Eduard marketing

[Frentzen]

Originally Posted by StephenLawson

Zero - they sold out of 100 units. For an average total of $15,900.00 in less than 2 weeks just for the Red Box kit. Man I am in the wrong business.

Considering that is probably less than 10% of their costs to tool up the Dr.I, they have a long way to go before they start turning a profit on it.

[StephenLawson]

Based on Eduard's activities upto now, what would you (the membership) say they are planning next? seriously.

[Familyman]

Originally Posted by StephenLawson

Based on Eduard's activities upto now, what would you (the membership) say they are planning next? seriously.

Companies usually want to expand and have bigger sales. So Eduard's Dr.1 and the forthcoming SPAD XIII might be their last in ww1 bussiness for a long time. It is hard to imagine, which ww1 subjects could sell better. (I'm assuming that SPAD XIII sells especially in USA).

They might venture to 1/32 tho

Their old moulds won't disappear and we'll see kits made with them in different boxes and with different decals. We might see kits done with Eduard moulds in cheap Smer boxes and - who knows - even in Revell boxes in the future

Mikko

[Scimitar]

I think also that Eduard will produce more WWII kits at 1/48th and 1/32th scale. For the Fokker Dr I, we can hope for a boxing containing 1 kit, 1 photoetch at reasonable price... for the end of the year?

[MerlinV]

Well,
We are still waiting for the Caproni bomber that they announced last year... and I for one have been watching for the SE5a that they announced about 7 years ago (at about the same time as the Camel actually)...

I would suggest that Eduard have actually noticed how Roden are releasing several subjects a year and have decided that they might be better served exploring WWII and Jets.

But so far as trying to predict what their next release will be?

Sodomy non sapiens (Buggered if I know).

Cheers,

Hugh

[cduckworth]

I got the Squadron flyer this week and most of the 'weekend' additions are under $14 USD. Eduard makes a nice model but I usually don't build OOB so the decals are almost never used. 'If' I buy a DrI (I have three DML's to build and three finished) I'll merely wait until they come out with the 'weekend' version.

I'm happy to see Roden's OT releases and buy everyone that comes out (sometimes two). I love to see them get into the German or AH two seaters as this area is still overlooked.

Charlie

[trackpad]

I have several Eduard kits that went on sale via their website a few years ago. I know my limitations in this hobby: I have more kits than I'll probably be able to build, and I am not a serious contender for any national-level first prize. And this whole triplane thing has soured me on Eduard, at least for the foreseeable future. All to say that, quite frankly, I don't really care what Eduard's future plans are. It will be interesting to see how they dig themselves out of this current hole, but I'm not about to provide them with a shovel.

[dak66]

Will continue with there WW I subjects for the forseable future .
I also think they have a German 2 seater in the works . Seriously!
Eduard will continue to offer kits like the Rote Flieger Ein und Zwie.
And life will go on i wouldn't panic
PS; I wanna see there Spad !

[Rittersbach]

This is sad, but it doesnt surprise me at all coming from Eduard. I expected it actually, the signs have been coming. I dont buy anymore Eduard kits directly from them, their too greedy, just like the oil companies. They can go pound their marketing somewhere else. I'm not going to put another cent of my money in their company, so they can continue to rape the consumer.

Eduard will continue to do this sort of thing as long as people buy their over priced products. If you bought this RED kit and you complained about the price or the PE included, you get no sympathy from me. It states on their website with pictures even, what is included in the kit. If you spent your hard earned dollars with them, on this kit, you just added to their encouragement to continue to rip off the consumer. If this kit crashed and burned because of the price and what was included, Eduard would be forced to rethink their marketing and act accordingly.

I now enjoy giving my money to Roden. I think Roden has a better grasp of what their customers want.

Having said all that, I am going back to hell, where I have to protect my styrene stash from further meltation.

[Brad Cancian]

Eduard are a commercial business, and as such, they will continue to do what they consider as commercially viable. Whilst I do not agree with their current marketing methods (ie presuming to know more than what the average modeller does about what the average modeller wants), their marketing must be working for them with their other era (WW2 and later) kits.

I believe that Eduard is purposefully moving towards "mainstream" aircraft types to maximise thier profits (as any business would), and not because there was a genuine hole in the WW1 kit market (c'mon, the DML triplane and SPAD XIII are actually very nice kits). We must not forget that WW1 is still a niche' market in many respects (how much aftermarket attention do we get for example?), and I predict that Eduard will fire out the Dr1 and SPAD XIII and leave WW1 alone for a while to persue their established WW2 and potential jet market base. Afterall, they basically built the WW1 market in the last 10-15 years and they likely feel like they owe the WW1 modeller nothing. And I think that's a fair stand point.

So whilst I don't like what they are doing with their marketing (and will happily argue about it), I am happy to acknowledge what we owe them.

Market wise, Roden will continue to persue their "low-tech high volume" strategy. I think there is a real opportunity for Roden to step up to the plate and really start to corner the market - all they need to do is start adding things like photo etch in their kits and they will take it (yes Roden frustrate me in that they continue to refuse to step in to the 21st century with what they include in their kits, but hey, I am picky ). Other than that, I predict that we may start seeing a small resurgence in some of the Eduard "Spin-Offs" like Gavia (ie the Albatros D.I for example). We may start seeing modified Eduard kits come out, perhaps things like a mainstream Nieuport 24/27 based on the Eduard N17 or the like (Hi-Tech persued this strategy with rather mixed results). At least that's what I hope

BC