RE: [Epic] GW Marketing... What they should do to drum up busine ss

From: Miller, Chris <CMiller_at_...>
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 08:41:49 -0600

> >Now, some of the rumors I've heard on the warhammer newsgroup are
> near
> >unbelievable, but if it _is_ true that Arnold Swarzenegger and Robin
> >Williams play 40K, why doesn't GW get them to do a commercial or
> >something? That's bound to get people (in America, at least) a
> little
> >more tolerant of the "hobby", as well as drive sales up.
>
> one reason...
>
> cost
>
> have you ever noticed that GW almost *never* advertise outside of WD?
> and
> if they do it is usually in conjunction with some non-wargaming
> product. ie
> an ad in a computer game mag along with a GW computer game...
>
> Imagine how expensive it would be to get even one of these guys on an
> ad...
>
> And even then they would end up being labelled as 'weird' for having
> done
> the ad...
>
>
---------> One reason is definitely cost. Another is called "target
market" - they know who buys their games. They are making quite a bit of
money without spending much on marketing, so they are naturally going to
limit changes they make in their strategy. I've seen a few ads in
Dragon, and a few in computer mags, but I suspect the computer game ads
are paid for primarily by the computer game co's. Their big marketing
tool is game shops and other players, and this seems to work real well
for them. WD is another tool, and it also serves as a catalog , yet
people pay for it, at least covering the cost. They pay for the
occasional ad in another magazine, and that's it on this side of the
pond. I don't think celebrity endorsements ae going to do much for them
really - how much would you spend just because Arnold says it's cool? I
think trying to get into the Wal-Marts of the world is probably their
next move, and a good one. I remember when TSR was in Toys R Us and
Target and the closeout sales were great...

Chris Miller
Received on Tue Mar 24 1998 - 14:41:49 UTC