Mitch,
In your reply to Carlos you said :
"Not sure I get what you mean. This figure and its availability to me, from reading what came in the e-mail has nothing to do with affecting dealers at all".
As a dealer I can tell you you are wrong to think this does not affect the dealers in some, albeit minor, way. OzDigger was correct when he said "Carlos, don't worry there are plenty of members that do get what you mean. In order to receive this complimentary figure buyers will have to purchase a minimum of $250 in product direct from King & Country, that is a $250 minimum per buyer the dealers will not see".
After that post you told OzDigger to calm down and stop nitpicking etc.
This morning OzDigger was in my shop at the same time as one of my good collectors who I knew would like the new figure. I cant be 100% sure but I am pretty sure Oz heard the conversation between myself and the other collector. I told the collector about the figure and said all he had to do was spend $250 with K&C direct (he will consider that a bargain as I know he is willing to pay $250 for CF03 Crossbowman). At the same time I made the comment that I had just lost $250 in sales to this collector by telling him. In this particular case I would rather he get the figure I know he would want. However I doubt I will be telling many others about it{sm4}.
I have no idea how many of my collectors will be interested in the Knight figure. Many are not members of the Club and will not receive the information or even know it existed unless they see it on Ebay. However for each of my customers who do go for the deal it probably represents a loss of sales of $250 to my business. Considering the overall volume of my K&C sales it is going to be insignificant. K&C this year gave my business (my collectors for Brisbane Dinner) 65 free figures which far outweighs any lost sales the Knight deal may cause.
So for the record Carlos and OzDigger were correct in their comment although the impact should be minimal.
Regards
Brett
PS Jules, thanks for your comment. Knew you would want the Junk and double benefit to get the knight figure (what was Andy thinking ^&grin!!!). Incidentally TomNT has just returned from Hong Kong today and hopefully took the photo I requested of the Pirate Galleon I missed on my trip.
Brett:
I agree with you initially on it only affecting dealers slightly. I love my dealers but at what price? Any market is invisible and ruthless in the constant attempt to find new equilibrium of price vs. value. This Toy Soldier industry is no different; darn it!!!
IMO, Andy is probing to see your reaction and how it might optimize profitability. That’s smart! Remember, if manufacturers aren’t making money they can’t continue to innovate and deliver new releases to you the “Collector”. Okay…Dah!!! Everyone knows that!
Okay, if this initial experiment works, he needs to expand the direct channel strategy and unfortunately eventually cutout the dealers. Since, this industry is basically an “oligopoly” the rest of the manufacturers will be forced to do the same for survival. The only possible exception is maybe Britains. This won’t happen over night because companies will need to completely re-engineer their companies (especially sales & marketing channels) to accomplish this and it requires capital investments but mostly increased working capital.
Some companies may not be able do to this due to lack of capital. Besides during the transition enough of you might object requiring a hybrid (direct, dealer, shows, etc.) sales model instead.
Anecdotal observation – Toy Soldier Market is experiencing stagnation, higher costs, slower inventory turnover and eroding margins meaning everyone is competing for same old client with few exceptions. I HOPE I’M WRONG!
The direct model could actually save the industry from significant contraction given all or most of the companies migrate to this direct model. If they do, it will produce healthy competition, lower prices, more innovation and we the collector win again. This will also attract new collectors and add vitality and sustained health.
However, if KC decides to fully implement this strategy and others don’t or delay then KC reaps the rich rewards and their dominance is solidified. This gives KC healthier margins and the increased cash flow to indirectly eliminate most competitors choosing to stay with old model.
Guys, just an opinion and I’m probably wrong.
Carlos
