I think you may be right to some degree but IMO thats where it's a mastersroke.
Gardiners only pay for advertisers rights on here and the posters do the rest, due to me using Gardiners stuff 3 of the local lads who are not on here now swear by them, others aspire to use them.
Gardiners dont have the expense of trade shows, which always get slated on Dragon's Den, as people who buy their stuff advertise for them.
Plus, Gardeners are international with suppliers advertising fo them as well.
It would be interesting to know what % of the pole market they command.
(Matt your hat is to be posted today)
I was just thinking this the other day.
In South Africa the major power tool importers, AEG, Black & Decker, Bosch, Metabo, Makita, etc registered their monthly sales with a central auditing firm. These figures where supplied in various catagories. The auditors would total the amounts up and advise each importer of the totally monthly sales of the each catagory.
As you knew you figures you gave them, you would then calculate your market share.
The motor manufacturers do the same in the UK with vehicle registrations, except the DVLA tell everyone what they registered that month/period etc.
I doubt there would be anything like this in the WFP pole market. Must be very difficult marketing and selling a product and have no idea how well you are doing with regard to the market. Their only way of measuring success is against their own sales and profit statistics year on year. There again success isn't only just about that; after sales customer care is just as important and can be a real motivator in some instances, as I believe it to be with Alex.