Re: We no longer sell Premier Heritage riflescopes
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mo_Zam_Beek</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: LibertyOptics</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hiders,
Track with me on this post, and read carefully.
It has been presented to us that your company has been offering Premier Reticles ‘Heritage’ Tactical riflescopes directly to consumers at pricing significantly below Minimum Advertised Price (MAP).
<span style="font-weight: bold">This behavior seriously undermines the value of the product in the eyes of the market and is particularly disruptive and damaging to the market distribution structure of Dealer and Stocking Dealer pricing.......</span>
First, we never violated MAP nor any other dealer agreement with ATI,
Second, the issue emerges that when it comes to pricing Premier products, MAP is really Minimum Selling Price,
<span style="font-style: italic">April 13, 2011
Dear Premier Heritage Tactical line Dealer:
You are receiving this email to inform you about a recent situation in the marketplace involving a serious breach of pricing protocol surrounding Premier Heritage Tactical riflescopes.
Specifically, a major national optics dealer engaged in a marketing endeavor they advertised as a “group buy” whereby they implied that participating individuals would be able to purchase Premier Tactical products at below Minimum Advertised Pricing. This type of practice is strictly prohibited as contravening the spirit of Minimum Advertised Pricing policy under the terms of Distributor and Dealer pricing. As such, the offending Dealer’s account with ATI has been suspended and their outstanding Purchase Orders will remain unfilled.
Please let us remind all Dealers that:
1) <span style="text-decoration: underline">Minimum Advertised Price is not a benchmark by which to offer a discounted price; it is the price the consumer should expect to pay.</span> We expect Premier Dealers to foster that concept by exhibiting a price on their advertising and marketing materials and websites, and that price should be not less than MAP. The practice of displaying statements such as “call for price” or “call for best price” is not deemed to be acceptable.
2) Any program or endeavor that offers implied discounts for those participating in a “group buy” will not be tolerated.
3) Dealers are fully responsible for updating price lists on their websites to reflect current Minimum Advertised Pricing.
The goal of this correspondence is to serve as a reminder that Premier Reticles Ltd. and Armament Technology Incorporated are very serious about the financial success of the products we distribute as well as the financial success of the Dealers we serve. <span style="text-decoration: underline">Premier products are ‘top of the market’ products that are fully capable of generating premium pricing in the market and consequently healthy profit margins for Dealers. Companies that do not see the value in this business model can expect the same consequence as that experienced by the national Dealer referenced above.</span>
Please take some time to ensure your full compliance with this policy; your continued success with Premier Heritage Tactical products is dependent upon it.
If you have any questions about the aforementioned, please contact us.
Best regards,
Andrew Webber President Armament Technology Incorporated
Chris Thomas
President
Premier Reticles Limited </span>
Finally, there is the human element here.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">Business is business[</span>, but in the not too distant past we fully backed and aggressively marketed and sold the Premier Heritage as a viable premium alternative in the tactical scope market, in every effort to ensure the success of the product’s introduction in the marketplace, at a time when few others would. We thought we had a good relationship with Premier and had earned it through hard work and loyalty. Apparently such means nothing as we were never contacted or warned directly that we were engaging in “damaging and disruptive behavior” when it came to selling Premier scopes to Hide members.
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Correct me if I am not following -
1. You're an authorized dealer
2. The manufacturer has a MAP and has made it clear to all dealers that MAP is the minimum price to sell the product for.
3. You acknowledge that you violated this
4. You're surprised you've been cut off (and not sued - might want to check the fine print on your dealer agreement could be the discount margin x volume + legal + blue sky damage -> I know it would be if I wrote it)
Where did I go off the track?
MAP - price fixing / collusion is very common in Retail. In fact, it is the ideal pricing structure. Case in point since I was just speaking to a manufacturer yesterday - check out the price of 'Pillow Pets' some time.
All that good will you earned under the Business to Business section - that's where you go to them and say - hey MAP is dandy and all, and we'll honor it; but b/c we pulled your's out of the fire and we move a lot volume - our margin isn't like any other Joe Blow dealer - it is X.
If I am reading your post correctly I don't understand why you don't just post: We don't sell Premier b/c we violated the terms of our agreement with the manufacturer.
Good luck </div></div>
Correct me if I am wrong but MP is not legl in the "free market economy" hence the MAP policies. In a MAP dispute several years ago I believe that the manufacturers can not tell you what you sell your product for but they can choose to fill or not fill your orders in a timely manner. The minimum advertised price is exactly that. If one did a search they could not find a price lower than MAP at an authorized dealer. Once contact was made the dealer could either offer "extras" or lower the price as they saw fit. I believe NightForce has MAP pricing hence the dispute with SWFA. They could not keep SWFA from advertising for less but they could delay the shipment of product indefinately.
PR is hitting at their base support and when times got/get tough they need to remeber where that support starts and ends.
I was told that the Marines just ran a trails and the new Leupold Mark 8 may be/is the new Marine Corp goto sniper optics for the future....anyone else hear this or is it just net rumors?
If that is true PR may have tough times ahead with alienating it's base support.
Pat
