Athearn asking for suggestions on Facebook

[wcfn100]

Athearn is polling a group who's largest demographic is 18-24 year old females in order to determine model railroad manufacturing decisions.

How can anyone take this seriously?

Jason

[Scottl]

That is not material.  Even if the number of "real" model railroaders on Facebook is relatively small, it is substantially larger than any forum.  Indeed, it appears that many here are on Facebook and following the companies.  The 700+ responses is a great cross section, and coupled with the info Facebook can provide with each post, it is a marketing goldmine. 

I'm no fan of Facebook, but marketing has changed a lot because of it and others like Google.  I have software that my social science colleagues use for text analysis that is very effective at drawing out patterns and perspectives.  These people can separate wheat from chaff easily and use it to make better business decisions.

[Hornwrecker]

Get off my static grass lawn!

[Denver Road Doug]

Athearn is polling a group who's largest demographic is 18-24 year old females in order to determine model railroad manufacturing decisions.

True, if we're in 2007 still.

[Sokramiketes]

Athearn is polling a group who's largest demographic is 18-24 year old females in order to determine model railroad manufacturing decisions.

How can anyone take this seriously?

Jason

While that might be Facebook's largest demographic, I doubt many 21 year old females have "liked" the Athearn page and are being polled. 

We use Facebook to notify interested parties when a new item is posted at Model:160.  Here's our spread of demographics, which includes about 4,200 people that "Like" Model:160 and choose to receive our posts in their feed.  I think the spead is pretty much what you'd expect the crossection of ages to look like for any Model Railroad related group.  And there's a lot more oldtimers on Facebook than one might expect.



Facebook is by far the largest driver of traffic to the site.  And it's an easy way for people to subscribe to our content. 

[Scottl]

Exactly, that is a lot of  :ashat:s.  You don't have to like Facebook, but to ignore it or marginalize it in marketing now is risky. 

[DKS]

You don't have to like Facebook, but to ignore it or marginalize it in marketing now is risky.

The risk being...?

[conrail98]

The risk being...?

That you aren't a mainstream business. If you don't have a presence on FB now is akin to your online orders being fill out this form and we'll call you about payment or worse yet, mailto form submissions,

Phil

[Scottl]

Marketing is about reaching a customer.  The risk is not reaching your customers. 

[DKS]

Marketing is about reaching a customer.  The risk is not reaching your customers.

Which makes me very thankful I don't have that need.

[C855B]

Marketing is about reaching a customer.  The risk is not reaching your customers.

Exactly what I'm trying to say. FB doesn't reach the core MRR demo, or reaches it poorly. Skibbe's bar graph is a little bit too coarse to reinforce my point, but reading through it, I will repeat that FB is loaded with <40 (looks like <50 according to his graph), and then drops sharply >50. Not zero, evidently, but still falls quite a bit. It's not a bell curve, as it should be.

So I contend - again - that the people with the most discretionary money to throw at the hobby (empty-nester Baby Boomers and older) are severely undersampled on FB, and that manufacturers relying on the FB response as a product planning metric will find themselves with unsold inventory.

[ljudice]

It's kind of amazing that Athearn is being pilloried for using what is widely considered a smart approach to market research and reaching a broad - and probably somewhat younger skewed population - which is exactly what everyone seems to agree is the way to save this hobby.

My 14 year old son is into bottle collecting - I take him to bottle shows - and he was even a vendor at a recent show.  It is amazing to see the other bottle guys giving him books,  bottles, etc... and they keep telling me how important it is to them to get younger folks interested in the hobby.

At a train show the usual scene is an old fart screaming at the kids to get their fingers away or just being dismissive.

As for FB, it's awful, no doubt about it - and I only use it because I manage a dozen or so pages for various companies, but in most cases it has been a very successful tool.

- Lou

[Scottl]

I don't think avoiding FB works for mass production business models.  They have made a business out of media advertising and product placement as much as they produce products.  Media is changing, Facebook is just one venue now for that effort.  There will be something new soon enough.

Like I said, I am no fan of Facebook, but I think sticking our heads in the sand when it comes to Athearn's efforts there is pointless.  If they bother to read this thread, it will probably just confirm their decision not to engage on forums, which is a pity.

[DKS]

...but in most cases it has been a very successful tool.

By what criteria is success being measured? (I'm not being facetious or argumentative; I'm genuinely interested.)

[Dave Schneider]

Get off my static grass lawn!

Now that is funny!  I am 47 and am getting to be more of a grouch. I need to watch that.


Mike, your graph of your Facebook followers bears an interesting relationship between age and average waist size. I can't wait to be 55 so I start getting skinnier!

Sorry if my contribution to the Facebook debate got things too far off into the weeds. I was mostly being sarcastic, and more than a bit amused by the responses of the Facebook community. I am glad I don't need to try to make sense of the responses.

However, I did work on my railroad last night between my first post, and this one. I should try to make this a rule of thumb.

Carry on, but be nice.

Best wishes, Dave