AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
Marketing is all around us. Every time we turn on a TV or radio, open a magazine or webpage, at bus stops, on the side of buses. Heck even church bulletins have ads and marketing propaganda.
Snowmobiles, obviously, are no exception and through the years enthusiasts have been treated (or given the treatment) to some pretty ingenious and not-so-ingenious marketing concepts. In the 1960s and ’70s, with upward of 100 brands to choose from, companies had to figure out a way to separate themselves from the others and boy did they ever, along with separating your shoulder from time to time!
One of my favorites was always the sit-in snowmobile concept. It started in the early years with sleds from Raider and Allouette; spacey looking twin-track machines that the rider actually sat in as opposed to on. The idea continued through the years with Manta and, get this, a two passenger, side-by-side sled called the Ski-Doo Elite.
The late Gilles Villeneuve (See Olav Aaen’s story on Gilles, INSERT LINK) even raced an Allouette twin track, sit-in style sled with some degree of success. Now, for my money, one of the biggest advantages of almost all powersports vehicles, including motorcycles, ATVs (three or four wheels), personal watercraft, and snowmobiles, is the bail-out… No, not some government financial aid package, I’m talking the ability to bail-out, jump off, step-off, or otherwise separate one’s self from the vehicle prior to having an epic yard sale.
Not so on a sit-in snowmobile. You are most definitely going down with your ship. And the Ski-Doo Elite? Could you imaging having wifey out for a nice Sunday afternoon cruise when you all of a sudden decide to roll it? Forget about it.
Then there are things I’m not even sure how to comment on. The Bolens Diablo Rouge is the first thing that comes to mind. What the heck was this supposed to be and why did someone think it was a good idea?
The name was enough: Diablo Rouge. Sounds like some kind of wine that costs $5 and gives you a really bad hangover. The design, well that’s just suicidal. Two tracks, in front and lets steer the tracks and the engine, instead of the skis. Nah… we’ll just sit on the skis, that sounds like a much better idea. It looks like driving a 30 horsepower pallet jack. The ad headline screams “Drive your family wildly enthusiastic on a Diablo Rouge.” OK, laugh out loud!
One sled brought gimmickry in marketing to a new pinnacle or a deep abyss; however you want to look at it, The Swinger.
When the Swinger was introduced by Sportscraft Industries in St. Paul, Minn., in 1971, the sexual revolution in the United States was in, well, full swing. The Swinger took full advantage of the imagery of wife swapping and steam-filled hot tub grottos… OK, maybe not. Actually, the Swinger was a small snowmobile aimed at customers that didn’t want the hassle of trying to wrestle around and store a large sled.
One Swinger marketing campaign dared you to “pick a pair and have twice the fun.” Mmm, kinky. The absolute best part of the Swinger was its most stunning marketing ploy, that you could store the sled, standing on end, in the garage, what a concept. First I picture some poor fool trying to actually stand the thing up, then I picture crushed dogs, cats, and small children when someone topples it! Trivia question… Go out on the web and find a Swinger ad, do you recognize the barefoot, attractive model in the ad? Why, that’s a young, very brunette Loni Anderson of TV’s “WKRP” and Burt Reynolds fame.
All this stuff over the years has turned me into a skeptic and now that we’re down to four manufacturers I flash a jaundiced eye toward things I view as gadgets and gimmicks on snowmobiles.
When Arctic Cat introduced the Extended Travel Tunnel (ETT) I thought “big deal”, then it went on to sell a bunch of sleds for them and be copied by most of the other manufacturers. Yamaha’s infinitely adjustable hand warmers were the same deal, until I used them and realized that sliced bread was only slightly more important.
Now I kind of miss the Swingers and Diablo Rouges of the world. Snowmobile companies are now, as the economists say, an oligopoly or one step away from a monopoly. Sleds have reached a sterility that’s unprecedented. Someone needs to shake it up again, trouble is I’m not sure with what? My legs are too shot to get into and out of a sit-in sled, I have a bad rotator cuff and couldn’t steer a Diablo Rouge, and the ceiling in my garage isn’t high enough to stand my sled up on end. Besides, Loni Anderson is really old now.