard to draw any correlation between the expense and the return. How many people that attended the show are likely buyers and not tire-kickers. Not making excuses for Yamaha as I am sure they are doing what they need to do and what makes sense but raising awareness for some serious issues facing manufacturers that fly under the radar.

Earthling is correct, the booth show spot spaces are ridiculous pricing.

The sleds (unless you are at the show to check out the new platforms) are the same as what you see on social media....plus you can't just pick one of these sleds up at the show.

 

[yamadoo]

As I remember the BIG shows…..I/we used to go to the big shows to see the New stuff (sleds, gear, helmets, gloves, studs…..) Oh and buy old stuff CHEAP - now you can kick back in your home Log on and see all thats new and order the ‘old’ to be delivered to your door…..so much less of a draw for me or the manufactures.

 

[Phatboyc]

Yamaha is done with sleds. It's sad.

But not done with sled engines!

 

[Crossfire12]

Just buy a Tcat better sled anyways same as sidewinder with better clutches.