Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Gareth-Michael Skarka's bass-ackward comment about my Kickstarter project...

Last week I made a post about how I was planning to do a Kickstarter project but I had not decided what to do it on. Gareth made a comment to it and referred to it as being "bass-ackward". Now some of you are expecting this to be a tirade again Gareth and his comments.  It's not. Who this is an interesting teaching lesson moment on two different side of business thought.  OK what is more important, the product OR the delivery system that delivers the product? Based on Gareth comment I would think he fall under the camp of "the product"; I, on the other hand would fall under the side of the "delivery system".  Let me explain this one real quick with a few questions: How many people think they can make a better burger than McDonalds? How many of you think McDonalds burgers are "bad to poor quality"? How many people think McDonalds has a better delivery system to get their burgers to the customer? If you make a better burger than McDondalds, why haven't you put them out of business?  If McDonalds burgers are of "bad to poor quality" why haven't they gone out of business?

Because it has nothing to do with the quality of the product, but everything to do with the delivery system of that product.  I think we all can agree McDonalds burgers and not that great (Their french fries are another thing completely) and you could make a better on then their at your home.  McDonalds has build a system where they can deliver burgers consistently of a certain quality of burger to all their customers in all their locations.  Best of all their system is so simple 16 year kids (abundant cheap labor) can operate the system with easy by following directions.  The system is what is important.

Let's make it easier for those who might just say McDonalds is completely different then a RPG. Gareth sells at RPGNow.com and I think he sell at his own site too. Which one of these websites do you think he sell more at, his personal website where customer could get his personal touch with each and every sale that he might make or at RPGNow.com where they get thousands of customers a day who get a constant buying experience with each and every sale? I am going to have to say I think RPGNow.com is the winner.  RPGNow has build the correct system that hundreds of vendors have used to sell to tens of thousands of customers. Kickstarter follows that same model. So Best Buy, Radio Shack, Target, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, AMC Movies theaters and DisneyThey have built a great system where what you are "selling" does matter, the delivery system is what is important.  You might have the best product in the would, but what does it matter if no one or not enough people can get access to it to keep your business going?  Just a thought.  Talk to you later...

1 comment:

  1. You clearly aren't grasping the fundamental difference of crowdfunding, Louis.

    It's not a delivery system. It's a social-sourcing system. A community-building system.

    If you're seeing the successes of RPG developers on Kickstarter, and your instinct is "I gotta get me some of that", and then you're looking around for a product to do, just so you can jump in, it's going to be obvious.

    It's going to look like exactly what it is: Bandwagoning. People aren't going to respond to that. (Or at least, not in the way that you're hoping.)

    ReplyDelete