Discussion Ideas for increasing GWS' presence on market at minimum cost

[hilbilly]

I think many of the "mods" such as firewall motor mounts and re-inforced LG mounting can be accomplished with simple addendums to already existing kits - so no need to re-engineer the entire thing just ADD what is needed with a small sheet of additional instructions. USE some of the feedback you get from your customers to your advantage to IMPROVE your kits that are already on the market.

Hillbille

[NitroCharged]

Rodger, I too was thinking of GWS selling via consignment to move stock.
I say fill up five or six 10 ft containers with all you most popular stock items, including all parts and ship them throughout world locations.

There's your first problem of unavailable local stock gone.

Second, is the risk a dealer has to take in importing a bunch of stuff from GWS at the dealers expense.
Apparently, the GWS warehouse is stuffed to the gills (very full) of stock due to the large numbers produced to keep production costs down. My guess is it isn't all going to sell within China - and since GWS isn't going to be making anything new till the old stuff moves out, ship it around the world, spread the word GWS is now available locally again and that 'all your old favorites' are now easy to buy again.

As for hop up kits - a simple sticker placed on the face of the models carton/box listing the upgrades inside would take care of it.

As an aside, Chen - I am a Web Designer by profession and I really do choke when I go to your site. I can offer my services on the english content if desired. No website should give the impression that 2006 was the last time they updated their site, as the GWS website does.

[GWS CHEN]

Hi NitroCharged & Thrashmaster71,

Thank you very much for your reminder, I'll ask my colleague to update the GWS news on the web site as soon as possible.

Chen

[WWIFlyin'Ace]

You might want to streamline your replacement parts.
Perhaps:
Parts A- main wing & horizontal stablizer
Parts B- fuselage (both halves)
Parts C- everything else such as cowl, canopy, battery covers.

[mtbrider]

why sell power kits with a geared brushed motors, even the old guys in my club are moving to brushless and li/po. Sell the brushless motors as an option as you do now so the customer can choose.

[netdudeuk]

Originally Posted by mtbrider

why sell power kits with a geared brushed motors, even the old guys in my club are moving to brushless and li/po. Sell the brushless motors as an option as you do now so the customer can choose.

Yes, I have several brushed motors from you that went straight into the drawer. I didn't buy the kits because they came with motors. You could sell the kits without the motors (but with the landing gear) which I'd prefer to the slope solution.

And, with the necessary permission, why don't you put some pics of the models that the regulars have built onto your site ? I know that they're not stock but there's nothing wrong with doing this because you sell them in white to be painted anyway.

[nsg]

I sold my brushed motors yesterday, much to my surprise. Posted them today.

The end cost of that GWS-38 kit ended up at $25, give or take. If memory serves, the NPS version was $45 - still cheap for that kit, IMO. The 2x EPS-300 kit was on sale for $33, the motors/gearbox/prop packages fetched $10 or so. If this kit wasn't available, I'd have gladly paid $45 for the NPS.

[SteveC68]

Get rid of the colorful boxes and stick to white. My GWS A-10, Spitfire and Bf-109 all came in boxes with glossy color pictures all over the box. Where as my GWS P-38 and E-Starter came in plain white boxes with a small picture of the completed kit glued to the top of the box. I think the white box has to be cheaper than the printed box.

[woodsy]

I agree with a lot of what has been said.

Heres a couple of things from my experience (in Australia).

I set up to be a GWS dealer in Australia about 8 months ago, i never went forward with importing due to a couple of things:
The freight costs are way over the top, i've imported from GuanLi, SAPAC and Hawkwere and there freight cost is aproximatly 60% of what GWS quoted.

While i do understand that packing multiple $500 or $1000 orders is not as eficient as packing a 20' container this is what GWS should do UNLESS they apoint 1 Australian importer and give them decent suport and pricing, none of us small guys can afford to spend many thousands of $$$$ on stock.

Set up a GWS importer in Australia and support them financialy and with consignment stock (i'll do it )

I would have only 3 levels of model available PNP (Assemble, drop in an RX and away you go), ARF (with a decent brushelss motor included), Basic (everything but no electrics)

cut down on the amount of servo's, motors, batteries, ESC's, etc in the GWS range, there is just way to much competition out of China available over the net these days.

While i know EDF seems to be the flavour of the month at the moment for i would go back to GWS basics and look at prop models, May be start a few era or type 'sets' some of them you already have in the GWS line up eg:
WW1 set, WW2 set, Air racing set, Burt Rutan set, etc, etc

[Michael in Toronto]

1. Reduce your product line. Eliminate all models that are your poorest sellers.

2. Identify weaknesses with your most popular kits, and improve them; example: brushless motors only.

3. Offer discounts on large quantities to importers/distributors who pay on delivery.

4. Offer "Plug-n-Play" versions of your best selling models; complete ready to fly except transmitter and receiver.

5. Do not announce new models until they are fully ready for sale; if you announce models while they are still in development, customers will wait before spending money.

[WTFLYR]

The Wright Stick slow flyer with Slow Stick parts. Only needs laser cut wood parts to complete the kit. You could get those parts cheap, as no tooling is needed.
Look at the link inside this post Chen:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=827

[GWS CHEN]

Originally Posted by sebsoupe

Hello,
I'm trying to write some reports in french RC newspaper upon GWS birds or products (brushless motors, Digital servos) to make french flyers aware of those good GWS products...
it's free for GWS, and I hope it will help them to sell more planes and stuff here in France!
Bye,
sebsoupe

Thank you very much for your great help. You're the first pilot writing reports in French newspaper on GWS birds and products.

Chen

[GWS CHEN]

Originally Posted by netdudeuk

Yes, I have several brushed motors from you that went straight into the drawer. I didn't buy the kits because they came with motors. You could sell the kits without the motors (but with the landing gear) which I'd prefer to the slope solution.

And, with the necessary permission, why don't you put some pics of the models that the regulars have built onto your site ? I know that they're not stock but there's nothing wrong with doing this because you sell them in white to be painted anyway.

Thank you, there's NPS white or NPS painted kit available, they come with landing gear, but without the motor.

Chen

[GWS CHEN]

Originally Posted by WWIFlyin'Ace

You might want to streamline your replacement parts.
Perhaps:
Parts A- main wing & horizontal stablizer
Parts B- fuselage (both halves)
Parts C- everything else such as cowl, canopy, battery covers.

Thank you, this is a good idea for selling spare parts of most airplane kits.

Chen

[GWS CHEN]

Originally Posted by SteveC68

Get rid of the colorful boxes and stick to white. My GWS A-10, Spitfire and Bf-109 all came in boxes with glossy color pictures all over the box. Where as my GWS P-38 and E-Starter came in plain white boxes with a small picture of the completed kit glued to the top of the box. I think the white box has to be cheaper than the printed box.

Thank you very much, I'll keep my colleagues informed of your words, same plain white boxes for the older birds as what the latest birds are in. The boxes made from recycled paper might be even better.

Chen