Subject:
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Re: Big Brother is Watching (and reading, too!)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 26 Oct 1999 20:26:34 GMT
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Viewed:
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1308 times
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In lugnet.general, Wayne R. Hussey writes:
> Just a comment for all of you trying to appeal to TLG financial interests: In
> a word - forget it, unless you weild the kind of money a retail chain or Bill
> Gates does... • <snipped some math>
> Let's do some more calculations. Suppose all the AFOLs (maybe 1,000 - maybe
> even twice that many) spend between $3K and $5K per year. That means the total
> sales to AFOLs reaches between $3,000,000 and $10,000,000 (retail) -
> $1,800,000 to $6,000,000 (wholesale). That's still only 9.2% of the 65 mil.
> That leaves 90.8% of their sales to retail chains who then sell to parents of
> kids who buy their kids sets. This just doesn't seem enough incentive for TLG
> to get involved with bulk sales (for financial reasons).
A good point, but any company that only pays attention to their %sales is in
trouble.
Two other considerations: %profit, and %above average (sales)
%profit. We know that TLG already has bulk(1) of the mechanisms in place to
provide what we are looking for: a direct-sale operation (S@H), and a process
for providing large volumes of specified parts (couldn't have done Legolands
without a process like this). All they have to do is connect the dots. Bulk
ordering should cost minimal overhead because they don't have to build the
function, it's already there. Which means they fill bulk orders virutally at
cost, and charge retail retail rates. This is a huge %profit - much more
significant than retail sales.
%above average (sales). Let's take your minimum amount of an AFOL spending
$3000 per year. Now, lets be very generous and say that the average child (or
parent buying for child) spends $500 in a year. That puts us as spending %600
percent above what their average customer spends. By any standard, that makes
us Very Important Customers. Most successful companies will pay attention and
respond to, the needs of their VICs, because they're the ones most involved.
There is also the factor that an AFOL will spend that $3000 PER YEAR, while an
average child, will bring in only $5000 over their entire "lego-buying career"
- assuming about 10 years of interest, at the generous per-year number above.
> My thinking is this: TLG has come through to individuals and groups when they
> perceive an artistic use of their product, so instead of berating them for
> their lack of business sense (which I can't find any fault in, based on the
> logic I see them using), try appealing to them through your desire to realize
> some truly artistic endeavor. Don't just say "I need x number of y bricks."
> Say instead "I'm working on this really neat thing-a-ma-bob, and I need your
> help to put it together. This is what it is, how it'll look, and I figure I
> need x number of y bricks to do it."
I think the odds of ANYONE getting a deal like this after the Concentration
Camp guy (don't recall his name offhand) are so slim as to be non-existant.
> As usual, my points are verbose. My intent is to cause a different avenue of
> thinking - hopefully, even an approach that'll work. Who knows? But I firmly
> believe that whining about what TLG won't do will net you nothing.
I fully agree. Whining will get us nowhere. But I think that the general
airing of discontent has let many of us know that we aren't alone in our
unhappiness, and has prompted some excellent ideas (Gary's letter, among
others) and some solid discussion of options.
> Please let me know if you think I'm just full of hot air.
Nope. :) Or, I can be less flattering, and say "at least, not more than the
rest of us" <grin>
Seriously though, I grumble and gripe, but I tend to side with the tentative
optimists (even if it doesn't look like it) that it will get better. It may
get worse first, but it will get better.
And I think that if there is one thing we have in common besides our love of
the brick, its that we LOOOOOOVE to argue.(2)
1:no pun intended.
2:Ahem. Excuse me, that should be "debate" ;)
James
http://www.shades-of-night.com/lego/
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Big Brother is Watching (and reading, too!)
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| (...) company, (...) big/small (...) Just a comment for all of you trying to appeal to TLG financial interests: In a word - forget it, unless you weild the kind of money a retail chain or Bill Gates does... The TLG 1996 sales - more since then - was (...) (25 years ago, 26-Oct-99, to lugnet.general)
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