SHOP | CLUB FOYER | CHILLOUT ROOM | ASK LORRAINE
from Imogen
Dear Lorraine
I was amazed when visiting my uncle recently to be told by him that my photo was on the internet and he showed me the shot of me wearing my riding mac that he had sent you last month.
I gather that he had typed a letter to you on his old word processor and you had been unable to reproduce it on your website. He had not kept a copy but told me the gist of what he had said and asked me to put it on my computer and send it to you again. I attach it hereto although I have had to paraphrase it and have precis-ed it a bit as well.
Can I make three comments on my own account?
1. It is a popular misconception that it is mostly men who have a "thing" about mackintoshes. This is totally untrue. I was introduced to riding macs by my mother but a lot of my girlfriend in the riding world adore my riding mac and would love to have one themselves - it is just that they cannot afford £300 (? almost) when they can buy a Drizabone for £150. Is there no way you can sell proper riding macs for under £200 and still make a profit - the extra number you would sell might make it worthwhile particularly if you could reach a point where a lot more people wore them - one sold would surely sell another!! Some younger people will not buy one because so few people wear them and they don't like looking out of fashion!
2. Why do you not get some really good photos to advertise your riding mackintoshes. You need a pretty girl who actually rides and enjoys the feel of them to do some sexy shots! There are a few good ones in Dark Horse's website but they have been around for a long time. If you did some really good ones you would sell lots as a result. If you want ideas put a note on your web site and I'll let you have a list of poses!
3. Couldn't you have a "contact" list on the intrnet for people who like riding mackintoshes who want to meet others who do as well? You might find a few men ho would be prepared to buy one for a pretty girl if she was local to him.
Do publish your views on this letter - I dare not tell you my address in case it upset my boy friend! - but repeat your undertaking not to reply by e mail and I will e mail you and could get a hotline contact address p'raps??
Imogen
So glad to be in safe contact.
Thank you so much for your trouble in getting in touch and for the very interesting information in your letter.
Your letter arrived in fact almost the moment after I had typed up the one from your uncle, who sent the photo and signed himself Mick. He used a twiddly – nice, but twiddly – font which wouldn’t scan in, so I had to wait to find time to type it up. Just finished when your letter arrived with its version of what he said enclosed! So the original version by Mick is up after all.
I also put up the pic, in a small version: but edited so it didn’t show your face. (I always try to be careful not to put things up which the ‘owner’ hasn’t permitted… though it’s sometimes really difficult – when it’s a lovely pic - and you can so easily forget that somebody might be trying to do the nasty on someone!)
I’ve never been into horses myself – liked the thought of it but never got round to doing anything about it – and so haven’t come across real people who know whether they like riding macs or not! I knew men liked them, and having had dealings here know what they mean, but sort of assumed I was just picking up on that. Then one or two correspondents have suggested very much otherwise, but I never know who is really writing in to the site…
Thanks for thinking we might get more people to wear them. It’s really difficult to get the price down though. I don't see any way of getting close to knocking £100 + off! And I don’t think there is any way of simplifying construction and getting the price down a bit that way .. (Fabric is available from just the one maker, so no competition to rely on there.)
We would like more photos of course! Do please send the list of poses if it’s no trouble.
I’m not allowed to do a contact service – all the advice is against it, not sure why. But of course I help individuals get in contact when they both clearly want it.
Your idea that some men enthusiasts might like to buy macs for women who would like to wear them for riding sounds intriguing – do you think it might work? Do you think there would be any women happy to take up such an offer? What would they do – agree to send pics to their supporter? Would it be dangerous?? (I mean, wouldn’t the men expect/demand more than the mac wearers had in mind??) That said it sounds a great ‘web’ idea! What would we do? Publish a pic and a bit of a biog of someone interested and simply say: she is looking for a riding mac – anyone oblige? Lots of pics for anyone who does?
Better stop for now and leave this in the hidy hole.
How exciting!
PS I assume I can put up your Cheshire letter?
Best wishes
Lorraine
Hello Lorraine
Yes, you can of course put up my 'Cheshire' letter.
In the light of what you have said I have had a long talk with my mother about the whole riding mac scene. As she introduced me to it we both know each other's views and feeling about it all. She counselled caution as far as getting involved on the net is concerned and doubtless she is right altho' we are only talking about clothes which cannot do a lot of harm, can they? However, thank you for changing the face in the photo I sent you - best to be careful.
Anyway in this long e mail you will get the benefit of the views of two generations! You are welcome to extract from it anything you want and use it as you wish without saying where it came from!
As you have never been involved in the equestrian world you are at a slight disadvantage but there has always (at least as far back as the fifties) been an element of excitement attached to it. The mere business of riding a horse is one of domination and training - but never I hasten to add cruelty! During the past fifty years the horse world has become increasingly one involving more women than men and mostly young women and girls.
Necessary adjuncts of the scene are things like tight breeches, long black leather or rubber boots, riding hats, which make some people look very attractive, and, of course a vast variety of riding whips of all shapes and sizes and lengths. This all adds up to something which is at one and the same time totally natural and normal as well as, for those that way inclined, kinky and exciting! - but entirely healthy.
Could it be for this reason that a lot of men quite unconnected with the horse world are happy to spectate at shows, events, point-to-points etc?
So far I have not mentioned mackintoshes but it is not really very long since there was nothing else to wear on a wet day in the country except a rubber (or rubberised) riding mac. Many people, men as well as ladies, had one even if they did not ride. Quite a lot of those people of both sexes found the riding mac a major turn on particularly as it was seen everywhere and to own or wear one was in no way thought odd either mounted or on one's feet.
Quite suddenly they disappeared! Disaster! It became difficult and expensive for anyone wanting a new one or to get one for their child to find one in the shops. Wax jackets and long Australian riding coats became all the rage: fashion took over and "proper" riding macs were out! Then these breathable cloths came in and rubber mackintoshes were pushed further into the background. Another problem was naturally the fact that there began to be a whole lot of young people who had never seen a riding mac let alone owned one and in the background was the idea that they were a bit kinky as well.
So much for the background to the present situation. I count myself lucky in that my mother is still, for want of a better description, an enthusiast about riding macs, still has one and rides in it and has created a situation in my mind where I think of mine as normal and love wearing it for every reason - it keeps me dry, is smart, has leg straps that buckle properly and don't come undone, has a high collar and a fastening on it that does not allow the rain to get down my neck - AND I GET A LOVELY FEELING FROM WEARING IT. To hell with any thought that people might think it an odd and sexy garment to wear in the 21st century. To think that they have to have the same thoughts themselves. I have had a boy friend who did not like my riding mac but the present one is mad about mine which is a help to put it mildly.
Surely the fact that trad. riding macs do still exist and perform a useful function perfectly naturally should make them far easier to market than other rubber macs for which there HAS to be a way out connection!!???
Turning to the marketing angle, I see your problems. Price is a major factor and fashion another. Availability is a third! A high percentage of people who ride in all spheres and at all levels are female and a lot of them are under 20. Most cannot afford £300 (although any GOOD long waterproof coat costs more than you would think!). They seldom see a white rubberised riding mac around whether out hacking, at shows, events etc. or in the shops. The only time they see one is one the back of someone like me - and then they almost always ask me where I got it, say they love the look of it and generally enthuse about it! I positively know that a number of people, some my age, some older, the odd 16-20 year old have got a mackintosh as a result of seeing mine and hearing me say how good it is - i.e.. one mac sold will almost always sell another!
I quite understand your price problem - unless cloth can be brought in from the east (???) you are stuck there. Discounts are not good and from what you say, not on! Advertising is very expensive. But are you getting the most out of the internet and your website as far as riding macs are concerned? I doubt it!
You ask about poses and I assume you mean for shots to go on the website? Well, I could come up with some ideas. You would need:-
a) a very pretty slim girl who knows how to ride, has all the clothes and is a bit broadminded
b) a horsey venue
c) a wet day
d) possibly a horse (mounted as well as unmounted shots would good)
I really do think that men, husbands, boy friends etc., would indeed buy a riding mac for their wife, girl friend, daughter or whatever, if the attractiveness of the long traditional riding mac was put in front of them in an alluring manner. Getting the right links into the site would be important!
If this interests you and you feel you are interested in doing something along these lines, let me know and I will go ito more detail. I do have a few other marketing ideas (I know a bit about it all), and can elucidate if you want?? (Giving one to an equestrian celebrity, getting advertising material into horsey shops, organising a draw or raffle with a mac as the top prize (which would pay for itself if you sold 300 tickets at £1 each) etc.)
Meanwhile all the best,
Imogen
Hi Imogen
Sorry I've left it so long - I've been putting things until I had something to report.
I've got the various letters ready for the pages anyway - thank you for letting me use them! - they will be read with great eagerness, I'm very sure!
About your marketing advice. It's well received here, thankyou, but there is a bit of concern not to muscle in on areas other people rather specialise in. For example Dark Horse who you mention are big on the horsey side and we would not wish to risk upsetting a good relationship.
If we could get more women into mackintoshes by persuading their partners that would be good though! I think the basic thing you are saying we need is a really good portfolio of pics. Alas, of the four things you say we would need we can only be really sure of the third, viz a wet day. And even that is a bit of a joke, because if you hire a model for a session you can't be sure at all what the weather will do ...
Model sessions are expensive (we are a very small operation) and supplying all the kit you list probably even more so!
Partly I will have to work harder at persuading the folks here that we develop that side at the expense of the other things that we do...
One thing I'm keen to ask you, hope you don't mind: do single texture macs do anything for you, or are they totally different? They should smell at least the same, but as far as I can tell, they don't! And they don't give that strong protective feeling.
About privacy: I will of course do all in my power to preserve privacy when you want me to, but in general do be aware that there's not much in cyberspace that can't be hacked by someone with sufficient motivation...
Must go. Sorry again for being so slow.
Hope you have been hacking youself in this wonderfully stormy July (but hot! - must be unbelievable in a properly done up riding mac in the temperatures we have been having here, no matter how torrential the rain...)
Best wishes
Lorraine