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