It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Discussion of the re-branding of CTC as Cycling UK.
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Velocio
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by Velocio »

...what do The Queen (CTC's Patron) ...and Jon Snow (CTC's President) ...think of this appalling rebrand of their Club...?
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by mjr »

Velocio wrote:...what do The Queen (CTC's Patron) ...and Jon Snow (CTC's President) ...think of this appalling rebrand of their Club...?

Jon Snow's quoted elsewhere on these forums as in favour. I doubt the Queen will be publishing a statement any time soon.
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by gaz »

Psamathe wrote:As many here seem not to have accepted the case for the rebrand, it would seem a good idea for the organisers to engage and provide counter arguments to the concerns being raised. ...

There are over 37,000 forum members. Hardly any have expressed an opinion on the rebrand. I agree that "many" of those "hardly any" have not accepted the case for the rebrand as put forward by Council and that Council is not seeking to engage with those "many" via the forum boards.

Speculatively that's because Council did their research, consultation and engagement in the two and a half years before approving the re-brand and made the arguments for their case knowing that not every member, former member or prospective future member would accept their arguments.

IMO from the opinions expressed on these boards some former members believe CTC(Cyclists' Touring Club) is a misleading title as they feel it is not a Club and has little to do with Touring, for some members any rebrand that removed CTC from the trading name would not be acceptable.

Whatever brand was chosen there would be some discontent, no brand choice was ever going to please everyone.
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by SA_SA_SA »

gaz wrote:.... no brand choice was ever going to please everyone.

why not making the T in CTC due double duty as Touring/Transport?

as in CJ's Cycle Transport Campaign / Cycle Touring Club as appropriate?

( I separately thought of the double T meaning)
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by Bicycler »

gaz wrote:IMO from the opinions expressed on these boards some former members believe CTC(Cyclists' Touring Club) is a misleading title as they feel it is not a Club and has little to do with Touring, for some members any rebrand that removed CTC from the trading name would not be acceptable.

The first point has to be that Cyclists' Touring Club has not been the name of the brand for years and the use of the full name outside of dedicated touring activities has been strongly discouraged for quite a while. I don't see why "CTC - The National Cycling Charity" was not inclusive and I'm dubious as to why the details of the acronym are so important. People visit ATMs, they take MOT tests and always used to look for CORGI registered tradesmen. Most of us have a healthy dislike for QUANGOs. The meaning of the initials are not of any particular interest to the masses. When people did ask, how difficult was it to just say that it's a historic name just like the AA or RAC and the CTC has always been the equivalent organisation representing cyclists? Will it be any quicker to explain to the general public how Cycling UK and the synonymous British Cycling differ?

Speculatively that's because Council did their research, consultation and engagement in the two and a half years before approving the re-brand and made the arguments for their case knowing that not every member, former member or prospective future member would accept their arguments.

Whatever brand was chosen there would be some discontent, no brand choice was ever going to please everyone

They could please me by being more transparent in terms of releasing details of the consultation (who was asked, what questions they were asked and what the responses were) and also how (having accepted the need for change) the name We are Cycling UK was chosen. If the facts justify the decision council made there should be every reason to release them. I'd also like to know why, if Cyclists' Touring Club was deemed to be an inappropriate name, they sought only to remove it from branding but retain it as the official name.
Last edited by Bicycler on 7 Apr 2016, 1:57pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by geocycle »

gaz wrote:Speculatively that's because Council did their research, consultation and engagement in the two and a half years before approving the re-brand and made the arguments for their case knowing that not every member, former member or prospective future member would accept their arguments.



That's the nub Gaz. Many CTC members on here do not feel engaged with the process. While this is only a forum and in no way a representative body it did offer an exceptional opportunity to consult with the opinion of cyclists, some of whom are current members some not. More importantly many on here have experience of running large organisations, much bigger than the CTC, who would have been a serious resource had some process been run to tap into the membership's expertise.

I agree that not everyone would have been happy and some would not have accepted any change at all.Nevertheless, Cycling UK and the logo is poor in my opinion. It is only my opinion and the task of market researchers is to find a brand that satisfies the market they are trying to reach. A quick read of comments on here suggests either they haven't, or the membership of this forum does not reflect the core market of CUK.
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by leftpoole »

Hello
Non of this matters anymore because even this Forum has changed sides (err) I mean name!
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Velocio
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by Velocio »

...over the years I have been sent various Questionnaires and Surveys ...from the CTC ...usually as a separate sheet within the Cycle magazine ...but have never been asked if I would like the name of our Club changed to Cycling UK ...if I approve of the name ...or sought from me my views of a change of name ...WHY NOT?
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by Philip Benstead »

Psamathe wrote:
reohn2 wrote:...
I'd say less about it if the 'charity' was doing any good for cycling.
....

They fought (and won) the requirement to box your bikes when crossing the Channel via tunnel. Unfortunately, a short time later the operator re-instated the requirement (in part) but by then the CTC was completely pre-occupied with its re-brand so didn't notice and didn't bother to act (which I see as putting re-branding as of greater importance than real issues facing cyclists ... or at least "touring cyclists"). (As reported by people facing the requirement)

Ian


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Go to the campaigns section where is question has been answered by Roger Geffen
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by Vorpal »

“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
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Philip Benstead
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by Philip Benstead »

Vorpal wrote:I think Philip means this http://www.cyclinguk.org/campaign/zerostars


No i did not , i did not know that existed

I meant viewtopic.php?f=6&t=105017
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Psamathe
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by Psamathe »

Vorpal wrote:I think Philip means this http://www.cyclinguk.org/campaign/zerostars

Why can't the CTC put dates on their web pages !!

We have no idea is the campaign was from 1994 or any time since. And if they get round to a 2nd campaign ('cos "It was CTC wot won it! Eurostar in U-turn" is now not 100%), we might have people using the now finished campaign ...

Dates are useful.

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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by gaz »

Psamathe wrote:Why can't the CTC put dates on their web pages !!

I don't know but I can tell you how to find them.

Put the title of the article (or just a key word) into the search engine, click and voila; publication date*.

In the case of "Zero Stars for Eurostar" 23/11/2015.


*In some cases it will be a last amended date rather than the original publication date.
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by Velocio »

...a thread that has been viewed 205058 times (as at lunchtime 08APR16) ...must surely show that the membership are acutely concerned about the change to their Club they had no say in ...!
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Re: It's all in the name - Cyclists' TOURING club

Post by PH »

Velocio wrote:...a thread that has been viewed 205058 times (as at lunchtime 08APR16) ...must surely show that the membership are acutely concerned about the change to their Club they had no say in ...!

Phillip & Gaz probably account for half of them...
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