The Demo-Man Thread

[dayraven]

yeah, I guess you could liken it to buying a whole album versus buying the single on iTunes for $.99.

There are few bands I like enough to buy an album sight unseen, er, unheard. There are plenty of others who might only have a few songs that I like and don't really want to pay the full price for an album. I guess the difference though is that if I go to iTunes they're not going to "sell out" of the singles.

i think the whole thing could have been solved by a pre-order system instead of a sub. take pre-orders on a lineup planned for one full year ahead, do an open opt-in up to say four months ahead of the figs release, produce a percentage over the number of pre-orders to sell day-of and to cover customer service stock. other companies have done similar and it works. and for the love of jeebus, advertise the line!!! he-man was, at one time, the most successful action figure line ever... let's not pretend now like he's the red-headed step child. ADVERTISE! bring a new audience in for he-man, as well as encourage the return of past fans. maybe hold "show us your collection" competitions once a year w/ an award of a free fig, do fan votes for the following year's line-up of figs, actually engage the fanbase in open discussion that includes what they like or don't like about the business side of things, as well as what decos are most popular on what figs, and for cryin' out loud, if at any point the PR guy starts being blatantly disrespectful or dismissive of the fanbase, FIRE HIS ASS and replace him. he's a commodity, he can be replaced, what can't be replaced is a buying customer base. he leaves, the line goes on, the customers leave, the line dies and the stock holders rumble.

[Bigbot84]

Can't really advertise a line that Mattel wants to push as a subscription only line. Especially if next month everything returns to 5 minute sell outs since it's lower stock as Mattel loves to keep saying.

[DrRampageo]

yeah, I guess you could liken it to buying a whole album versus buying the single on iTunes for $.99.

There are few bands I like enough to buy an album sight unseen, er, unheard. There are plenty of others who might only have a few songs that I like and don't really want to pay the full price for an album. I guess the difference though is that if I go to iTunes they're not going to "sell out" of the singles.

i think the whole thing could have been solved by a pre-order system instead of a sub. take pre-orders on a lineup planned for one full year ahead, do an open opt-in up to say four months ahead of the figs release, produce a percentage over the number of pre-orders to sell day-of and to cover customer service stock. other companies have done similar and it works. and for the love of jeebus, advertise the line!!! he-man was, at one time, the most successful action figure line ever... let's not pretend now like he's the red-headed step child. ADVERTISE! bring a new audience in for he-man, as well as encourage the return of past fans. maybe hold "show us your collection" competitions once a year w/ an award of a free fig, do fan votes for the following year's line-up of figs, actually engage the fanbase in open discussion that includes what they like or don't like about the business side of things, as well as what decos are most popular on what figs, and for cryin' out loud, if at any point the PR guy starts being blatantly disrespectful or dismissive of the fanbase, FIRE HIS ASS and replace him. he's a commodity, he can be replaced, what can't be replaced is a buying customer base. he leaves, the line goes on, the customers leave, the line dies and the stock holders rumble.

why would they advertise? DR dont you know we are lucky to even have figures at all? Advertising would take away from the tolling budget and we'd be left with MOTUC stactions and 100000000 variants of Spector and LT Spector!

[dayraven]

Can't really advertise a line that Mattel wants to push as a subscription only line. Especially if next month everything returns to 5 minute sell outs since it's lower stock as Mattel loves to keep saying.

well, that is the great debacle yes, in order to advertise, they'd have to have open enrollment for the sub... you know, like every other subscription service ever offered since the dawn of retail.

[Ebonhorn]

It's obvious they don't know how to run this line, seemlessly. When 3A has hiccups it makes sense for a small company. For a big company to take this long and still not have figure out how to make it work is just sad....

[DrRampageo]

It's obvious they don't know how to run this line, seemlessly. When 3A has hiccups it makes sense for a small company. For a big company to take this long and still not have figure out how to make it work is just sad....