ORLANDO, Fla. – There’s an old adage in the fishing tackle sales: You don’t have to catch fish, you just have to catch the fisherman.
That couldn’t be more outdated, Gary Guidice said from the Pure Fishing booth before offering the new reality catchphrase.
“You can catch a fisherman once, you have to catch fish a lot,” he said.
With the huge cast of the Internet, even crafty old peddlers can’t pull much over on today’s anglers. So as the biggest ICAST gathering converged on the Orange County Convention Center last week, the 13,000 industry reps worked to help anglers improve their fish-catching capabilities. After all, that’s their bottom line.
Guidice, who’s worked in the industry for decades and runs Blue Heron Communications, was asked a variety of questions to explain what actually goes on at ICAST.
What exactly is ICAST all about?
“ICAST is a great show,” Guidice said. “Once a year, all the manufacturers in the fishing industry get together and show their products that we’re all going to be fishing with next year.
“Some of it’s going to be available next week. Most of it is available next spring, maybe late fall in time for Christmas. It just takes time. You see some of these really cool things around here, a lot of it is one only, or maybe they have two dozen.”
Why does it take that long?
“The orders haven’t come in yet. Almost the entire industry gets things offshore now. A lot of it is made in the states, a lot of it isn’t. You just kind of gotta wait till you get your supplies stocked up and then you put it to retail. We’ll be fishing with it next spring.
“There are a lot of dealers in here who will probably order through a distributor, but they’re here touching it, feeling it, playing with it so they know exactly what they want in their shops. Later on, they’ll order it from a distributor.”
How do manufacturers know how much of any one product to make?
“They pretty much can forecast how many they’re going to sell of a unit. They’ll know what’s going to sell. As far as placing orders actually at the show, there’s some of that, but that’s not the big deal. The big deal is getting people excited about it, showing it.
“The outdoor press is as important as the buyers. It kind of gets the excitement going on for some of these new products. They pretty much forecast what (the media) is going to get excited about as well.”
“The consumer is the most important guy in this chain, but next would come the dealers. If it’s not in the shop, or not in Bass Pro, Walmart or wherever, the consumer doesn’t know about it for the most part. If he reads up on it and he knows and enough people ask, the dealer is going to get it.
“Generally, this thing is so sophisticated and gotten so good through the years, these guys can forecast pretty much what consumers are going to be wanting. They’re going to forecast how many they’re going to want.
“Do people make mistakes and not build enough units? Sure, all the time. Do they build too many units? Not very often.”
Do the salesmen get excited when the big chain store buyers come to their booth?
“There are several important buyers who will come here and place orders, sure, but a lot of companies have their own sales force. A lot of them use independent representatives they hire on commission to sell their products. All these guys are here.”
How much does a Best of Show award help a product?
“It means the tremendous amount to the people who design and build that product. If it’s nothing more than esprit de corps for the company, it’s a great deal.
“Does it mean anything to the consumers? Sometimes it does. Some of them turn that off.
“I saw an Overall Best of all the products one year at this show. It was a rock with a little bitty eyebolt of a thing in it. They had drilled a hole and put an eyebolt with a base to tie your line to this stone.
“That won Best of Show. That was the best product that year, according to the people who voted. And that’s what they selected. I have never seen that product since.
“But sometimes it makes a world of difference.”
Like with Nanofil, which won Overall Best of Show a few years ago?
“What a product! Did it sell more because of that? I don’t know. It’s such a great product, it’s going to sell anyway. When it gets right down to it, initially it will sell. Will it have pull-through later on? Does it catch fish? That’s the question.”
From research, we know anglers have strong brand loyalty. How does that play into the mix?
If the brand fails the angler, that’s it. You take a good brand, like an Abu Garica reel. The old red Ambassador, it was the basis this whole bass fishing thing started on. They have to continue to make products like that and they do. They stay a step ahead of the market, what’s the market want? And we got something a tad better.”
Do getting all these companies together here promote competition and overall better products?
“To a degree, these guys who design are out and scouting around. More important I think is the trends, like in the bass market as an example. Professional fisherman drive that market a heck of a bunch. It’s great to have them here. The dealers like to meet them. They’re great guys, it’s a great deal.
“Take the Chiggar Craw years ago. I don’t think it won anything here. Boyd Duckett wins a big tournament on it and it sells like hotcakes. Who knows what makes these products sell, but I’ll tell you one thing for certain, if they catch fish, they’re going to sell.”
