That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.
However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.
I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...
StraightSilver wrote: That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.
The new unit they have is pretty small (about the same size as a typical high street branch) and most likely only slightly bigger then the old Plaza store (I haven't seen the temporary downstairs store so can't comment on how it compares to that). The new location is also very out of the way for a flagship store, it's in an okay location if you are making a special trip there as it's only a few minutes walk from 2 tube stations but there is very little in the way of general shopper footfall.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Panic wrote: yeah,
Hopefully flagship means they are creating Warhammer World mk2 in the capital.... one can dream.
Panic...
Sorry, I think you will be disappointed. The new retail unit is only slightly bigger then the typical GW store size.
Honestly, I really don't understand why they don't invest in a big [MOD EDIT - Language! - Alpharius] Warhammer-world scale central shop in Piccadilly Circus or somesuch tourist-heavy location, like the old Troc or where all the tourist tat shops are currently. Play loud music, have paint stations, hire attractive and friendly staff and give demos to everyone who wanders in. Considering the sheer volume of people who travel through central tourist London you'd get heavy footfall and spread the hobby to thousands of cash-rich tourists and kids who pass through daily.
I guess the Covent Garden branch fulfils their tourist quota but it's literally the size of my living room and never has anything I want to buy.
I was told by staff in another store that this is the new flagship, rather than Nottingham, which is being remodelled with three separate shops, including Black Library and presumably less gaming area.
Made real sense to me, the idea of a big store in London for events sounds fantastic
But... looking at the retail space, seems like more of a dinghy than a flagship.
Sometimes in cases like this, retail businesses refer to particular shops as flagship in reference to their sales rather than what they provide. I would think if this is being referred to as flagship by GW internally, then they expect this to be their top store in terms of sales figures.
Asmodai Asmodean wrote: Honestly, I really don't understand why they don't invest in a big [MOD EDIT - Language! - Alpharius] Warhammer-world scale central shop in Piccadilly Circus or somesuch tourist-heavy location, like the old Troc or where all the tourist tat shops are currently. Play loud music, have paint stations, hire attractive and friendly staff and give demos to everyone who wanders in. Considering the sheer volume of people who travel through central tourist London you'd get heavy footfall and spread the hobby to thousands of cash-rich tourists and kids who pass through daily.
Central London shop rents are £££££££. I don't think they could afford to do that even without the current low sales.
Hivefleet Oblivion wrote: I was told by staff in another store that this is the new flagship, rather than Nottingham, which is being remodelled with three separate shops, including Black Library and presumably less gaming area.
Made real sense to me, the idea of a big store in London for events sounds fantastic
But... looking at the retail space, seems like more of a dinghy than a flagship.
I doubt it will be anything to do with the changes in nottingham, which to be honest I don't think are going to make a huge diffrence to the gaming space there. The current shop there is huge, and how much space can a black library shop take up? Looking at the plans there will be some loss of gaming space, but they had more than they needed anyway 99% of the time, and it will be nice to have a shop you might want to go to if your not gaming. Hopefully they update the AC whilst they are at it. It was horrific last time I went during school holidays. My wife and I walked out without spending anything because of the stink.
Well, there's two ways that a central London store can work for a company, firstly, the exposure, if you use your retail locations as advertising, then a high profile location in London is the equivalent of a half time commercial at the Super Bowl.
The other is that central London = beaucoup footfall, if you can parlay this amount of meat passing your door into sales, then it can still make financial sense, it doesn't matter if the rent is £100k a week, if you're generating £200k in profit.
There's also perhaps an argument for being seen to be successful, if people see a store in a high profile location then they will make certain assumptions about the business, if that store makes a loss, then that isn't the end of the world if the other benefits it brings are valuable enough. One has to take a holistic approach with retail chains, some stores may not make a profit, but as long as the losses aren't too severe, the company may decide to continue operating for other reasons.
Having said all that, I don't think any of it really applies to GW.
I was speaking to the staff at the Covent Garden store last week, he stated it is just more a case of re-branding and a refurbish rather than any new superstore type affair.
Azreal13 wrote: Well, there's two ways that a central London store can work for a company, firstly, the exposure, if you use your retail locations as advertising, then a high profile location in London is the equivalent of a half time commercial at the Super Bowl.
The other is that central London = beaucoup footfall, if you can parlay this amount of meat passing your door into sales, then it can still make financial sense, it doesn't matter if the rent is £100k a week, if you're generating £200k in profit.
There's also perhaps an argument for being seen to be successful, if people see a store in a high profile location then they will make certain assumptions about the business, if that store makes a loss, then that isn't the end of the world if the other benefits it brings are valuable enough. One has to take a holistic approach with retail chains, some stores may not make a profit, but as long as the losses aren't too severe, the company may decide to continue operating for other reasons.
Having said all that, I don't think any of it really applies to GW.
This is correct, the rent wouldn't matter compared to the sheer footfall and exposure the central London shop would generate. They could also have a computer games section promoting their computer games with stations, tvs and hang-out area; a Black Library section for people who only read, and a separate, co-joined Bugman's pub serving food and drink. Have a cosplay Space Marine walking around for tourists to take pictures with and get people into the store. Give out free Space Marines on weekends. London is the number one tourist destination in the world and Picadilly / Leicester Square is (unfortunately) the epicentre. It's the equivalent of having a million dollar multi-national marketing campaign all the time.
The problem with GWHQ is that they think extremely fething small. I'm curious why you think it doesn't apply?
Piccadilly circus rents can't be that extortionate. All the major retail spaces once occupied by big brands like the Virgin megastore and HMV have been filled with Crest of London souvenir shops selling literal tat.
GW sees its stores as expenses and not investments; it sees money in and money put but doesn't really care about the whys and hows. Continuing the Apple analogy, Apple utilizes its stores largely as publicity and quality control; the majority of Apple sales don't occur in their stores but the majority of problem solving and fixes do. At the same time Apple designs and places their stores to optimize visibility; this because they believe showing off their happy customers and a strong public interest in their product drives a stronger public interest. GW doesn't need to do things on the same level, nor should they, but when they want to place their products on pedestals and sell them at a premium they should learn something from other companies that have similar market positions in other markets.
Can we infer that the "Warhammer" branding has been successful in the trial stores...or are they charging on without market research?
No, it was not. Most new players now go to the local independent and the Veteran Night is now also relocated to it.
Of course I am just a hater and the sales, as shown in the annual report, are brilliant!
The problem with GWHQ is that they think extremely fething small. I'm curious why you think it doesn't apply?
You already answered your own question, GW think far too small, they time and again act as if they're completely oblivious to, or totally dismissive of, anything that doesn't directly put money in the till.
They wouldn't take the risk on a project like that, and if it didn't make money, rather than looking at the big picture and deciding whether the other benefits were worthwhile, they'd run around like their hair was on fire and close it down at the earliest opportunity.
StraightSilver wrote: That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.
However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.
I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...
If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.
Can we infer that the "Warhammer" branding has been successful in the trial stores...or are they charging on without market research?
No, it was not. Most new players now go to the local independent and the Veteran Night is now also relocated to it.
Of course I am just a hater and the sales, as shown in the annual report, are brilliant!
Wait what, we have an indie store here now? When did that happen? Unless you mean Black Lion, in which case; pass.
StraightSilver wrote: That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.
However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.
I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...
If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.
This used to be* a common GW tactic here for many a year!
*they may still do it but there has been no GW or indie here for a long time! Here's hoping Wayland will open a store here!
Hmm. I'm no sure that's much of an improvement in terms of footfall. I thought they might be going for the British Museum crowd, but that end of Tottenham court road is a little away from the main tourist stretch - I imagine it's still going to be people going there as a destination as its not really a tourist shopping area.
Certainly more exposed being right on the street, but ground floor of the plaza on Oxford street itself probably gets more tourists through the door.
StraightSilver wrote: That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.
However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.
I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...
If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.
This used to be* a common GW tactic here for many a year!
*they may still do it but there has been no GW or indie here for a long time! Here's hoping Wayland will open a store here!
That is illegal. You can't reduce/make late someone's shipment just to better your store. If that happens GW will have a big lawsuit on their hands. Unless that is legal in UK.
StraightSilver wrote: That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.
However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.
I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...
If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.
it's interesting how, when there are many genuine reasons to be cynical about GW, that people have to make up fantasy reasons, too!
We've bought from Dark Sphere for years, there has never been a problem in getting popular items we wanted on the Saturday. In some cases allocations were limited but they even got huge numbers of Space Hulk and Stormclaw, so as long as you ordered early you were fine.
I think was one time they had problems getting hold of some hot Eldar product, IIRC, but that was it.
StraightSilver wrote: That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.
However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.
I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...
If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.
This used to be* a common GW tactic here for many a year!
*they may still do it but there has been no GW or indie here for a long time! Here's hoping Wayland will open a store here!
That is illegal. You can't reduce/make late someone's shipment just to better your store. If that happens GW will have a big lawsuit on their hands. Unless that is legal in UK.
It's well documented. Actually, in an independent model shop I worked in some years the owner there described it happening (and this was in the early 90's!) Deliveries were always OK, the moment a GW store opened down the road they all started turning up late, with reduced quantities and the new lines (which the punters were generally after) were always delayed. In the end he just stopped selling GW stuff.
I've heard of it happening to other stores also, although I've got no idea if it still goes on. I think these days GW are just trying the tactic of using crappy trader deals or just moving new items to direct sales only.
Off-topic for the main thread, but hopefully pertinent to the discussion of GWs current relationship with independents:
GW don't delay product to Independent retailers, as long as they have ordered in time for it to be shipped/received by the release date. There's generally a two day turnaround, three at the most, and as long as orders go in on a Monday (and are paid for) then new releases should be with independents by Wednesday or Thursday. New releases can't be dispatched by Independent Mail Order before Friday, so will usually arrive Saturday or Monday depending on the delivery method.
In the case of limited edition items, independents have been able to order them ready for for release day sales in their retail shops, but are prevented from posting them out until the following week (as they can't order them for mail order until the Monday after release).
There's obviously a slight caveat in that independents who infringe on the trade agreement (such as by breaking street date) may have releases delayed. There's also no accounting for the inability of certain couriers to actually deliver on time.
StraightSilver wrote: That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.
However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.
I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...
If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.
This used to be* a common GW tactic here for many a year!
*they may still do it but there has been no GW or indie here for a long time! Here's hoping Wayland will open a store here!
That is illegal. You can't reduce/make late someone's shipment just to better your store. If that happens GW will have a big lawsuit on their hands. Unless that is legal in UK.
Incompetence is seldom illegal.
If you could prove they intentionally, with malice of forethought, delayed your order to obtain a competitive advantage, then yes, maybe there'd be something they'd be guilty of, although I'm not sure what exactly, and doubt it would carry any notable sanction.
If the warehouse just fluff getting your order out on time? Happens every day.
Opened on 16 March 1999 in a former chalk quarry after three years of building, the site including car parks occupies 240 acres (97 ha) and has a sales floor area of 154,000 m2 (1,600,000 ft2) over two levels, making it the fourth-largest shopping centre in the UK (after the MetroCentre, Trafford Centre and Westfield Stratford City). Elsewhere in Europe only Istanbul's Cevahir Mall and Vienna's (Vösendorf) Shopping City Süd are bigger. The floor plan is a triangular shape with 330 stores, including 3 anchors, 40 cafés and restaurants, and a 13-screen cinema. The centre employs 7,000 people and serves over 27 million visitors a year. A main rival is the Lakeside Shopping Centre and retail park by road 8 miles (13 km) away in West Thurrock, Essex, just across the River Thames or 3.2 miles (5.1 km) point-to-point.
is closing on the 15th of March, for good.
.. Guessing that might well be rent related most probably.
If the warehouse just fluff getting your order out on time? Happens every day.
Except it doesn't happen every day. THe allegation surfaced on this thread in relation to Dark Sphere, and that manifestly doesn't happen.
Yeazh, a guy knew someone in the US who had orders delayed in the early 90s. There's a hot story for ya
Interesting re Bluewater. The (helpful) manager left around 10 months ago, either he saw the writing on the wall or didn't make targets. It's very quiet in there. Last time Hivefleet Jr was in picking up White Dwarf, a mum came in to ask about Dark Vengeance and they cornered her with a heavy sales pitch for £50 of paints and glues, on top. Fortunately, he managed to tell her about Dark Sphere as she fled the store.
You misread my intent, what I meant was that parcels get delayed in warehouses or misrouted every day all over the world, not specifically anything to do with GW.
Azreal13 wrote: You misread my intent, what I meant was that parcels get delayed in warehouses or misrouted every day all over the world, not specifically anything to do with GW.
Yes it happens. But when it didn't happen before and shipments became on time and now all of a sudden a GW store pops up and now it happens that shipments are delayed or misrouted, seems a bit fishy. Ok, once, twice maybe. After the third time there is a pattern set. You do need lots of money though to take GW to court over something like this. I see it as GW doesn't worry about it because who is going to take them to court?
If anything call the UK version of the Business Bureau and let them do the investigation. I am sure they will be checking out all the local gaming stores and see how they got their shipments on time then a GW store shows up close by and then by coincidence shipments become "late".
As for the London store, being outside the mall means they get to call their own opening hours.
Coventry's GW is in a mall, which closed around 6. No late-night gaming there, and was likely to the same for the (now) Tottenham Court Road store.
Davor wrote: If anything call the UK version of the Business Bureau and let them do the investigation. I am sure they will be checking out all the local gaming stores and see how they got their shipments on time then a GW store shows up close by and then by coincidence shipments become "late".
Here we have Trading Standards, but that's more counterfeit goods and safety marks. The Chamber of Commerce will probably get involved if 2 UK-based companies have a spat.
Azreal13 wrote: Again, coincidence and incompetence are neither illegal nor proof.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm saying it would be near impossible to prove any intent, and even then, what 'law' have they broken?
Quite, and at least twice in 2015 customer orders haven't come in on time to my local GW store, but then that's just a poor courier service, hardly the stuff of conspiracy theories.
By accident, found that the store is actually at a fab location. Why?
It's right next to Tiger, a terrific shop, full of craft stuff, and bizarre items like bargain-priced anatomical models and puppet theatres! We headed there yesterday not realising it was next to the new unit.
The Tiger store is very deep; if GW fit theirs out the same way, it should be a decent size, significantly bigger than Bluewater or any of the London stores. Not enormous, by any means (Tiger is two units wide, the GW Is a single unit wide).
You can always stock up on superglue or PVA at Tiger, if you don't mind paying £1 a bottle. THey also sell cork notebooks, which are probably 1/10 of the price of a GW basing kit.
there's an OK sushi shop nearby, the Odeon opposite, and it would be handy for Tottenham Court Road tube if it were not closed for a year or two.
Asmodai Asmodean wrote: Piccadilly circus rents can't be that extortionate. All the major retail spaces once occupied by big brands like the Virgin megastore and HMV have been filled with Crest of London souvenir shops selling literal tat.
It's entirely possible those big brands that used to have the shops still pay the rent. Store rental contracts don't typically have notice clauses, they have break clauses, so at defined points in time you can choose to leave the contract, but in between you're stuck paying the rent whether you have a store on the site or not. Usually you can sublet or get relief on your obligation if someone else uses the site. Having a tat shop on site giving you even small rent relief may be the most cost effective choice (versus operating your own store or simply not using the site but paying for it).
Well, the new store's open. It doesn't appear to be any larger than the old Plaza one it's replaced (smaller, if anything?). The display table looks pretty good, I have to say. Extensive use has been made of the new promethium pipes and they look quite snazzy.
As far as opening offers go, there's the opportunity (today only) to buy some (apparently) exclusive posters ... Damnos, the Emporer's Palace and some fantasy ones.
Necroagogo wrote: As far as opening offers go, there's the opportunity (today only) to buy some (apparently) exclusive posters ... Damnos, the Emporer's Palace and some fantasy ones.
Necroagogo wrote: As far as opening offers go, there's the opportunity (today only) to buy some (apparently) exclusive posters ... Damnos, the Emporer's Palace and some fantasy ones.
The new store in Penrith, NSW, Aus, is also being branded as Warhammer too. The store owner said:
Warhammer Penrith Facebook wrote:Warhammer is a very well known brand, and a well known brand name. A pilot run of 3 stores in the UK was successful and the decision to roll this out on a phased basis has been made by the Company. Therefore Warhammer will be Games Workshop’s retail brand. Not dissimilar to brands like Forgeworld or Black Library, they are brands operating under the GW umbrella.
He then went on to say:
With 'Warhammer' becoming the retail brand, you will see the change as new stores open and relocate.
Well...that's one way of stopping all those people from coming in to your store by mistake looking for Call of Duty and accidentally discovering table top gaming.
TCR is a really good location - yes most of it's currently a building site due to Crossrail, however, long-term it is going to get a lot of footfall. As already mentioned, rents in London are astronomical - I'm paying more than double what I was paying for my Birmingham city centre flat for a slightly larger flat in Zone 4. I'd be looking nearly triple what I was paying if I was in Zone 1 (and in an area I'm not going to get shot in)
ToxicBox wrote: I always cringe when someone comes into GW looking for a console game.
A good salesman should be able to turn those walk ins into sales though. Introduce people to the hobby, invite them back for a demo game, try to sell them on a starter set or something.
ToxicBox wrote: I always cringe when someone comes into GW looking for a console game.
A good salesman should be able to turn those walk ins into sales though. Introduce people to the hobby, invite them back for a demo game, try to sell them on a starter set or something.
Yeah, I can't see how potential new customers can ever be a bad thing. Unless the prices have gotten so bad that people literally gasp and then run away, in which case I can see why GW would want them to not come by! (in all honesty, that has been my experience in GW stores)
I suppose I should thank them for changing their name to one that is more reflective of what their company is. They went from 3 core games with a plethora of smaller ones to just the core games, which will soon drop to two, and then the survival of the other one is not even assured. I wonder if we see these stores tack a "40k" to the end of the signs in the future...
plastictrees wrote: Well...that's one way of stopping all those people from coming in to your store by mistake looking for Call of Duty and accidentally discovering table top gaming.
For what it's worth, I was in Bath yesterday and noticed that their one has been turned into a black 'Warhammer' store too.
Not very well - it seems like a pretty quick and shoddy job with the new sign being SLIGHTLY too large for the space it's in, but it certainly seems to be rolling out...
Alpharius wrote: I'm curious as to why GW thinks that this is a good move?
WARHAMMER (black and white sign) storefronts end up looking like seedy nightclubs.
I guess it'd be for an image change? Warhammer has a more positive image in the public (in general not just wargaming) eye, where as Games Workshop is associated with people that sue small authors.
Alternatively, profits are falling, we have no clue why, let's throw gak at the wall.
Alpharius wrote: I'm curious as to why GW thinks that this is a good move?
WARHAMMER (black and white sign) storefronts end up looking like seedy nightclubs.
Because they really can't call themselves "Games" Workshop anymore, right? I mean, they've effectively killed off every other revenue stream except for 40K so it's either rebrand as "Game Workshop" or do something else.
Alternatively, profits are falling, we have no clue why, let's throw gak at the wall.
This. We proudly proclaim that we do no market research and our Chairman of the Board has often stated that we don't care what people want with highly placed corporate managers even stating in court that the entire hobby is the purchase of whatever shiny we've decided to bless you all with.
GW, reduced to zoo-level, monkeys flinging poo levels of corporate governance.
Alpharius wrote: I still would've gone with GAME WORKSHOP vs. WARHAMMER which appears to be a game they won't ever really me making/supporting anymore.
Still, as Azreal13 said, they should have just gone with 40,000 or something similar...
I agree completely. Or catered to the goth crowd and called the stores "Grim Dark." Rebranding an established company by completely changing the name of the store-fronts doesn't seem to be a great idea...
Well if they were a company that did a lot of (any?) advertising i'd agree,
but since their store fronts are pretty much all they do people who go in anyway will still go in
(maybe looking puzzled the first time they do, but the Warhammer name has enough connection to bridge that)
and they did apparently (shock horror) do some research and found that Warhammer had a higher brand recognition than Games Workshop so they might just get a few more walk in customers (possibly?)... 40K has name recognition within the community, but parents of kids and other present buyers are going to think of it as Warhammer : 40 000
(and if they roll out relatively slowly they can just rename stores as the open/reopen with the amount of churn they have with the one man opperations)
I think a problem with GW's sustainability is lack of diversity in their product. They were at their best when offering variety. This rebranding seems to be cementing the approach to only their two core games and nothing else.
It's kind of bizarre. In the States, no one outside of the hobby (and maybe video games) knows the Games Workshop brand. But at least the name is indicative of something. "Warhammer" is so vague that people won't have a clue what's inside. Again, it just seems to me that GW doesn't know how to market itself outside of UK. But I've also never understood their need for a retail store operation in the US, either.
You know what would be covenient? If there were FRIENDLY and helpful people that ran LOCAL retail outlets. Then they could sell your GAMES in their STORES all over the country without the need for costly overhead. But what on earth would we call these ROGUE TRADERS?
This is just baffling to me. I personally do not see any benefit to this 're-branding', if anything it's more confusing.
Independent games stores and even the GW hobby centers are what's called 'destination stores'. Meaning the people who patron the store have specific intent on going there - they know what's sold there, it's specific to their interests. Destination stores rarely generate revenue from random foot traffic.
At least with a name/sign of Games Workshop you can lure in interested consumers, even if they may not know about Warhammer. Sure they may assume it has something to do with video games or board games, but it's generating foot traffic - and maybe someone that walks in unknowing will be wowed and buy something.
Changing the name to "Warhammer" will target only those people who know what products are sold there and those people are likely patron the store regardless.
SOoo... In an era of declining sales they're in a sense choosing to turn away random foot traffic. Way to shoot yourself in the foot GW. BRAVO!
Alpharius wrote: I'm curious as to why GW thinks that this is a good move?
WARHAMMER (black and white sign) storefronts end up looking like seedy nightclubs.
Because they really can't call themselves "Games" Workshop anymore, right? I mean, they've effectively killed off every other revenue stream except for 40K so it's either rebrand as "Game Workshop" or do something else.
Yeah, they tried GAME Workshop but it didn't test well.
(this is a fib of course, GW never test markets anything)
agnosto wrote:Rebranding an established company by completely changing the name of the store-fronts doesn't seem to be a great idea...
Especially if, apart from some nebulous connection with some obscure little self-publish book, and as Oni says, it doesn't really seem to change anything. A cowpat by any other name would still smell like gak.
the_Armyman wrote:It's kind of bizarre. In the States, no one outside of the hobby (and maybe video games) knows the Games Workshop brand. But at least the name is indicative of something. "Warhammer" is so vague that people won't have a clue what's inside. Again, it just seems to me that GW doesn't know how to market itself outside of UK.
I'm gonna say that a lot of people in the UK will have the same problem. Granted, here in Northern Ireland there's a grand total of one store, but I'll bet that if you stood around within a half-mile radius of it and asked passers-by the significance of rebranding Games Workshop to Warhammer, the most common response would be "No, I don't have any spare change..."
It's possible that the GW brand is so tainted that WH is better but how GW would know that when they don't do any market research is a mystery.
Another idea is that this is the new CEO's way of showing investors that he is a dynamic leader with lots of good ideas and a finger on the pulse of modern marketing.
My last idea is that the new logo is simply a lot cheaper to install. It looks a boring cheap bit of crap that anyone could design in 30 seconds using MS Word.Type out Warhammer in caps. Highlight it, change to a sans serif font and make it white on black. Send to the printers. Job done.
Put me down as one of those people that, all the way back in 1997 wandered into Games Workshop looking for a computer game and came out with an awareness that miniature wargaming was a thing. Cue thousands of pounds and 16 years later was when I stopped buying GW.
The name change doesn't surprise me at all. Really 'Games Workshop' had become something of an ironic reminder of what the company once was.
Although, I don't think they care about such things or what people think about them, so it might have some other real purpose? Helping to package up the brand before a takeover perhaps?
Fireball wrote: I will be in London for the first time over the weekend ... I might stumble over the new store ... lets see
Go in to Dark Sphere, it's at least 147 times better.. (maybe even 200)
I feel like people have heard of Warhammer. Certainly if I'm discussing it with lay people I call it Warhammer rather than "The Games Workshop Hobby" or "Warhammer 40,000 and other adventures". People have heard of Games Workshop too, though.
Now I know the hobby is better suited with a mature community of customers/players, but aside from regulars of the hobby, its the unwitting spoilt children that wander into "GAMES" workshop and make uninformed often extravagant purchases. I cannot count the number of times whilst playing in my FLGS that I have seen an 8-13 year old child and a bloodthirsty Games Workshop assistant convince the nagged child's parent to buy assault on black reach, or dark vengeance. The child may break the models into tiny pieces and never come back but GW have made a quick, reasonably hefty buck.
I think the new sign will induce a sharp reduce in these kind of opportunistic sales. It looks too gothic and grown up to appeal to young kids... Not bright and misleading like the sign of old.
First they came for the Sisters of Battle, but I didn't care because I didn't play Adepta Sororitas.
Then they came for the Imperial Guard, but I didn't care because I didn't play Astra Militarum.
Then they came for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, but I didn't care because NOBODY played that.
Then they came for my Games Workshop, and there was nobody left who cared...
Well, the new store's open. It doesn't appear to be any larger than the old Plaza one it's replaced (smaller, if anything?). The display table looks pretty good, I have to say. Extensive use has been made of the new promethium pipes and they look quite snazzy.
As far as opening offers go, there's the opportunity (today only) to buy some (apparently) exclusive posters ... Damnos, the Emporer's Palace and some fantasy ones.
Well, the new store's open. It doesn't appear to be any larger than the old Plaza one it's replaced (smaller, if anything?). The display table looks pretty good, I have to say. Extensive use has been made of the new promethium pipes and they look quite snazzy.
As far as opening offers go, there's the opportunity (today only) to buy some (apparently) exclusive posters ... Damnos, the Emporer's Palace and some fantasy ones.
Yah, I noticed it after I posted.