educating

EDUCATING MY CUSTOMERS

Sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t.

In the 1960’s when I started working in the fiberfill industry, I started to get an education in fiber and how it was converted into fiberfill for use as insulation outerwear and sleeping bags.

The fiberfill for sleeping bags was continuous filament fiber [eventually it became Lamilite]. Since I wanted to sell my laminated continuous filament fiberfill [CF] to sleeping bag manufacturers, I had to make a sleeping bag that was laminated construction to show them. Having done this when I made my presentation, I spoke of the labor savings in production versus the way they were making bags with CF. I pointed out the elimination of the quilting which was cold spots versus the uniform loft of the laminated CF where cold spots did not exist. There are other advantages of which I have published on the website today.

I made the same presentation to every company in the country that made sleeping bags at that time. Today I refer to those bags as no sleep sleeping bags which is an accurate description.

The end result of my efforts educating the industry in general was one that did not work. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make the horse drink. In all of the years since I put forth my efforts not one company made sleeping bags as I do.

Sometimes potential customers choose not to get an education.

Move in time to the mid 1970’s when I started Olam and made and sold laminated constructed CF insulated sleeping bags. Olam did well but I decided to sell out.

Move in time to the mid 1980’s when I opened Wiggy’s and again started selling sleeping bags using Lamilite.

Now I had to educate my potential customers, and low and behold “SOMETIMES IT WORKS”

I know it works because my potential customers became customers to the point, they have made Wiggy’s the largest producer of sleeping bags in the world.

I have received hundreds of calls and emails from customers who initially tell me their experiences with my sleeping bags and further say they tell everybody who camps that does not have a Wiggy bag all about them. Many who have been told call to order a bag and tell me who told them thinking I know every customer. Sometimes I do.

What I have learned from those customers who contact me tells me how much they have learned having read the information I have published on the website. I have maintained from the very beginnings of Wiggy’s that it will be in my benefit if potential customers take the time to read my information. In many cases when someone calls with a question, I know they have been reading the information because without the background they couldn’t ask the question.

The comments aren’t limited to the sleeping bags but also the fishnet long underwear. When they see the big holes, they ask how the fishnets keep you warm. I basically explain they work in conjunction with what you wear over them so long as it is loose fitting. I also direct them to the area on the website that has their history.

Many of the comments refer to what I have written about other products available in the market place that are falsely advertised such as the goretex and all of the copies. I have presented all of the fallacies of these products and many others and been told from people who have bought them they were happy to learn why.

My efforts so many years ago to educate people in the industry was rejected and all of the companies that existed then are gone. But in the years following via the internet, I have on the Wiggy website been able to offer an education to one and all about the products I make and sell. The response I am very pleased to say has been spectacular.

I consider myself an educator because I had to educate people about what and why I do in the making of my sleeping bags. The offer of an education has paid off.

WORD OF MOUTH ADVERTISING LIKE A WIGGY'BAG IS "SIMPLY THE BEST"! and THE CONSUMERS ARE SMARTER THANTHE MANUFACTURERS.

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