Friday, August 14, 2009

And why do you want to write about our product?

At the recent OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen, I wandered into the Outwell booth to ask about the company’s new “pop-up tent” it was pushing in, yes, press releases in the newsroom and on prominent displays in the booth. Outwell is a Danish company that distributes its family camping and outdoor gear in 30 countries.

Wearing my media badge displayed prominently, I took a couple of slow laps around the booth to see what the company had. I walked past a couple of Outwell employees…twice…as I circled, and they looked up at me a couple of times but quickly went back to their own conversation and coffee.

Finally I maneuvered over closer to their table and stood and stared at them.

“Yes?” one man looked up and finally asked, not exactly sounding welcoming.

“I’m interested in finding out more about the pop-up tent, a little about how it works, its technology, the patent and that kind of thing.”

He stared at me a moment. “Who are you?” he asked.

I apologized for not stating I was with the media; though I assumed my media badge sort of made it obvious. After I explained where I was from (speaking in German, mind you, so misunderstanding was not an issue) and that I wanted more information about the tent, he stared at me for a minute again, and then asked simply, “Why?”

Hmm, OK, I admit it is not often a journalist seeking to write about a product has to deal with someone wondering why…especially a representative of that company.

Well, it’s our job to cover this show and write about what we see, I said.

“We don’t sell in the United States,” he said.

I said that didn’t make a difference; we write about interesting things we see here for our trade audience back in the U.S. and also in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South America.

“Why?” was the question again.

I wanted to say, “You’re kidding me, right?” But, bit my tongue.

“I just want some information about your tent. That seems pretty simple,” I said, adding that I had seen in a German outdoor newsletter that it stemmed from an American patent.

Long pause with a penetrating glance….. “Just a minute,” he said.

At this point, they had to realize I wasn’t going to give up. I just hoped the tent went up far easier than my attempts at prying information from this company.

He ducked into the back behind a curtain. A moment later he came back out with a woman.

“Can I help you?” she said in English.

I decided to make the language switch from German to English too since maybe that would help with their apparent confusion. Anything to speed this along.

“I’d like to have your new tent shown to me. I am interested to hear about the technology and a little bit about the tent design,” I explained again.

“Why?” she asked.

Frankly, I was beginning to wonder why myself. But, I resolved to persevere though I am sure I did let more than just a casual tone of frustration enter my voice as I responded: “Look, this is so simple really. I am a journalist and I just want to see the tent and get some information that I might possibly want to include in a story. How hard can that be?”

“Calm down, you want some coffee?” the woman responded.

Coffee?? To calm down? It was all I could do just to keep myself from responding, "Why?"

Instead, I stated firmly, “No, I don’t not want any coffee, just information!”

She called over yet another man, a product manager, it seemed. I must have finally passed muster, worn them all down, or she needed backup -- I’m not sure which.

She then produced a press kit with a CD and the product guy showed me the tent, insisting it had nothing to do with an American patent but was in fact their own. I told him I only mentioned that since I saw it in some German press and in fact I knew there had been a U.S. patent 10 or 12 years ago on something similar, and that SNEWS had in fact seen the product at an Outdoor Retailer trade show, and just wanted to take a look. The product guy explained it well, showing the hinges and how it worked…finally.

I left the booth shaking my head. No coffee for me; I needed a stiff drink.

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