After reading the Bobber Cabeese Lobby Group thread, I was wondering, has a thread on this forum ever influenced a manufacturing company before? And if it has, why haven’t we tried more often?
It may be somewhat of a stupid question, but I’m just curious. Good thing I’m not a cat.[:p]
I doubt if any manufacturer would consider the members of these forums to be enough of a representative sample of modelers to pay any attention to what we might request.
What percentage of modelers frequent this forum? How in the world would you find out?
A couple of major manufacturers who will remain nameless use the historical societies for prototype details. They have access to people who can tell you the size and length of bolts in a cylinder head if you were interested. Also note that in the past Athearn has had some pretty high power modelers detail the equipment they have used in their ads. Prototypes are also run by the chosen few for comments. I would think they could get some potential marketing ideas as to what to make but I certainly wouldn’t rely on it without further checking before committing my money to making something
I wonder if this isn’t as scientific a sample as any other sample out there. MR has run mail-in surveys in the past that have had some impact on the choice of prototypes to manufacture… PLEASE don’t run a poll for yet another K-4 PRR Pacific!!!
Will
I beleive it is the best interest (and necessary) for manufactureres to stay in touch with their customers and this forum is a great place to do that. I don’t think active participation is needed but reading through the threads from time to time posing a question every now and then would be to their benefit.
We all seem to find time to “chit chat” on these forums. I don’t see why some marketing folks/product managers at Athearn, Atlas, Kato, etc., can’t find a little time to do the same.
There is a possiblity that this forum and others have influenced manufacturers. There is a topic on “Ask the Bachman” called “Survey: Spectrum 4-4-0 upgrade”. It has about 190 people saying they would like a Spectrum 4-4-0. I’m hoping Bachmann will be influenced by that one, because I would definately buy a Spectrum quality 4-4-0.[:D]
There are zillions of railroad fora out there. It would be hard to keep track of all of them with other than a voluntary staff. However, I believe that a sampling of them, say with one person responsible for reading an entire week’s worth of posts from time-to-time, might give a manufacturer a finger-on-the-pulse feel for some issues that they would find important. I’m sure some of the staff at BLI, for example, spend a lunch hour perusing a couple of forums each week. It would be akin to getting one’s ear to the ground…free!!
I believe forums have influenced manufacturers. The Yahoo On30 Conspiracy made On30 appear to be growing in leaps and bounds. It appeared to have 2000+ members. BLI produced its c-16 2-8-0 in On30 and ended up dumping the last run. The market really wasn’t there. The moderator of the “conspiracy” was thrown off Yahoo, a really hard thing to do, and the group had to begin again. The Conspiracy was reformed in various forms and shows about 300 real forum users.
I have an website that was devoted to promoting On30, I have since changed scales. The site still has the On30 section. I had coverage ot the major On30 meets, the New Paltz maxi-meets. The largest talley for this meet was 338 visits from the On30 community. I had more visits from outside that group.
Yes forums have an influence but their size must be taken with a grain of salt. If I post a free web article on my site I will have about 1500 visitors. I have a current one Making a Cardboard Party Balloon Pond.
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/photos/on_pond.JPG
I post it on all the forums and am overwelmed by the response to the articles. But the forums don’t have that large of traffic for the number of “members”
Just a thought
Harold
There has been influence from the internet. The famous GP38 fan fiasco was started on the Diesel Modeler’s List and made the Atlas Forum interesting for a while. As a result, LL re-ran the GP38 with the correct size fans at the right spacing.
There was the time that Atlas announced a pair of New Haven RS-1’s in the warm orange and green “hot dog” scheme. Unfortunately, the numbers they picked never had that paint scheme. After I posted on the Atlas Forum about it (along with a few photos and the help of the NHRHTA), Atlas changed the numbers to the units that actually had that paint scheme.
Also, Atlas had annouced plans to manufacturer NH RS-3 #529. But the model they make is not the right kind of RS-3 for #529, so they changed it after a posting on the New Haven Forum.
Finally, also on the New Haven Forum, I posted that the Precision Scale R-3 brass steam engine had the wrong tender lettering (I saw it at the Springfield show). After much discussion, PSC agreed to take back anyone’s tender for a complete repaint at no cost, and put on the correct lettering.
So, yes, the Forums do have influence…
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Bachmann listens, last year they announced thier “big thing” for large scale, (my scale) would be a really obscure Vulcan geared locomotive, the response on their website and others was SO overwhelmingly negative that they pulled the plug on it and are now going to produce a 1/20 scale version of the On30 railbus previously announced, this was met with an extremely very positive responce!
When they announced this year that after literally years of begging by the large scale community that they were finally going to produce a large scale version of a D&RG K-27 Oh my! you would have though the forum members had died and gone to heaven! Keep in mind that the only other K’s on the market were in the $2K to $3K price range, so the prospect of a K that would be around $500 was like Manna from Heaven!
Guys, yes, it’s true that historical and/ or technical society forums get attention from manufacturers.
But stop selling yourselves or this forum short!
The name “Model Railroader” does carry some weight!
Several manufacturers and distributors do check this MRR Forum when doing marketing studies or when threads are e-mailed to them. Representatives from DCC manufacturers, BLI, Athearn, Life Like and of course, MTH…check our threads from time to time. Some are actual members.
(Yes, I’ve written “a few” e-mails to manufacturers in the past 2 years - I often refer to this forum. Also, as much as some of you criticize polls, I e-mailed the ones that were well put together to the manufacturers they related to. While not scientific----- simple, organized polls are useful ).
BTW:
Anyone ever notice on the bottom of Page One that sometimes the number of “Guests” visiting number over 10? Who do you think some of these people are?
So, again, don’t sell this forum short. Reputation wise we’re actually considered one of the higher quality “generalized” model railroad forums. This is why it is important that we as a group not permit “Blow Torch Flaming”, if we want these companies to take us seriously.
Cheers and High Greens.
Maybe BLI listens , on many occasions in the past the idea was kicked around for the choice of locomotives with sound and they are selling them now
this forums population may not be a representative sample of modelers it still is a large group of modelers with opinions strong enough to vent on this forum, so it always could be interesting for a manufacturer to watch what is going on.
I was also thinking about this, because whenever someone asks the “What would you like to see produced?” question, a large amount of people say the Union Pacific 3 Piece Big Blow Turbine, from a company like Atlas, or Athearn. And I would love to see this model produced at an affordable price for teens like me. Maybe I should talk about it more.[:p]
Well Scott, it is not Atlas, or Athearn that is going to make the 3 piece turbine in plastic,
but it is Overland, under their new brand for plastic: Tower 55, I think it is early 2006 that it is scheduled, have not seen the price yet, so wait and see what they consider anaffordable price
[:D]
With as many people I see say they wish for a HO Missabe 2-8-8-4, I wonder if there is one in the works from BLI/PCM.
If we’re not a good cross section of what’s going on in the hobby, I don’t know what would be?
Perhaps the Kalmbach staff knows, but it seems that we are a “Reasonable” representative cross-section of modelers. We are members of various professions, age groups, political affiliations, religious preferences, ethnic backgrounds, and incomes.
The manufacturer reps that “check” this forum know quite well what we represent to their companies: $$ DOLLARS $$!-------To them our collective color is green!
Roger that [4:-)][C):-)][swg]
Not to start anything, but I will tell you why manufacturers generally shy away from “information” coming from places like this. There is just too much incorrect stuff floating around. I worked for 9 years for a large US manufacturer and many times the info just turns out wrong, even from places ike the historical societies. There are many incorrect blueprints and plans published because the original info turned out to be incorrect. There are people out there who are pretty expert at least on certain cars or railroads and we frequently consulted them. I very rarely see them posting online- there are a couple exceptions including the guys from MR.