- Joined
- Jan 14, 2006
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- 1,236
I was talking to my dad one day on our way home from a race and I brought up this topic. I wondered why the large manufacturers that can produce a large quantity of entry level boats, don't make those entry level boats upgradeable to a race-able APBA/IMPBA/NAMBA comptetive boat. Maybe start with a race-able boat and tune it down for entry level use.
I am a marketer in silicon valley along with experience in promotion and graphic design. I work with companies with revenue of up 800M annually and 1200 employees world-wide. Even with this many people and resources for market research and analysis from reports to test marketing, I konw that still many products get released because of someone's strong interest or support and that is based on a best guess but more so a passion for the idea. So then the product becomes successful or not usually because of such support or lack there of. C'mon... somebody made a "pet rock" sell. There couldn't have been much research done in making that happen. Just the right person that beleived in it enough that they were willing to push it forward. Traxxas has a nice 36" electric boat... would have been great if they made fiberglass and not plastic and maybe able to accomodate nitro. I know Super Tiger also makes a RTR 40 boat but the price is kind of high (450.00) for an RTR compared to the performance it delivers (38 mph). What the market needs is someone who truly understands all aspects of the market to get the most out of their investment.
So I am a nitro fan... born and raised... and I would like to see it come back strong. This is just my humble opinion so don't shoot me for sharing but I think it could help is the support from the large manufacturers. I remember when 20 mono was the biggest class at any local meet. There would be 20 to 30 boats in the class. I remember my dad always reminding me that it would be good just to make it to the top 10. People ran Super-Tigers then K/B engines... then came the Rossis... and OS Max's. You ran a prather, or a muck hull... then came cal crafts... and it was the class to get started in if you were entering into the sport. And there were many women and kids that were a force ot be reckoned with. To me this is the perfect size boat to bring back.... thinking along the size of the small seaducer, you can rig it for electric or a nitro .15 or .18 out of the box but make all the upgrades to add .21 size engine. That way the entry-level guy can upgrade it if he wishes but never have to buy a new boat to go 50 mph... The boat is small enough not to take up too much room in a guys condo or apartment and the deep vee design can accomodate both left and right turns easily making it easier for novices to handle. I know .21 engines have come and gone in popularity and prices have sure played a part but is there still K/B engines hanging around somewhere?... as well as Rossi... maybe even Super Tiger than of course you have the CMB and the new AA. There are still choices. Just need volume from the market to make room for a price drop.
I have brought this up before to manufacturers and I have heard the arguments that the market of racers is too small to cater to them. I am not saying cater to racers but just consider them in the product development process. Consider it this way it's a funded demonstration/promo/sales force. My guess is that there is approximately 4000 active racers nation wide racing at about 150 events annually. If 25% bought and raced such a product a manufacturer would gain 1000 demonstrators, and promototers, not to mention feed back a manufacturer would gain from the R&D... as all of these guys purchasing the boat would not only generate revenue but help promote it just in their own useage of the product. I think it would help as well if the boat was some sort of scale of a real super boat. This may appeal more to the leisure boater. I think this has helped the popularity of the Proboat series.
And so then... knowing that the same engine design has a life cycle of about 20 years or mor1 and the same boat design has a life cycle of about 10 years or more a large enough manufacturer could invest in the line's future by keeping the price low from the start with the strategy of saturating the market so that it has a base large enough to live off of parts reaching a break even point in about three years and increasing profit after that. Of course waiting three years to be profitable could only be done by a large manufacturer but should be a tolerable timeline for a manufacturer starting from scratch with an intent of selling the same product for 10 years or more.
This may work for a gas boat as well.
I think a manufacturer with the pockets to build a complete solution would benefit long term and not only support but drive the R/C boating market to a new level and would reap the benefits of the revenue for years to come. Wish I had the cash and the resources. I would certainly do it myself. Might want to start a R/C Boat Racing Magazine along with it. Don't laugh! Apple took the same approach. They published a magazine primarily to promote their own products but now sell ads to a host of software and hardware developers making products for their products.
Well... there is my brain dump on this subject. Not sure if this is the most appropriate place but thought I would dump it all in a public forum and see what comes back.
I am a marketer in silicon valley along with experience in promotion and graphic design. I work with companies with revenue of up 800M annually and 1200 employees world-wide. Even with this many people and resources for market research and analysis from reports to test marketing, I konw that still many products get released because of someone's strong interest or support and that is based on a best guess but more so a passion for the idea. So then the product becomes successful or not usually because of such support or lack there of. C'mon... somebody made a "pet rock" sell. There couldn't have been much research done in making that happen. Just the right person that beleived in it enough that they were willing to push it forward. Traxxas has a nice 36" electric boat... would have been great if they made fiberglass and not plastic and maybe able to accomodate nitro. I know Super Tiger also makes a RTR 40 boat but the price is kind of high (450.00) for an RTR compared to the performance it delivers (38 mph). What the market needs is someone who truly understands all aspects of the market to get the most out of their investment.
So I am a nitro fan... born and raised... and I would like to see it come back strong. This is just my humble opinion so don't shoot me for sharing but I think it could help is the support from the large manufacturers. I remember when 20 mono was the biggest class at any local meet. There would be 20 to 30 boats in the class. I remember my dad always reminding me that it would be good just to make it to the top 10. People ran Super-Tigers then K/B engines... then came the Rossis... and OS Max's. You ran a prather, or a muck hull... then came cal crafts... and it was the class to get started in if you were entering into the sport. And there were many women and kids that were a force ot be reckoned with. To me this is the perfect size boat to bring back.... thinking along the size of the small seaducer, you can rig it for electric or a nitro .15 or .18 out of the box but make all the upgrades to add .21 size engine. That way the entry-level guy can upgrade it if he wishes but never have to buy a new boat to go 50 mph... The boat is small enough not to take up too much room in a guys condo or apartment and the deep vee design can accomodate both left and right turns easily making it easier for novices to handle. I know .21 engines have come and gone in popularity and prices have sure played a part but is there still K/B engines hanging around somewhere?... as well as Rossi... maybe even Super Tiger than of course you have the CMB and the new AA. There are still choices. Just need volume from the market to make room for a price drop.
I have brought this up before to manufacturers and I have heard the arguments that the market of racers is too small to cater to them. I am not saying cater to racers but just consider them in the product development process. Consider it this way it's a funded demonstration/promo/sales force. My guess is that there is approximately 4000 active racers nation wide racing at about 150 events annually. If 25% bought and raced such a product a manufacturer would gain 1000 demonstrators, and promototers, not to mention feed back a manufacturer would gain from the R&D... as all of these guys purchasing the boat would not only generate revenue but help promote it just in their own useage of the product. I think it would help as well if the boat was some sort of scale of a real super boat. This may appeal more to the leisure boater. I think this has helped the popularity of the Proboat series.
And so then... knowing that the same engine design has a life cycle of about 20 years or mor1 and the same boat design has a life cycle of about 10 years or more a large enough manufacturer could invest in the line's future by keeping the price low from the start with the strategy of saturating the market so that it has a base large enough to live off of parts reaching a break even point in about three years and increasing profit after that. Of course waiting three years to be profitable could only be done by a large manufacturer but should be a tolerable timeline for a manufacturer starting from scratch with an intent of selling the same product for 10 years or more.
This may work for a gas boat as well.
I think a manufacturer with the pockets to build a complete solution would benefit long term and not only support but drive the R/C boating market to a new level and would reap the benefits of the revenue for years to come. Wish I had the cash and the resources. I would certainly do it myself. Might want to start a R/C Boat Racing Magazine along with it. Don't laugh! Apple took the same approach. They published a magazine primarily to promote their own products but now sell ads to a host of software and hardware developers making products for their products.
Well... there is my brain dump on this subject. Not sure if this is the most appropriate place but thought I would dump it all in a public forum and see what comes back.