Selling the Benefit
Mon, February 3, 2020 
Go to any seminar, or read a book on selling, (Or marketing as people prefer to call It.) and you will learn that you always “Sell the Benefit” to the consumer.
In other words, “How will the consumer’s life be made better” if he buys whatever it is you are selling. In the case of a bicycle, how will it improve his performance?
One can build or manufacture just about anything then put up some wonderful sounding argument stating why it is of benefit to the user. Most of these statements cannot be proved or disproved.
Even when these theories are disproved, nobody really cares least of all the company who has made a lot of money, and everyone just moves on to whatever the next trend is.
In the late 1960s Cinelli built a frame that was absolutely devoid of all brazed-on fittings, stating that braze-ons weakened the frame. Gear levers, cable guides, etc. all had to be clamped on to the frame. (Picture top left.)
Some years later people realized that the clamps held moisture and started rust spots, and the clamps sometimes caused stress risers and tubes often broke adjacent to the clamp.
For a while every other framebuilder followed suit, because it saved a tremendous amount of time. (Which was of course the real reason.) Cinelli had stumbled on an incredibly simple way to cut labor costs, then actually sold the idea to the consumer as a benefit.
At the time Cinelli charged double what anyone else did for a frame. The psychology was, it costs more, and therefore it must be better. Also, if it costs more you win the one-upmanship game. A psychology that is still being played out in today’s high-end bicycle market.
Weight saving is always an easy sale to the bicycle enthusiast. Push weight saving to its limits and in the case of a frame, it becomes flexible. Then you sell the idea that a flexible frame is an actual benefit to the rider. The big question here is, “How much flex?” Aluminum for example makes a very strong and lightweight frame. However, it has little or no flexing qualities.
Back when I built frames, they were made by brazing a high tensile steel tube into a lugged joint. In the case of Columbus, the tubes were heat treated and were like a very strong steel spring. When the framebuilder heated the tubes to braze the joint it actually softened the tubes, thereby losing a tiny amount of the strength, and spring qualities.
Remember Cinelli’s argument that braze-ons weakened the frame. Actually there was a grain of truth in that statement. However, brazing the lugged joint and attaching braze-ons is part of the frame building process. The tubes are actually designed to withstand losing some of the strength during the building process. Brazed correctly, the end product is still far stronger than it need be.
This is why steel tubes are butted, (Greater wall thickness at each end.) so there is still adequate strength left after the joint is made. The trick is to use just enough heat to get the job done, but not heating the tube a greater distance from the lug or braze-on than necessary, thus retaining as much of the tube’s inherent strength as possible.
Because a frame is like a very stiff steel spring, when the rider makes a sudden effort as when he jumps in a sprint, the frame gives or flexes slightly. This is desirable, but the operative word here is “Slightly." It is like the difference between an athlete jumping from a concrete track or floor, and one jumping from a Tartan track surface or a floor made from wooden boards.
There is an old Briticism, (A saying from the UK.) that “Bull shit baffles brains.” So whenever you are reading the sales pitch for the latest and greatest high tech wonder. (Not just bicycles, but any consumer product.) Keep an open mind.
They are selling the benefit. Your life will somehow be better for owning this product. Turn that idea around and ask, “What is the benefit to the manufacturer?” Is this product really better than the old one, or has the manufacturer found a cheaper way to make it?
Or has the manufacturer simply come up with something "New and Improved," that serves no real purpose other than to make the old one obsolete.
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Reader Comments (6)
Yes Dave, often the marketing prize goes to the 'feature' that sounds best and not the one that actually has some merit.
The stiffness/springiness argument is an interesting one. Tube OD and material have all of the effect, wall thickness and strength nearly no impact at all. I could rattle on about this for too long.
I have an old Al frame that is way too flexible, but very comfortable. They tried to make up for it with geometry (very vertical) but handling then becomes the issue with it becoming squirrely.
Interestingly I worked with a frame once that had extreme vertical compliance but was very stiff laterally. Felt funny to ride but on a dyno you could prove that it was more energy efficient. And as the surface got rougher it helped more.
This is where the composite guys have taken the lazy way out. They could design 'tubes' with different stiffness in different directions but they don't bother to. That will be the next innovation that is actually worthwhile.
ANOTHER BRITISH SAYING DAVE, "THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING IS IN THE EATING"
Is the press-fit bottom bracket a good example of a touted technology that is not really a benefit to the user? I'm sure people in the software industry have lots of examples of glitches relabeled as features.
I have an inexpensive old bike I found and use as a commuter. When I dismantled the threaded BB for service, I was surprised to see a lip on the cups that acted to retain the balls in the race. It was not removable, and it made cleaning the bearings challenging, and replacing them impossible. But it must have made installing the bottom bracket in the factory a snap!
Because of the problem with tube failure, cause by gross overheating of braze-on areas, many builders used low temperature silver solder when brazing thin walled tubes. My mentor had a racing frame break at the braze-on shifter boss, in the late 50's.
Bill K,
I only used silver for top tube cable guides or water bottle mounts. Lever bosses were always brass brazed as was the rest of the frame. When a steel tube fails it is usually because a minute crack was made by heating the tube too quickly, rater than over heating. The lever boss needs to be heated first and allow the heat to transfer to the tube. If you direct the flame on the thin tube before the lever boss is hot, it could put a minute crack in the tube that will be filled with brass, and it could be years down the road before it actually fails.
I wrote about this in more detail here: http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/blog/2015/12/14/when-steel-frames-fail-and-why.html
Dave
Dave.
I remember, back in the early 80's, some frames would develop cracks at the chain and seatstay junction with the rear dropout. I guess it was because they rushed the brazing.