Paradigm Concepts

[Njal Val'Assante]

Just an idea that I've been tossing around in my head, but might there be a way to set up an incentive that Harvesters can offer new players to get them to buy the Arcanis RPG?

Perhaps one new person at every table the Harvester runs will receive (for best RP, or a particularly memorable event, or even just the person who seems most excited about it) a $5 off coupon if they purchase a copy of the physical book?

There's currently 15 Harvesters, presumably running no more than one con every couple months. If they each get on average 10 new players (two tables worth), they would give out 2 coupons per con. Estimating 30 coupons between the 15 Harvesters, and one con each every 3 months we'll say, that's 120 coupons for $600 off total. BUT! If every single one of those players who gets a coupon goes and buys a physical copy, there's a net profit of $45 each for a whopping $5400 that might not otherwise have been earned, not including future purchases, nor if any of the players who *didn't* get a coupon pick up copies and/or PDF versions.

This isn't even limited to new players, but could be extended to all players whenever PCI offers a new product, and putting it in the hands of your dedicated volunteers, the Harvesters, with a limitation on the number they can give out in a certain time period might help bolster overall sales without overly negatively affecting the top line.

Just a thought, mind you...
_________________
Anthony Nijssen
Instigator. Causer of Chaos. Nobody Important.

[PCIHenry]

Hello Tony,

Good idea, but unless they purchase the book directly from us, it would be problematic for the stores to honor such a deal. Additionally, if we did make such an offer to purchase from our website, the store owner would be less than happy about it as we're drawing customers away from him/her.

If anyone has a way around this, I'm all ears.

Best,
_________________
Henry Lopez
President
Paradigm Concepts, Inc.

[PCIJames]

What about if the coupon was for a discount on digital-only goods (or even certain categories of digital goods, so it could be limited to adventures etc); that side-steps the issue of taking business away from the hobby-stores.
_________________
James Zwiers
Paradigm Concepts, Inc.

[PCIHenry]

Hello James,

True, but I think the idea is to have the new players pick up a Core book, but we'll certainly ponder this.

Best,
_________________
Henry Lopez
President
Paradigm Concepts, Inc.

[Njal Val'Assante]

Two options:

First, offer the coupon only for purchase directly from Paradigm, either at a con where you guys are and/or incorporating a coupon redemption code box into your online store. As noted, this has the problems of potentially alienating store owners, but keeps everything else streamlined.

Second option is to make the coupon universally applicable and have the stores submit the coupons to you for money back. This way Paradigm is still the one's eating the cost, and the gaming stores don't have to get upset about it. Kind of like those deals on cereal boxes for discounts or 2 for 1 movie tickets or whatever they do at any given point. The customers take them to the relevant retailer, and the retailer turns around and invoices each coupon to the company to recoup the loss they took honouring the coupon.

Either way, having more people interested in the system will be to the benefit of the stores as well, since as we produce more books, they will have more to make a profit off of.
_________________
Anthony Nijssen
Instigator. Causer of Chaos. Nobody Important.

[Nierite]

As much as I'd like to support my local game store, I think digital coupons would be the way to go for this. Insert a 'coupon code' in the ordering information. Of course, I might specify that it is for the physical book, but that is up to the economic people at PCI.
_________________
Cody Bergman

aka = Haakon Marcus val'Virdan, Priest of Nier (Divine 1.
aka = Dyabe val'Abebi, Templar of Althares (Divine 1.3)
aka = Jorma Ostoman, Battlemage of the Coryani Empire (Arcane 1.2)

[hustonj]

I think selecting a "winner" at an open demo is counter-productive.

You want everyone to get and be involved. You want to sell everyone on the product.

If you declare a winner and then give that individual a prize, you are also declaring losers, and giving them the opportunity to perceive you as punishing them for not being the winner.

I don't care if this is a common or uncommon reaction. It runs in direct contradiction to the point of doing recruiting/sales play events.
_________________
Valeriano Innocenzo Camillo de Larissa la Galletti
San Antonio, Tx-based Harvester
Jeff Huston
huston.harvester@cox.net

[Njal Val'Assante]

The point though isn't to select a "winner", it's to provide an opportunity for a group of people to get started on their own. If they're all from the same area, you could even present it to the group collectively.

If you think the people you're running are the kind of people who would think that way, you wouldn't need to give anything out; if there's two people who were really interested, or three, or four, and all are chomping at the bit to go out and get a copy of the book, I don't see any reason (depending on how this gets set up, if it does) to not give each of them the coupon as added incentive. If we can get 2/4/6 physical book sales or even PDFs out of a single table, that's fantastic! That's 2/4/6 more people who might join the madness that is Arcanis.

The reason for the initial suggestion of limitation was that we don't want so many coupons floating out there. We want the people to whom we give the coupons to use them, and to drag more people in by virtue of their interest. But, even though I don't speak for Paradigm, I can't see why they'd have a problem with *more* people buying their products and being invested in their story.
_________________
Anthony Nijssen
Instigator. Causer of Chaos. Nobody Important.

[Aresnasti]

I would support my local gaming store if the distributor didn't treat Paradigm products as special orders and the store owner would stop whining about the logistical nightmare this poses on him.

In light of this I think the digital coupon would be awesome but here is an idea, the only difference between buying the material at the store and the purchase from Paradigm is the shipping cost....How about just offering free shipping?

Henry I appreciate your loyalty to the brick and mortar store but quite frankly I don't think they are reciprocating that loyalty. I would check your logs to see what areas are supporting you and what areas are not.
_________________
Robert Ludden
Organized Gaming (RPG) Coordinator
Voluntary Benefits Specialist
http://www.warhorn.net/OhioDragonSlayers

LoA:Ricros SS'ressen, Male, Expert
LoA:Enya E'lori, Female, Tracker

[Rmfiranek]

My local gaming store don't stock any RPGs. He'll order them. But it's always a hassle to get you product and most of the time theres quit a bit of a wait...

[PCIHenry]

Hello,

[Rmfiranek]

He stocks stuff like magic comics and miniatures... He lost his favor with rpg when he wanted to charge to play...