Hornby see 'weakening consumer demand'

OUCH!

Factory tours - competitions - awards for modelling excellence - advertising outside the traditional captive audiences, after all, we are the converted - creation of a schools program to encourage young hobbyists who want more from life than pressing buttons on vacuous computer games and SMSing their mates. I mean, I can see the ad now - beautifully photographed layouts displaying emotively a range of scenes reminiscent of the great films featuring trains - with the final caption ...... get real - get hornby. Stick it straight to those video arcade mind-numb'rs

I could go on, but God knows I already have

Happy modelling!

Steve - returning hobbyist after 30+ years away from it

:)

Steve

I thought they just tried all that and failed? If there is any money available, I would rather it was spent on developing new products than on gimmicks like advertising. One good new model will generate more free publicity than any amount of advertising.

(kim)

One good new model will generate more free

not to what any business needs to survive longterm

new customers

Steve

let's try all that again

Kim said

I respond:

Free publicity where? In existing magazines, to existing customers. This will not achieve what every business needs to survive in the long term - I agree it's necessary to introduce more excellent products, but that has little impact on generating new customers.

New customers are the lifeblood, especially within a rapidly ageing existing customer base - the only way to make a new market aware is through marketing efforts, including advertising. Finally, we all found out about our hobby through advertising in one form or other - it is a myth that making a great product is the thing that results in it getting sold. A "million" businesses/people have gone magnificently broke thinking their products sell themselves.

Steve

You don't have to waste money on advertising to attract new customers. If you offer a good product or service at a good price word soon gets around.

(kim)

That is a dangerous myth - perhaps it explains the state of much of British industry?

Advertising and marketing go hand in hand. It is easy to waste advertising effort, that is why you have to carefully target your advertising. Eg. the products of CJM or Bassett-Lowke are not suitable for mass media advertising, whilst some Hornby products are.

kim wrote

If that were true then we would all using Betamax videos not VHS i.e. superior technology V's better marketing

In that case, I only have one thing to say. Claughton! ;-)

I was always puzzled about the advert for Hornby Live Steam. They must have spent an awful lot of money on that. They even got Sean Bean to do the narration and I shouldn't think that he comes cheaply these days. Yet I only ever saw the advert on the Hornby website and an RM CD.

I would have expected it to be shown on prime time telly. An ideal time would have been during a commercial break in a certain episode of Coronation Street, which featured Norris and Clur playing with a Live Steam set. It could have been a pretty good piece of product placement as Norris had some red and yellow Hornby boxes stacked on a chair behind him.

"Enzo Matrix" wrote >

It was actually shown in the middle break during the Pete Waterman railway series at the beginning of the year if I remember correctly. The viewers of that series were obviously the ones considered suitable targets.

Dave W.

"kim" wrote

I believe that this is known as "viral" advertising! It seems to work well enough for a couple of telecom companies offering unlimited length calls for only a 2p or 3p connection fee. They never advertise by conventional methods and prove an exception to the usual warning of "if it seems too good to be true, etc."

Dave W.

But surely the viewers of that program would already be aware of the Hornby offerings - possibly also owners of substantial numbers of hornby products!

Not one of the adverts and press releases for Hornby's new 08 shunter made me want to buy one. Reading a critical review of it in this month's Model Rail did.

(kim)

I would have thought so. Maybe the biggest moneyspinning option would be to produce a Live Steam Thomas or Hogwarts Express and to advertise it starting in August. The kids would be attracted to it because it had something to do with Thomas or Harry Potter, which the dads would possibly become fascinated by the technical aspects of it. There would be two birds killed with one stone. Youngsters to bring fresh blood to the hobby and new not-so-youngsters with a bit of disposable income.

"John Ruddy" wrote

I would tend to disagree! Although there is some overlap of interest between model and prototype railways, many older "trainspotters" are unaware of what is available and the high quality of today's model products.

Dave W.

"mindesign" Wrote

G'day All, The trouble with Factory Visits is that the Factory is no longer a working Model Railway Factory. All of the Machines have gone and the place is now full of Lima, Rivarossi, Joueff & Arnold Moulds. And of course Old Triang & Triang Hornby Moulds. Graeme Hearn

Enzo is wearing his other anorak. ;-)

A live steam 0-6-0T??? Gordon, maybe...

Bister Christiad!