Msg: 3650 *Conference*
12-26-92 23:42:31
From: JOE STEPHAN
To : RICHARD HANSON
Subj: REPLY TO MSG #3649 (PORTABLE 100 CONTEST)
Rick: I highly admire your operation and the success of Club 100. However, I sometimes think you're expecting way too much out of it. The way you see it, as a commercial enterprise, is not the same way the bulk of your users and customers are probably seeing it. Despite the way we feel about the M100 family being best, it's still going to be a cult market. The people I meet, talk to, and read/exchange messages from/with on your board, the M100SIG, and at club meetings are not the trendy-ites/yuppies that the rest of the computer industry caters to. A good word to describe most of them probably would be "hobbyists". Receiving only a handful of responses is a good start--better than none. They may have been the only ones into games this month--or who even noticed--which does not necessarily reflect on all M100 users/P100 readers/C100 customers as a whole. Besides, the first question may have been too tough<G>. People live so much in their own little worlds these days that it's near impossible to get them to do something major like look something up. If you're going to do this giveaway every month, then you've got to give it time to catch on. Maybe those 10 will now spread the word. You've also got to build it up. Remember, the big corporations spend millions on marketing just to create their own market. Unfortunately, in this "quick buck" society we live in today, the biggest reason businesses fail is the belief that all you have to do is open a business/store, that the customers will just naturally beat a path to your door, and you'll overnight automatically get rich (yeah, and they all lived happily ever after too). I once had the fantasy of wanting to start a speed shop. I went to a see a family friend who had a successful auto parts store. He said forget getting rich quick. You have to be prepared to buy an abc starter for an old xyz truck and have it sit on the shelf for two years if need be. And after it's sold the restock starter for maybe another two years after that. Yes, advertising costs a bundle, but that's what creates your market--for starters it keeps your name out there. "The Bus Boys" VW bus parts in Redding decided to chop their ads from the VW magazines. Their business almost died, in fact, though they are back advertising, it's never fully recovered. That name identity is your _real_ stock in trade--I talk to people all the time who are M100 users who have never heard of you, and many who don't even know P100 is still in business!!! What keeps these sort of things going is a labor of love. That's how & why Ricky Doughty keeps his "Vintage Iron" old motorcycle shop going nights & weekends. It basically makes enough to keep itself going, while he goes out and services his Fresno school district insulation contract where he makes his real money. To me there are two things wrong with this business/country today: 1)We've become million dollar or nothing oriented--$999,999 is no longer acceptable and failure!!! 2)Radio stations are good example in that they are constantly making changes to try and be number one in their oversaturated markets, which usually means one or two make it big and the rest struggle (trying to fight the ratings game is same as a drug "OD" as far as I'm concerned). What they don't do is find their own niche, like Club 100, and do their best to build on that. Best regards from Big Jose