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Post by NS-R on Apr 13, 2004 15:05:58 GMT
GR/KF, Did you notice your URL on both John Findlay's and my XR2's? I forgot to mention it when I saw you at the hairpin...hope you got some good photos... Cheers, Nick www.ns-r.co.uk |
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Post by Catriona on Apr 13, 2004 15:38:45 GMT
Certainly did - we liked the positioning on the front, as that means it should show in most of the pictures I take  Thanks for that - also thanks to Ali for the nicely colour-coordinated one on his Legend. Great to see our name on some cars, plus you and Ali have two of the most noticeable cars around with those bright colours, so that'll get plenty of attention, hopefully Btw, according to one of my stats websites, we had over 100 hits yesterday... dunno if my other stats source will agree, but it's a heck of a lot, anyway, and very much a new record for us, so it looks like the advertising works  |
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Post by davefiddes on Apr 13, 2004 22:07:09 GMT
So, when are you starting your merchandising drive to fund the site then? I for one would love to buy a couple of rear screen stickers/bumper stickers for my vehicles. I know that I could brow beat or blackmail friends and family to put them on their day to day cars as well...help get the message out! Something a little bit like this maybe: www.pistonheads.com/shop/asp/prodtype.asp?prodtype=7(OK, much much simpler to start with...but from small acorns, etc, etc) |
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Post by Catriona on Apr 13, 2004 23:25:11 GMT
Now that kind of thing would be fantastic... the downside is finding a way to get any merchandise-type stuff made without it ending up costing us far more than we actually make in sales. I just don't think there's enough people who'd be interested, tbh... the only way I could see us doing it without making a big loss would be to do what my online racing league has done, where they get one item at a time made to order, when someone wants it, which obviously makes the items pretty expensive... but they've got a larger market than I think we would, and they can't really afford to do anything else.
To be able to set up a merchandise store, we'd need to have the funds to order things in bulk, and when you consider that I'm currently spending £25-40 a meeting out of my own pocket on processing photos for this site, I really can't afford to risk losing large amounts of money on a failed merchandising drive.
I'll be putting a Paypal donations link on the site in the coming days, so maybe if a few donations come in through that, and we have some cash to hand, then we might be able to think about it, but currently I don't think it's possible, although I will look into cheaper things like stickers and so on, if they can be done in small quantities. Basically, we're not big enough for that kind of thing, and probably will never be, as the club racing world simply isn't big enough to give us enough of a market that we'll ever make any money out of the site, or even stop making a loss on it.
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Post by davefiddes on Apr 14, 2004 14:18:20 GMT
I understand your concerns. On the other hand both Nick and John have obviously paid to have their cars signed. I could also do something similar but it starts to get quite uneconomic as well as starting to pollute the scottishclubracing.co.uk brand image if we have 10 different designs of sticker... Perhaps you could consider a "group buy" of stickers. Interested parties could sign up to buy a certain number of stickers (or T-shirts, bobble hats, mugs, etc). That way you'd know how many takers you had and where the price breaks were...add a bit of friction to cover your own costs/fund the site and away you go. Another alternative that springs to mind is: Is there something like Cafe Press(http://www.cafepress.com) in the UK? They allow you to set up a virtual shop with customised goods and do all of the shipping, etc for you. You get a commission on everything sold (albeit not as large as if you organised it yourself I don't think). Basically, we're not big enough for that kind of thing, and probably will never be, as the club racing world simply isn't big enough to give us enough of a market that we'll ever make any money out of the site, or even stop making a loss on it. I think you really undersell yourselves! For me SCR is as if not more important than membership of the SMRC. It's a great place to catch up on the latest news, the racing if you've been away and meet up with other people involved in racing, etc. I'm sure that a lot of others here feel the same way. I can see you continuing to stimulate interest in club racing as the site grows. Carry on as you are and heck, Knockhill will have to give you a cut of the entry gate! |
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Post by Blair on Apr 14, 2004 21:47:18 GMT
I was going to suggest that cafepress.com site, thought it could be set up for UK sites as well though? Maybe not! Anyway if it is us based postage could maybe be prohibitive.
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Post by XR2 Baz on Apr 15, 2004 8:45:45 GMT
it starts to get quite uneconomic as well as starting to pollute the scottishclubracing.co.uk brand image if we have 10 different designs of sticker... I agree with this, and there are ways of getting round this. My first suggestion would be to create a logo for SCR and post it on the web site. Then if any of us want to use it to hold our cars together whilst advertising the site, we can download it and send it to our respective signwriters. It can also be used for web links, t-shirts, and so on. I do know that when getting signs made up, once the sign has been made once it is easy to reprint as the design is stored. Perhaps we could pick one signwriter to do the lettering and then if anyone is interested in getting signs made up they could just call that one company and get them to reprint it and send it off, hopefully cutting costs in the process. Might be a good idea for a few of us to chip in for an initial print run, any takers? |
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Post by Catriona on Apr 15, 2004 10:11:07 GMT
As far as sticker design goes, there's already a "standard" design, in the black lettering with silver outline as seen on several XR2s last year - Neil Scott organised those, and I know at least two batches were made up,so if anyone can get in touch with him, it should be fairly easy to find out the details of the printer, etc.
Tbh we couldn't really have a totally standard design anyway, as everyone has different colours of car - no use the standard sticker being, say, blue, only for it not to show up on John Findlay's car... or make it white, but then find Marc Baynham or someone else with a white car wants one. The black with silver outline is probably as good as we'd get, really, as it shows up on just about anything, but even so, it's not going to go well with everyone's colours.
The only particularly standard thing about the logo that anyone should consider is the font, which ought to be "Hobo" - but tbh, even if people use other fonts, I'm not bothered, as all advertising is good advertising, IMHO. There's nothing to say that I won't think about changing the logo sometime anyway, as the whole address is a bit long for most things really (not that many sites use their whole web address as a logo), but I've never really thought about anything to look better as a general logo.
I'll look into the likes of Cafepress, btw, but I always thought that kind of thing was for larger sites than us... could be useful if it really will work for just anyone, though.
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Post by NS-R on Apr 15, 2004 10:46:37 GMT
It may be worth seeing what Ian/Neil can offer to start with - they may be able to get a good deal... XR2Baz - hope you are joining us later in the season? Have you got your car sorted out yet? Cheers, Nick www.ns-r.co.uk |
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Post by dagman16 on Apr 15, 2004 12:33:08 GMT
I'd be more than willing to chip in on this and also put a sticker on my car. How about smaller window stickers for road cars?
I agree with others... this is a great site for keeping in touch with the club racing scene in Scotland and by having these stickers, I'm sure you would get plenty more folk looking in and perhaps registering.
David
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Post by XR2 Baz on Apr 16, 2004 14:37:21 GMT
Joining you? Bloomin right I will be, I'm itching to race. The car has been delayed by moving house, since I'm on a shoe string budget and there's only 24 hours in a day, something had to give, but it's back to no. 1 priority. It's nearly complete, though I won't be out for the 25th meeting. Hoping that it will be ready for the 2nd May for a hillclimb which will also act as a shakedown for it. Then I should be out racing in May. Had a look at the results from the weekend, and if this car's as good as the last (which it better be with the time I've put in it) I'm looking forward to breaking into the top ten this year...and perhaps even a win in the newcomers cup  |
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Post by Catriona on Apr 17, 2004 19:58:33 GMT
Ok, you guys win Having looked closely at Cafepress, myself and KF have decided to go for it and open a store. It won't open for a while yet, as we'll need to work on making good-looking graphics first (or more likely, I'll get a friend to make some for us, as I'm not great with creating new graphics), but it will happen relatively soon, we hope  Btw, although Cafepress are an American company, they do ship to the UK, so long as you can pay them in dollars (they take credit cards, of course) - the shipping maybe isn't as cheap as it could be, but hopefully it won't put anyone off too badly - on the plus side, the exchange rate between pounds and dollars is pretty good at the moment |
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Post by davefiddes on Apr 17, 2004 23:30:50 GMT
I guess that means I'll have to put my money where my mouth is!!!  |
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Post by Catriona on Apr 18, 2004 8:48:55 GMT
Certainly does  |
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