PlaymoFriends
General => Brainstorming For Playmobil => Topic started by: Martin Milner on September 16, 2008, 12:35:43
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to my idea of putting Playmobil Romans into Roman museums in the UK:
Dear Mr. Milner,
Many thanks for your e-mail. I think this would be a great idea.
We have a group of representatives who travel the country servicing toy shops and finding new outlets is part of their remit. I will forward your excellent suggestions on to the relevant representative for them to call on when they are next in the area.
Once again, many thanks for bringing this opportunity to my attention and for being a life-long fan of Playmobil!
Kind regards
Jamie.
Jamie Dickinson
Trade Marketing Manager
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mmmm - I think that that's an excellent reaction. Question remains: will it have any result!
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I'm not terribly hopeful, but at least I know that if they don't follow it up successfully, it won't be because the idea wasn't in the Playmobil pool of ideas. If I ever see Playmobil in a Museum in the UK, I'll know it was my idea that got it there.
I don't know if the relevent representative is on commission, but that's how things were done when I knew sales reps, and any lead is worth following up if you're on commission.
My concern is that either they don't follow it up, or they decide that if a Museum can't carry a full line, then they can't just have some Roman sets. It takes a bit of vision to see what that one Roman figure in a child's hand might lead to, and I'm not sure the reps have that vision, or even time to think about the bigger picture.
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Good job Martin! I wonder if they have any ACW figures out Gettysburg way?
Gepetto
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Great result, Martin. Co0ngratulations!
English Heritage is one organisation they should approach with a view to garrisoning Hadrian's Wall.
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A few years ago now when the Vikings came out I visited a museum in York and a few of the Viking sets where being sold in the gift shop.
Also a local Farm / adventure playground near to me called Rand Farm park sold the Playmobil farm sets.
It was a bit unusal seing just a handful of sets in a paticular theme being sold, I was always led to believe that if you sold Playmobil you had to stock the full range.
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A few years ago now when the Vikings came out I visited a museum in York and a few of the Viking sets where being sold in the gift shop.
It was the Jorvik Centre, Gary, so very special.
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Good job Martin! I wonder if they have any ACW figures out Gettysburg way?
Gepetto
Or, PIRATES down here in the Caribbean? ... :klickywink:
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It was the Jorvik Centre, Gary, so very special.
No, Gordon, I saw them in the Yorkshire Museum.
We visited a Time Team dig of an old Hospital, we walked along the river and saw the signs for the museum and gardens. We didn't go to the Jorvik centre that year because we went the year before and found it very expensive.
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No, Gordon, I saw them in the Yorkshire Museum.
We visited a Time Team dig of an old Hospital, we walked along the river and saw the signs for the museum and gardens. We didn't go to the Jorvik centre that year because we went the year before and found it very expensive.
Sounds as if the two of them must have had them in - I hadn't realised that the Yorkshire Museum had sold them too.
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I wonder how well the Vikings sold at the Jorvic and Yorkshire Museums? They'd have been suitable for Dublinia too. I wonder if they only stopped because the Vikings were discontinued, or if they just didn't sell.
I though the Jorvic rather expensive for that was there, it seemed very small and I was out almost before I realised it had begun. The Yorkshire Museum was much bigger, and more interesting generally.
Can you imagine Playmobil Knights being sold at every English Heritage castle in the UK? There'd be thousands of extra outlets, and Playmobil is far better than the hideous non-moving plastic figures they usually offer.
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(Please, help them NOT to send jungle sets to Brasil ... No matter I'd LOVE to, even so it's a genuine (& common*) mistake!)
This sounds like really something, Martin! ... :)
It's good, and makes us more inclined to try as well.
:wave:
Gus
:blackhair:
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*In one of the European countries I visited, back in the days I lived in Portugal, in a corner of somewhere, a couple of guys approached us, saying ... "Ustedes, Brazil??: oh, football ... Carnival ... safari!" ... There's no way you can go to a Safari in Rio de Janeiro (or Sampaulo, or Belo Horizonte, or -- well, you possibly got the idea ::) --. & This is the mentality many people have of Brasil, [abroad], as [if] "Brasil" could be generalized in one big thing (...); as much as many other big countries. You could send some jungle sets to Amazonian places, but there aren't that many Playmobil customers there ...
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It's good, and makes us more inclined to try as well.
WHICH makes me think ... One of my friends not from the US has inscription in the US Playmobil official site, so as to get the newsletters (& other things he spoke of ... promotional games, and such ...)
Once, I tried to make my inscription and, once there's no Brasilian entry, I tried to make my log in by subscribing through Playmobil.uk, which is always my second choice ...
What stopped me was the adress part : I DON'T have an adress in England, and I don't use to lie. SPECIALLY in the internet (no matter how contradictory this may seem to be, no, I don't, and I won't discuss this, so, don't anyone even try).
Does any Playmofriends member volunteer to give me permission to use his adress as a "base", so as I could subscribe (through England, US, France or Spain)?, considering that, if I make any orders, they'll send to your house, and you'll have to post to me (at my expenses, of course; probably Paypal ...). Let me know through PM. If I have more than one offer, I'll let each know, and I'll choose only one, because this is how I do it.
I'll be very grateful! ...
Sorry for the slight stray here ... (I'd ask my cousin, who lives in London, but the fact is that I trust better a playmofriend to such a task.)
Thx
Gus
:blackhair:
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Hello Gus,
I am game if you don't get any better offers. ;) I am at the post office 3 or 4 times a week anyway so forwarding mail would not be a problem. Let me know.
Gepetto
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I tried to make my log in by subscribing through Playmobil.uk, which is always my second choice ...
What stopped me was the adress part : I DON'T have an adress in England, and I don't use to lie. SPECIALLY in the internet (no matter how contradictory this may seem to be, no, I don't, and I won't discuss this, so, don't anyone even try).
Does any Playmofriends member volunteer to give me permission to use his adress as a "base", so as I could subscribe (through England, US, France or Spain)?, considering that, if I make any orders, they'll send to your house, and you'll have to post to me (at my expenses, of course; probably Paypal ...). Let me know through PM. If I have more than one offer, I'll let each know, and I'll choose only one, because this is how I do it.
I'll be very grateful! ...
Thx
Gus
:blackhair:
I'd be happy to help, Gus, as I already cover parts of Australia amongst others.
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Martin,
I agree about museums selling Playmobil. Last year I got the Conway Valley Railway Museum at Betws-Y-Coed to stock the Playmobil trains. They are now stocking both the G scal size and the 123 trains for the children.
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That's interesting Walt, but I'm not sure if it's encouraging or discouraging!
It seems that Playmobil has been stocked in museums in the past (at Jorvic and The Yorkshire Museum), and in Walt's particular museum at present. I know that Walt does wonderful Playmobil displays that ought to encourage Playmobil purchases, and thus been good for and supported by Playmobil. We also know that certain museums in Germany have unique figures made for them occasionally (The Prince of somewhere I forget). There are even special figures & games released for the chain of Nordsee Fish Restaurants.
Yet Museums (in the UK and US) are not regularly stocking Playmobil, even where it would ideally mirror their focus (e.g. Union and Confederate soldiers at various US Civil War sites).
Why should this be so? I can think of a few possible reasons.
1) Playmobil have tried it before, and it has had minimal sales impact for the effort involved.
2) Playmobil tried it before and it was successful, but for some reason they stopped again.
3) They did try it, but the Museums didn't like it for some reason and stopped it.
4) They didn't try it, and are unaware of the potential benefit to sales.
5) They didn't try it, and ARE aware of the possibility, but lack the resources to try.
Now we know they HAVE tried selling Playmobil through museums because people have seen it, so the idea is there in the Playmobil Global Marketing Mix (as I truly hope they have one). Does it not get disseminated through the company?
I personally can't see why, with the right focus and plan, the idea shouldn't be a runaway success, and not just for Romans (and Vikings and trains) in UK museums.
Imagine a blister with a Union and a Confederate solder on sale at any US Civil War site. What little boy (or his dad) wouldn't want at least one of those to commemorate their visit?
Imagine a blister of a British Redcoat (with correct period hat) and a period American soldier on sale at every US War of Independance site.
Imagine a blister of the recent Spanish Soldier with a Pirate on sale at at museums all round the Carribean and coast of South America.
The possibilities are endless, please feel free to add your ideas. The initial test packaging needn't be a full commercial blister, of course - a couple of figures in a sealed bag would do to test the water.
Now imagine those small blister packs (which Playmobil could easily create with minimal changes to existing figures) as the grain of sand that starts the pearl of a collection in the homes of millions of children worldwide.
I'm driven to the conclusion that either Playmobil lack the resources to carry out these plans (surely not?), or the imagination to see how much they could benefit, or they have been discouraged in the past, and lack the courage to try again.
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Hi Martin I share your discouragement.
I wonder if the individual museums that sold Playmobil sought out the company for individual deals?
I notice that the museums I visit sell
1) Expensive, but very low quality plastic toys (Saint Louis Zoo, Saint Louis Science Center, Smithsonian).
2) Stuffed animals
3) Expensive, ecclectic products produced by small companies (I bought a version of classical Indian chess at the Smithsonian for a chunk of change).
I'm not certain mass shipping a bunch of knight blister packs to the St Louis Art Museum (features lots of medieval armor) would be worth the trouble, except as a promotional exercise.
Walts-Trains' example of the Conway Railway Museum is sort of skewed because presumably most visitors to a train museum love trains and likely have model railroads.
-Tim
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Hi Martin I share your discouragement.
I wonder if the individual museums that sold Playmobil sought out the company for individual deals?
I'm almost certain this is so, Tim. Here's a pst that just appeared over on Playmoboard:
I was recently at Fishbourne Roman Palace in West Sussex (near Chichester), and they had the full range of Roman sets in the gift shop there. Fishbourne is owned and run by the Sussex Archaeological Society, one of the oldest and largest county archaeological societies in England. I was slightly surprised to see Playmobil in the shop, but quite gratified. I have no idea how they got the Playmobil into the shop or how well it sells. If/when we go back, I'll try to remember to ask.
Having seen lots of what can best be described as rubbish in many museum gift shops, it was nice to see some quality toys for once.
Cheers,
Andrew
If this was Playmobil approaching the Museum, we'd have more reports of Playmobil in Museums. Much more likely someone at the Sussex Archaeological Society is a fan of Playmobil, saw the Romans and realised they would be ideal to put in the giftshop, like I did, but they're in a position to make it happen.
In a way this makes me despair even more for Playmobil's lack of action and vision in this area. One feels they couldn't sell beer at the Munich Beer Festival.
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One feels they couldn't sell beer at the Munich Beer Festival.
The following is off-topic but must be said:
My city, Saint Charles, celebrates Oktoberfest.
But, as you know, we Americans, still fuming over the failure of Prohibition and reveling in the throes of the Southern Baptist revival movement, regard beer as something enjoyed only by drunkards, ne'er-do-wells, and social failures.
So our city's Oktoberfest boils down to a craft fair populated by American revolution re-enactors. You can find the beer in the back corner, hidden from the main drag, served in plastic cups, and cordoned to a tented section of half-deserted tables.
-Tim