To all, Any magazine that sees a way to make advertising bucks, perhaps satisfy some reader curiousity while at the same time not losing customers will put together a supplement for their readers & advertisers. The nitch market thing is good for those who are curious about things on the fringe of the typical HO/0 three rail market served by the various magazines.
If we use Classic Toy Trains as an example, they generally include one feature about AF while the overwhelming bulk will be Lionel--that's their usual fair. If they suddenly devoted an issue mostly to AF it would be great--but if they devoted a whole year to AF the magazine would likely die. If the S Gaugian devoted an issue with strong Erector content, that might work, but again if they ran a whole year of the stuff, subscribtions would fall. So I commend RMC for taking a chance on this wild bunch of old geezers. Remember if they do it again--hopefully they will have better content. The only problem right now is that was intended as a promo piece for the entire organization. This will be your 'tax dollars' at work. Model Railroader sends me a monthly newsletter talking about where they will put special emphasis thus trying to encourage advertisers to spend their dollars on that particular issue in order to make it 'special'. I believe the July issue will feature N scale, while August will feature the National Train Show part of the NMRA. Remember, the August issue will hit newstands in late June. Are we in that issue pushing our commintment to that show, or how about our participation in the convention itself? The real tough thing about advertising is the time it takes to really get things rolling, if the market is tough. Case in point, I was approached by a new one man company who introduced a device that mounted a spotlight on the top of a pickup/SUV. His personal experience of getting his boat out of the water, camping and trying to find tools at night lead to this product. He designed and produced the product for about $20. I shot a wonderful color ad for the guy, which he ran in some 'truck' magazine. Trouble was, getting the product made and running that first ad took most of his money. He went and hired a person to take mail and phone orders--after the ad ran he sold 14 units! What were his problems (this guy was a marketing pro with many years of experience)? Well, first off they're tons of 4 Wheel, Pickup trucks, SUV and car magazines, so the market was split just like our's is. Second he didn't have staying power, it takes years of running ads, promotion, marketing and some luck to get a brand recognized (again in a tight market). His third problem was he didn't sell to dealers, face it a good dealer will do much of the marketing for you. Fourth, you had to cut a hold in your roof--many guys aren't going to do that (just like many guys won't do scale wheels on SHS cars)! To finish up, the company did succeed somewhat by going after the industrial market, but it never really made it with the SUV crowd. If we were trying to start a new scale (call it X scale)--give me two million, two years and we'd be talking some serious turn-around! Bob Werre PhotoTraxx > (snip) > > well. No other magazine is doing something like that. You also don't see > > a 16-page insert of "This is N-scale" or "This is G-scale". They singled > > out S, and I think that is fantastic. > (snip) > > RMC has been doing these yearly inserts for several years now. I think > last year was on traction, before that there was one on laser-cut kits, > Civil War modeling, etc. They seem to be selecting niche areas of > railroad modeling, but I do not know their selection criteria. > > Take care > Bill > > -- > == Scale Model Railroad Products == > == Manufacturer - Retailer - Importer == > > Bill& Diane Wade > > B.T.S. > RR 1 Box 141A > Belington, WV 26250 > > Phone: 304-823-3729 > FAX: 304-823-2901 > http://www.btsrr.com > > We wish you Fair Winds and Following Seas. > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
