Market Research is a SCARY, SCARY thing.

Sometimes it tempts you to try new things.  It always causes you to ask questions.  For instance, the 2 story farm house that was our previous freebie.  You downloaded it 478 times.  We have never SOLD that many of a single kit 14 years.  Makes me wonder.  If I were to SELL that kit, exactly as it is, no photos, no instructions, for $3.00, would I loose half of that 478?  Would I loose them all?  At $3.00, it would still be a heck of a deal.  (I think)  And the $1,434.00 would really help business.  It is such fun to be a business owner.

Comments

[Roger Brookes]

I think that would be very reasonable, although may half number I download as tend to just download them first then see if I actually want it. In the past have usually left a small donation any way.

[Donald Albury]

FWIW, I have about 30 of your building models that I've bought, including a couple of collections and the rest bought individually (that doesn't include the critters and cars collection or the textures collections).I also have a few of the free models. I've built about half of them. I like seeing the photos of the built models, and, in fact spend a lot of time looking at them before deciding what to buy. I like solving puzzles, and have done a bit of kitbashing with your kits and textures, but I really want to see before buying what you or someone else has built the kit to look like. On the other hand, I haven't actually bought anything in a while, so you can discount my opinion.

Donald

[Jerry]

I would offer "Freebees" for 1 week without any notice. it would encourage more visits to the site. I download many of the free ones even tho i have no plans for them in the foreseeable future. I probably wouldn't buy them even at a reduced price because I suspect they will be available later at an affordable price. I really believe your prices are more than reasonable & we who partake should try to encourage others to join our "addiction". Where else can you get a few hours of enjoyment for a few dollars & have something positive to show for it at the end.
I just purchased the block garage & plan to do an email step by step demo for some of my friends that think they wouldn't be able to master it. jerry

[Kevin WS]

Are you able to get the demographics for the downloads?

I ask as this may also be of interest. People not in US may find the dollar expensive - I know I do, with the different cost of living and the exchange rate. For example the mill (which I will get one day hopefully) is the equivalent of 9 McDonald's cheeseburgers where I live, or one and half reams of paper. Being retired that's a problem. Have

Price and volume sold is the relationship. I have a friend with two clothing stores. One upmarket area. One down market. Same shirts sell for 1/6 in the down market store, with a minimal markup. Yet he makes more profit there because of the volumes he puts through.

This is just an illustration - it may not work in the paper model market.

You could test it though. Offer a model one off at a reduced rate - perhaps a new one. Have a good build up to it so people know it is coming and will be a one off, for only say ten days.

Alternatively when you do the upgrade for the farmhouse, offer the upgraded components only (not the whole kit) for a dollar, and see how many takers there are. The point being only previous Downloaders would be in a position to buy.

Both the are above are only suggestions by way of a market test!

[Dave]

Hi Kevin. We do know the demographics and over 2/3's of our sales, historically, is domestic. We do seem to be seeing an increase in overseas sales. If this continues, we may have to re-think things. What I don't understand is why more people don't try paper modeling. They seem to have no problem dropping hundreds of dollars on other types of kits and yes they get castings and whatnot, but for a measly $6.00, we have over a dozen kits to try and another half dozen to try for free.

[Kevin]

Thanks Thom. That's great you have the demographics.

I agree in terms of not understanding why more people do not try paper modeling. Castings can be bought separately if needs be.

There is sometimes I think a lack of understanding just how good paper models can be. And there is nothing stopping people painting and weathering either if they want to.

I make a variety of paper models (birds, mills, armoured trains etc) - and people time and time again express amazement that they are made of paper!

A friend has a huge railway model store. He imported some card kits from the US - very fancy boxed kits with castings, etc etc. They did'nt sell.

They then built over a couple of years a state of the art layout designed to showcase all the different media and equipment available. It was European, vaguely German, so I scratch built several houses for a small village. These were paper models. The interesting thing was that they scoffed at the outset, were astonished at the outcome but that really was that. Same reaction from customers, and when I was around and offered them free prints they backed off in a panic - to then go and buy brass and wooden and plastic kits......which took more skill to finish off properly and also probably would never look as good.

Go figure!