Mark O'Brien

iTrader: (1)

Look I understand the motivation behind the direct sales tactics of the Mfg's. Heck I would do it, and have done it, to try and survive. But there should be a better system of support from the Factorys. Especialy for the shops and tracks, that sell their products.

Which brings us back to the advertizing part of the equation. In the Auto side of business how many dollars do you think the main Factories spend on National advertizing. You can't go an hour on local tv with out seeing a Chev, Ford, Toyota, etc... comercial. When is the last time you saw a National TV/Newspaper comercial for any RC Mfg ?

Mark O'Brien

iTrader: (1)

Thats true it would be great if we could tap into the Federal Goverments bank account, to maintain and build our tracks. Let me know if you can arrange that deal for me. But public roads and private facilities are a different animal aren't they.

Rick Hohwart

I have no ideas about AE pricing and policies so can't comment on it. But this is where you have to get creative and not look at as though you lost $100+ on this kit, but how do I take this kit I can't sell and turn it into cash.

The easiest thing is to sell it for a loss and use that money to buy things you can make money on. Or you can turn it into a try-me car for people walking into the shop or a rental car for people who want to try racing. Donate it to charity?

There are many things that can be done to run bad into good. Or at least less bad.

Juan Aveytia

Mark no kidding. Read a few post up. I wasn't trying to make a comparison between the way a dealership is run and racing is run. You missed the whole point anyway. All these tracks are hurting because your trying to invent the wheel. When all you have to do is copy a proven system. I see hobbytown popping up everywhere. Why is that? I guess that's a bad comparison also. If you know so much, enlighten us.

sinisterRC

iTrader: (9)

great point. I myself would rather over pay and keep the local hobby shops open. Most of the time shop owners are willing to work with you $$$, as long as it is reasonable. I just came back into the sport, I used to have a tamiya 959 and a hilux (ages ago) couldn't afford much. Now I purchased my first elec. TC touring car, and I love it. My LHS owner is awesome, answers all my ridiculous newbie questions . I'd rather give my money to him anyday, even if it's a little more. Afterall tower hobbies can't give you set up tips or provide a place to race them at. By the way the hobby shop I'm reffering to is MDI (Steve) he is awesome, check them out if your in Fl.

Mark O'Brien

iTrader: (1)

I'm not to bent out of shape about this just one of many examples. I'll find a creative way to make it sell, or door prize it or something.

RC Pro 1

Kevin we have discussed it but in the last 2 years we've been doing so much more than in the past we've almost started too much at one time. We need to get everything we have going working well first. The problem that keeps coming up in my mind is how do I do a national points series when part of the people run on carpet and part of them run on asphalt? what surface do you do the finals on?

Mark O'Brien

iTrader: (1)

Look if all I wanted to do was sell hobby stuff a Hobby Town Franchise is not a bad way to go. After all the biggest market share of rc products never hits a track. However I thought we were talking specificaly about R/C race tracks and their related hobby shops. Not to many Hobby Towns have dedicated indoor tracks. And only a few run parking lot races that I'm aware of.

My track sits in a Building I own, if I wanted to make real money off of it. I would develop the site and rent it to a coffee shop, or something similar. But I happen to enjoy this Hobby and the people who race with me. So I'll do this untill the prevailing attitude amoung the racers is like yours. Then I'll call Starbucks !

vtl1180ny

you'd have to do both....

RC Pro 1

Then it becomes to regional series and not really a national series. Example - carpet seems to be more popular in the northern states (cold winters) where asphalt is more common in the southern states (can run all year outside).

WailinOnYa

iTrader: (4)

Don't take my example of the car dealer too seriously, it was just ment to be a simple example to make a point! Also the comment on not relying on the dealer for the roads you drive on, that may be true but as I said before if the manufacturers only delt with hobbyshops there would be no middle man (mail order houses) and the tracks/hobbyshops would have plenty of business. To sit here and say that the consumer who purchases from these big mail order houses is to blame is redundant being that in the end the manufacturers could get a handle on these undercutting prices! They sell there bulk quantities to the Mail order to make larger margins of profit, then in turn the consumer buys from there and is blamed for the demise of the hobbyshop/track! Who's to blame the consumer or the manufacturer who wants to make a profit by selling as much product as possible? It all goes back to the manufacturers who initially sell it no matter how you look at it!

RC Pro 1

The basic idea behind RC Pro is to give a national points series to determine a national championship.

racenut123

iTrader: (30)

As Mark stated,HTU's are not in the buisness to cater to the racer.I of all people, know that thier corp. structure has nothing to do with racing.Mark's comments are right on. Thats not a bad thing for buisness for them either.We as racers are barely on thier radar as a whole.Thats not to say there are no HTU's with racing facilities because some have really nice racetracks but, its not that important when it comes to how they encourage thier owners to run thier buisnesses.Simple mathmatics really.

I

seaball

iTrader: (9)

most problems occur when things don't go the way they are supposed to.

RC Pro 1

Sorry we got off subject here.

Basicly advertising would help the local tracks and hobby shops if they can find the budget but that's the problem most of the shops and tracks don't have the money to do it. A high rated radio station will run up to $60 per 1 minute ad. a local tv station can be about the same price for a 30 second ad but that depends on what time the ads run. during a popular show or prime time it can run as high as $150 per 30 spot. I could have had ads running during the world series in the Rockford area for $150 per 30 second spot.
I still contend we need an association (not race organization) that the manufacturers, race organizations and hobby shops belong to and pay dues to that do nothing but promote the rc industry to the general public. The money paid in via dues would give a common pool to use for these ads with an elected board to make the decisions. One manufacturer in this industry can't do it! Yes some of these companies make good money and are quite large but in comparison to companies outside this industry they are really small. The rc manufacturers need to work together to do this but that will be a tough one to pull off. Most (not all) of the manufacturers in this industry won't work with each other. Ford, Chevy and Dodge compete with each other but if you think they don't discuss sells trends etc between the companies your wrong! We need to make the general public aware of the rc industry and by doing so bring more people into rc. This industry can not survive on the same people year after year people quit because of jobs, family or money and those people need to be replaced! Tracks see this before anyone else this is why everyone says direct the race programs at the newbies. Without new people coming to the track they die. One of the biggest problems I've seen is mentioned earlier. When a new track opens they concentrate on getting the racers from another track instead of developing new racers. Hobby shops generally don't work together to develop a good local group of racers they fight each other and it hurts all of them in that area. In some areas I have seen shops work together and there is a flourishing rc community. It works!