I'll tell you what I want...

[Harry P.]

There has been some good commentary here lately from a couple of hobby "insiders" (Tim and Art, to be specific), as well as some pretty good insight from "civilians" like Ken and Mark and others regarding which kits the manufacturers produce and why they pick those certain subjects.

Obviously if a kit sells well, we may see re-issues or revised versions ('32 Ford, anyone?). And obviously the kit makers do their homework as best they can regarding market research. But it seems to me that they get their information, such as it is, from a lot of scattered sources. Joe Smith writes in and tells them he'd like to see a new XXXXX, Joe Blow writes in or posts on a modeling forum that he'd love to see a new XXXX, etc. All this scattershot information doesn't seem to carry too much weight.

Every kit manufacturer has a website. And I would guess that most of us model builders spend time online. Maybe the manufacturers should collect data directly from their customers via an ongoing online "suggestion box" on their own websites.

That way, they could easily collect data in a central location, and use these "suggestion boxes" to really take the pulse of their customers, instead of relying on incidental, secondhand information or "shots in the dark" and "educated guesses." Print up a little 3x5 card telling the customer to go to www.xxxxx.com and let them know their wants and desires, add the card inside each and every model kit shipped, and collect the results. The cost to acquire this info would be next to nothing, and they could get immediate buyer feedback in one centralized location (their website) instead of monitoring the internet chat rooms and model forums and trying to gather information and opinions scattered about dozens, maybe hundreds of sites.

Hey model kit manufacturers... use the internet to your advantage. Open up an online suggestion box, make it prominent on your site, and hear directly from your customer base.

[RodneyBad]

So tell me what you want, what you really really want

Ya Know Harry, that is a really great Idea.

I wonder why they haven't thought about that yet?

Too simple?

[george 53]

Guy's we had a saying at Poletown about G.M.'s attitude about suggestions. If it's a good one,they WON'T use it!(Too Simple) BUT they'd invest THOUSANDS of dollars into an UNPROVEN meritless idea. (How do we know it WON'T work,unless we try it!) Harry,Your suggestion is the same thing,it's SO simple,an makes SO much sense, you won't even get them to look at it! They's RATHER waste development/research money on somethin else that REALLY won't fly than to take the buyers word on what THEY'D like,an NOT some budget pinching shirt that probly DOESN'T even BUILD models!

Heck I got more stuff than I'll EVER build, I don't really NEED anymore kits,BUT I like the fact that some kits,the 66 Impala bein one,are comin out with TODAYS technology, sure beats payin 200 bucks for a 43 year old kit,IF you can find an UNBUILT one!(that's what I paid,caz I REALLY wanted it) Now that Revell's poppin a NEW MODERN one,you can bet yer bootie I'm gonna get a MESS of 'em! But WHO asked for it? NOT ME, so, was it just because they had the tooling already done(for the most part) for the 65, and they just wanted to get their money's worth out of the tooling,or did they survey the public to see if they wanted a 66?

[charlie8575]

This is a good idea. I agree that it's one that comes under the "so simple and effective they'll never do it" classification, but I think it's an excellent suggestion and ought to be followed. The added cost is negligible, and it provides the most direct and effective market research- the actual consumer.

Charlie Larkin

[Harry P.]

There are ways to limit responses. You can put a character limit in place, for instance. If the character limit was, say, 25 characters, they could keep all responses to a sane limit. You could also set it up as a series of drop-down menus... "What model kit would you most like to see from us? Select year, select make, select model" or something like that. That way there's no actual "message" from the customer at all, just a selected year/make/model, and the data could be very easily tabulated.

Another benefit of a suggestion box is that the manufacturers collect email addresses, and can add each email address to their datadase... and send out email newsletters to all who respond.

I know that most sites already have a "contact us" link, but I think if they added a specific "Suggestion Box" or "Tell Us What You'd Like to See" or "Which model kits Do You Want to See" tab or something specific like that, they might get a stronger response instead of a generic "contact us" link... because a "contact us" link has all sorts of messages in it... rants, raves, questions, general bloviating, etc. A dedicated "Suggestion Box" would be limited only to suggestions from customers for new products.

[Harry P.]

BTW... I got the idea from Posh Spice...

:lol:

[Joe Handley]

Here's an idea that may work too Over on RC Crawler Scott Hughes from Pro-Line Racing, a RC Car body and tire manufacturer announced that they got approval from Chrysler to produce a new Jeep body and asked the users and members at RCCRawler.com to give them some input on what kind of Jeep we wanted to see in lexan. The vast majority, much like myself would love to see a 1984-2001 XJ CHerokee while a decent CJ followed in a distant second.

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199708

[Eshaver]

Alright since I can only have TWO choices ------------ Oldsmobiles and Studebakers . Ed Shaver

[dave riggs]

Why not just add a 3X5 postcard to the kits themselves already addressed to Revell for suggestions. It would limit responses to those who actually buy or build the kits.

It would also keep someone from stuffing the ballot boxes.

[James Flowers]

Great idea Harry.

[Harry P.]

Why not just add a 3X5 postcard to the kits themselves already addressed to Revell for suggestions. It would limit responses to those who actually buy or build the kits.

It would also keep someone from stuffing the ballot boxes.

That's another way to do it. But it's also very easy to limit an online vote to "one per email address"... it's all in how you set up the "back end," the part behind the curtain that the viewer doesn't see.

The point is, the manufacturers could be collecting "what we want" data directly from their customers, either via an online suggestion box on their website or via a postcard included in every kit.

The question is, why aren't they doing it?

[Joe Handley]

That was one of the nice parts of that Pro-Line questionair, once you went to their website and contributed, the only was to contribute again was use anohter computer!

[Aaronw]

Ok, Harry I'll poke a hole in your bubble.

Supposedly (I can't verify, but people who claim to be in the know say it) Revell / Monogram used a Fine Scale Modeler poll for choosing a subject several years ago. The subject that won was a 1/48 PBY Catalina. It is claimed that this was Revell's worst selling kit of all time. However I noticed Revell has recently re-issued this kit, so I wonder if it is really true that it was such a poor seller. I mean if it was so bad, why would they go back for a second helping of slow sales?

Personally I like your idea. I know many claim the model companies do market research, but if they are then why has no modeler I know ever been asked what they would like to see?

I'm not sure that limiting the suggestions would really be neccessary. With computers and OCR emails or write in ballots on a site cold easily be sorted. Then it would just be a matter of counting how many times a specific subject had been suggested. Obviously they wouldn't want to blindly follow such a list but it would at least be a place to start. They could then sort through, pick out some of the more promising ideas, say a top 10, then make a "rank these possibilities".

[Harry P.]

Ok, Harry I'll poke a hole in your bubble.

Supposedly (I can't verify, but people who claim to be in the know say it) Revell / Monogram used a Fine Scale Modeler poll for choosing a subject several years ago. The subject that won was a 1/48 PBY Catalina. It is claimed that this was Revell's worst selling kit of all time. However I noticed Revell has recently re-issued this kit, so I wonder if it is really true that it was such a poor seller. I mean if it was so bad, why would they go back for a second helping of slow sales?

Personally I like your idea. I know many claim the model companies do market research, but if they are then why has no modeler I know ever been asked what they would like to see?

I'm not sure that limiting the suggestions would really be neccessary. With computers and OCR emails or write in ballots on a site cold easily be sorted. Then it would just be a matter of counting how many times a specific subject had been suggested. Obviously they wouldn't want to blindly follow such a list but it would at least be a place to start. They could then sort through, pick out some of the more promising ideas, say a top 10, then make a "rank these possibilities".

Exactly. It could be another tool to collect customer input. I'm not saying how they should react to the information, I'm just saying it seems like a pretty good way to directly gather customer feedback. If they actively monitor online forums for customer suggestions, wouldn't it make more sense, and be easier to do, if they solicited consumer wants on their own websites?

[Jon Cole]

Remember 'Yoda" from "Spaceballs"? "Merchandising!"

When you have a lemon, make lemonaid! Stuck with a 1/48 PBY Catalina that didn't sell too well? If they can somehow ingest the licence cost, Jimmy Buffet owns a PBY Catalina IIRC. Do a decal set for a Carribean Island Hopper. The box art would be key.

I know, it's not a car, but it might work. Oh, and if a model kit doesn't sell the first time, someone asked "Why sell it again"? Because... they already paid for the tooling. The tool isn't doing them any good if it's never being used. The more plastic they can inject the mold, the more kits it churns out, the more $$$ goes toward paying for that tooling.

I'm not an economist, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[Harold]

BTW... I got the idea from Posh Spice...

:lol:

Yeah, well she was replaced by an octogenarian who goes by the name 'Old Spice'.