AGD,Skyball and marketing blunders

[hitech]

Originally posted by Dragoon
...customers don't buy the best, they buy what they are told is the best.

Sad, but very, very true. Rarely is the best also the most popular. At the moment I can't think of any...

[Hasty8]

Originally posted by Phil
AGD has top notch customer service, high quality product and the worst marketing plan I have ever seen. It almost seems like they are focusing on the military aspect of their business because they are definately not focused on selling paintball products to paintball players.

Phil, ask any marketing executive what the best type of marketing is and they will all say the same.

Word of mouth.

I trust my firends opinion way more then I do the opinion of some no name actor who doesn't even know the product and only first heard about it at the photoshoot.

Case in point. I had been researching the electropneumatic field for moths and was torn as to which marker I wanted until Maxim published an article and named the Emag as the number one choice.

Now, while I do not know the author of that article personally I had a few drinks with him once or twice as he is a firend of a friend and even got to play paintball with him a few times too.

I knew that he knew what he was talking about and so felt secure in basing my purchase on his opinion.

I think AGD has a superb marketing record. Case in point. Last week at m local paintball shop there was a guy looking to go from his Tippmann 98 to electro and was thinking about the dark cocker or whatever its called. The guy behind the counter wasn't really helping him because he knew he was going to buy something. I stepped in and started talking to this guy about how great the emag was and their cs was fantastic and their message boards rocked. How AGD really had a community feel to it in regards to ownership. (Brings a tear to my eye man.) Long story short this guy walked uot of their with an Emag and I had never even met this guy before in my life.

Also, understand that AGD has a very small shop. I think there is waht 15 - 20 employees? That doesn't leave a lot for a marketing department since those guys (I am one) tend to eat up most of the capital.

Trust me, AGD is doing fine for a company of their size and as long as they continue to put out a solid and reliable product they will continue to do so.

[beam]

Sad to say it, but in the "real world" hype goes WAY WAY WAY further than word of mouth/performance of product/customer service.

I think the thing that drives most people crazy about the AGD situation is this:

A lot of paintball companies have mediocre to good products...but they have HYPE which makes them successful.

AGD on the other hand has products that are a cut above the rest, but they lack the HYPE. If they could start a Mag frenzy...with the solid products/service that they already have...their company would EXPLODE!!!

If companies can sell junk just by hyping it up...think of what AGD could do!!

[cphilip]

More like 11 or 12. Not sure exactly but your right is very small. People do not realize how small they are. They do so much with so little realy. It amazes me.

Every one person I know of that has a Mag was turned onto it by another Mag owner. Me too. FatMan sold me on them. Not that we can't find more in other ways mind you but it is a tight group it seems. Like no other marker seems to develop. A "phenomenon" it seems. Rather odd in a way. I can't explian it so I cannot market that group at all. This site does that.

You can however market outside that group too. I am not an expert on that part. But I think "Pretty" sells to them. I do think that. Dependability and customer service then keeps them. Those are almost certainly facts.

[skipdogg]

i feel that AGD is fine the way it is. First of all us Mag owners know what we have. A great gun. Also, im sure Tom makes enough money, otherwise he would be out of business or would do something else "for the big money". So what im saying is, if Tom's happy and were happy who cares if AGD is popular. or how many guns they sell (well, enough to stay in business obviously). Not to mention if there was a hype machine started on mags and their owner base doubled, AGD's customer service would take a dump due to volume of work.
if it aint broke why fix it??? i know it's hard to hear people bash mags, but as long as were around, and some new players buy them (which they will regardless of how "cool" mags are) who cares? This is my Opinion

[Ack]

I do think its sad when you walk into the pro shop at Skirmish and everyone looks at your Emag and says 'what IS that?'. Course.. I 'exposed' em to it .. but still scary.
Also noticed there wasn't a single mag or AGD product in the shop. (Maybe I just missed it.. but /shrug)

[tranman]

I went there to get a warp feed and the only warp feed there was at the Brass Eagle/Viewloader table showing off the evolution! Not one of the stores there had 1 warp feed!