On Fri, 2 Feb 2007 08:21:20 -0500, "Dee Flint"
wrote:


"Bob Brock" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 17:44:10 -0500, "Dee Flint"
wrote:


"Bob Brock" wrote in message
t...

"Dee Flint" wrote in message
. ..

"Bob Brock" wrote in message
news:_Eovh.2876$ch1.1567@bigfe9...

[snip]


It will be very tough to grow ham radio. We've "saturated the market"
so
to speak.

You could be right.


What we need to do is recruit OUTSIDE the newsgroups and let people know
that it exists and what they can do with it.

If you guys want to sit here and say that there is no reason for hams
to discuss methods to recruit new hams here because the only people on
the newsgroups are the ones who recruit new hams, go ahead.

You misunderstood. I did not say we should not talk about methods. I said
actually recruiting here is not going to help as those who don't know about
ham radio won't be here.

Agreed. It would be like recruiting in QST.

What word is it that you want to get out?

That ham radio is a very good option to evaluate when meeting a
specific groups needs. That it is relatively reliable, economical,

All these methods must be used as you never know what will pique some one's
interest.

What are the competitors to ham radio? GMRS, FRS, MURS, cell phones,
CB, etc.? What are the comparative advantages and disadvantages of
each of these? Why would ham radio be a better choice.


See above.

Then you could discuss market demographics. What kind of people might
be interested in ham radio? How about hunters and fishermen who may
want to be able to talk back people who are out with them? Perhaps
people who are interested in off grid living and homesteaders? Perhaps
farmers who want to be able to call back to the house when they are
out in the field? How about emergency communications like being able
to either call home or get someone else to call home for you when your
car is broke down? This list too could be a lot longer.


See above. However, interest can come from any person. The particular uses
you list here however will be better served by other alternatives.

There we have to agree to disagree. I think that ham radio would be
beneficial to all of the groups that I mentioned. However, no one is
presenting the information to them so they don't think about it.

Once you decide what the demographics are, you could look at what
kinds of media do these people read? I can tell you right now, it's
not ham specific magazines such as QST.

That was my point. You've got to go "outside".

If you go back to my initial post, I think you would see that it was
my point to. However, this would be a good place to evaluate what you
are going to take outside.

Ideas that come to mind,
based on the list that I've provided are the various newsgroups and
list servers that cater to their needs. Magazines that sell to
homesteaders such as Countryside Magazine or Mother Earth. All kinds
of hunting and fishing magazines out there. There are a lot of media
outlets tailored to older people and people on a tight budget/fixed
income. You could also look at organizations publications of specific
groups. This list too is abbreviated.


As far as magazines go, unless you want to pay for ad space, you've got to
find a way to tie it into an area of interest actually covered by the
magazine to try to get it published. I think this should be given a try
though.

Advertising would better be handled by an organization. I was
thinking about articles in the magazine. If the writer can't find a
"tie in" then it is apparent that you are looking at the wrong
demographic and need to find a media outlet that caters to another
demographic.

Two of the barriers to people getting a ham license that I run into
quite a bit are the Morse Code requirement and a lot of people don't
realize that there is a difference between ham and CB. The code
barrier is gone and that is a good lead in as to why someone may want
to consider ham radio even if they had dismissed it at an earlier
time.


I agree with the CB idea but no one that I ran into even knew about the code
requirement. So I doubt that the latter was significant.

Then you have been talking to a very demographic from me. The ones
that I've talked into getting a Tech license were turned off by code.
Granted some of them are higher class licenses now. The CB stigma
would be hard to overcome though.

Then someone could look back over the various open discussions and
write an article to be submitted to any of the various media
describing the advantages of ham radio over other methods. People who
otherwise hadn't considered ham radio as an option for their
particular needs may get a chance to see that it is indeed an option
that would meet a need. It's not only a good chance to promote ham
radio in a media read by someone other than hams, you might make a
little money from it. There are many here with excellent writing
skills who are capable of doing it.

The other option is to take a fatalistic viewpoint that the market is
saturated and growth is impossible.

That's not necessarily fatalistic but something one must be aware of in
order to tailor their recruiting approach.
To that, I say that marketing is
everything and right now the vast majority of marketing is keyed
towards those already in ham radio. It's a policy that I disagree
with and if no one else wants to do it, it's something that I will do
alone as soon as time permits. However, that may be after the current
widow of opportunity created by dropping the code requirement has
passed and that would be truly unfortunate.


Market saturation is a fact that all retail manufacturer's face. And they
deal with it. This applies to everything from toasters to cars to TV
programming to any hobby you can name. For example, there's no growth in
the US toaster market. Each manufacturer works on keeping their market
share or growing their share. Similarly, we will have to show why our
activity deserves more of a person's free time than other activities.

If the market is saturated at current levels, then we should face the
fact that ham radio is obsolete and as quaint as horse buggies. I'm
only using the manufacturing analogy because you did. Personally, I
see ham radio as a service and not a product. I see a lot of
households who don't have one and they don't have one because they
don't see a need for it that can't be met someway else.

I do agree that the "marketing" of our hobby does need to be much better
than it is. We need to seek out and find those that would be interested.
Those that perhaps lack interest only because they have not heard about it
or know very little about it.

Marketing the hobby is not the same as marketing the hardware or a specific
aspect of ham radio within the ham community. Current marketing is focusing
on the latter items. I hope you do get out and market our hobby. Many of
us do promote the hobby within our circle of family, friends, acquaintances,
co-workers, etc.

Then you are marketing to what is pretty much a closed set. Don't get
me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that and it's what I would guess
most hams are doing. They are relying on organizations such as the
AARL to market for new members and the AARL isn't doing it. Hence,
what are already low numbers continue to drop.