What Is the PLC

The product life cycle consists of four stages:  introduction, growth, maturity and decline.  All products go through all four of these stages, some at a faster rate than others (roughly 50,000 new products come onto the market every year, only about 10% of them stay in production for more than five years).

The introductory stage of the PLC is always the most exciting part of a product’s life.  The manufacturer has this cool new idea for a great new product(Dominion) or an interesting take on an already existing one (Ascension).  The manufacturer has (hopefully) playtested it extensively, made mockups or prototypes, lined up a production option, either in-house or outsourced and lined up financing, again either through theirself or, quite commonly today, through an exterior source such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. The manufacturer is also all over Twitter, Facebook, TheyTube and any other media source  to which they can get access, talking about this cool new product and trying to get others to do the same.   During this stage, while their sales increases hit double or triple percentages, their expenses far exceed their revenues.  In short, they are losing money on the product until they hit the breakeven point, at which their revenues cover their expenses. 

Now, they move into the growth stage of the product life cycle.  During this stage their promotional efforts slack off as others have, hopefully, picked up on the buzz their original efforts generated for their products.  This means less expenditure on promotion, allowing they to divert more of the gross profits to cover fixed costs.  If they allocated revenues well, they start making a net profit during this stage.  As their product gets wider notice in the market though, sales start to slacken from the triple or high double digit growth they posted after the launch.  They should still see growth in the low double digits though.

The characteristic of the growth stage that makes me think the deckbuilding category is exiting the growth stage and entering the maturity stage of the PLC is that, towards the end of the growth stage, competition products start to enter the market.  Competitors see how well this product has done satisfying consumers and want a piece of the action, so they enter the market with similar products, planning to capture a share.  Currently, I count a minimum of ten deckbuilding games on the market, with more on the way.  Nothing says more clearly that the market for deckbuilding games has matured than the number of companies announcing their entry into the market.

What happens during this stage?  Profits for early entrants into the market continue to increase as their expenses likewise continue to drop.  However, sales increases drop to single digits and start to decline towards the end of the cycle, as the product moves from maturity to decline.  One sure sign that the market has moved from maturity to the decline stage of the PLC is competitors pulling the plug on their products and announced product launches never making it to market. 

During the decline stage, sales drop, either slightly or precipitously and they must decide whethe

CBD Water

Looked into stocking CBD infused water, but decided against it. Price ran too high, about $4 per bottle and we are not sure how much restriction we would have to put on sales to younger customers and how the parents of younger customers would feel about us stocking such a product. Plenty available at Family Video though.

New Product LInes

We are discussing adding new product lines to the store. A couple which are under consideration are used books and juggling/dexterity oriented products. Here are some of the pros and cons of each:stock of

Used books--Pro:  there are no used book stores in Carbondale anymore, save for the two thrift stores. There is a demand for a used book store, as evidenced by the fact that Bookworm stayed profitable for about 15 years. We already deal in used books such as comics and graphic novels.

Con:  Would need more space for a decent used book selection. Our stock of used graphic novels and back issue comics turns very slowly if at all. Easy to suffer inventory creep.

Juggling products:  Pro:  no place locally to find them. Take up very little space on the floor to add.
Con:  little to no demand locally. Have not had anyone ask for the products.

Those are some of the factors we need to consider when bringing in a new product line. Will either of these come into the store. We will discuss them at the next store meeting.

The Power of the Package

I had the opportunity to try a game designer’s newish card games earlier this month. The games played smoothly and in general, I liked the card art. However, I opted not to bring them in for one simple reason:  the only packaging was a strip of plastic shrinkwrapped around them holding the cards in place. No box, no clamshell, nothing, so I passed on it.  If you want to sell any product (with the possible exception of live animals), you need packaging.

Packaging serves two basic purposes: functional and promotional.  The functional purposes of packaging are to allow the customer to transport it, protect its contents and give needed information about them.

Consider consumer products. Could you transport liquid laundry detergent or toothpaste home from the store if it did not come in a bottle or tube? This is the first function of the package, to hold the contents together conveniently. While carrying home an RPG like 13^th Age or FATE is relatively easy (though try getting one home without that handy binding), imagine taking home a board game like Settlers of Catan or Zombies! without the box. Pieces and cards all over the place!

The second thing the package does is protect the contents. Even something as simple as a deck of Once Upon a Time cards needs a package. If you just put them out on the shelf, they will get dirty, shelfworn, even torn. The box, or clamshell, or case, protects them from normal damage.

The third functional thing the package does is provide information about the contents. In the case of toothpaste, the customer wants to know how many ounces, is this tartar control or whitening formula, does it contain fluoride? Consumer protection laws for consumable items require a list of ingredients as well. You find that information on the package. Though ingredients are not necessary, in the case of a game, the customer wants some basic information: how many people can play, what ages are suitable, how long should a typical game take, what is inside the package?  This last is important because the customer typically cannot open the box to see the contents and stores may not want to open it if they do not have a shrinkwrap machine (If a store does not have a shrinkwrapping machine and the customer decides not to buy, the opened game is now worth less in the eyes of the next customer).

In terms of promotion, packaging can do two main things: make your product stand out on the shelf and sell it to the customer. Steve Jackson Games is a prime example of using packaging to make its products stand out, purely though box size. As I mentioned in previous columns, I used to think SJG was wrong for packaging Munckin in such a large box. Time proved me wrong and over the years, SJG has moved away from the small tuck boxes in which it packaged Chez Geek and Illuminati. Today, those games, and others, come in boxes the size of the Munchkin box, the easier to stand out on the shelf.

The packaging also should sell the product to the consumer. Tell them why they should buy it, why they are going to have fun playing it, how play works. While the FLGS probably has someone who can tell the customer about the product, if a game makes it to the shelf of a Target or B&N, no staffer there will work to sell it.  The poor game package is on its own. Bland doesn’t attract attention, bright and attention getting does.

A Story of Adhesives

We started carrying the glues and epoxies from Bob Smith Industries and the company sent us the following about using their glues to accomplish an almost impossible repair:

The Difficult Repairs Take a Minute

                  The Impossible Ones a Few Hours

Saturday was a warm, very dark night.  My wife Sandee had gone downstairs to try to coax our cat Frankie into coming inside for the night so that he’d be safe from prowling coyotes.  As Frankie came in the door, she turned off the porch light, which turned the house pitch black.  Sandee headed for the light switch at the foot of the stairs, but her arm hit something that created a horrible “bull in a china closet” sound that could only be bad news.

Turning on a light, she discovered to her horror that she had knocked over her precious collection of Russian cups and saucers.  The floor was now covered with a layer of jagged, broken porcelain.  Her treasures were now history.  That darn cat!

Daylight revealed not all was lost.  Three of the cups and one saucer had absorbed the fall without a scratch.  I felt that the one broken cup and one saucer would be relatively easy to repair.  The second saucer had a chance, but the third one, sitting there shattered into 17 pieces, almost went directly into the trash can.  But hey, I’m one of the BSI Glue Pros.  Our glues can make the impossible, possible. Years ago a raccoon greeted us as we entered our home after being away for a few days (he got in through the cat door).  In trying to coax him out an open door, the raccoon jumped upon Sandee’s teacart, shattering more of her porcelain and ceramic collection.  One of these was a tea pot, broken into 8 pieces.  Since I was able to repair that, I felt that the 17 piece saucer may have a chance, but I wouldn’t have bet money on it.

The secret to repairing objects such as these is to assemble as many pieces as possible without using any glue, relying on small sections of masking tape to keep the parts together.  I started with the tea cup.

In repairs like this, if the pieces are glued together one at a time, the final pieces of the puzzle will rarely fit correctly.  Any errors in alignment in the first pieces, however minor, throw off everything else. As the final pieces are added with the no glue method, the sections of tape on the first pieces can be removed, if necessary, for minor adjustments and then put back into place.

What looks like a perfect fit in many cases won’t be.  Perfection can only be confirmed by feel, not sight.  Running your finger across a seam will detect the slightest misalignment.  If your finger senses that the joint is as smooth as the glossy surfaces around it, then it is perfect and can be held in place with tape on its backside.  At this point, you must ensure you are working with clean hands.  Any trace of dirt or oil on your finger will be transferred to the non-glazed porcelain as you slide it across a misaligned joint.  With white porcelain or ceramic, this will make it impossible for the repaired crack to virtually disappear, which is possible when these steps are done correctly.

After all the pieces are perfectly aligned, the glue is then applied.  BSI’s Insta-Cure super thin CA has amazing penetrating properties.  When applied to even an almost invisible crack, capillary action will fully coat the interior of a joint and go through to the other side.  For this reason you must be careful how you hold the object being repaired, since the CA can appear in unexpected places and glue your fingers to the project.  This is the reason I prefer to spray the entire repair project with our Insta-Set accelerator after all the thin CA is applied.  While not necessary for a strong finished product, the Insta-Set allows me to immediately go to the next steps without bonding my skin to the porcelain.

The handle of the subject cup was set in place with the cup in an orientation that allowed only gravity to hold the handle in the correct position.  One drop of the Insta-Cure was applied to each end and it was done.

For precise application of the Insta-Cure, BSI’s #302 extra fine extender tip or #305 capillary tubing should be used at the end of the nozzle (the #302 can be added to the end of the #304 extender tip if you are using a Pocket CA bottle).  The CA is applied to the side opposite of where the tape has been placed.  Inevitably, you may find that there are puddles of the thin CA where you don’t want them.  The corners of a paper towel should be used to soak up this excess CA.  This still leaves a thin coat of the CA on the surfaces, but this is taken care of in the next step.

After the masking tape has been removed, the excess CA on the porcelain can be removed using BSI’s Un-Cure debonder.  This step is much easier if done immediately after the repair.  Cyanoacrylate becomes much harder to dissolve after it has cured longer than 30 minutes.  Small sections of paper towels should be soaked in the Un-Cure and vigorously rubbed on the glue joints.  This can take from 30 second to a few minutes for each area, depending on the thickness of the cured CA.  Your opposite hand should be used to push against the opposite side of thinner porcelain when the rubbing force is being applied.

Thicker amounts of CA can be sliced or scraped with a single-edge razor blade, with Un-Cure used to remove the thin layer that is left.  Sometimes using your fingernail to scrape the surface can speed up the process.  Areas where the CA has penetrated the masking tape are the most difficult to remove, so patience is an important factor in this process.  Care should be observed by washing your hands at least every five minutes, or by using a latex gloves or their equivalent.  The dissolved CA gets soaked into the paper towel so don’t hesitate to use more fresh towels than you may have anticipated.

This process does not affect the CA that is forming the bond in the cracks (the object would have to be soaked in Un-Cure or acetone for several hours for this to happen).  Acetone (or fingernail polish remover) can be substituted for the Un-Cure in this process but it has a much higher evaporation rate, which slows down the whole procedure.

This saucer was repaired using the same process.  The missing section had become little more than dust when the plate shattered, so this is the one obvious flaw in the repair, like the small chips in the lip of the cup.  There is a procedure that can be used to fill these areas in, but that will have to be a subject for another time.

When done correctly, the cracks are nearly invisible.

Now for the “impossible” one.  The five major pieces were put together and then glued, using the procedures above.  The CA was put on no closer than 1” from the unrepaired areas.  The non-glazed areas of the broken parts must not see any glue before they are assembled and taped in place.

All but the last two fragments are now in place.  These two required more patience since the tape will not work for holding them perfectly in place (trust me on this one).  Like the handle on the cup, you should rely on gravity to hold them in place.  It may take a dozen or more tries to get them positioned just right at the same time, but once they are, they get the first drops of the Insta-Cure to hold them in place.  Then you apply the CA to all the other joints.

Once the tape is removed and the Un-Cure does the cleanup, the saucer, to most eyes, will look undamaged.

While a significant amount of their monetary value has been lost, the Russian cups and saucers are ready to be displayed once more.  Happy days are here again!  Like Mighty Mouse, I came to save the day.  Women like that.

Store Philosphy and Product Mix

Every store is different. No store has the same product mix, target market or philosophy of business so what works in one store will not work in another.

Take Cards Against Humanity. It is probably the most in-demand game in our industry over the past 3 years. Some stores with which I am familiar view the game as vile and refuse to carry it, saying that to do so would go against their moral beliefs and counter the store’s positioning as “family friendly”.  Other stores say it is the most requested game in their store and that new customers, including families, come into the store daily looking for Cards Against Humanity and only for Cards Against Humanity. These stores have decided satisfying customer demand takes precedence. Each one believes they are right.

Take Yu Gi Oh! Several stores with which I have spoken dropped in store play for Yu Gi Oh due to problems with theft amongst players as well as well as cleaning up after them.  Sales of Yu Gi Oh there weren’t worth the hassle of dealing with in-store play. On the other hand, other stores either are willing to put up with the difficulty of dealing with in-store play or have lowered the “ban-hammer” on players to get them to straighten up (Of course, there are many stores that have no problems with Yu Gi Oh players at all, but as a group, they are the ones stores consistently report having difficulty with).

Take Role Playing Games. Save for the big two, Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, RPGs sell very slowly at most stores. The ones that do well with them put quite a bit of work into the category, making sure the staff is familiar with them, stocking a wide selection, running regular demoes and encouraging in store play. It pays off for them. Other stores, however, look at the amount of work it takes to generate strong sales in the line and prefer to focus their efforts on only product categories. Once again, philosophy of the store influencing product mix and, through that, the target market.

In a mass market or chain store there is one overriding store philosophy directing  the decision(s) to add an item or items to the product mix. If you go into an Fatburger or Barnes & Noble, you will find the same offerings, no matter what store. Due to the diffusion of the retail side of the game industry, not so here.

Breakdown of Sales

For those interested and who would like a better idea of what sells here in the store, here is a rough breakdown of categories and percentage of sales.  Note that since this is an approximation, the percentages probably won't add up to 100%:

Role-playing games  8%
Boardgames  7%
Miniatures 10%
Paint and miniatures accessories 7%
Collectible Card Games  20%
Single Cards  5%
Card Supplies 8%
Collectible Miniature Games 5%
Dice 4%
Comics 8%
Used Games  3%
Books 3%

1st Edition Reprints

 WOTC announced last week the company plans to reprint the first three books for 1^st edition AD&D, the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual in premium limited editions.  Of course, the company is charging what buyers would have considered a premium price back when the books first came out.  Today, customers don’t bat an eye at paying almost double what the original books sold for back in the late 1970s/early 80s.  We have taken pre-orders for two sets, I know of one store that has pre-orders for over a dozen and another that pre-sold 40 copies the first weekend after the announcement.  Not bad, considering that WOTC will reprint the books in the original black and white, with the complete set retailing for just under $115.  The fact that WOTC announced it will make a contribution (amount currently unknown) to help put into place the planned Gary Gygax statue in Lake Geneva for each book sold has probably helped sales as well. At the store, it certainly picked up interest in our collection of 1^st edition AD&D books.

Knights of the Dinner Table

If you haven't read KODT is quite a while, I don't blame you but the current storyline is well worth a look with the return of long dead Gary Jackson and the continuing Black Hands Cattlepunk storyline.

Mega Miniatures

Just got in two new figure sets from the Mega Miniatures line, Action Heroes and Grunts. Got them in because there aren't many modern day figures currently available and these looked good when I saw them in the catalog. Problem is, on the shelf it's hard to tell, since they are packed into a clamshell that is barely big enough for Reaper to use for one of its figures.