Intermountain is Cancelling Reading F7's and more

[RDG_Rich]

'REAL marketing research is expensive' would be the normal rebuttal to using it, making it out of the reach of smaller manufacturers. Yet, if designed well and using some creativity to garner input, it's not all that expensive in the internet age. With the number of forums, MRR clubs, historical societies, etc. with online presence, it's not too difficult to cast as narrow, in the case of a road specific product, or as broad, in the case of a popular loco, a band of input as one needs. And let's not forget consumer access at shows, broad hobby shows, MRR-specific shows, swap meets, road-specific meets, etc. There's also the NMRA membership and LHS partnership that could be developed. Inexpensive online survey services such as Survey Monkey and in-person feedback are low cost. I know. I have performed such query development and push marketing solicitation. Not for MRR manufacturers, but for nonprofits, which are very cost-conscious, as in $0 project budget cost-conscious. Is this approach exact science like the big marketing firms produce? No, but a better alternative to wishful thinking product choice.

I had never really thought about this, but it really is a "well duh!" moment. How freakin easy would it be for any of the manufacturers to hire a guy to write some code and have a survey page? It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to draw up some simple questions, and then just wait for people to vote. Or email out a survey... We have the technology...we can rebuild him. 

[inkaneer]

'REAL marketing research is expensive' would be the normal rebuttal to using it, making it out of the reach of smaller manufacturers. Yet, if designed well and using some creativity to garner input, it's not all that expensive in the internet age. With the number of forums, MRR clubs, historical societies, etc. with online presence, it's not too difficult to cast as narrow, in the case of a road specific product, or as broad, in the case of a popular loco, a band of input as one needs. And let's not forget consumer access at shows, broad hobby shows, MRR-specific shows, swap meets, road-specific meets, etc. There's also the NMRA membership and LHS partnership that could be developed. Inexpensive online survey services such as Survey Monkey and in-person feedback are low cost. I know. I have performed such query development and push marketing solicitation. Not for MRR manufacturers, but for nonprofits, which are very cost-conscious, as in $0 project budget cost-conscious. Is this approach exact science like the big marketing firms produce? No, but a better alternative to wishful thinking product choice.

I had never really thought about this, but it really is a "well duh!" moment. How freakin easy would it be for any of the manufacturers to hire a guy to write some code and have a survey page? It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to draw up some simple questions, and then just wait for people to vote. Or email out a survey... We have the technology...we can rebuild him. 

This basically is what the preorder system attempts to do.  But the preorder system does have some significant drawbacks as evidenced by the PCM debacle and the IRC mass cancellations which was the impetus for this thread.  Manufacturers might want to consider another method of market research.

[TiVoPrince]

'Scuse me
While I stuff the ballot box for personal favourites.  SW1500, TE70-4S, DH643, SDP45, SD45X and MK5000 here I come...

[CBQ Fan]

I would suggest that those online like us are still a very small percentage of the overall picture.  I think the marketing results from us would be very narrow.  The major manufactures have been around for quite awhile, so they must be finding some product for everyone to buy.

[Mark5]

This basically is what the preorder system attempts to do.  But the preorder system does have some significant drawbacks as evidenced by the PCM debacle ...

Everyone seems to assume that PCM (and others) are on the level with this "not enough pre-orders" crap. Personally, in the case of PCM I am convinced that the pre-order excuse was 100% bullshit.

Cheers,

Mark

[wcfn100]

Everyone seems to assume that PCM (and others) are on the level with this "not enough pre-orders" crap. Personally, in the case of PCM I am convinced that the pre-order excuse was 100% bullshit.

Cheers,

Mark

But they even had a pre-order meter that clearly showed they were short.  How can you deny the facts?


 


Jason

[Mark5]

Everyone seems to assume that PCM (and others) are on the level with this "not enough pre-orders" crap. Personally, in the case of PCM I am convinced that the pre-order excuse was 100% bullshit.

Cheers,

Mark

But they even had a pre-order meter that clearly showed they were short.  How can you deny the facts?


 


Jason

lol, "facts"

 

Mark

[bbussey]

The last sentence I will agree with, perfect business sense. The rest I respectfully disagree with, in fact, take as insult, as flagrant excuse for poor marketing. Contrary to popular belief, marketing includes product development. Make a product the consumer wants - body style, paint schemes, detail level, etc. - and it serves to sell itself...

Not trying to stir the pot here ... but to play Devil's Advocate a little - if manufacturers are not tooling products the consumers want, then why are those manufacturers getting flak for canceling deco schemes on the aforementioned unwanted products?

Why is it not conceivable that the model in general had sufficient demand to produce it, but certain paintschemes on the model do not?  It's not as if this is the first release of the FP7 or the Centralia passenger cars.  Why not throw an NdeM sleeper announcement out there and see if there is a demand for it?  Why not applaud InterMountain for releasing Long Island on the same model, as far as I know the first ever N scale sleeper available (as the NdeM would have been) for that road?

I don't understand the outrage.  It's not as if this is a new marketing concept suddenly introduced to the hobby.  There is absolutely no chance a Long Island sleeper gets produced today if a manufacturer had to take a blind gamble on it, regardless of whatever costly marketing research they did up front.  I'd rather have the current environment where there is more diversity in what's offered - rather than the way it was 40 years ago when there were only four or five schemes released on a model for years, many of which were not prototypical.

[bbussey]

I would suggest that those online like us are still a very small percentage of the overall picture.  I think the marketing results from us would be very narrow.  The major manufactures have been around for quite awhile, so they must be finding some product for everyone to buy.

Yep, something akin to 10% if I remember correctly.  Not enough (yet) to base entire marketing programs on.

[skytop35]

  A few roads on the canceled list do seem strange,Milwaukee Road UP scheme FP-7's they are a fairly popular road                                                

Intermountain already did these once as I have a AB set. So maybe cancelling a second run isn't too surprising.

[bbussey]

I'm noting also that the outrage appears to be directed at paintschemes being canceled, not whether or not a specific model should have been tooled.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I just perused the InterMountain release schedule.  The F-unit models of various configurations have sold well for the company, so it's not the models themselves that are at issue, just the paintschemes that didn't warrant production.  The Centrailia passenger cars are as popular as ever, with multiple releases (include TWELVE Pennsy roomettes last month) and announcements monthly.  The freight cars that were canceled have all had multi-repeat releases (the white MDT reefer was one of the original R-40-23 releases and has been restocked a number of times), so it's conceivable that at some point the demand would wane.  Same situation applies to the Red Caboose cars, with model longevity and multiple re-releases of the same schemes.  I don't see an issue with the cancellations, just the unusual coincidence that a number of them occurred within the same reservation period.

[Mark5]

Actually, I'm just annoyed at the mass nature of the cancellation. None of the stuff was on my list, not that my list is relevant.

I was tempted on the N&W F units, but I already went through a holy grail effort a few years back to get a couple twin headlight Kato undec F7s, so I passed on the IM versions.

[MichaelWinicki]

It's possible someone like Pete from BLW could end up doing exclusive IM runs with some of these cancelled products.

[Chulvis]

It's possible someone like Pete from BLW could end up doing exclusive IM runs with some of these cancelled products.

Possibly some of the rolling stock but locomotives? I think not. The cost of doing that would be tens of thousands of dollars. Not gonna happen.

[RDG_Rich]

Am I missing something? The FPs and F7s are cancelled in Reading, but they announced FTs? MT did em.... (not that I'm complaining )