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Most of their recent profit in fact can be attributed to cost cutting and the fact that last year everyone who sold their paints had to dump their entire stock and re-order and entire new lineup. These aren't replicatable, at least not infinitely. They've been scrambling to cut costs and downsize their product line for years while raising prices and remain largely where they were before.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

YakManDoo wrote:
They produce marketing videos, and they produce t-shirts and swag...they have a marketing department. A marketing department's job is to increase sales and visibility in whatever form possible.

If you go to their site to look at models or deals, you have just participated in their marketing. No one wants these prices, and if it were really hurting them, then they would stop doing it as they are still a business that likes to make money. They haven't stopped doing it, so something must be working for them.

Marketing videos? You know that those videos are 100% private. You cannot find them on YouTube unless you have the link. They only show up because GW puts them on their website. Having a website is not advertising. Selling T-shirts (on your own website) is not advertising.

Advertising is ad-banners on high profile sites like Dakka, Whineseer, Taco Bell and TTGN.

YakManDoo wrote:
GW has a discount system it's called Wayland Games, The Warstore and others...THEY ARE THE DISCOUNT PROGRAM.

No. Those are stockists. Please learn the difference.

Please learn the definition of marketing.
Private or public? What?!? You know nothing about marketing. Did you go to the site? The site is a marketing tool by definition and is public by virtue of being on the web. Did you buy the video? No you didn't? Ah, then you just participated in this little thing the rest of the world would like to introduce you to...marketing. Selling T-Shirts is indeed advertising. Ever been to a concert and buy a t-shirt? Ever wear that t-shirt in a non-concert environment? You just played billboard...thus, you were the marketing.

The stockist program is the discount program. By offering a discount to a retailer, and allowing that retailer to discount (which GW is aware of) you effectively have a discount program.

GW does discount their product, and consumers can take advantage of those discounts...they happen to be with the stockists...

In Sydney Australia there used to be heaps of promotions, mind you I'm thinking back to when I was a kid maybe around 1997. I'm not sure at what point it all the discounting stopped, but here are a few offers I remember:

* For a while I remember them having a a booklet system where you got stamps and then once you reached a certain point you get a phat discount.
* I remember there being a freaking huge discount off gorkamorka when that was being phased out, something like 50-75% off
* Then there was another one where you got stamps for purchases toward your force organisation chart, then I'm pretty sure you got a huge discount.
* There was a buy 2 boxes get the 3rd for free, also buy 1 and get discount of the second.

It is kinda shameful how they treat their customers now (well particularly customers in the southern hemisphere) and I don't support them for it - I proxy all my models for GW with things like victoria's miniatures, kromlech, maximini, pig iron miniatures, king's of war etc.
When they get their act together, then they will see me return as a customer. I left the hobby for a couple of years and was brought back by the AOBR box set ($95AU), that seemed like a pretty hefty discount and a good deal. Now I consider I've stopped collecting GW at the release of DV/6th edition because it's not a good deal here in Australia ($165AU).

The reason why they have done away with all the discounting, simply put, is because most of our cohort have no self control when it comes to their wallets.

YakManDoo wrote:
GW does discount their product, and consumers can take advantage of those discounts...they happen to be with the stockists...

.... rrriigghhttt ... So that why they've changed their terms of trade, making it harder for those stockist? GW wants one price across the board. They don't want you to split up sprews, they don't want you using third party parts, they want your money. (Don't get me wrong I'm personally in favour of their idea of there being a shop to go to ... just not their method)

At the moment they're failing simply because they greedy. Little discounting here and there would make all the difference.

 Tri wrote:
.... rrriigghhttt ... So that why they've changed their terms of trade, making it harder for those stockist? GW wants one price across the board. They don't want you to split up sprews, they don't want you using third party parts, they want your money. (Don't get me wrong I'm personally in favour of their idea of there being a shop to go to ... just not their method)

At the moment they're failing simply because they greedy. Little discounting here and there would make all the difference.

Clearly, GW sees that it is for our benefit that we don't get to buy third party parts, or that heavy weapon arm from bits shop, or cheaper boxes, because they know the true value lies in you buying an extra box of marines for one extra arm, they're overdelivering values here, can't you see? If you could just take off those hate glasses, you'd be able to see how much GW cares! In fact, just add everything on their site to cart and pay, then go back to read each product's description after!

Post may contain sarcasm, and nuts, everything has nuts in it because we hate people with nuts allergy. NUTS.

Baronyu wrote:
Post may contain sarcasm, and nuts, everything has nuts in it because we hate people with nuts allergy. NUTS.

Hah. Like an old mate who bought a bag of nuts on the airport and happened to read the warnings on it. "Warning: may contain nuts!" I bloody well hope so...

It is kind of a bummer that official discounts are gone, and that prices keep going up. It sort of has priced me out of the game, but not the hobby. I used to be big into tournaments, so had several armies. Also, in order to be able to play in events like 'Ard Boyz, 100% were GW, or conversions out of GW bits. Things like that (discounts, tourneys, prize support, etc.) don't exist anymore, so why stick with GW exclusively?

Now years after selling my armies I'm slowly getting back into the hobby, but I mainly paint now. I do still like the 40k universe, but with lack of incentive to stick with GW exclusively (and my lack of playing time) I'm really branching out to other model makers. Why? For the price, GW models really aren't that good (except some scattered models and most of the Dark Eldar range). A lot of the poses are boring, the tanks are stale, and from a painters perspective, the detail is lower than what I would expect for the cost. Couple that with the lack of GW sponsored events that require GW products and I have been going more and more toward companies like Scibor and Raging Heroes for my model fix. They may even cost a little more sometimes, but the quality makes it worth it. When I paint them I feel I have to do them justice, rather than just feeling like I'm painting game pieces. Somewhere along the way GW lost that.

To be honest I don't even buy rulebooks anymore, due to how expensive they are. As a med student I understand expensive books, but a $250 Pharmacology Bible makes way more sense than a $250 game book.

Sorry, that sorta went all over the place.