The following is a projected opinion of what the future of the deer business may hold.
As a deer farmer I personally believe that our industry will see very hard times if we do not hear this warning! This is absolutely critical for the future of this industry.
Before I begin with what has been on my mind for several years now I would like to recognize that I love and believe in this business and will do any honest and legal idea to promote this industry and survive as a full time deer farmer. It's truly been a blessing to be a part of it all.
Our philosophy of promotion in this business is totally backwards. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars as breeders promoting our genetics as an industry. Individually, we buy great looking adds in sale catalogs, deer farming publications and mailings. Of course we spare no expense for add design, position in the magazines we advertise in or timing of the add to promote a lot we will sell later that year. We build great booths for the shows and spend a considerable chuck on taxidermy. Web design and internet consume a lot of our money and time as well.
I am no stranger to any of the above. In fact I'll admit I'm as guilty as anyone here. I'll personally spend $15,000 on a video advertising campaign this year with 5,800 High Definition DVD's being mailed out in the next two weeks, $15,000+ for design and adds in various magazines, $5,000+ in booths in many of the Top auctions and traveling expenses that usually add up to around $3,000. With miscellaneous expenses added RWJ Whitetails will spend about $50,000 in marketing the genetics that I have to offer this year.
Why do I share all this personal information with you? If we as an industry do not start to recognize that our end product is the HUNTING RANCH we will only build a false business model that will never sustain any long term economic recession.
What if??? We would spend our money advertising to our end market. The Hunter! Imagine a joined effort of a $1,000,000 a year, advertising campaign to promote high fence hunting and the joy of this experience.
Full sponsorship of the leading TV hunting programs cost around $250,000 per year. That would be nonstop commercials when ever that particular program is on the air. Every time Lee and Tiffany drawl the string on a huge whitetail the viewers at home will also be seeing two hunters going to the woods and closing the high fence gate behind them! Now Imagine 4 of the highest rated TV hunting shows openly hunting and bragging about how great high fence hunting operations are! And for the person reading this post that doesn't believe that there favorite TV hunting hero would ever do this believe me they all ready do. We have had dozens of professional hunters and may videos taken on our preserves that we see later that year being represented as wild and totally free chase hunting.
Pull this off and it would change a lot of negativity about what we do. If we as an industry continue to spend all of our state and national moneys trying to keep lobbyists and lawyers on our side we may win small battles but will lose the war in the long run. Whatever side the people support and vote will ultimately decide the outcome of our future. We need the hunters on our side! Also, we will be recruiting a new generation of hunters to our preserves and will insure health and stability in our breeding markets.
What about a web site paying off all the domain names and being listed and talked about on these new TV advertisements with an exciting message about high fence hunting. The hunter logs on to this site and will find every hunting preserve in the nation listed by state. This site could be free for anyone wishing to add there link to its massive database. Pop up adds and larger picture adds could be sold on this site to the individual preserves to maximize their own web site traffic. Virtual hunting and cameras could be added to the main Web site by individual preserves for hunters to view what we have to offer in the comfort of their own home. This would get a lot of attention. The adds paid by the preserves could potentially raise even more monies that could outreach to even more hunters.
Now we are starting to invest in a future! I could go on all day here. What do you guys think? I'm a positive and forward thinking breeder and wish to do this for a long time. I would be the first to step to the plate to donate some great semen and a great animal to the auction company willing to put on a sale with 100% of the proceeds going to build a future for our business we all love so much. These a just ruff ideas and I would love to here from you.
As a deer farmer I personally believe that our industry will see very hard times if we do not hear this warning! This is absolutely critical for the future of this industry.
Before I begin with what has been on my mind for several years now I would like to recognize that I love and believe in this business and will do any honest and legal idea to promote this industry and survive as a full time deer farmer. It's truly been a blessing to be a part of it all.
Our philosophy of promotion in this business is totally backwards. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars as breeders promoting our genetics as an industry. Individually, we buy great looking adds in sale catalogs, deer farming publications and mailings. Of course we spare no expense for add design, position in the magazines we advertise in or timing of the add to promote a lot we will sell later that year. We build great booths for the shows and spend a considerable chuck on taxidermy. Web design and internet consume a lot of our money and time as well.
I am no stranger to any of the above. In fact I'll admit I'm as guilty as anyone here. I'll personally spend $15,000 on a video advertising campaign this year with 5,800 High Definition DVD's being mailed out in the next two weeks, $15,000+ for design and adds in various magazines, $5,000+ in booths in many of the Top auctions and traveling expenses that usually add up to around $3,000. With miscellaneous expenses added RWJ Whitetails will spend about $50,000 in marketing the genetics that I have to offer this year.
Why do I share all this personal information with you? If we as an industry do not start to recognize that our end product is the HUNTING RANCH we will only build a false business model that will never sustain any long term economic recession.
What if??? We would spend our money advertising to our end market. The Hunter! Imagine a joined effort of a $1,000,000 a year, advertising campaign to promote high fence hunting and the joy of this experience.
Full sponsorship of the leading TV hunting programs cost around $250,000 per year. That would be nonstop commercials when ever that particular program is on the air. Every time Lee and Tiffany drawl the string on a huge whitetail the viewers at home will also be seeing two hunters going to the woods and closing the high fence gate behind them! Now Imagine 4 of the highest rated TV hunting shows openly hunting and bragging about how great high fence hunting operations are! And for the person reading this post that doesn't believe that there favorite TV hunting hero would ever do this believe me they all ready do. We have had dozens of professional hunters and may videos taken on our preserves that we see later that year being represented as wild and totally free chase hunting.
Pull this off and it would change a lot of negativity about what we do. If we as an industry continue to spend all of our state and national moneys trying to keep lobbyists and lawyers on our side we may win small battles but will lose the war in the long run. Whatever side the people support and vote will ultimately decide the outcome of our future. We need the hunters on our side! Also, we will be recruiting a new generation of hunters to our preserves and will insure health and stability in our breeding markets.
What about a web site paying off all the domain names and being listed and talked about on these new TV advertisements with an exciting message about high fence hunting. The hunter logs on to this site and will find every hunting preserve in the nation listed by state. This site could be free for anyone wishing to add there link to its massive database. Pop up adds and larger picture adds could be sold on this site to the individual preserves to maximize their own web site traffic. Virtual hunting and cameras could be added to the main Web site by individual preserves for hunters to view what we have to offer in the comfort of their own home. This would get a lot of attention. The adds paid by the preserves could potentially raise even more monies that could outreach to even more hunters.
Now we are starting to invest in a future! I could go on all day here. What do you guys think? I'm a positive and forward thinking breeder and wish to do this for a long time. I would be the first to step to the plate to donate some great semen and a great animal to the auction company willing to put on a sale with 100% of the proceeds going to build a future for our business we all love so much. These a just ruff ideas and I would love to here from you.
