The same Club, just better...
Comments
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If it ain't broke - don't fix it. For example: The Radio Times now covers a lot more than radio and has done for a very long time. All TV channels and Satellite channels are included and it is a very well known and best selling publication despite having not changed its name.
Why do we need an expensive and potentially confusing name change now? The club can implement improvements to sites and services without this. By the way what are these 'improvements' that are being trailed?
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Re your last paragraph, a fully functioning CL search, and a handbook, held back apparently to facilitate this momentous occasion, would have been a bonus!
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Totally unnecessary and presumably costly exercise.What is the budget that has been set aside for changing all the signage,new uniforms for wardens,stationary etc etc?
Whatever the money involved it should be spent on upgrading old sites and procuring new ones.
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Look on the bright side for goodness sake.
If they consulted the members beforehand about the change of name then 95% of members would have told them to stuff it and when they ignored your advice and changed it anyway you would have really have been ticked off.
Remember we were consulted and asked what enhancements we wanted for the the new website and what happened with our suggestions? Exactly.
I couldn't care less what they call the organisation, it's not a club anymore, but I'm more concerned that we have lost yet another site at Mildenhall and that 2 months after the launch our extensively tested (not) website the abominal treatment of CL owners has still not been resolved.
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Hi Just think of the unnecessary cost.
I have a motorhome and the "Club" does not understand motorhomes. I usually find I cannot use the dump facility on site because of the positioning of the manhole cover. Rather than risk a hernia I bucket the waste when leaving. Many commercial site have much better system and you just drive near the grill or sloping device and hey presto job done.
Some Club sites do have a grill e.g. the Firs has 2 so in theory it does not matter which side the drain Is but some Adrias have the exit point right in the middle so it still is no good.
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Oh dear, I've just watched the videos and am far from impressed. How much marketing does a club need when there is only one real rival offering similar services? How could the club be ready for the next generation of adventurers? Maybe having some pitches available would help, without booking 12 months in advance.
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It's quite trivial. Why get in a state about it? Please don't encourage the Club to spend more of our money on an enquiry/investigation/autopsy into the matter. Anyway, all things change, it's evolution, or do you still watch a black & white TV?
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As many others have already said, it's not merely the change itself that members are not happy with, but the way it's been done with huge publicity expenses, and also huge expenses for changing signs, stationery, uniforms, etc., etc., - and the unforeseen expenses for CLs, District Associations, etc..
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Well, as a motorhomer, it's about time. The Caravan Club name did intimate it was just for caravans.
As someone who has run a business I know from experience 90% of people will say I hate it , what a waste of money and then 2 months later say actually the new logo is far better we were just so used to the old one which did look out of date.
Well done for taking a decision they probably knew would be unpopular.
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This all seems a bit like the purchase of the Alan Rogers Organisation to broaden the reach of the Caravan Clu.... oops Caravan and Motorhome Club overseas. Alan Rogers' had changed their logo quite recently before the take over and look what has happened to them. The Guides to Europe were wound up and effectively finished the Alan Rogers existence. I believe millions of CC oops CAMC! funds were used on this failed "adventure". Camping Cheque which was part of the Alan Rogers remit and a temptation for Caravan Club in the aquisition of AR, has become Camping Travel Club but interestingly retained the Camping Cheque logo for and there are signs that it is struggling to compete, the cheques by 2018 exist any more and the method of setting fees for sites in the Guides is closer to ACSI with various levels. I can't quite understand the move to compete as a Club with other organisations offering the Europe and Worldwide services, rather than concentrating on keeping prices low for members on the maintained sites and making the booking and websire process efficient. I have and retain membership of CAMC, C&CC, Camping Cheque and ACSI useful in our adventures. A look at the accounts of the UK Clubs shows that C&CC seem more successful at their Overseas Travel services perhaps? Perhaps better to make sure that Club sites which has been a service for members for 110 years is the real focus?
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Just recieved my stickers. Not sure why they could not be sent out with the site book and save postage. I am not sure how many separate mailings ther are Wikipedia reckons close on 1 million members, so possibly 300,000. I also don't know how much the CAMC pay for their bulk mailings. However, even if we say only 20p ( we pay 55p 2nd class) inc the cost of the stickers, that works out at £60,000. Just for sending a sticker out. 😡 Unfortunately we will never be privy to the actual cost. When they are unable to keep sites open, that is just plain crazy.
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Don't ask me but that poster seemed to be along with many others.
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'If it ain't broke don't fix it' springs to mind once again. Regarding the CL search this is one area that the quote really does relate to. The cost of completely ruining and then correcting this load of rubbish back to anything near a perfectly good working system must be peanuts. The cost of re-branding must be STAGGERING!!! It's not just signs and letterheads BUT EVERYTHING will need to be changed. Uniforms will change from green to brown embroidered badges, the cost of sending letters etc etc. Let alone the gallons of paint required to paint fencing and the labour cost involved. As regards recommending the club to new members we will always refer to joining 'The Caravan Club'. Why because we have been members and center members for 33. I am now retired and yes we now own a motorhome but did we feel left out before NO. What we are is very annoyed the the club will be spending a ton of OUR money 'the members money' without full consultation. A survey by e-mail would not have cost a great deal. Give it a couple of years and we will be back to green the Co-Op is a classic example!!!
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I think this has been sprung on the members without any consultation, discussion or ballot. A very considerable amount of the Club's resources will be squandered on this rebranding which is totally unnecessary.. The new logo is beneath contempt. I suspect that this has been pushed through by a handful of motorhome owners with several bees in their collective bonnets. The monies involved would be better spent in rearranging hardstandings for motor caravans thus making them narrower and increasing the number therefore available.
After all a motor home is a self propelled caravan .
Finally, did you realise that the logo CAMC belongs to the Caernarvonshire and Anglesey Motor Club which was founded in 1936
The arrogance shown by our Club towards its members beggars belief
Hywel Owen
Gwynedd
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Well I bl**dy love it!!!
Good on the powers that be who decided on this. it's far more in line with what I see on sites and the logo itself is fantastic - modern, great font and colours.
But what do I know?
"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything"
George Bernard Shaw
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Rather than waste OUR money on re branding wouldnt it be better to stop ripping us off and give us free WI FI lots of cl's and commercial sites do.and it would haven been nice to have consulated,new logo looks like somthing out of the sixties. that's it rant over
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Thanks for the kind words kdee69,
We're pretty excited about the change!
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Firstly, this a terrible logo - being in the south one has to assume that a top flight marketing/design agency was employed at excessive cost. It is an awful design. There was nothing wrong with the original logo and the cost of new signage will be massive - it's a gross misuse of our annual fees. Had you actually asked the membership, I suspect it would have been a resounding NO to this change. Staying on a club site is expensive anyway so would it not have been better to reduce the site fees to get more members than spend all this money on a rebrand? Having had a motorhome in the past, Caravan Club sites were never welcoming and that has probably not changed much and I suspect a rebrand will not make a lot of difference to attitudes.
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Wondered what the exciting news was going to be. I joke. I can honestly say we are underwhelmed by it. We're in the CC for good sites and facilities, the insurance and the foreign booking facility, so the change of name should make no difference to us. However we would have preferred the money spent on rebranding to be used on improving facilities, on for example, the beautiful site at Godrevy which is in desperate need of a toilet block refit. The CC is a club for members and where the new name and logo gives us nothing the same money spent on improvements would have offered us and motorhome owners something.
All that said, if the rebranding was to encourage more to join, or to make it more attractive to younger people or families, perhaps it was worth doing. However nothing has really changed so why would these other groups want to join. I've read the advertising blurb - it's the beginning of an exciting adventure and it's going to focus on experiences and adventures!! Well last year we set off on our summer adventure to France, booked through the club, and our adventure almost stopped at Rookesbury park where we were told we didn't have one of the 6 ferry pitches and the barrier wouldn't be opened until it was too late to catch the morning ferry. The wardens relented and opened it early, but we were told in future we'd have to sleep at the port if there weren't any of the 6 ferry pitches left.
Where's the sense of adventure there, if the club falls down on simply accommodating one of their own booked holidays, to aid members on their way to the port and to their adventure.
If has been done to provide members with adventure and experiences then they have a long way to go.
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I have had them sent to me, spent ages filling one in last night about my recent stay at Bridlington site when it went down on the last bit so don't know if it got completed or not
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