The Tandem Experience, run by Pete and Sarah Bird, formerly of Swallows and then Dawes, is to mail IBDs this week with an invitation to join The Tandem Experience Marketing Partnership. According to Pete Bird this will give tandem-selling bike shops the "opportunity to join up with other IBDs in marketing tandems in a generic form with tangible experiences leading to increasing sales of tandems in the UK."

Tandem Experience to roll out a membership package for IBDs

The package – which aims to get couples to ‘try before they buy’ – includes joint advertising in Cycling Plus and Cycle from January 2005; an 0845 number; Google ad-word advertising; and leaflets.

The Tandem Experience currently has four partner IBDs, the Bird’s reckon there’s scope for more.

The Tandem Experience ‘try before you buy’ sessions are £39 for a taster session and £69 for a full day. The Tandem Experience deducts a commission fee of 10 percent off each booking made and pays the balance to the Partner on a monthly basis.

Couples who book on the tandem sessions get a ‘Redeemable Voucher Key Fob’. This has a registration number. IBDs can access the prospective customer’s buying data at http://www.tandeming.co.uk

The membership package – a little less than £170 a month – requires partner IBDs to stock at least one tandem.

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