An update

[theClaw]

I know that this is only one example but I have enticed three men under thirty to play this on line game and two of them play a lot, probably 20-30 teams a year. They certainly play more than me. I believe that once the game is played it has a peculiar draw. These two even play face to face with the cards and dice! The key to good sales is effective marketing, it always has and always will be the case...as long as the product has value. I for one believe this game does, on line and face to face.

[ROBERTLATORRE]

[quote:9a732479f2="theClaw"]I know that this is only one example but I have enticed three men under thirty to play this on line game and two of them play a lot, probably 20-30 teams a year. They certainly play more than me. I believe that once the game is played it has a peculiar draw. These two even play face to face with the cards and dice! The key to good sales is effective marketing, it always has and always will be the case...as long as the product has value. I for one believe this game does, on line and face to face.[/quote:9a732479f2]

Claw, that is terrific to hear!!! I tried to convert the guys I have a regular poker game with (all under 40 crowd) to try strat for a night, got laughed out of the room, and they are terrible poker players!!

Tried again a few months later, same result. I'm not giving up though!!!

[theClaw]

They are huge baseball fans and really into stats, that was a big part of it.

[jayhawk81]

"Claw, that is terrific to hear!!! I tried to convert the guys I have a regular poker game with (all under 40 crowd) to try strat for a night, got laughed out of the room, and they are terrible poker players!!

Tried again a few months later, same result. I'm not giving up though!!! "


Keep trying Rob, once they throw you out of poker night you'll have one more evening to think up crazy Strat leagues.

[Knerrpool]

[quote:1a05ec3eea]I doubt that any amount of marketing could result in growth [/quote:1a05ec3eea]

I don't fully agree with this. While it may be true that the fan base is generally older than 20/30, why wouldn't marketing result in growth? I am over 40 but have only been playing for a year and a half. I can tell you I would have started playing a heck of a lot sooner if I had known about it. I only heard about it fourth-hand (friend of a friend of a friend....) and had to search online to find it. Still have never seen an ounce of marketing. How many others like me are out there that don't know about it?

[keyzick]

I don't think we're maxed on customers either. I think the target customer base is baseball fans and stat junkies. That may only be two categories, but that is a HUGE market.

I understand the thought-process in some people thinking SOM interest is limited to 40+ year olds who grew up during more of the board game era, but think about it - those of you (us) that play or played the dice game, also have a love for baseball and it's intricate statistics and relevance.

I think that's what the marketing efforts have to hit upon - those who have a[i:db1b6dde31][b:db1b6dde31] passion [/b:db1b6dde31][/i:db1b6dde31]for baseball. I believe that passion goes hand-in-hand with a passion for stats associated with the game.

That may sound limiting, but that's a very BIG limit.

Marketing is meant to influence thought and attract attention. Once the marketing accomplishes their goal, and drives greater numbers to investigate or try the product, it's then up to the product to deliver the goods (be it price, features, etc..).

[Palanion]

Marketing should be the number-one item on the SOM Online to-do list.
Sporting News has never, repeat never, given SOM Online a share in their overall company marketing budget. At the very least, SOM Online breaks even within itself, but SN is cognizant of the bigger picture in that we gamers also visit/use their other products AND click-through their advertisers, which probably generates more ad purchasing in their entire product line.
If you visit [url=http://www.strat-o-matic.com]Strat's main site[/url], you'll see that they haven't even updated their Links page for all the new SOM Online stuff here (ATG4?!). And while some blame goes to Strat itself, SOM Online is not their product, so the blame also falls heavily here.
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Strat-O-Matic, the original, has received tons of publicity this year because of its 50th anniversary. From newspapers to news broadcasts to seamheads.com, and so forth. Seamheads.com has even done some Strat-specific podcasts. And before that Strat received quite a bit of pub for the Negro League set.
The original game (including the CD-Rom) is still doing very well and due to its revamped Web site, excellent customer service, and the publicity, it is probably doing even better now than a few years ago.

Price point should be also near the top of the to-do list (if not #2) for SOM Online.
I used to play here much more often, but my love of the original SOM game has been rekindled. I play many games on the CD-Rom every week. I have introduced a buddy to cards-and-dice and we play once or twice a week.
What's the cost? Well... I've paid about $200 over the last year for a handful of seasons of the CD-Rom and $0 digging out my out cards-and-dice from 1984 to 1991. And I can play them over and over and over and over. For $200 here, I get much less product (10 seasons vs. unlimited).

In fact, I joined a Strat keeper league currently using the 2010 season cards. The league dues is $6 to cover Web hosting, use of a draft site, and league trophy. Six bucks for a full 162-game season, where I manage all of my road games manually, have a 40-man roster enabling promotion/demotion to the minors, can plan the team's future with trading draft picks and players and assessing my franchise's real-life farm system, etc. A full year of GM and in-game management fun for $6.

I'll tell you what, if SOM Online added a game-per-day option... I suspect we'd see more keeper leagues here.

[wavygravy2k]

I'm sure this would probably never pan out but might as well try. How about [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing]Affiliate Marketing[/url]?

[quote:ad113f3b42]Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts.[/quote:ad113f3b42]

[The Conndor]

[quote:79062fe74e="LMBombers"]I agree with you voovits. elsenorbeavis would play more teams but not spend a dime more than he already does. If everyone else does the same that does not help TSN at all and a price reduction would not help. I still think it is all about marketing and finding those people that would play but just are not aware that TSN/SOM even exists. That is where more income will be found for them.[/quote:79062fe74e]

I somewhat agree with this, at least the first part. I am a single 30-something guy who struggles just to pay his bills... but when I can afford it, I have absolutely no problem with spending $24.95 for 8 weeks of entertainment. I have very little success and don't earn any free credits, but I am addicted to the game as well as corresponding with the great community of managers. As it is, I just play when I can, and even when my teams stink (which is usually), I love the challenge of trying to become better.

Would I play more teams if the price was lower? Possibly, but personally I would rather see money spent on improving the existing site and server than on trying to advertise to attract new managers to the site. All of the discounts in the world aren't going help allow TSN/SOM to keep the game as realistic and comprehensive as possible... which I think is why most of us enjoy it. The realism of the game, as far as I can tell, is a primary if not the reason that so many of us play. I don't see how TSN/SOM could keep the site as comprehensive as possible if they were charging significantly less per team... there might be savings in the short run, but like voovits suggested, more traffic would likely cause more server issues, which would turn people away, and the increase in traffic may not be enough to allow the administrators to afford to keep improving the game. I am no computer expert, and I might be way off base here... I just think that improving the existing product, and making it easier to find, would be the overall best usage of funds.

In reference to latorrer's statement that the customer base is already maxed out... it's a good point and a valid concern, but even considering what I said above, I still think it would be worth at least exploring to see whether there might be more interest out there. I just think this does not have to be an "all or nothing" solution... i.e., there could be [i:79062fe74e]some[/i:79062fe74e] price reduction(s) as well as [i:79062fe74e]some[/i:79062fe74e] increase in advertising or database upkeep. This does not have to be one idea versus the other... there are a variety of concerns and issues here, so perhaps there are a combination of solutions.

[Jgebby]

how about a cash box to be used to balance trades.teams would still have the same cap but sometimes salaries cant be matched up equally