As the organiser of the Kent Branch I’ve approached the local dealer to see what support they can offer us. I even got some Kent Branch business cards printed up and dropped them off. The salesman wasn’t in the day I dropped the cards in so I emailed him to make sure they got them and see if they’d thought any more about supporting the branch. They are so keen to support the DOC they haven’t even replied to my emails. Surely a good local Branch would be a benefit to their business, I know the HOG is well supported by each local dealer to great effect. Any ideas on how I can get them interested???
Pitch up with a few other Ducati owners! 
HOG is a factory sponsered marketing exercise
Obviously this would not work for Ducati as the name Ducati Owners Group wouldn’t be a great selling point
Harley have capitalised on the social / lifestyle side of motorcycling, possibly to the detriment of the product development
Ducati have taken the reverse approach and concentrated on building a better bike
Maybe the club heirarcy need to talk to Ducati UK marketing because both Ducati and DOC could benefit from closer links to each other
In all the years that I have been involved with the DOC GB CoM this has been attempted many times by many people - with the same result! We have repeatedly asked for contributions for Desmo (financial help would be appreciated too - Ducati Importers in other countries contribute towards the club mags) but the results you can see in copies of Desmo … 
Look what Harley have achieved with HOG. It doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the product, far from it. The owners group is a very successful way of targeting the product and getting more feedback than you would in any other way. Each dealership sponsors the local chapter, which breeds great dealer and brand loyalty. They have more social events than the DOC could dream about. I used to race Harleys many years ago and the local HOG chapter would ride to lots of the race meetings all over the country to support the team.
30 years ago Harley were bankrupt, and only a management buyout saved them. Look at them now, people can’t get enough of the Harley-Davidson image. Sure a lot of them aren’t dyed in the wool bikers, but they’ve all paid their money and get wet and cold like the rest of us.
The Ducati roadshow I went to last year was a handful of bikes on stands and a few bored looking staff booking accompanied demo rides. The last Harley one I went to had dancing girls, a BBQ, a DJ, and a fashion show. It was a real day out! Ducati could learn a lot from Harley, but if the dealers don’t bother will they?
The marketing manager for Ducati UK, Debbie Wiggins, used to work for Harley Davidson …
What did she do?
Marketing I think!
I have been on about a dealer team for years, somebody from each branch regularly visiting their local dealer, I am getting it back on track and will be contacting all of them as well, there are some where we have no branches to hopefully start something, they just do not see what they are missing.
I am working with Guy so he knows where we have branches and will not do anything without the local branch rep knowing first.
Martyn, I think the point that Nick is making is that his local dealer just doesn’t seem interested …
I agree that dealers should be involved with the club (and even tried to get something like that organised whilst being chairman), but - as the saying goes - you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink!
I’ve tried to get D Uk more involved with Horsham Pazza Italia; should their lack of enthusiasm for the event continue, then I will approach another Italian marque to be the themed guest for 2012.
Harley change their marketing personel at very frequent intervals, they even recruited a marketing expert from Rover who could not even ride a bike so somebody being ex harley UK does not automatically engender a nice warm sense of well being
Harley change their marketing personel at very frequent intervals, they even recruited a marketing expert from Rover who could not even ride a bike so somebody being ex harley UK does not automatically engender a nice warm sense of well being
All we can do is try and keep on trying, there should be a leaflet explaining the clubs in a pack for every new bike, in the last few months I have have been contacted through the Italy website club finder, I then get an e mail advising somebody is interested in joining the club, Italy are all for it, I will share our dealer plan with them and it should happen, it is a great idea and as has been said does Harley no harm at all.
All branch reps will be kept informed of what is happening.
maybe get ducati uk to send them out a couple of free desmo mags so they can see what the club is about
I’m aiming to pop into the dealer in the next week or so to see what’s happened to the cards. I’ll try to see the salesman again if he’s about, and see if there’s any developement, he’s not answered my email asking if he even received the email asking if he received the cards, if that makes sense!! 
Quite a few of the dealers get a copy of Desmo direct from us … 
you completely missed the point of the post
That was to get copies of Desmo in the hands of new people purchasing ducatis, as an official ducati club maybe ducati uk could do this and bypass the dealerships who seem in cases less than interested in the DOC
Ah right - you were not too clear origionally but I now see what you mean - how would you get that to work? The new bikes are shipped in and arrive via the dealers, not via Ducati UK. Are you suggesting that D UK wait for the bike to be registered, then send out a copy of Desmo? Would D UK be expected to pay for the cost of the mag and postage? Or would the club have to pay? (Interesting discussion )
I’m surprised that Ducati don’t have some sort of financial input into the owners clubs. But then if they did I suppose they would want some editorial control over it as well which wouldn’t be good. Maybe if they paid for a few mags to go to each dealer it might help, do dealers even know what the club has to offer and who the local rep is? Other than each local rep taking the time to visit the dealership is there any other way they would find out? At my local HD dealership, when they held the franchise, the sales director was an enthusiast with his own Harley, not a demo bike. He attended all the HOG events and helped introduce new owners to the owners group. It’s a shame Ducati dealers can’t spare a member of staff for a few hours each month to pop to the branch meet to represent them? Do Ducati UK have any say in this?