Bad Boy Buggies takes aim at powersports

OEM looks to expand brand beyond hunters

With units adorned in Realtree camo covering its website, a trade show booth that looks like a lodge and a Pro Staff group of partners including outdoors celebrities like Michael Waddell, Jeff Foxworthy and the stars of “Wildgame Nation,” its clear Bad Boy Buggies has succeeded in setting its sights on the hunting world. However, as the brand reaches its fifth year under Textron, Inc.’s ownership, it also looks to grow in the powersports industry.

Since Textron acquired Bad Boy Enterprises’ assets in 2010, the company has been focused on improving the product and marketing heavily to the hunting and outdoors industries.

Soon after the acquisition, Textron moved Bad Boy’s production from Natchez, Miss., to its own factory in Augusta, Ga. And by the end of 2011, Textron knew it was time to add its own style to the Bad Boy brand. The entire lineup was redesigned in 2012, and Bad Boy started relying on already-vetted vendors used by sister brand E-Z-GO. In 2012 Bad Boy also introduced its first hybrid model, the Ambush, to enhance its previously all-electric lineup.

In 2013, the Ambush iS was improved with four-wheel independent suspension and an upgraded engine with more horsepower. In 2014, Bad Boy again added to its lineup, revealing its first four forward-facing passenger side-by-side, the Recoil iS Crew.

“We’re constantly driving innovation and product development into the Bad Boy line,” said Eric Bondy, vice president for Consumer Business with Bad Boy Buggies and E-Z-GO.

Reaching hunters

Over the past five years, Bad Boy has made a big push toward marketing its products toward hunters and other outdoorsmen. With electric side-by-sides dominating the Bad Boy lineup, Bondy believes the vehicles are ideal for hunters looking for a quieter ride.

“Believe it or not, it really does have a dramatic effect on what we call field of disturbance, or the amount of noise disturbance when you enter a hunting space,” Bondy said. “When you’re electric, you can reduce the ambient noise, the noise that your game is going to hear … by a dramatic amount. We’ve seen some studies as high as 85 percent, and so that has a dramatic effect.”

The quiet electric motor also lets hunters enjoy each other’s company on their trek out to their hunting spot.

“Hunting in particular can be, and is a lot of times, a very social environment. And when you’re driving out to a tree stand with your son, and your son is sitting next to you, you can have a conversation because in an electric vehicle, you can talk back and forth — that’s a huge component,” Bondy added.

Bad Boy targets the hunting population through advertising in traditional outdoors media, sponsoring NASCAR racers and the World of Outlaws World Finals, and attending the annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show and Conference (SHOT Show). In addition to those already mentioned, the Bad Boy Buggies Pro Staff also includes Travis “T-Bone” Turner, Nick Mundt, Don and Kandi Kisky, Ralph and Vicki Cianciarulo, Jamie Satterfield and Mike Stroff, Realtree Outdoors and Randy Birdsong and Nate Hosie of the TV show “Headhunters.” The Bad Boy Buggies lineup also is sold by Bass Pro Shops.

So far those efforts seem to be paying off in brand recognition and sales, and while Bad Boy continues to see hunters as its core demographic, the brand would like to make a bigger impact in the powersports industry.

“We’ve spent a lot of time and effort over the years focusing on our core population, focusing on that hunting population. Our market research says that if you go compare in that space, and you talk to hunters, our brand is extremely well recognized,” Bondy said. “You get outside that space, and if you go into the traditional powersports space, and you talk to recreational users and utility users and users of traditional powersports vehicles, honestly we’ve got a little work to do around driving brand recognition.”

Push toward powersports

Bondy, who was president and CEO of KYMCO USA before joining Textron in 2011, sees powersports dealer partnerships as one of the best ways for Bad Boy to get more involved in the powersports industry. Bad Boy has been growing its dealership base of powersports, outdoor power equipment and E-Z-GO dealerships over the past three or four years, but it would like to expand that network further.

“We’re always looking to grow the dealer network and find good quality channel partners, so that’s something that we’ll never stop doing,” Bondy reported.

Bad Boy is looking to add dealers who are passionate about the outdoors and who will be brand champions for Bad Boy.

“We’re just not looking for people to bring product in and set it on the floor and hope it sells,” Bondy said. “You’ve got to have dealers that truly are passionate for doing what we do and are willing to understand — whether it’s a Bad Boy sale or an E-Z-GO sale — the value proposition of what they’re able to present to their customers.”

Beyond Bad Boy, the Textron Specialized Vehicles division also brings the E-Z-GO golf cars and personal transportation vehicles sales opportunity, so dealers who are interested in carrying both can diversify their lineups. Some E-Z-GO dealers have already begun selling Bad Boys, and Bondy expects some powersports dealers to be interested in adding E-Z-GO.

“We all know that powersports guys are squeezed on profits; that’s what we all hear over and over and over again. And they’re always looking for ways to gain in different lines and drive profitability into their stores, and we think the E-Z-GO proposition for a lot of powersports dealers is a perfect opportunity,” Bondy said.

Bringing in either or both brands could expand dealers’ customer bases into niches they may not already be reaching.

“When you’re talking about focusing on that hunting population, certainly some of the guys who buy traditional powersports [vehicles] are hunters, but when we talk Bad Boy, it’s that core hunting enthusiast that’s really looking for electric or hybrid,” Bondy said. “It also opens up a whole new profit channel for dealers on the E-Z-GO side because now they can really start to bring neighborhood vehicle-type customers, and there’s this whole different genre of customers that they can be attractive to. So we think it’s a really nice value proposition for powersports guys.”

2015 and beyond

Though Textron Inc. is a $12.1 billion multi-industry company, with Bad Boy Buggies and E-Z-GO among its many brands, the Textron Specialized Vehicles group has the company’s full support.

“It’s not just Bad Boy and E-Z-GO; we also have the resources and the leverage of Textron behind us,” Bondy said. “And they believe strongly in the business, and they’re investing in the business, both from products as well as R&D efforts and the things that we’re doing. The management at Textron has looked at this business and believes in us, and they’re willing to make investments to help us grow.”

He added, “They’ve been very pleased with the results that we’ve been able to deliver over the years, and they see our long-term vision and our long-term plan, and they’re absolutely making investments in us to help us grow over the years. I think that’s going to give us a great opportunity to kind of penetrate into that powersports channel and help us grow.”

With a mid-2015 model launch set and other new models coming soon, Bondy said that Bad Boy has its sights set on its future.

“We’ve got some products that we’re working through for 2015 and being really aggressive there,” he explained. “And we’ve got a great product plan as we look forward from ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, all the way up through probably ’21 or ’22 right now.”