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This is the worst thing since unsliced bread. I'm boycotting.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Brand Syngergy is important when you are trying to expand. because warhammer is TRYING to be a lifestyle brand now, NOT a game only.

That's not particularly new, even back in the old days they were insistent on calling it "The Warhammer Hobby" and not acknowledging that it is a small subset of the wider Tabletop Gaming hobby. The more they can make people believe that their little bubble of wargaming is the entirety of the wargaming universe the less people are likely to look outside for other games that might suit their needs further
So you will go to a Warhammer Shop with your Warhammer Models that you have put together with Warhammer Glue and painted with Warhammer Paints and gaming on Warhammer Tables and pay no attention to the rest of the wargaming hobby, because you're not a wargamer into wargaming, you are a Warhammerer doing Warhammering.

Definitely not new, and it's a strategy that absolutely works, as their stock price will attest to, but it's still sad that they'll gleefully wipe away the last remnant of Citadel Miniatures to slap the Warhammer brand on another product. It's not the end of the world, but then again nothing to do with little plastic models ever is

I'm genuinely curious as to what value the Citadel branding held for anyone besides nostalgia.

Given their move to Amazon the upcoming WH40K series (or movie, or short or whatever) this actually makes sense.

When a kid asks for Wahammer stuff, and the grandparent or uncle puts Warhammer in the search bar of Amazon...Citadel will probably not be the first hit.

In fact, just tried it. "Warhammer paint" pulled up Army Painter, Fantastory and Nicpro. Warhammer Paint was #8...

So, likely a branding and synery thing.

Charax wrote:
even back in the old days they were insistent on calling it "The Warhammer Hobby"

No, they began with it roughly 10 years ago - before that it was 'The Games Workshop Hobby' since the 90's.

Ambivalent about the change.

The real issue is that the "WARHAMMER" on the paint does not match the font they use for "WARHAMMER" elsewhere. Now that is a crime worthy of Lord-Veritant investigation.

This really ticked me off for some reason. also I wonder if they are seeing a drop in sales and think this will help. I know I have certainly pretty much stopped buying paint from them with how much better two thin coats vellejo and even army paint fanatics are.

 catbarf wrote:
I'm genuinely curious as to what value the Citadel branding held for anyone besides nostalgia.

I suspect it was simply a matter of the Warhammer brand not being so strong to be worth disrupting purchasing habits at retail. A lot of stores just buy this stuff because its on their stock list and when you change the name and the old item is marked unavailable, they just assume its discontinued and don't buy the replacement. Someone must have decided the brand name is strong enough that it will help get the paints in more stores than it loses this time.

Maybe its also down to the switching to in house paint production?

Ok cool how about addressing the fact that pots are not airtight and that some brand new pots come with paint dried up? How about not changing formulas? Add more paint quantity to match other brands? I could keep going but yes Im impressed with the change of name... they should raise the prices because of such fundamental change.

Further bland corporatisation. Bleurgh.

I've totally bought into Warhammer as a lifestyle.

I'll only date women who play Warhammer....

...and yes, I am single.

 catbarf wrote:
I'm genuinely curious as to what value the Citadel branding held for anyone besides nostalgia.

The name change is a none issue in reality. But otherwise for me it is exactly this, nostalgia. I have my little citadel logo pin badge, my citadel logo water pot (which is one of those 'gadgets' I find is actually worth the cost over the free alternatives not gone back to the jam jar since getting it) and I'll continue to refer to them as citadel paints forever.

I have never thought of myself as a 'warhammer' hobbyist, but rather a wargamer. Even though the majority of the games I collect and play are GW (Or GW based). I really dislike the 'corporate' branding of making everything 'warhammer' and generic. I liked that we had citadel models & paints, Forgeworld, Games Workshop stores, Warhammer Historical, Specialist games/fanatic studios, the main studio rules. I like the amalgamation of all the parts of the company.

Now its just bland and mainstream, probably because they are used to lumping it altogether as 'warhammer' anyway.

But like I said, its a none issue. A printed label isn't going to change what I call them, I buy in bulk anyway and it could be at least 2-3 years before I even see my first rebranded pot, and since I personally think they ruined their washes with the new versions I will be slowly phasing them out for other brands anyway.

 lurch wrote:
This really ticked me off for some reason. also I wonder if they are seeing a drop in sales and think this will help. I know I have certainly pretty much stopped buying paint from them with how much better two thin coats vellejo and even army paint fanatics are.

Yeah.

I doubt it will matter much... but it induces a grimace due to cringe of it.

Its a bit like when Games Workshop stores rebranded to "Warhammer" stores. I mean maybe for brand recognition it is better. But there's also something... infantile and corporate about it. Which grinds the teeth.

I am wondering if they will increase in price when they get new labels.

This is all just branding and probably just means that GW picked up a new staffer/theory a few years back that has pushed for a clearer rebranding of the firm.

It's also not totally daft. Consider that when Forgeworld was around, despite being referenced, linked and operating out the same site in the UK - there were a good many people who didn't know that FW was GW branded stuff at all. They thought it was just another 3rd party.


Thing is most of us on Dakka are "die hard fans". We've a decade or more behind us in this hobby (or we likely will build up too that); we read the GW site regularly; we engage with a wider remit of lore; we watch videos; read magazines and so forth.

We are living and breathing the Warhammer Hobby and even if we aren't; most of us are very well aware of it and have done so in the past.



For us we don't need much brand awareness from GW because we are already more than aware.



however a LOT of people are more casual or just new to their hobby. Clearer branding can make things a lot simpler for them. It's one less thing to fuss over and remember. The don't have to think "oh I want Citadel paints for my Warhammer" its "I want Warhammer paints for my Warhammer". One can lead you to forget and the suddenly you're buying Army Painter or any one of the other brands.


Sure it does lose some of the rose tinted fancy from yester year. Same as losing the FW branding did for the resin models.
At the same time the products didn't change; the branding was easier and in the end we kept buying

Don't make me tap the sign. (The sign being that former GW hobby product head being on The Painting Phase and explaining almost every hobby product is for Clueless Adult buying things for 12 year old Little Jimmy")