SAK advertising

[Grathr]

Hi
In Norway I have never seen an advertisment for either Victorinox or Wenger. I have seen that Wenger has manged to be part of a multitooltest with a couple of tools from the Ranger series (they did very well  ), but nothing from Victorinox.
Are they as bad at marketing them selves in the rest of the world, as they are here? 

 

[borgwarrior]

No marketing in Hungary either. Guess it's a company trend.

[Aleister]

Haven't seen any Vic/Wenger advertisements in Greece too.

[Syph007]

Maybe they dont advertise?  Ive never seen ads for any SAKS ever that I can remember.

[Grathr]

I was afraid of that.
Every one knows what a swiss armyknife looks like, and there are plenty of cheap and poor quality fakes on the market. I bet that there are sold more fakes than originals in Norway. Most of the people who buy them  probably think swiss armyknives are rubbish, based upon their experience with the cheap fakes. Result: they go out and buy a leatherman in stead. ( because they have heard of the 25year warranty of leatherman)
 
I had never heard of the big victorinoxes or wengers before I stumbled upon a centurion on ebay. I fell in love with it straight away. ( In the end I gave it to my brother when he told me he had joined the red cross and owned neither a good knife or MT. The centurion solved that problem, and gave med the perfect excuse to buy a one handed Trekker  . ) I showed it to a friend of mine who loves to mail me info on new MTs. He had never heard of the big SAKs either. 2weeks later he sent me a picture of his brand new Trekker    

If people dont know that the new models (and old, like the alox models) exsist, how can they expect to sell them? 

[Steinar]

I suspect Vic is very fond of their distributor chain, and many of the importers really don't care much about the MT/SAK aspect of Vic, but are really in the market for the kitchen knives. It would be the importer who bought most of the commercials in any given country, not Vic themselves. Personally, I have pretty much given up on buying a SAK in a brick and mortar store. Brick and mortar stores are only for scavenger hunts where I hope to find discontinued or old stock treasures, like my SwissFlame.

Their evolving web site and stuff like http://www.victorinox.com/ch/content/field_advertising_zurich_2011_COM do show Victorinox advertises, but their distributors don't always do it...

Also, I see big chains like Clas Ohlson and Jernia carry less and less SAKs, and expecially Clas Ohlson is really happy about pushing knock-offs. 

[Syph007]

There used to be a chain store in malls here called House of Knives.  I loved that store.  They carried all the SAKs and many other tools.  That store is long gone now and the only brick and mortar stores that carry saks like walmart or canadian tire, have a very small and very overpriced selection.

Buying online is the only way for me to get new ones, which is sad.  I miss house of knives.   My son wont have the same joy of browsing for cool tools and knives in person and then going home with goodies.

[dks]

None here!

[kreisler]

little Deutch village where i live .. i did a 50km radius proximity search and got 20 hits for "SWISS ARMY KNIVES". this explains why there's no advertising around here..

since all these 20 dealers sell at the printed € list price (dealer's catalogue folder) and i think it's overpriced i'd use the inet (price search engines) to get the Vinox products shipped. Instead of "100" at the local store one would pay "66" shipped thru the inet.

[Grathr]

I suspect Vic is very fond of their distributor chain, and many of the importers really don't care much about the MT/SAK aspect of Vic, but are really in the market for the kitchen knives. It would be the importer who bought most of the commercials in any given country, not Vic themselves. Personally, I have pretty much given up on buying a SAK in a brick and mortar store. Brick and mortar stores are only for scavenger hunts where I hope to find discontinued or old stock treasures, like my SwissFlame.

Their evolving web site and stuff like http://www.victorinox.com/ch/content/field_advertising_zurich_2011_COM do show Victorinox advertises, but their distributors don't always do it...

Also, I see big chains like Clas Ohlson and Jernia carry less and less SAKs, and expecially Clas Ohlson is really happy about pushing knock-offs. 

Biltema and Jula also sell a lot of knock-offs. However Clas Ohlson are the worst. Not only do they sell the Victorinox Climber(and only the climber), but they also sell a knock off that is suspiciously similar to the Spartan. (I plan to buy one one day an measure it against a real Spartan. )  Se picture below

[Smaug]

I see a magazine ad once in a while for Victorinox. Nothing for Wenger that I can recall.

Then again, maybe they don't need to actively advertise, since they are so well-known?

[Grathr]

I see a magazine ad once in a while for Victorinox. Nothing for Wenger that I can recall.

Then again, maybe they don't need to actively advertise, since they are so well-known?

I am worried that they may have been surfing on their own fame for too long. When I was a kid all the other kids knew what a Swiss Army Knife was. If you ask some random kids today, I doubt they know it. (But they would know what a Leatherman is) And if they had heard of a SAK they probably would not know that Victorinox and Wenger make them. (I doubt that most adults would know that either. Atleast not where I live)

But maybe Im just a bit too pessimistic... 

[Steinar]

When I was a kid all the other kids knew what a Swiss Army Knife was. If you ask some random kids today, I doubt they know it. (But they would know what a Leatherman is) And if they had heard of a SAK they probably would not know that Victorinox and Wenger make them. (I doubt that most adults would know that either. Atleast not where I live)

But maybe Im just a bit too pessimistic...

I have the same impression, so I suspect pessimism and realism as it so happens is the same thing here. I have heard of kids using “a Leatherman” as a general term which includes SAKs. (Since the kid obviously neither had heard of “a Victorinox” or “a SAK”.) (Note for those people not knowing the lingua franca Norwegian: “Victorinox” is very easy to say in Norwegian, so it is pretty common to say “a Victorinox” instead of “a SAK”.)

[Steinar]

Biltema and Jula also sell a lot of knock-offs. However Clas Ohlson are the worst. Not only do they sell the Victorinox Climber(and only the climber), but they also sell a knock off that is suspiciously similar to the Spartan. (I plan to buy one one day an measure it against a real Spartan. )  Se picture below
(Image removed from quote.)

I refuse filling the coffers of people making stuff like that, even just for an experiment. That knife is so similar, the quickest way to see it's a knock-off (at least in closed position) are the badly aligned tools (they partly cover other tools' nail nicks, something which is not the case on a Spartan) and the somewhat sloppy ground nail-nicks. This is something I strongly doubt a common customer would be able to spot. Or care about.

[dks]

Here LM is totally unknown. 
I am the only person I know that carries and uses one, though a fireman told me once he had one too, but did not use it so as not to damage it.

The fact that the LM Micra costs 50 Euros does not help much either.. 

[Nikos]

Here LM is totally unknown. 
I am the only person I know that carries and uses one, though a fireman told me once he had one too, but did not use it so as not to damage it.

The fact that the LM Micra costs 50 Euros does not help much either.. 

I'm sure the military both know and use them. I had the same impression as you till the time I did my military service. There were at least a Surge, a BO Wave, and a Skeletool in my company (not counting my Skely, TTi, and X-Tract... ) But yeah, you'll hardly ever see one out in public. Vic Classics on the other hand...

[dks]

The soldiers do not use them. Maybe some officers will have them, if they buy them themselves, but I have not seen any in use by them. They are quite expensive to be issued.

  Actually I saw an officer I know use a multitool once a few weeks back, that he was proud off; It was a Ganzo, which I actually have, too. (did a small review of it some time ago, its is a decent quality, silver coloured one.. can not remember the name now but it is in the review section)

[Nikos]

The soldiers do not use them. Maybe some officers will have them, if they buy them themselves, but I have not seen any in use by them. They are quite expensive to be issued.

Ah yes, I should have said I was talking about officers, and yes they're buying them themselves. Pity...

[trailmaster]

I can confirm that for about ten years with the hobby, I haven't seen any advertisements in Greece. Now here in Germany, apart from the fact that there are more retailers, I haven't seen other advertisement either. however, I have seen Germans carrying and using Victorinox knives and other multitools.

I would imagine that the market nowdays is more Internet oriented and lots of people get informed at the Victorinox site and buy from online retailers.

as for military service, completing mine in Nov 2011, I can say i have seen a couple of officers carrying plyers based multitools. The Hellenic army theorically issues a very outdated pocket knife. it looks like very old US or British stock but I don't know at present its exact maker/model but I will try to find out. We had those things in stock but they were never given out to soldiers or officers and most folks don't know they still exist. In my unit stationed at Cyprus (ELDYK for Greeks and Greek-Cypriots) all conscripts were eventually required to have a multifunctional knife and most had bought cheap SAK clones from stores. I believe I was the only known "example" carrying a genuine Victorinox climber.

[Grathr]

I can confirm that for about ten years with the hobby, I haven't seen any advertisements in Greece. Now here in Germany, apart from the fact that there are more retailers, I haven't seen other advertisement either. however, I have seen Germans carrying and using Victorinox knives and other multitools.

I would imagine that the market nowdays is more Internet oriented and lots of people get informed at the Victorinox site and buy from online retailers.

as for military service, completing mine in Nov 2011, I can say i have seen a couple of officers carrying plyers based multitools. The Hellenic army theorically issues a very outdated pocket knife. it looks like very old US or British stock but I don't know at present its exact maker/model but I will try to find out. We had those things in stock but they were never given out to soldiers or officers and most folks don't know they still exist. In my unit stationed at Cyprus (ELDYK for Greeks and Greek-Cypriots) all conscripts were eventually required to have a multifunctional knife and most had bought cheap SAK clones from stores. I believe I was the only known "example" carrying a genuine Victorinox climber.

In Norway there are very few dealers, and I hardly ever see anyone using a proper SAK.

As for military service: When I was conscriptet in 2002 we got a letter from the Army where we vere "urged" to bring our own leatherman type multitool. We where only issued one multitool and one Sami knife (BIG knife used by the Sami in northern scandinavia http://www.samekniv.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=61&Itemid=76 ) pr squad.
 As a result of this, most of the enlisted men and officers carried our own Sami knife and a Leatherman PST or PST II.   There where a few Gerbers and Swisstools in sirculation too , but no SAKs.

[trailmaster]

For us personal knives were banned during basic training and that rule was strictly enforced. However during deployment in Cyprus from day one we were "adviced" to have a multifunctional knife. I had brought mine already. I would very much like to see our army issuing a Victorinox knife like the Swiss Army or the Bundeswehr but that is not happening any time soon.

By the way, is the AG-3 faced out from the Norwegian Army? A Greek-made G-3 is still standard issue in Greece for most units.

Here in a small ex-East German town, there are three shops that have dealer displays of Victorinox and probably there can be more I don't know of.

[Grathr]

By the way, is the AG-3 faced out from the Norwegian Army? A Greek-made G-3 is still standard issue in Greece for most units.

The AG3 is as far I know slowly beeing faced out and replaced by the Heckler & Koch HK416. Recruits and reserve units are still issued the AG3 and some other units will still use it in the years to come.

[trailmaster]

thanks!

[kinskibrain]

I have never seen any advertising for either Victorinox or Wenger in Sweden or Scotland. In Sweden, most people I know define a SAK by the red handles and "bunch of functions", none know about the brand "Victorinox" or "Wenger" and why these would be any different from the various red handled no-brand-SAKS found everywhere.

Before I got into knives I knew of Wenger and thought they were the only real thing. Part of this was because the Wenger logo is more reminiscent of the Swiss flag. I had seen the Victorinox logo but thought it was just some contrived copy. I still think the Wenger rounded square is far superior to the Vic shield. (S. Jobs recognized the elegance of squares and rectangles with rounded corners. (the 1984 Mac, iPod, iPhone app symbols etc)