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The first think is get rid of Tom Kirby and his yes men.
Then appoint a CEO that understands this niche market and the importance of social media in the current market.
Also that the company is called "Games Workshop" not "Miniature Market".

Tom Kirby and the Yes Men.

Sounds like a country band.

1.) Not treat the customers as the enemy

2.) Engage with the customers

3.) Embrace social media like every other company in the 21st century

4.) Listen to customers

5.) Have a PR department. GW actually doesn't have one, which is impressive

6.) End the general mean-spirited, spiteful, secretive attitude GW has with its customer base.

I don't think free beer would help them now.

I dunno about the rest of the world but I'm pretty sure in Australia it has gotten out to the point where GW could give out free puppis with each purchase and people would give 'em the ol' stink eye anyway and try to figure out their angle.

 darefsky wrote:
I dont know. Stop the human and kitten sacrifice?

Kidding aside. They need a social media manager and an actual plan of how to engage with the customer.

+1. There's times I think the problem is not Games Workshop, but the fact that the world changed and they stayed the same.

People talk about the hobby all over the internet and they do nothing to control the message. Having someone build them a new website does little to change the fact that they need to communicate better.

 techsoldaten wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
I dont know. Stop the human and kitten sacrifice?

Kidding aside. They need a social media manager and an actual plan of how to engage with the customer.

+1. There's times I think the problem is not Games Workshop, but the fact that the world changed and they stayed the same.

People talk about the hobby all over the internet and they do nothing to control the message. Having someone build them a new website does little to change the fact that they need to communicate better.

I've been with them from the beginning. They've changed. They used to interact with their players. They used to have whole articles on how to convert minis or make scenery. They used to be passionate about what they did.
I think the reason I feel all their latest products have been boring is because they've bee soulless.

 techsoldaten wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
I dont know. Stop the human and kitten sacrifice?

Kidding aside. They need a social media manager and an actual plan of how to engage with the customer.

+1. There's times I think the problem is not Games Workshop, but the fact that the world changed and they stayed the same.

People talk about the hobby all over the internet and they do nothing to control the message. Having someone build them a new website does little to change the fact that they need to communicate better.

And the new website actually offers less reason to visit, unless all you want to do is engage in your favorite hobby of buying GW miniatures. (Really... some of the things that fall out of Kirby's mouth should have gotten him shot by now....)

The Auld Grump

Make a subsidiary that doesn't use Citadel or the GW name (avoid the brand as much as possible) and make a new game and new line (but you have to do it well*).

It will start slow but sales will increase and hopefully cannibalise their core games and you start diverting funds to it slowly as the core games slowly become irrelevant as they have kept moving upmarket and shrinking.

*Of course, the new line and behaviour around it must be drastically different to their current paradigm.

 Daba wrote:
Make a subsidiary that doesn't use Citadel or the GW name (avoid the brand as much as possible) and make a new game and new line (but you have to do it well*).

It will start slow but sales will increase and hopefully cannibalise their core games and you start diverting funds to it slowly as the core games slowly become irrelevant as they have kept moving upmarket and shrinking.

*Of course, the new line and behaviour around it must be drastically different to their current paradigm.

Mantic

Put the hobby back into the Hobby and actuall try to create a community instead of a customer base.

I don't think GW are trying to create a customer base.

They simply assume it is there.

 adamsouza wrote:

 Daba wrote:
Make a subsidiary that doesn't use Citadel or the GW name (avoid the brand as much as possible) and make a new game and new line (but you have to do it well*).

It will start slow but sales will increase and hopefully cannibalise their core games and you start diverting funds to it slowly as the core games slowly become irrelevant as they have kept moving upmarket and shrinking.

*Of course, the new line and behaviour around it must be drastically different to their current paradigm.

Mantic

Lol. Yea, GW's poor brand management basically created Mantic's business model.

Reduce prices. Sell bits.

I won't hold my breath.

I don't think we'll ever see the return of bitz direct from GW.

There is not enough incentive for GW to do it, especially since there is already a 3rd party aftermarket handling it already.

 adamsouza wrote:

There is not enough incentive for GW to do it, especially since there is already a 3rd party aftermarket handling it already.

The only real incentive that I could see is that they could severely undercut (though they wouldn't) the 3rd party prices due to the parts being in house.

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
One thing that I have noticed, over the last ten years or so, is that GW is not exactly shining in the public eye - and in this past year or so they have started looking downright awful, in regards to good public relation.

Their public image is becoming tarnished.

So, quite aside from monetary matters - what can GW do to put some shine back on their image?

Once upon a time they backed tournaments that benefited charity - some of those tournaments still happen, but as far as I know they no longer get any support from GW, just from the clubs and groups that sponsor them.

I think that GW needs to start doing that again - They need to be seen in public wearing the white hats, now and again.

So what you're asking is, "What can GW do to make themselves look superficially better, without actually fixing their behaviour?"

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 adamsouza wrote:

There is not enough incentive for GW to do it, especially since there is already a 3rd party aftermarket handling it already.

The only real incentive that I could see is that they could severely undercut (though they wouldn't) the 3rd party prices due to the parts being in house.

They could, but I agree with your assessment that they would not.

GW sees the bitz biz and undercutting the sales of their complete kits.

Also, we are no longer in the age of metal models. It was easy to melt and recast unused portions of a model. The same can not be done with plastic models.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
One thing that I have noticed, over the last ten years or so, is that GW is not exactly shining in the public eye - and in this past year or so they have started looking downright awful, in regards to good public relation.

Their public image is becoming tarnished.

So, quite aside from monetary matters - what can GW do to put some shine back on their image?

Once upon a time they backed tournaments that benefited charity - some of those tournaments still happen, but as far as I know they no longer get any support from GW, just from the clubs and groups that sponsor them.

I think that GW needs to start doing that again - They need to be seen in public wearing the white hats, now and again.

So what you're asking is, "What can GW do to make themselves look superficially better, without actually fixing their behaviour?"

No, I am asking what GW can do to fix their public image at the same time as fixing their other problems.

The quickest, and cheapest is to start talking and to start listening - both to their customers and their independent retailers.

I do not like their current rules - and do not play them.

But there are lots of games that I do not like that are doing just fine.

I... do not like the crap that they are making using CAD software - and there are plenty of much better miniatures being made with exactly that sort of software!

But if I were to point at GW's biggest single failing, it is that they rely on word of mouth advertising, then go and piss on the people that they are relying on for that word of mouth. (Not pissing off - definitely pissing on.)

The indie stores and the veterans.

And fixing that does come down to public relations and fixing their public image.

At this point, even if I did like the rules and miniatures, and felt that they were worth the money, I would not be buying from GW - and that is entirely a matter of having a terrible reputation as being a bunch of complete kneebiters.

The Auld Grump

 TheAuldGrump wrote:

 techsoldaten wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
I dont know. Stop the human and kitten sacrifice?

Kidding aside. They need a social media manager and an actual plan of how to engage with the customer.

+1. There's times I think the problem is not Games Workshop, but the fact that the world changed and they stayed the same.

People talk about the hobby all over the internet and they do nothing to control the message. Having someone build them a new website does little to change the fact that they need to communicate better.

And the new website actually offers less reason to visit, unless all you want to do is engage in your favorite hobby of buying GW miniatures. (Really... some of the things that fall out of Kirby's mouth should have gotten him shot by now....)

The Auld Grump

I honestly find their website much harder to use now than before the redesign. No idea what they spent that money on but it wasn't on improving the customer interface.

I think they kinda messed up when they went public, honestly. So small a niche market should not have a corporation trying to run stores that sell only their niche market product. It's really weird, honestly, and they're the only company I can think of that has made such an insane move. If you want to run a hobby store, run a store that sells all kinds of hobby stuff, not just product that you make. Pretending you don't have competition doesn't mean you have no competition. They need to embrace that single fact and work around that. They really need to work social media, and stop trying to do everything themselves. In the US at least, there's little GW presence. We just have hobby stores that carry the models that we buy from. Help these stores run events to promote the game. And I don't just mean tournaments. Send free paints and brushes and a box infantry models to the shops so they can run paint classes. Send free swag. Instead of selling your digital rules yourself, print out some more accessible physical compilations. The problem right now is that they're trying to run everything like a car company. You make little plastic soldiers, not cadillacs. You don't have car dealerships, you have hobby shops where your models are going to be sitting on a shelf next to a bunch of competitors products. Show some love and stop looking down your nose at everyone. Make starter sets that have rulebooks and codexes in them, so the cost of entry isn't so absurdly high. Face it, this is an addictive hobby. Not making an absurd profit on a starter set shouldn't be an issue. Don't worry about tanks and fancy units, just stick a generic HQ and two small units of infantry and the codex in a box, and charge like 50 bucks. They'd make money on paints when new players get into it. First hit should always be cheap, if not free

Maybe GW was going for Marvel Money. I can just see GW execs with images of 40K movies on the big screen, action figures, and clothing lines. Then being bought out by Disney, who will essentially buy out anyone who can make money with the 15-25 male demographic.

GW has been led too far down the wrong path to come back. Greed has ruined the company, but the 40k IP will survive in spite of the mismanagement.

I dont even want to see them 'turn it around' anymore. The best thing for 40k would be GW dying.

sand.zzz wrote:
GW has been led too far down the wrong path to come back. Greed has ruined the company, but the 40k IP will survive in spite of the mismanagement.

I dont even want to see them 'turn it around' anymore. The best thing for 40k would be GW dying.

As long as they survive to finish the current Codex Cycle, I really don't care.

sand.zzz wrote:
GW has been led too far down the wrong path to come back. Greed has ruined the company, but the 40k IP will survive in spite of the mismanagement.

I dont even want to see them 'turn it around' anymore. The best thing for 40k would be GW dying.

No, just no. If you don't like the 40K wargame, that is fine, but no.

Star Wars RPG & Miniatures Battles from WEG, becomes Star Wars RPG and Collectable Miniatures Games by Wizards of the Coast, becomes Star Wars Pocket Models space combat game, becomes Star Wars multiple RPGs and multiple miniatures and board games by FFG.

They got more expensive, they got dumbed down, and they made previous collections irrelevant.

None of which would be good for the current 40K player base.

 adamsouza wrote:


None of which would be good for the current 40K player base.

I honestly think that if 40k went straight over to someone like FFG, they wouldn't really mess with the scale and models, as FFG already makes money from the setting by making the various RPG games, which, I'd presume would work similar to DnD, only with GW models... Why would FFG really want to mess with that, because I think that they'd see it as the wrong move that alienates more players than it brings in.

 adamsouza wrote:
I don't think we'll ever see the return of bitz direct from GW.

There is not enough incentive for GW to do it, especially since there is already a 3rd party aftermarket handling it already.

I agree.

They still produce a reasonable number of bits but the way forwards is to create sprues for plastic moulding bits collections. This does not seem as productive an idea as the creation of entire new kits.

They certainly will never go back to the days when you could order any variety of metal parts you wanted for a project.

 Daba wrote:
Make a subsidiary that doesn't use Citadel or the GW name (avoid the brand as much as possible) and make a new game and new line (but you have to do it well*).

It will start slow but sales will increase and hopefully cannibalise their core games and you start diverting funds to it slowly as the core games slowly become irrelevant as they have kept moving upmarket and shrinking.

*Of course, the new line and behaviour around it must be drastically different to their current paradigm.

Forge World.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 adamsouza wrote:

Star Wars RPG & Miniatures Battles from WEG, becomes Star Wars RPG and Collectable Miniatures Games by Wizards of the Coast, becomes Star Wars Pocket Models space combat game, becomes Star Wars multiple RPGs and multiple miniatures and board games by FFG.

They got more expensive, they got dumbed down, and they made previous collections irrelevant.
None of which would be good for the current 40K player base.

Bad examples. You're talking about a licenced IP (Star Wars) and a number of distinct, separate products that have been produced over a period of 27 years by a variety of licence holders.

You could, by the way, make the same argument with Rogue Trader, Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, not to mention every side game, both licenced and 1st party.

I had the West End Games Star Wars RPG when it was new. It was a good game, done very nicely with good production values. I rather regret selling it in the mid-90s.

However I do not consider the publication of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG to have invalidated the WEG one. Both are separate, self-contained systems. If I had kept my WEG stuff it would be just as playable today as ever. The only problem would be that players would find it hard to get copies for their own use if they wanted them. You don't need them, though. Any models produced by FFG would be entirely usable with the WEG rulebooks.

40K is different. It never gets to a complete state within an edition of the rules, and every time GW change the game either with new codexes, dataslates, or new rulebooks, they make your existing collection a bit more irrelevant.

 MWHistorian wrote:

 techsoldaten wrote:

 darefsky wrote:
I dont know. Stop the human and kitten sacrifice?

Kidding aside. They need a social media manager and an actual plan of how to engage with the customer.

+1. There's times I think the problem is not Games Workshop, but the fact that the world changed and they stayed the same.

People talk about the hobby all over the internet and they do nothing to control the message. Having someone build them a new website does little to change the fact that they need to communicate better.

I've been with them from the beginning. They've changed. They used to interact with their players. They used to have whole articles on how to convert minis or make scenery. They used to be passionate about what they did.
I think the reason I feel all their latest products have been boring is because they've bee soulless.

Yeah, I still have all my old White Dwarfs, and my 'Eavy Metal collections, and my Codex Eye of Terror, and all the other things that made GW so great .They were so full of imagination I could just look at these things for hours.

That part of the company has changed. I miss it and think everything they've published since the start of 6th edition is trash by comparison. This Warhammer Visions thing they insist on sending me goes straight into the garbage when it arrives.

What I really mean to say is we live in a world of instantaneous customer service through social media. I posted a message on Facebook about a bad experience on an airline once and had a rep from the airline on the phone with me about 4 hours later. Someone complains about a bad experience with GW and there's silence. Sure, if your model broke, they get you a new one. But the company seems driven to ignore the feedback they get from their customers, and this is insane.