Hornby Stop Web Site & Concession Specials

[30801]

If they are the same team who manned the Hornby stand at Warley,then they are polite,knowledgeable ambassadors for the company,enthusiastic to discuss their products,including those in development,with their buying publicwho are,hopefully,of like mind.They are decent professionals proud of their achieverments and are not the ones responsible for the company's present difficulties . I would like to believe we all respect that and behave appropriately..

 

Agreed. Apart from the strategic nose-dive from the people in charge Hornby have good people making good products.

[45568]

Oh I have no intention of lynching anyone, especially Hornby.  I just like to admire what is in their display cases as I overhear conversations between visitors and the weary Hornby reps as they get asked some of the most bizarre questions I have ever heard.  Can be quite amusing to watch!!  The way some of the Hornby guys handle some of the really awkward customers is practically an art form to behold.

OK John, that may be so, but you , perhaps jokingly, put that swing on the post! Don't forget, the people on the stand are those most likely to be affected by Hornby demise; they probably have families, mortgages, bills to pay etc., and only want to help! They are a million miles away from CEO. CFO etc.. they don't make the BIG decisions!

 I believe from other posts you have made you work on the rail system. I believe you get slightly..?? peed off by a**holes grizzling at you for things you cannot change, hey, you are only the guard??  You might find it amusing to watch a**holes asking the Hornby guys weird quesions, where is your sense of humour when related a**holes are on your 313?

 What goes around comes around!

End of my posts, your attitude is all too prevalent.

Peter C.

[Dunsignalling]

This was true a couple of years back, however the price increases seem to ensure that items don't disappear within 2 months any more. The only exception to that seems to be small tank locos like the J50 (if we can call that small!). Everything else like S15s, E4s, D16s, J15s can still be found many months after release.

 

Therefore a review may now return to being useful to help sell stock (providing of course its not negative) and we will probably see less pre-ordering and a return to more people wanting to see the item, have feedback from reviewers on the item before actually buying it.

But if the review appears six weeks after release, I'll have already decided whether or not to buy so it's not going to be of any use.

 

Mind you, on that basis, there's no need for anyone to review models of anything built after 1968, any prototype that doesn't carry its own on-board power source or anything that was ever painted Apple Green.   

 

John

[JohnR]

But if the review appears six weeks after release, I'll have already decided whether or not to buy so it's not going to be of any use.

 

Mind you, on that basis, there's no need for anyone to review anything built after 1968, any prototype that doesn't carry its own on-board power source or anything that was ever painted Apple Green.   

 

John

Indeed - in fact, if its good and popular, by the time you read the review, it could have sold out.

[Vistisen]

But no one can monitor the dozens of threads on here day by day unless they have nothing else to do. I don't monitor Hornby's social media and website - why should I? Frankly, if they can't be bothered to let the specialist press know - in advance - they clearly don't consider such things to be important. If they, don't why should I? I buy or borrow models for review for no other reason than as a service to Model Rail readers. They are the first and foremost consideration, and many - probably most of them - are Hornby customers. It is also quite clear from our investigations that a large proportion of readers do not follow social media or forums. They don't shop on line and would never provide bank or credit card details in order to do so. I presume Hornby doesn't want those customers....but then, surely at the moment it needs all the customers it can get? (CJL)

Let's turn that statement arround: If YOU can not be bothered to monitor Hornby's public channels with the most up to date information made freely availabe, why should they make an effort to inform you by a private channel?

[Vistisen]

Chris Leigh made a point on another thread that there is a large proportion of their readership that isn't online at all. Checking the ABC stats shows around 30,000 readers. Would be interesting to compare that to the numbers who regularly read/post/lurk here.

 

Equally, the retailers comment that they have customers who clearly aren't on line and rely on the old style catalogues. Now if I'm in the magazine trade, of course I want to be able to have some sort of dialogue as it adds to my USP. I'm sure there's value they can add and insights they can gain that you can't get from one way communications such as the Engine Shed. That's their job as journalists yo pick up on the inconsistencies and interpret what they're saying for us by stripping out the spin.

 

David

The have currently 51809 following them on facebook alone!

[Clearwater]

 

The have currently 51809 following them on facebook alone![/quote

That's the point... What is the venn diagramme between Facebook, here and hard copy magazines. Evidence suggests there is a sizeable chunk of magazine readers who do not follow this forum or indeed Facebook. Merely because the number of Facebook followers is larger than the number of magazine readers does not make it mean than the latter is a sub set of the former

 

David

[Andy Hayter]

Let's turn that statement arround: If YOU can not be bothered to monitor Hornby's public channels with the most up to date information made freely availabe, why should they make an effort to inform you by a private channel?

 

That is the sort of commercial arrogance that gets companies like Hornby into deep trouble.

 

Where discretionary spending is concerned, companies need customers, the reverse is not true.

[Ian Hargrave]

That is the sort of commercial arrogance that gets companies like Hornby into deep trouble.

 

Where discretionary spending is concerned, companies need customers, the reverse is not true.

 

The whole point of this is that right now Hornby needs goodwill and support from ALL quarters.That must surely include the magazines.Persisting in such alienation is at very least,helping no one,especially Hornby.

 I know this is an online media forum.Whether or not I would grace it with the title 'social' is quite another matter.All very nice but I have to wonder whether some of us are becoming bubble wrapped in cyberspace.There is life out there beyond the screen and keyboard,beyond Facebook and Twitter.Rumour has it that the printed word still exists.....

[Ian Hargrave]

And now back to business.Newsletter now received from Rails advertising the imminent for sale of Hornby ex-concession locos. "La Comedia e finita"........

[Vistisen]

The whole point of this is that right now Hornby needs goodwill and support from ALL quarters.That must surely include the magazines.Persisting in such alienation is at very least,helping no one,especially Hornby.

 I know this is an online media forum.Whether or not I would grace it with the title 'social' is quite another matter.All very nice but I have to wonder whether some of us are becoming bubble wrapped in cyberspace.There is life out there beyond the screen and keyboard,beyond Facebook and Twitter.Rumour has it that the printed word still exists.....

... and the News from Hornby is STILL in all of the magazines, it's just already old news compared to what's online.

[Legend]

That is the sort of commercial arrogance that gets companies like Hornby into deep trouble.

 

Where discretionary spending is concerned, companies need customers, the reverse is not true.

I thought it was a fair point. If you were into model railways would you not be monitoring manufacturers websites and indeed ones such as this. Certainly you'd find out when Colletts were available. That's how I found out.

[Phil Parker]

I thought it was a fair point. If you were into model railways would you not be monitoring manufacturers websites and indeed ones such as this. Certainly you'd find out when Colletts were available. That's how I found out.

 

So you'd be looking at:

 

Hornby

Bachmann

Dapol

DJM

Replica

Realtrack

Minerva

Ixion

Hattons

Kernow

Rails

 

and the list goes on...

 

It would be easy to spend all your time looking at websites and never doing any modelling.

[Legend]

If it was my job I pretty much would yes. But actually you only need to look at RMWeb as you will find any news pretty quickly is on here. Andy obviously does a sterling job where there are press releases. Where there aren't eg Hornby I think you can guarantee it will appear on the Engine Shed thread or others more or less as soon as it's appeared on engine shed itself. I'd site SLW class 24 as being a further example. First I knew of it, on the day it was released was on here. I often forget to look at Engine Shed until reminded by a thread on here. So in reality it's a small world these days, thanks to the internet, almost instant news.

[dibber25]

Oz , usually agree with you but on this occasion 180 deg opposite view. Hornby are communicating to their most important people, the customer. And I have to say they are doing it rather well with Engine Shed and to a lesser extent Simon Kohlers blog. They've simply cut out the middle man . And from my perspective that's no bad thing. I'm intrigued to find what additional perspective Model Railway mags bring to this. Is it an expose on pricing, manufacturing in China. Nope not much there. What additional perspective do you need if the manufacturer is communicating directly to you. They are no more going to divulge financial information to a mag than they are you or me. I don't need the model railway press to tell me what to think or what they think,.

 

Yes get their relationship with dealers sorted out, but communications with enthusiasts are the best they've been.

Communications with SOME enthusiasts. (CJL)

[Revolution Ben]

... <snipped> you only need to look at RMWeb as you will find any news pretty quickly is on here. Andy obviously does a sterling job where there are press releases.

 

<snipped>  So in reality it's a small world these days, thanks to the internet, almost instant news.

 

But the point is, Hornby's policy has been not to send out press releases.   Compare the Bachmann new product announcements - lots of detail and information - with the trickle of info about Hornby stuff.

 

And yes, it may be a small world if you do choose to engage with the hobby on forums like this and assume everyone else does too.  As I said before, Hornby's fundamental mistake was to assume that the internet represented all its customers, when the evidence is quite clear that it does not, and a significant proportion engage via magazines, or their local store, or maybe a club.

 

My neighbour is an enthusiast.  He collects BR blue era.  He sometimes shops online.  He buys the occasional magazine.  But I have asked him several times, and he has never used this forum or any others.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[dibber25]

Let's turn that statement arround: If YOU can not be bothered to monitor Hornby's public channels with the most up to date information made freely availabe, why should they make an effort to inform you by a private channel?

Because that's not the way it works. See my comments about Ferrari etc. (CJL)

[The Stationmaster]

The whole point of this is that right now Hornby needs goodwill and support from ALL quarters.That must surely include the magazines.Persisting in such alienation is at very least,helping no one,especially Hornby.

 I know this is an online media forum.Whether or not I would grace it with the title 'social' is quite another matter.All very nice but I have to wonder whether some of us are becoming bubble wrapped in cyberspace.There is life out there beyond the screen and keyboard,beyond Facebook and Twitter.Rumour has it that the printed word still exists.....

 

One point worth considering at the moment is that Hornby might well be somewhat circumscribed in respect of what it can say in public.  It is, hopefully, on its way to resolving its problems and we have seen what many of us think is a positive step in that direction regarding changes in sales policy but we know little else of what the company is doing or planning to do. We don't know how that will affect us as customers/potential customers for future products in terms of those products actually appearing or plans being made to produce them.  In fact we don't even know if the company will survive in its present form although clearly I think most of us hope it does and that it continues to produce what we want.

 

But far more critically Hornby's plans or the decisions now being made could impact on those who rely on the company for their living - for paying the mortgage and putting food on the table.  Those things are far more important than our toy trains and it is far more important (and legally necessary I suspect) that Hornby discuss such changes - if there are to be any - with its staff before telling us what is happening.

 

If Hornby are at Ally Pally this weekend we perhaps need to remember that whatever we might ask of their people there those same people have some far more important questions to which they might be awaiting answers than telling us about production plans.

[Co-tr-Paul]

So does this mean the Christmas Wagon becomes a standard release and not limited in number ?

 

Some people's fun chasing one down has been stopped !!

[daftbovine]

Regarding communication via the Internet, in my experience Internet use is very varied. My husband's uncle is in his eighties and is on Facebook, mainly to keep in touch with his grandchildren.

 

I edit and distribute a model railway newsletter which gets sent out to about fifty members and believe it or not, ten of those don't have home computers or mobile phones. Some people spend hours on the Internet, others check in for a short time once a day to read and send out emails. The latter probably don't bother much with forums or online shopping.

 

To communicate effectively the Internet and magazines both play a part.

[Legend]

To communicate effectively the Internet and magazines both play a part.

Completely agree. The mags can pick up the information from the net and report it for those who don't have access.

[jjb1970]

So you'd be looking at:

 

Hornby

Bachmann

Dapol

DJM

Replica

Realtrack

Minerva

Ixion

Hattons

Kernow

Rails

 

and the list goes on...

 

It would be easy to spend all your time looking at websites and never doing any modelling.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, viewing twelve websites at a minimum frequency of once a month to match the frequency of news people get from a magazine is hardly onerous or time consuming. And surely for a magazine writer maintaining familiarity with what is happening in the sector you write about is pretty much an inherent part of the job.

[Andy Y]

One aspect which many seem not to have taken into account is planning and co-ordination of magazine content. If you know when an item is roughly going to appear it's possible to not only make space for the review (ideally at the time it's due to land on retailer's shelves) but to provide supporting content such as prototype articles which help some readers to understand more about the prototype and include images of the real thing to help them make their own judgements along with any comments of the reviewer all timed for when the product can be purchased. So, it's not to do with whether a review sample is free or even if it's provided, but about communication and co-operation in producing an outcome which is beneficial to manufacturer, publisher, retailer and consumer alike. Hornby used to do this and were very good at it but they chose a different path from last year.

 

A good example of getting it right last year was Bachmann's Class 43 where I received regular updates on expected arrival of review samples so page space could be planned and an accompanying prototype article which went into a lot of livery detail, advanced samples were inspected ahead of release to look at where any comments would be appropriate which made writing the review a lot easier and more detailed along with the time to take the best pictures possible; that copy of BRM came out in the week when the product started to hit the shops who it's important that manufacturers and publishers support. Is it an accident that the product won its category in the BMRA awards? Yes, it's a great model but it was also about marketing and it's not just as simple as a couple of pages of free advertising for the manufacturer.

 

Try doing that just by just looking at a website.

[Phil Parker]

That's a bit of an exaggeration, viewing twelve websites at a minimum frequency of once a month to match the frequency of news people get from a magazine is hardly onerous or time consuming. And surely for a magazine writer maintaining familiarity with what is happening in the sector you write about is pretty much an inherent part of the job.

My response was to those suggesting magazines have no place anymore as manufacturers are talking directly to customers. A dozen websites aren't an issue for someone writing about the hobby full time - and it's only a dozen because I got bored of typing, the true number is nearly 300, but most people don't want to read every one several times a month, which is where reading a mag fits in, it's a content aggregator.

 

Of course a sensible company would ensure coverage and drive people to the website with a press release costing a few minutes of the PR teams time. It's a cheap and easy way to generate publicity, and something most companies do. Except Hornby.

[Budgie]

I asked Hornby when their Collett bow-ended coaches are going to be released in maroon. I have not had an answer. To me that is unacceptable.