Younger Members

[Zennan101]

Hi Alan (Cabriolet),

For what its worth I am on the 'Older' category for the purpose of this debate. I am not personally impacted by the family friendly requirement but I would not get my good wife through the door of a Warner Hotel. Visited one in ignorance once. It was like entering God's waiting room. That said if others like and enjoy Warner's that's fine. It's a good job we are all different.

Rod

James,

Sorry this of off topic but a side conversation developed.
Had a real Bonneville once, sold at a vast profit to a man with a van from Japan! My soft spot is for BMW Boxers. Loved my R100RS. Last 3 bikes were Pan Europeans.

[poprivet]

I suspect that there are a lot more 'younger' Jaguar owners then club members.

If someone has one car for daily use that is either leased or changed every three years they may have no interest in joining a car club. People who get one in later life are more likely to have it as a hobby and take a more personal interest in it.

[jBlackwell]

I suspect that there are a lot more 'younger' Jaguar owners then club members.

Jaguar sold 178,000 vehicles last year, we do not even scratch the surface of potential members..........

James

[cabriolet]

Hi,
It would be interesting to see if there has been any noticeable decline in the club membership say over the last 5yrs. Also how many members are younger people, maybe under 35.
It was stated that Jaguar was not interested in promoting JEC, but was there any concessions made to entice people to sign up. I am sure their customers would not want to fork out an extra £50, when they are already paying out for benefits such as extended warranties. Giving JEC free for a year does not require the salesman go into great detail about our membership. it is an added benefit, so all they need to say is “by the way you also get free membership for a year, if you sign up in the 1st month”. New car sales are dropping so they might be more open to new ideas.
IF you are happy that JEC size of membership is being retained or increased then giving away benefits free might not be the preferred option.
Regards
Alan

[jBlackwell]

Hi Alan,
I refer to my earlier post, we have tried to get the dealerships on board, have been trying for years. There is nothing in it for the sales team, so we never get any traction on including membership with the sale of a new car. We are finally building a good relationship with Jaguar Classic and hope to continue building that to the benefit of our members and indeed Jaguar Classic. But when it comes to the "core business" currently we are not of interest. That does not mean we are not trying and not having those conversations, we are and will continue to.

We find it as frustrating as you, we know that our members have tremendous value to offer the dealerships and Jaguar brand as a whole and as a consequence I am sure our membership would benefit from such a relationship.

Have a look at the Porsche Club as a good example of how two sides can benefit from this kind of relationship.

One example though of how things can prevent relationships out of our control. As a club we attend Essen Techno Classica, probably one of the largest indoor classic car shows in the world. Jaguar Classic for Germany are based in Essen, we have a good relationship with the top man there and expressed our desire to be involved with their stand and situated next to them, similar to how Porsche and Mercedes present at the event. They would also like that to happen, BUT, the Jaguar Association of Germany do not want that to happen, preferring their independence from the main parent company. As a consequence, not wanting to get involved in the politics, Jaguar currently do not wish to look at that as a possibility for the event. Massive shame for us, our members and Jaguar Classic Germany. We are trying only so much we can affect.

James Blackwell
Assistant General Manager

[cabriolet]

Hi,
Do you have the answer to my question about size of membership over the last 5yrs, and how much of it is younger people?
Alan

[cabriolet]

I think this is maybe a too sensitive question. My query related to this question is prompted because the open policy of the forum gets loads of views to topics but very few involved in answering them.

[BigCatXJS]

There are a number of options as I see it:

• A group of like minded family focused members get together and work out an event for families.

• Have a look at next years event and the similar group create a proposal that works for families.

• Someone who is on the events committee takes the idea and makes it happen.

• *Please add other thoughts and suggestions

Help and a voice is needed, sadly I can only do so much. I agree we need to do more, how we go about it, I need help. Always happy to discuss ways forward, introduce where I can, help where I can.

I think that we may need to accept that the membership with young families is probably going to remain a minority within the club unless there is a paradigm shift in the fortune of the Club in attracting new members with young families. Many years ago I raised the idea of a reduced price subscription for a digital only membership package i.e. no hard copy magazine. Now I understand that we have the magazine available on PocketMags (but not for existing members) - does this mean that a digital only subscription is now available?

In terms of the points in the above quoted list - perhaps smaller scale events targeting the young family demographic? That is quite hard as there would be a geographic restriction and commercially I'd anticipate that getting an event organised at a theme park (as an example) probably would not work as we would not have the critical mass of members to make it viable I suspect.

Restructuring future events might be a more pragmatic proposition. As an off-the-cuff example; the Jaguars at the Castle event at Warwick castle seems to attract a slightly more diverse membership. There is still the "cars in the field" element but also a significant attraction that appeals to families / all in its own right. Open question - whats sort of blockers are there for the JEC that would prevent organising something similar at a different attraction?

I cant really comment on the composition on the events committee - all I know that there are some experienced hands who obviously work really hard delivering the events programme (as do our Regions). It just feels that maybe (in my subjective view) its difficult to flex the programme to be more inclusive and focused on young families whilst said group are such a minority within the club.

Thanks, Rich

[cabriolet]

Hi,
Found on the Internet Hagerty Insurance states in November 2014 JEC membership was supposed to be 17,000. As I am not getting an answer to my question about membership, I presume the stats cannot be good to shout about.
Sorry about persisting with this but I just want to the depth and breadth of the club I have signed up for.
Alan

[steve_m]

What is the dividing line between younger and older members?
20?
30?
Etc.

[BigCatXJS]

What is the dividing line between younger and older members

Maybe lifestage? Des O'Connor had a child at the age of 70.... . I joined my local JEC regions when I was 33 and then the JEC national club when I was 34; at this point my eldest son was just one year old. Now he is shortly to turn 11. His brother is 7.

Separately - refering back to my earlier post I should rightfully acknowledge two national events in 2017 that were more family friendly in my opinion;

The Royal Windsor Festival - we might not have been able to use the castle "facilities" but it was a great location with many restaurants, shops, attractions almost adjacent to the long mile. I used to live in the area in the mid '90s so it was also a great opportunity to meet-up with some old friends at some old haunts as well.

The Hull forum weekend - although I (and family) was unable to attend that weekend offered something different and had we gone we probably would have spent some time at "The Deep" as well as some of the seminars - the live "oil" demonstration woudl have been popular.

Ta, Rich

[jBlackwell]

OK,
I will answer what I can but some of this may be better suited to the Directors to answer.

Membership numbers. Currently stand around 15000, they have been static for the last few years. At our height we were at 21000. The work we are currently undertaking in the back ground (more my day to day role) is putting the tools in place to allow that growth to happen. As I have mentioned previously, this is a long term project. To achieve and then sustain long term growth will not be the result of some short term fixes. Up until recently our online/digital offering was so far behind it was no longer fit for purpose, this will take time catch up. We have though already seen some very good signs. For example visits to the website in its first complete year is 150% up. What we are doing now is maximising that increase and gathering as much data as we can whilst developing the tools to get a return on that increase. I say developing, that is what we have been doing, now we are introducing them.

Indepth breakdown of our members/non-members you are right, this is not the place to talk about it. Do we have a good enough idea of our member/non member demographic, no, but please see my previous paragraph.

Regards events, we do not have a huge demand for them really. If you take Windsor, 1200 Jaguars turned up, that is still less than 10% of the membership. If we made changes to attract one type of member, it would effect whether another member attends or not?

Warwick Castle, that is an interesting event. It does work in terms of attracting people to the venue for the excellent discount on the entry price (hats off to Graham Greenwood, event organiser, not the JEC), but what we have noticed is that in terms of attendance, it really is all about the Castle. The raffle car for example, does a roaring trade first thing, then it goes dead as everyone goes to the Castle (obviously) and then trickles along barely doing any other trade. I am not suggesting that all events should be a maximum effort the whole event, but in terms of engaging with our audience, it is a very small time frame, whether member or not. Other events provide much greater opportunities to engage with the audience. So we have to gauge the Risk Vs ROI of attending certain events, some prices and terms and conditions proposed by attractions, make that analysis return a not possible result.

I hope that helps?

Please do not take any of my comments as negative, without these conversations, we are unable to explore possibilities that we have missed or overlooked. Please keep these suggestions, thoughts and discussions coming, I strongly believe we should not back away from discussing any of these points with our members.

Kind Regards

James Blackwell
Assistant General Manager

[cabriolet]

Hi James,
I do understand the difficulty in retaining and improving membership. I have read some posts about the history of JEC and that when JEC was formed in 1984 one of the aims was to cater for people who use their Jags on a regular basis and to help them maintain them.
It is clear that JEC are doing that, but if you own a modern car the maintaining gets more difficult, and as an example the use of management systems + the need of specialist tools. I am sure there is a need to assist on the easier repairs, but now I suppose the emphasis has to be on the social side. I am sure there is less DIY done on models that command a high price such as the E type, as potential buyers like to see a good standard of repair history with the car. The XJS is not in that category yet but there are signs of an upward trend.
I renovated a Morris Minor and I had the confidence to try most jobs as they do not command a high price and if you made a mistake it was easily corrected.
I wonder if there is a market for a basic car where the emphasis is on the ease of repair. (Example bolt on wings and room to get to components)
If JEC seems to be holding about 15000 members you have to see that as a positive.
Regards
Alan

[jBlackwell]

Hi Alan,
You are spot on, the demands of members has evolved as the cars themselves have. The idea of creating "experiences" is probably more the direction we need to expand in. As you rightly say, newer cars do not need the technical support they did, in terms of what we can and cannot deliver.

Things do move on though, so keep in mind the cars that Jaguar have released in the years the Club has been running, from the XJ40, XJ8, XK8, XF. These were originally cars we were not in a position to support technically, but as time moves on, that library of technical articles has grown.

We are trying to expand the "experience" side of delivering things to the member, so hopefully we can expand this area more as we move on.

Regards

James

[Tintin]

How do we engage with the whole family of the Jaguar owner, regardless of age, but in the case of the younger owner who I promise you I can relate to, it is a challenge.

Therein lies the problem - you can't. The club is too large and has such a diverse membership that it is impossible to attract and cater for all tastes ages cars interests etc in one hit. The answer is to create sub-divisions to focus on satisfying the preferences of particular groups.

Robbie