Get rid of stereotypes
I'm not a professional tour guide, but I really love to travel. No matter what cities and countries I visit, I always encounter standard, rather boring excursions, where they give a stream of dry statistics.
While researching this market, we looked to see if there was something similar in other countries. The only thing we managed to find were old advertisements for excursions in Rome, but they did not have a full-fledged website or company address.
Our guide is not an aunty with a history education who conducts excursions as lectures. Our excursions are aimed at a youth audience, the guide is their age, speaks their language and not only about historical facts, but also about recent events related to a particular place. For example, roofers painted the star of the high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment in the colors of the Ukrainian flag - this is political news.
The point is to awaken local residents' interest in their city. Tours for foreigners are a small part of our business, although we do have tours in Chinese and English.
Last year we entered into a partnership program with a hostel on Arbat, they brought English-speaking guys to us. This format is possible, but now we don’t have a flow of tourists, because not everyone knows about us even in Moscow.
Our excursions are a complex service. We have to devote a lot of time to security and organizational issues to make people feel comfortable and interested.
Suzuki Verde
Suzuki Verde is a fairly inexpensive Japanese scooter that can be purchased for only 25-30 thousand rubles. It looks like a classic single-seater scooter. Lovers of everything vintage will certainly appreciate its laconic, classically finished design.
A round headlight in a chrome ring, classic turn signals and a flashlight, rounded fenders and a fairing - all this allows you to almost tangibly touch a bygone era. Scooter fans can enjoy not only riding the Verde, but also simply contemplating the model's elegant shape.
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- Author: Diman Petrov
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Bring retro models from Japan
I have been interested in motorcycles for a long time and have ridden various scooters, including Chinese ones, which in Russia are considered to be of poor quality. Japanese Honda and Yamaha are the most reliable. For us, quality of service comes first, which is why we choose these models. The Chinese make very similar models in appearance, for example, the Yamaha Vino. It has the same body, but some details are different. It is impossible to predict whether it will break in a month or a week. It all depends on the parts that are used during assembly. It's a completely different metal alloy. A small hole - and the scooter’s fork can easily bend, and then it will be difficult to find a good part.
In Asia, scooters and mopeds dominate. And for good reason - this is truly a very convenient means for a metropolis. But our driving culture gives rise to many stereotypes that scooters are dangerous means of transportation. It is much easier to control than a motorcycle, and a little more difficult than a bicycle. If you have a category B license, you can switch from a car to a scooter in a couple of weeks. In addition, he is not afraid of traffic jams. You can always get to the right place without force majeure. There will be no problems with parking. In some cases, you can bypass a traffic jam, congestion or repair work. You can quickly turn into a pedestrian when you turn off the engine and carry the scooter behind you, and walk along the sidewalk, cutting off some section. Our scooter weighs about 60 kg, even a girl can handle it.
If you know how to ride a bicycle, one half-hour instruction with our instructor is enough for you to learn how to ride in a convoy. If we see that a person cannot travel with us, we offer him to undergo additional training.
Uniqueness and style
The latest in fashion was the retro style, which came at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Retro style has left a fundamental mark on the development of fashion. Now many famous fashion designers and transport designers use some details in their creations.
And people successfully accept these creations because they represent something exclusive and exclusive. This is what each of us strives for, to be a unique individual. Retro scooters can be considered such a successful creation of retro style in modern fashion.
Gather a team of enthusiasts
We have visiting mechanics and guides, we hire them for the season. The main team consists of four people: me, Kirill, Yuri and Vladimir. We don’t have a clear division that someone deals only with finance, and someone deals with creativity and marketing strategy. I, as the ideologist and founder of the project, take on offline promotion activities, brand management, model concepts, and pricing. Kirill is involved in sales, including internet marketing, for example, creating landing pages for sales for the season, which help us sell our second service - rental, with high conversion. He is also responsible for conversation scripts for managers, checklists and other technical documentation accompanying sales.
Go from online to offline
We had a joint event with the Rexona company. They advertised the new product Rexona White and Black, we provided them with white scooters, covered them with branded stickers and conducted tours and photo sessions.
Before this, our strategy was built only online, through standard tools - Yandex.Direct or Google AdWords. All face-to-face time was spent on excursions and routine processes: meeting guests, preparation, training, instruction. We did few activities aimed at promoting our brand.
We had an away rally when we took 21 scooters to the Moscow region. One person wanted to celebrate his birthday in this format. But this was a private event that we could not use as a PR occasion.
Our main problem is bringing a new product and service to the market. For now, we are growing through word of mouth. Online we are most often contacted by the queries “buy a scooter”, “scooter repair”, but no one is looking for “excursions on retro scooters”.
Retro scooters then and now
Modern retro-style scooters are, of course, qualitatively different from their predecessors. They are quite reliable, fast and economical.
The driver of a retro scooter can immerse himself in the atmosphere of distant times, when the retro style began to develop. A pleasant transport walk on a warm and sunny day guarantees you a great mood and a lot of impressions. After all, you are extraordinary behind the wheel of a retro scooter.
Yes, the driver of this vehicle will look quite fashionable and attractive behind the wheel. And let’s say that for real fashionistas, purchasing such a scooter will be a huge contribution to creating its full-fledged retro style image.
Find a million rubles
At the end of the excursion season, we sell all used scooters and earn a starting amount for the next season. We had clients to whom we supplied Japanese models - other rentals and showrooms. We brought containers from Japan (one container holds 90 retro scooters), sold most of them, and kept 10 to 15 models for our needs. By selling the rest, we received the necessary capital for a summer launch and PR campaign.
This year we weren't able to do that. Our B2B clients have closed or abandoned purchases and are selling off their balances.
Along with the dollar exchange rate, the yen exchange rate jumped very much, and it became unprofitable to import models from Japan.
The starting capital was about 1 million rubles, part of which was my own investments, part of which came from attracting investors. Money was invested gradually: in the material and technical base, storage space, equipment, equipment, salaries for guides, promotion costs, advertising.
In 2013 we had a lot of excursions. We launched in collaboration with coupon aggregators, the number of clients was huge, which cannot be said about the income. That's why we decided to do without coupons this year. But the flow of clients in 2014 was much less than in 2013.
Our project has not yet become a network project. Even if we were now working on the Black Sea coast, somewhere in Gelendzhik, Anapa, Crimea or Sevastopol, the season would be longer - 8 months. Now our season lasts from May to September. At the moment, extending it is technically difficult - you need to equip the scooters with heated handles and seats.
Aprilia Habana
Aprilia is known primarily as a manufacturer of racing motorcycles, but it began its long history with scooters. The Aprilia Habana scooter, also known as the Aprilia Mojito, appeared relatively recently - in 2000.
Despite this, in appearance it looks like a scooter of the last century: an abundance of chrome, rounded massive fenders, a seat that looks more like a sofa, a round headlight and even a huge windshield, which is included in the additional package.
The retro-style dashboard is also striking - the analogue speedometer and fuel consumption indicator are decorated with several colored lights.
Work on content
Every year we update excursions. In 2014, we tried the classic set - high-rise buildings, bridges and embankments. Now we have an unusual tour of street art, where you can see all the graffiti in Moscow, including little-known ones in the courtyard on Chistye Prudy, which only music video directors and local residents know about. There is a tour “Around the world without leaving Moscow” - to the embassies of different countries of the world.
We have a guide, Vladimir, a bridge builder by profession, he conducts a tour “Bridges and Embankments of Moscow” and talks about interesting engineering solutions that were used during construction.
We conduct excursions every evening on weekdays and definitely plan 3 excursions on weekends. Each session lasts 3 hours. The break between excursions is a technical hour to prepare the scooters, check them, change the sign and flag on them.
Our target audience is domestic tourists and Muscovites who have been living in the capital for many years and want to discover something new in this city.
Yamaha Vino
Vino was created in the same way as Giorno. This nineties scooter, modern in characteristics, has been endowed with a classic design. The round headlight, streamlined shapes, smooth lines and analog instruments did their job - the Yamaha Vino turned out to be beautiful and fast.
Its maximum speed can reach 80-85 km/h, and this has made the single-seater “baby”, similar to a scooter from the past, a real king of the roads.
