| |
In lugnet.general, Todd Lehman writes:
> I believe that five to ten years from now, pre-packaged sets designed by
> internal design teams will account for but a small percentage of the market
> leader's profits -- the rest coming from bulk element sales with phenominally
> low overhead compared to pre-packaged retail sets.
>
> The leader's customers will be able to choose exactly what they want to buy --
> brick for brick -- 100% online. The ERP to make this work is easier said than
> done, but someone will do it. The leader's website will give customers a
> truly outstanding positive experience, which they will remember and tell their
> friends and peers online. When a customer receives an order, it will include
> personally-tailored incentives to return online to buy more soon. Incentives
> may include gift certificates, coupons, parts-subscription discounts, and
> pointers to areas online with related building ideas -- anything to keep the
> enthusiasm up -- and it will vary from person to person, and the one who
> learns what motivates each person to buy more will profit the most.
I'm not sure that bulk or by-the-brick type purchasing will ever be that large
a segment of the market. I strongly suspect that unless something happens to
change our culture, that the in-store purchase of sets will be the the bulk of
the market. Online sales of sets will be a close second. Unless the AFOL hobby
grows astronomically, I would expect that the 5-12 year old age ranges will be
the target of most of the sales of construction toys.
Bulk or by-the-brick purchasing will probably help keep more teenagers playing
with the brick. If true bulk ordering becomes possible, younger kids will
also buy some.
Our current culture is moving away from free creative play towards guided
creative play. When I was a kid, very few of my toys were tied to
books/film/tv, and we took whatever toys we had, and made up whatever
backgrounds we wanted. Today's toys are increasingly tied to books/film/tv, and
the kids seem to want to re-create things specifically from those media.
Certainly the amount of time the average American spends in front of the tv is
a factor (as a kid, we were allowed a very minimal amount of tv time, and even
when I went over to friends houses, we didn't watch that much tv).
Frank
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
66 Messages in This Thread:
 
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
