Grass roots marketing.

I want to thank everyone who gets excited about paper kits and talks it up and shows the results to friends and colleagues.

Every time some one of you display your work, it helps spread the word.  To a little company like ours, (that can rarely afford advertising), that means a lot.

Sales are down for most everyone but it does hit us hard because the product is rather low cost which translates into low profit.  I could blame it on the economy.  That’s surely a part of it, but I sense that it’s also that we need to reach a deeper pool of people.  We are going to make an effort to reach more folks by offering more seminars and demonstrations in the coming year.

I’m also hoping to get our products into other manufacturers kits.  I just did an interior for RS Laser and others are looking to use our roofing.

This issue only raises it’s head because my other work in the graphic arts and animation, design world is also depressed.  This last year has been devastating for the art crowd.  Most of my contemporaries have had little or no work.  Clever Models has saved my bacon from time to time to the detriment of the company, IE lack of advertising and travel funds.

So it’s dig in and get people to talk about Clever Models and how much you enjoy them.  I know this is preaching to the choir, the group that reads this blog consistently is already doing that and I thank you.

Trainfest

Dave and I went to Trainfest this weekend.  It would have been nice to go to CSS again but that’s a thousand miles away.  I like going to train shows, so it’s great to have such a good show only 90 miles away.  Trainfest is one of the great shows.  As usual we touched base with our good friends John and Chris  from the Gypsy Trolley Line.  That layout just keeps getting better and bigger.  John had a few of the new buildings off to the side, that will be on next years addition.  He’s become a very accomplished designer on his own.  I got to hang out and answer questions for folks and also gave John a chance to get away and see the show.  We were pretty much tourists ourselves, buying the few detail parts I need for my own layout, that I can’t make from paper.

If you ever get a chance to see Trainfest, I recommend it.

To cut or not to cut

Just a quick question. what would a printed cut out kit be worth to you?

Here’s what I’m thinking.  What if there were an option, where you could buy a kit and choose to get a printed and cut kit.  There would be an additional service fee, say $30.  Is this a feature that you would want.

I’m just speculating, but it might be something we could offer, at least on a limited basis.

Thom

Sharing pix

Of course we always want to show pictures from folks building our models. Heres a couple of samples from Steve Wilbur. He’s taken our american steel pipe and done a very clean and effective build. He’s a detail minded craftsman and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with our materials.