Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

Bob, I put a link to this blog on our forums to see what kind response our readers would make and so far they think you hit the nail on the head. Thanks for writing something about our end of the industry. Here's a link to the section of our forums with their responses.
http://www.arveeclub.com/showthread.php?p=190805#post190805

Dave

Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

Bob, I like the concept.....but I have 17 popups from the smallest to the largest with a bath and slide. I have some sitting on the front of my lot by the interstate, out by the front door as well as on the showroom floor. I have pitched them, demonstrated them, discounted them and even gave one away once as a promotion..... they just don't sell like they did years ago when I first started in the business. Your national stats will reflect that. You always want some around but the hybrids and lightweights have eaten into that market because people won't work that much to go camping when they can invest $10 a month more and just open the door and step in.

Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

NeVelle,

Thanks for the great post. What about guys that have never sold them, should they add them to the lineup or would you advise against it?

Are some areas of the country doing better than others for pop-ups?

You are right, the numbers for pop-ups keep going down but I'm the eternal optimist and think there are still a lot of people that would love to go camping in a pop-up if we can just get to them somehow.

Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

I think that you are correct in your assesment of pop-up sales. My main business is pop-up sales and rv service and we meet a lot of familys from all walks of life. We always run up against hybrids but still manage to sell quite a few. We treat our customers very well and make sure that we demonstrate each trailer. These 1st time customers are quite possibly repeat customers.They will also spend as much money on their new pop-up as someone else would on a trailer or motorhome.
The down fall to being a pop-up dealer is that the sales season is usually much shorter that most other rvs. We need to find some sort of filler for the rest of the year in sales.

Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

To add to NeVelle's observations: I think first-time pop-up buyers fall into two broad groups. The first group is the family who thinks RVing would be a good thing to get into, for whatever reasons (togetherness, economy, travel, etc.). This is usually their first experience "camping."
The second group (my group) is made up of folks who have camped all their lives, started young in scouts, backpacked, canoe camped, auto tent camped. Now we are getting older and less agile, perhaps with health problems and must quit putting our canoes up on trucks, spending weeks in the back country, but we still want to camp. A pop-up is the answer.
The first group must have A/Cs, showers, toilets, slide-outs, stereos. They want to bring their cozy, suburban lifestyle camping with them. They will go to the campgrounds with pools and planned activites. They will probably be "trading up" in a short while.
The second group is so happy to be off the ground in a dry tent with a furnace, we think we're at the Hilton.
If a dealer sees this and varies his or her sales pitch to meet the interests of these two groups, that dealer will be more successful selling pop-ups. I'm a boondocker and I put my Starcraft 2107 in places a hardside couldn't get to. Some places I need my 4WD to get the trailer where I want it.
You have campers and you have RVers. I think it would do a dealer well to distinguish between the two and sell that PUP.

Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

The Upside: Pop-up make up about 14% of the number of RVs we sell each year. We sell about 70 to 80 pop-ups per year. We get about a 2.5 turn on the product and average about 24% margin. From strictly a numbers standpoint, selling pop-ups is a no-brainer. There are months that have gone by where we've asked ourselves "wow, where would we be if we didn't sell pop-ups?"

The downside: Several pop-up customers require the same amount of time and effort as any other RV consumer during the buying process, yet the salesman's commissions are typically less which, unfortunately, turns off the salesmen when it comes to selling pop-ups. We've instituted a volume bonus and a minimum-commission program to help turn the attitudes around.

Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

I just finished reading the interesting contributions to this blog. Some remind me of my family's early days in our fulll life of camping. It is unfortunate that so many of our young folks have lost the zest to know what real camping is all about.

We thought we had moved up to the Ritz when we purchased our first Apache pop-up. That was a real move. We pulled the wheels off of the Apache (of course gas was 40 cents per gallon) and traded it on several more pop-ups.

The pop-ups of today are almost at the same level as a low-end Travel Trailer in terms of conveniences and MSRP. In that statement is the reason that most folks who are looking at "starrting" an RV Experience do not purchase a pop-up.

Another case in point. At a large RV Show in our area, there were many large displays of every type of RV from the low-end TTs to the Million dollar posh Motorhomes. There were only three pop-ups on display.

Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

Great input Ron, thank you.

The only thing I would add here is the role of the salesman and him or her being "turned off" by the small sale. They must keep in mind that the most important part of any sale is starting a long term relationship with the new customers that grow over the years.

We all know that most people stay in the RV lifestyle once they discover it. They also have friends that they will refer to your dealership and they hopefully will trade often if we don't bury them with a long term payment plan that takes them out of the market so long that they forget who you are.

These customers represent tremendous potential to any sales rep or dealership and should be cherised possessions that will be cultivated for many years into the future.

The easiest sale is a reference sale. Logic says that even if you sell a lot of small items (pop ups versus motorhomes), you will get a lot more references. In the long run, that single pop up sale should never be a "turn off" to anybody for any reason!

Gene also validates what others have said about the price points of pop-ups, hybrids, and lightweights. I still contend that each has its own audience and people will never buy a pop-up if we don't do a thorough show and tell and explain the enjoyment people receive from camping in general, and pop-ups in particular.

Re: Pop Ups are Popping Up All Over

I represent Livin' Lite RV, the manufacturer of the QUICKSILVER line of ultra lightweight automotive campers. The products that we have designed and manufacture have been referred to as "pop-ups" by some in the industry because they often don't know exactly how to categorize them. Our problem is, if people think we are a traditional pop-up, they will continue to commpare us to traditional pop-ups - which is more like comparing apples and oranges. We are not going after the traditional "pop-up" market - and honestly, our design and concept is not really modeled after the traditional pop-up. When in the folded out position, our products look like a traditional pop-up - but that's where the comparisons end. We can be towed with a small car. Our main competition are products like the small tear drop trailers (Lil' Guy); the smaller A-shaped trailers (Chalet, A-Liner); and even the t@b by thor. We can all be towed by cars. Our weights range from 500 lbs. to 1,000 lbs. The big difference is that we can sleep a family of six very comfortably, while those others are designed to sleep only two. Our product opens up into a large, 20' long living space with over 6'-3" of headroom, while theirs are more like tiny boxes, some of which you have to "crawl" into to sleep in the featal position. It's just not practical for young families with children.
Our sales manager travels the country in a 2008 Honda Civic 2-door, pulling one of our 10.0 models (bright yellow by the way) - just to show people what can be done. Honestly, most of our target families are driving four door sedans or minivans, not tiny little two-door models - but even if they are - we have a camper for them!
One of the dealers on this blog mentioned that one of the problems with traditional popups is the dealer prep and walk-through time is similar to those of larger campers - but they are not making as much money off of them. Very true. I believe that is one of the reasons that pop-up sales have suffered over the years. They have gotten larger; heavier; more expensive and with more and more amenities. The end result was that they priced and weighted themselves right out of the young family, first time buyer market.
Another neat thing about our product is that it is basically warranty free. If that sounds a little far fetched to you, check out our web site (www.livinlite.com) and you will discover that our product is constructed of all aluminum and composites (absolutley no wood at all). Combine this with the f