please fill out this survey at AH and tell them how dissatisfied you are with the marketing for Axis and Allies Products.
rank them poor in every category possible that deals with how these employees deal with the site, so that change can be made.
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Originally Posted by AH_Von Manstein View Post
how do you get these changes made?
I communicate them directly to WotC Community Management - my contact there takes these issues directly to the Brand team for Avalon Hill (in this case).
In the case of creating a new forum it’s a bit more involved. While I’ve got CM on board with the idea it turns out there (may be) some changes to the forums coming in the next few months (new features? new structure? new software? I dunno - I’m only hearing rumors at the moment). However, if that’s true it may be that creating a new forum might get tabled until after such an overhaul is/was done.
Again - that’s rumors and speculation at this point - please don’t quote me on this one.
In the past (about a year ago when I last tried) when I’ve needed to get forums created (or closed) it took about a month of gentle pressure - AFTER my request was approved for the changes to actually take place.
I don’t mind applying that gentle pressure at all - just know that pressure is about as much as a VCL can do.
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You cant leave up junk from 1.5 years ago its horrible way to run things. It makes people think this is some kind freeking blog…where some totally incompetently run one man show may or may not ever update his information. If your part of Hasbro things got to be more professional and you must find whoever is neglecting AH and get them replaced ASAP!
I agree with you (though again, I need to clarify, since you keep saying “you” - I’m not WotC, I’m just a forum user like you) - and for what it’s worth, Community Managment agrees with you as well.
Things should NEVER get so neglected as to go months - much less a year without any official news.
Rest assured your comments are going to WotC - and I’ve been told that they’ve been delivered to the AH Brand people. Change, however, will not happen overnight - but I’m working with Community Management to make it happen as soon as we can. (Notes to date have included the news page AND the FAQ page - just FYI).
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You guys spent alot of money developing a new game and nobody is lifting a finger to do anything except send out the product to the distributor in a box. This whole process of ‘marketing by silence’ with respect to AH boardgames is really pathetic. Why don’t you do this when D&D 5.0 comes out? Just release it and don’t say a word and see where that gets you. OH yea static and dynamic argument… yea sure. Whatever.
Again, I agree with you here. We (you, me, XII13Thirteen, the rest of the AH posters, and Community Management) are all going to work together to get more notice, more news, and generally more noise going over here.
I look forward to the challenge of getting you some of the attention, news, and “love” this line deserves.
Sadly, there was no option below “poor” or “strongly disagree”.
WOTC advertisement has been non-existent, not merely “poor”.
Great IL! It will be done!!! :-D
Get it done folks, they listened and are reprinting AA50- WE AS A WORLDWIDE COMMUNITY HAVE A VOICE!
:-)
your wish is my command
Why exactly does WOTC not care about strategy board games?
Because they don’t do anything for them except make them. No advertisement, no marketing, no articles, no information, its a dead zone and hush hush atmosphere due to Chimpage taking place. Chimps eat Bananas, don’t do any work and live off the fat of the land and are lazy. If we want these games to continue to do well somebody has to lift a finger and get the word out.
Yes you are correct as always ( this not ongoing joke man) . Chimps must be replaced with eagles. Eagles dare. Eagles got brain. Eagles not lazy like chimps. We cut off the bananas, and starve the chimps out of office, man.
Why exactly does WOTC not care about strategy board games?
Typically a business doesn’t care about a product line if the profit margin is low and if that low profit margin comes without some other type of added value there is even less caring. My local game store guy says the mark ups on A&A type games are pretty low.
I would think though that they can’t afford to NOT make the games as revenue is revenue but the only folks you’re going to be telling about the game for the greater part are the people who are already going to buy it. Why retain staff to promote the games to folks who are going to buy it without the hype machine?
I may agree on the fact that they are satisfied to sell only a limited number of boxes to a limited number of customers. However, this is the problem: with a more focused promotional campaign they had sold more boxes. More boxes sold means more profit. Hasbro/WOTC should be interested in profit. Business company are supposed to investigate the market to identify the real demand not to make therotical hypothesis on the number of boxes to sell.
Please don’t misunderstand me, I think the no promotion, no hype approach is at minimum myopic. I’m just speculating about why they might be taking the approach at all.
Somone mentioned to me why the big glut of game fairs quickly died back to just Origins and Gen Con was that the game companies were expending serious coin to reach very few new eye balls.
It just seems to me that would apply here to a degree. The return on investment of marketing A&A board games does not, in the company’s opinion, warrant the exercise. I see no other rationale for not marketing the games more strongly.
