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2,148 Posts
Oh how I love these threads.
You learn alot. Specially if you are a modeler outside the big 3. (Germany, USA and Britian.)
At the end of the day we keep saying its a hobby but forget to imply that its not a cheap hobby. I do want to own a MikroMetakit or a Brawa loco but....you know the story....wife, kids etc.
Before the advent of the internet there were two brands in Turkey. Lima and Maerklin. Both entered the market with startsets.
The usual AC/DC saga. People who had Maerklins still is continuing with Maerklin. Lima? Ceased to exist. Lima owners (DC people) were left in a limbo state.
It may sound funny, but here in Turkey, there is a very large contingency of railroad modellers modeling British OO outline.
Quote :As regards the Roco Hornby statement there is a difference between quality of product and quality of management, Hornby have a very high quality of management whereas Roco have a very high quality of product. Just shows you that there is more to succeeding in business than having a good product. Good management skills are far more important as you can get by with a mediocre product better than you can with a mediocre manager Neil S wood. Unquote
It all started out with a very clever guy full of enthusiasm towards all sorts of hobbies. He started off with being the representative of Scalextric race cars. It was a huge success. You all know who owns Scalextric. Seeing the market as it is they made a deal with this guy such that if a British citizen is buying an X Hornby product for, lets say 10 quid in Britain so are we in Turkey. Now this is called managerial success in my book.
This increased the rate of newcomers to this hobby and infact filled in the gap where Lima left. Sales soared. There is one FLM dealer and one Maerklin dealer in Turkey. Both, their selling prices are double the amount of European prices ! Doing a lot of harm to this hobby.
This guy is now the representative of all Bachmann products ( excl. trains.) Woodland , Liliput etc and lately became the rep of ESU.
I simply admire Hornbys strategy that they took over here. It became a win win situation.
Roco wanted to enter the market thru this guy as well. They came over. Two days were spent with intensive negotiations. He wanted the same conditions as Hornby. i.e if a product is sold at lets say 200 euros in Germany or Austria then the end users here should be able to buy at the same level. We asked them a simple question. How many Locos or products are you selling to Turkey? Answer is : none. Then wouldn't it be plus to Roco if they sold at least something. Something is better than null in a new and growing market.
The deal didn't work out. Who do you think won at the end of the day?
Baykal
You learn alot. Specially if you are a modeler outside the big 3. (Germany, USA and Britian.)
At the end of the day we keep saying its a hobby but forget to imply that its not a cheap hobby. I do want to own a MikroMetakit or a Brawa loco but....you know the story....wife, kids etc.
Before the advent of the internet there were two brands in Turkey. Lima and Maerklin. Both entered the market with startsets.
The usual AC/DC saga. People who had Maerklins still is continuing with Maerklin. Lima? Ceased to exist. Lima owners (DC people) were left in a limbo state.
It may sound funny, but here in Turkey, there is a very large contingency of railroad modellers modeling British OO outline.
Quote :As regards the Roco Hornby statement there is a difference between quality of product and quality of management, Hornby have a very high quality of management whereas Roco have a very high quality of product. Just shows you that there is more to succeeding in business than having a good product. Good management skills are far more important as you can get by with a mediocre product better than you can with a mediocre manager Neil S wood. Unquote
It all started out with a very clever guy full of enthusiasm towards all sorts of hobbies. He started off with being the representative of Scalextric race cars. It was a huge success. You all know who owns Scalextric. Seeing the market as it is they made a deal with this guy such that if a British citizen is buying an X Hornby product for, lets say 10 quid in Britain so are we in Turkey. Now this is called managerial success in my book.
This increased the rate of newcomers to this hobby and infact filled in the gap where Lima left. Sales soared. There is one FLM dealer and one Maerklin dealer in Turkey. Both, their selling prices are double the amount of European prices ! Doing a lot of harm to this hobby.
This guy is now the representative of all Bachmann products ( excl. trains.) Woodland , Liliput etc and lately became the rep of ESU.
I simply admire Hornbys strategy that they took over here. It became a win win situation.
Roco wanted to enter the market thru this guy as well. They came over. Two days were spent with intensive negotiations. He wanted the same conditions as Hornby. i.e if a product is sold at lets say 200 euros in Germany or Austria then the end users here should be able to buy at the same level. We asked them a simple question. How many Locos or products are you selling to Turkey? Answer is : none. Then wouldn't it be plus to Roco if they sold at least something. Something is better than null in a new and growing market.
The deal didn't work out. Who do you think won at the end of the day?
Baykal
