GW Watch: The Day Everything Changed?
January 23, 2014 by warzan
Being a fan of the largest gaming company in the history of little plastic men, can be a very time consuming thing, perhaps even all encompassing! So excuse me while I indulge this little obsession once again 😉
Today maybe (and I stress maybe) the day everything changed at Games Workshop. Sure we can dig away at rumors and speculation, but sometimes the signs that something is changing are in plain sight. They can be very slight, but if you know what you're looking for…
For any of the ‘Marketers’ out there among you (and by that I mean everyone as we’re all bedroom marketers at the end of the day) there was an interesting shift in today's email from Games Workshop.
Let me show you…
That right there I believe is a shift in pattern for GW, of course I’m happy to be proved wrong on this, but I have dug through some past emails and generally don’t see any emphasis on price.
To have two statements of ‘Value’ connected directly to price in this email, surprised me… because that's not how Games Workshop roll.
The company doesn't have a marketing department, but even so have been very careful 'Marketers' over the years, and have always pegged their ‘Value’ on other aspects such as design and intellectual property, but never price.
Rightly so as arguably the best miniature producer in the world (I only put arguably in there as someone will no doubt want to argue with me about that!) they had oodles of strengths to attach the value of their brand to , in fact everything but price.
So for a company that wanted to be seen as a luxury brand, attaching any value to price is a highly risky move if not handled correctly.
Case in point, is you are unlikely to see ‘Only $500!’ or ‘One Fantastic Price!’ ever uttered on official Apple promotional materials.
Because for Apple products they attach the value to the ‘unique’ things about an Apple product, things you cannot realistically debate.
Is £105 really a ‘fantastic’ price for a Tyranid swarm… well i would say that is highly debatable (even for Beasts of War who ‘Never Mention Price!’)
So what are we seeing?
1) Someone new taking over the newsletters who doesn't understand the ‘value’ proposition within GW, in which case this is likely to be a one off.
2) GW are perhaps running out of ideas a little and are resorting to tried and tested sales speak to see if it has any positive effect on their Conversion Rate.
3) Perhaps this is part of something more thought out, where the language of ‘price’ is starting to become more important to them. (Perhaps part of The Chairman's (And CEO too now lets not forget!) strategy to sell harder!)
As someone who's been involved in marketing for ‘quite a while’ now, it doesn't sit well for me. To be in a position where your whole value conversation shifts from look at these exquisite models you will find no where else on earth, to look at the cost of these models ‘it’s ONLY!’ blah blah … is a road most wouldn't ever want to venture down.
So is it a blip, am I doing the kooky blogger thing of seeing a mountain where there is a mole hill, we’ll that’s what the comments section below is for…
… you tell me!
" you are unlikely to see ‘Only $500!’ or ‘One Fantastic Price!’ ever uttered on official Apple promotional materials"
or I could just be being pedantic! (Don’t rule that out as it does happen! 😉 )
Nah, I think you’ve nailed it. There’s a multi page thread over on Dakka asking what GW need to do to get people buying again. Amongst the usual infighting and tangents, the two overwhelming things are “better rules” and price. Better rules would take time and investment, but price is something they can start to address immediately and at no real cost. Actually, price. Isn’t really the issue, but value more pertinently, and these things you’ve highlighted certainly are focussing in that.
Of course, you can pick these up from independents with a further discount, but *shrug*
I think “lower prices” is a bit naive, what they actually need to do is provide better value for money, dropping prices would do this short term, but eventually they’d have to raise them again due to costs or a VAT change or something, what would really help is a pocket money range in the £5 area, maybe with blind bag models or something.
That sounds like a FANTASTIC idea, actually. I can vividly remember being a young teenager, just getting in to the hobby in the mid 90’s , not having much pocket money a week and eyeing up the prices in my local GW store, wishing I had a little more money saved up or wishing GW products weren’t so pricey. This was back in the days when a Blister pack of five METAL (lead) human / orc sized miniatures cost you £2:99! (I really didn’t know how good we had it back then….) and a rhino tank cost you five or… Read more »
I too remember when all this were fields… actually thinking back to then, the perfect vehicles for a collectable game is already a GW property(well two actually) Necromunda and Gorkamorka, combine the two into an Armageddon hive game: a few starter boxes for the houses/factions then blind bags with a couple of rules cards(equipment etc to use in the game) and a mini(with its rules).
The main thing you change with price is who buys from you.
May be a blip Warren, it will take more then a one off incident for GW to show use they are serious.
am i missing something? ive racked my brains trying to focus on what the hell direction games workshop is going in for many years having many armies and teams etc from multiple games workshop ranges whilst i had a good job and could afford it. however as we all know there are times of boom and bust and today are economy is bust.. we cant deny this and everyone at some point has a moment where he or she is robbing peter to pay paul or like me their luck changes they become disabled and cant work or something similar.… Read more »
I think you make a good point that GW seems out of touch. Having given it some thought due to being frustrated with poor rules, army balances, and pricing, I have decided much the same. The general feeling I get is that GW is run by ruthless business people who up until recent years have enjoyed a comfortable monopoly, and rather than rewarding gamers with discounts on minis and effort in rules design, they simply maximized their profits. However, you can only be like Apple if you offer that level of quality. My point is that I believe a good… Read more »
Speaking of being like Apple, even Apple doesn’t work in a vacuum when their customers become upset. Look at what they have done with the iPad, iPhone and iOS in response to previous customer disappointments or problems. GW, on the other hand, seems completely oblivious to what is going on around them in the market. Kind of reminds me more like Kodak with the rise of digital cameras while they focused on the wonderful margins they made on film. Of course, we all know where that lead. As for the article, the particular emphasis on price is easy to spot… Read more »
I think I’m in a fairly similar position to you, Wolf. I started out in the hobby twenty or so years ago ; (also in Hull, before there was even a Games Workshop store in Hull at all. I think it was just “Model Box” off of George Street , which I think had two branches in the city, and The Model Shop, on Ferrensway Opposite Paragon Station. It all seemed quite specialist and exclusive until GW opened a store round the side and across the street from the City Hall ; and that’s probably when I really got suckered… Read more »
Warren , forgive me for the absolute Disagreed and Agreed function of your heading… Its all the same Gw do this people aren’t happy, Gw do this People aren’t happy… Point of fact with people and on this note the complaint about prices when in fact the truth of the matter is quite a loaded and unbalanced argument for both sides and here is why. We as a community love miniatures and good and bad and in our passionate hobby at times become misty eyed. I love the memories of how i started but today get everything i dreamed (apart… Read more »
Yes I agree , the pricing question is probably quite a difficult one even for the mighty and holy GW to get right, especially seeing as they fail to seem to get the balance right with each differing box they sell. I’m guessing it’s difficult to get a consistant price running through your entire product range when your product range is so large and varied; although a price for weight system seems fair to me, but maybe it’s too fair; I don’t know. I don’t really concern my self with the argument about good minis and bad minis either. If… Read more »
Im going to use that phrase alot now…
Hip Replacement
One Fantastic Price….
your hip
Yeah! the usual cost of a hip being …. priceless, as they don’t grow on trees. In a laboratory perhaps grown from a skin cell on a petri dish or something maybe but not yet on trees. Science is good but it aint quite that advance yet. lolz
I read this e-mail literally moments before logging on to BoW and seeing Warren’s article. I had, myself, noticed the unusual focus on price. I’m not sure it is great value – I’m sure someone better at maths can do the sums on that. But I can’t remember seeing GW mention price like this for a long time. Recent issues of WD, for instance, make a big effort to ‘sell’ you a product with all the lovely pictures, then finally reveal a page with the prices on. The most recent one had me coughing up cornflakes, with packs of 3… Read more »
From the site, if you order the Termagaunt or Hormagaunt swarms, it costs £27 for 20.
From that picture, you get 80 of those gaunts, which comes in at 108. Gargoyles are 18, while the Fex (can only be bought in packs of two now?) is probably around 27.
So just by looking at the GW prices, you’re effectively getting the Gargoyles and Fex for free.
95 models for just over 105 quid, isn’t a bad deal most of the time either.
TBH, I’d be interested to see if they’d do that kind of deal with other armies.
They’ve already been doing these deals for a bit now. These new “warhost” or whatever, boxed sets are replacing the old battleforce sets. more expensive, but a MUCH better percentage of discount. go total up the Space Marine and Dark Elf boxes as well. it’s quite a discount over buying all the kits individually.
Haven’t seen them focus on price since the “troll” paper newsletter. Yes newsletters came in paper and not by email once! Could just be that they have finally recognized they have competition…
Com…competition? What is this strange word? We at the Games Workshop bubble never heard of it. Please enlighten us wise master.
wow! I remember “Troll” hahaha! gawd that takes me back! those were the frickin days…..
Looking at the Tyranids my gut reaction is ‘that is actually not a bad price’. I do not game so I purely look at models from a painting and modelling perspective so in game terms those models could be awful as far as I know. But an average of just over a quid a model seems to me to be quite good value for money considering the pleasure I would get from building and painting them. Considering these days in London a pint of beer is about £3-£5 depending where you go and that literally gets flushed down the toilet.… Read more »
But that would take the Perrys giving up their dayjob at GW
One thing that struck me about these deals is that I think this is the first time one of their bundles has actually been cheaper than buying the items in the bundle individually*, which really is a noteworthy change.
You’re saving about a tenner on the Carnifex brood. Compare that against the pre-existing Carnifex Crusher Brood, which contains three Carnifexes … for the price of three Carnifexes.
* with the exception of the absurd every Ultramarine ever for £7k bundle
I think for a time, most Battleforce boxes gave you something “free”. A quick look now, picking the Tau box at Random
Crisis Team (40), Piranha (18), Stealth Team (16), Fire warrior team (22), if you bought that all separately, it would be 96, whereas the box is 75. I.e. you almost get the Firewarriors free.
Note, I’ve not gone through the rest.
Ah yes, was forgetting the battleboxes and batallions.
I agree that this seems to herald a change in their strategy but I am unconvinced it is the big day we have all been waiting for. A shift from a sales strategy to a market strategy would be wonderful but this might just represent an adjustment in the sales strategy. GW might post the prices more prominently to inform consumers that they are THE place to get citadel minis -or show a price you can expect to pay at any store with a gw trade agreement -or to combat the Chinese counterfeiters. -or they may have finally been slapped… Read more »
FW have started doing deals like as well so it’s not an isolated thing. Did GW not start offering discounted deals at the back end of last year as well? I would tend to agree that GW are probably realising that falling sales may be linked to rising prices and are trying to address that.
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Home/Search-Results.html
FW have been doing bundle deals for over a year now – and they’re a significant saving compared to buying the components individually, unlike GW’s “bundles” that cost exactly the same as buying the individual boxes together. But maybe they have finally learn’t something and these new releases are paving the way ahead…… we can only hope.
The recent financial report may have been a bit of a reminder that simply believing in their own myth is no longer sufficient, so they have hired Honest John
Wonder if the new cases will be carpeted.
On the outside
@warzan I think I understand what you are saying but I think that it really depends on how you view GW. GW, and maybe some of their fans, probably think of themselves as the Apple (as you say) or Ferrari of the miniature world. However that only works if you really are very very very good at what you do (like Apple and Ferrari). I would argue that for many (but not all consumers) GW are not perceived as being excellent at what they do (rightly or wrongly). For example, Finecast was a massive failure in terms of quality. I… Read more »
I hope people understand what Im trying to get at here. Sometimes analogies dont really work so well…
I think in some respects the Ferrari comparison is an apt one. You don’t see Ferrari advertising their products anywhere, they don’t have sales, and they don’t offer value. GW is similar in those ways. In other ways they’re different. A Ferrari is a status symbol in a way a GW product is not, so GW can’t rely on that to drive their sales. Unlike Coca Cola, GW aren’t actively competing against other brands in the market. Coke can only dream of having a monopoly on the soft drinks industry in the way GW have exerted one on the wargaming… Read more »
It worked fine mate.
I don’t know if it’s so much a fundamental change of marketing tactic but to get people to look at the price of the bundles and notice that they are actually discounting now. It’s been a long standing gripe that battle forces and bundles didn’t actually represent anything of value, more perhaps convenience. Convenience was even the marketing point on their recent bundles, that you could get it in “one click” but you could easily see by totting up what you were getting there was no real saving to be made over just buying what you actually wanted rather than… Read more »
Overall I think with Chapter House , HiTech, Kromlech etc etc getting in on the whole capitalism routine and seeing a niche in the market that GW has to do something in order to Promote sales. It is a retail company and sometimes you just have to well lets face it ….Compete. Other companies make similar models ( Mantic) and its kicking there collective butts especially in the Warhammer Fantasy market. GW really needs to make that sales pitch cause other companies will and they are the ones that will get the hard earned dollars. Putting your product on a… Read more »
It will be hilarious to see the crazy Xmas Drop Pod by the end of this year ^_^
About being arguably the best… yes, i will argue with you on that when KD:M comes out ;).
GW offered two really great bundles over the holidays, which got little to no attention. The Sigmar’s Blood Scenery was about $40 below buying the individual pieces and the Stormtalons with Stormraven bundle was about the same discount. I think GW realizes they can’t just be an elite model maker with all the smaller companies stealing bits and pieces of market share. I liken GW more to Blizzard than Apple. Blizzard changed the world of gaming with WOW. We are 12 or 15 years later and the game is still one of the most popular out there. Other games have… Read more »
I like the comparison to WOW. However, where as technology costs have come way down over the years, GW’s overhead costs with respect to their retail operations have not. Yes GW faces new competition on the manufacturing side who can offer cheaper minis – but they don’t have the same level of distribution, overhear, nor do they have the same level of retail support. I can walk into any GW store and learn about their gaming systems. The same can not be said about every hobby shop that carries minis.
Well certainly one thing we can say is that over the past two or three months GW have gone back to offering multi-product deals (beyond just the battle forces/army deals) that do actually save you money over individual purchases. They abandoned entirely a couple years ago, so it’s been nice to see their return at any rate.
@warzan I see the point you’re trying to make but I don’t think comparing GW and Apple is quite… fair? You could argue that both companies like to believe themselves above their competition and both have fairly closed doors when it comes to product development but there are some big differences. Apple has become a skilled hunter, they only enter a market that they feel they can offer something unique to. (Think about the mp3 pre-Ipod or the tablet market pre-Ipad) Their product is very carefully tuned to meet customer demands and once they’ve done that they begin their iteration… Read more »
The comparison with Apple was actually first touted to me from ‘people’ within GW 😉
Of course, why wouldn’t a business want to compare themselves with Apple? 😉
Are you sure they were comparing themselves with Apple Mac? you may have misheard them comparing themselves with Beta Mac 😛
The problem with that one is that Apple are a soft ware and computer firm and Games Work shop are a fantasy war game manufacturer. A comparison with them and Dungeons and Dragons or War-machine would have been more suitable and relevant.
Apple do make software (itunes, iOS etc) but they are first and foremost a hardware and have been since they were founded. Comparing GW to Apple is not a bad comparison when it comes to looking at how they view themselves. Neither company presents its products in terms of financial value, they present them as items of quality beyond financial value – much like designer clothes. The implication is that although you get a similar item elsewhere, that item simply won’t carry the quality that the GW or Apple hallmark brings. In both cases, the belief is mistaken (IMO) as… Read more »
Hah! I’m sure you meant ‘people’ who must remain anonymous, but when I read it I first read it I thought. “Warren has proof GW is a really staffed by non-humans!”
They can’t drop their prices without it looking like they were wrong, and that could cause a further drop in the share value. So a push on box sets that contain value for money may tempt some folk back to the GW table. This dosen’t surprise me at all, it’s an easy way for them to provide a cheaper way into playing their core games, without having to drop prices across the board and lose face. I wouldn’t be surprised if new starter sets for the core games offer much better value in the future. The problem they have is… Read more »
Respectfully I have to disagree. Any manufacturer or retailer, when faced with declining sales, will adjust pricing as needed. As a business mentor once said to me a long time ago, “20% of $100 million is a lot more than 60% of $10 million.” I have never forgot this phrase in my almost thirty year career in business. What it means is focusing on the % rather than the $ is a dangerous thing. What GW is doing is focusing too much on the profit made per model rather than maximizing the amount of cash they put in the bank… Read more »
I think with the 25% drop in stock is just the start of the steady decline of GW over the next 5-10 years. Unless GW does some major changes like dropping prices. Lets face it over priced miniatures are over priced miniatures. There are too many other choices for gamers out there and only the die hard fans of GW are willing to keep paying their prices. Eventually they will price themselves out of the market completely. Lets face it in the end no matter how great their models are As Warren said “they are just plastic toy soldiers” and… Read more »
The great thing about this hobby is that you don’t need the Forge World or expensive models to play. It is a scalable game at the end of the day. Encouraging regulars to play in-store is something they need to do more of. A “good” core group of ambassadors is needed. People who don’t work for the company, but gamers who can articulate themselves and demonstrate the game play will aspire the necessity of other models. Cap the points to limit the types of models people bring in on occasion to play in-store and to maximize gaming time. Encourage more… Read more »
My favorite… show a teenager the $30 plastic Space Marine Librarian. Then listen as they tell you how completely whacked a company is that thinks they can charge $30 for one plastic guy. Have them then look at the $29 plastic Cadian Shock Trooper box for ten plastic guys and listen to the fun comments after that. On a serious note, this is the impression GW is leaving on potential new customers. I saw this exact scenario now twice in my local gaming store. What did those kids eventually buy – Infinity. So GW did a great job there. Corvus… Read more »
Frankly I think the more long in the tooth gamers have stopped buying the myth about the best minis on the market a long time ago. I doubt anyone is going to forget the ‘Failcast’ tm debacle nor GW’s feck you attitude to customers complaints or production of a £10 fix it yourself kit. Now we are told that this was always the plan and was a stop gap in converting to plastic for all. After this wonderful display of testing customer gullibility the revenge of the sales fall was seen by all bar the board. They need a new… Read more »
Hopefully this a turn in the right direction.
Tyranids swarm!
Only 110 GBP (205 CAD$) tax not included – in Canada
Only 315 GBP (315 NZ $) – in New Zealand
ouch
Its about 160 gbp in nzd(315) but still sucks. Effectively allows nzers to ONLY pay the Full uk price per model instead of 50% more……is it cheaper to buy a 3d printer than a starter army now?
Yep, we Canadians get it up the back end even with “deals”
Stock was over-priced already….that is just the market catching up to when they took the price over volume strategy. Said strategy takes a lot of intestnal fortitude..so you either stay the course or change. After all, a 1% increase in price provides a 20% increase in profit at the same volume. Just depends on what is important to the company leaders…total profit growth or showing improved $/unit margins. The street wants to keep using the antiquated earning/share…therefore the market correction was inevitable. Lower prices may boost sales, but it won’t improve profits…polish it however you want to, the earnings sag… Read more »
is everyone saying that GW is selling figures for less if you buy bundles? Im a bit confused?
Its a strange new world…
I don’t know man, there are still a lot of retarded ‘1 click bundles’. I bought 2 Swarms because well GW have sort of done this before recently but on limited runs… Perhaps you are right but GW in the past (during their high prices period note) did used to run Mega Forces etc where you saved a LOT of money, and they would mention that in the small print if you read it ha ha. They use to run an Eldar Walker box set where you saved money, when the new Eldar Codex was released.. that vanished pretty quickly.… Read more »
They are offering a slight saving if you buy a bundle…
i loved onlyonepinmans comment likening GW to VW audi but would have to make one small adjustment namely that if GW dont do something radical and soon to address the problems then it will be Skoda being quoted and i do mean before the VW takeover lol
dont Forget Vapnartak wargames show, York racecourse this sunday 2nd Feb 2014 a good day for all young and old
Skoda? They’ll be lucky if they’re even comparable to Lada at this rate. A very expensive Lada! I’m probably being a little unfair. Quality wise, they’re still quite good, just not as consistently good as they used to be and certainly not worth the money. To compare and contrast I recently looked at Mantic specifically to compare prices. 10 Empire State Troops for £15 vs £20 Paladins for £20. That’s 50% more per model for GW. I didn’t bother comparing the Greatswords because I didn’t want to seem like I was trying to beat them up too much. For me… Read more »