Marketing question

[Giacomo]

Woa!

It's been a few years since the last time I played Gearcity and back then it was only available as a demo! I've paid up to play the Beta and boy has it changed! With the exception of the loss of those rather nice looking leather bound buttons from older versions of the game, EVERYTHING else has improved for the better!

I do have a querry and a few suggestions related to marketing. I like the new marketing efficiency report, but I still find it nearly impossible to gauge what effect the funds I'm sinking into advertising, is having on helping me shift cars. Is there anyway I can find this out? I would also like an idea of the advertising my competitors are committing to in each city. Is there anyway to see this? And in regards to my suggetions, well... if the above reports don't exist, can they be implemented?

[Eric.B]

Woa!

It's been a few years since the last time I played Gearcity and back then it was only available as a demo!

Welcome Back!

With the exception of the loss of those rather nice looking leather bound buttons from older versions of the game

The Leather buttons had some scaling issues. I will probably do a little bit of tweaking to the current brown ones at some point. But the old leather buttons are probably gone for good.

I do have a querry and a few suggestions related to marketing. I like the new marketing efficiency report, but I still find it nearly impossible to gauge what effect the funds I'm sinking into advertising, is having on helping me shift cars. Is there anyway I can find this out?

There is no way to know exactly how much marketing effects your sales as it is just one part of the consumer buyer rating. This rating is used to compare against other vehicles for sale in the market. The bonus it gives to the rating is not linear, but the more money you put into marketing the higher your consumer rating will go. If you have no or little competition in the market, you won't see much if any sales increase.

I would also like an idea of the advertising my competitors are committing to in each city.

I believe there may be marketing budgets in the stock reports of publicly traded companies. You can access this information by clicking the line graph button in the stock menu for the selected company. If you don't see the marketing budgets there, let me know, and I might be able to work it in.

You have no right to the information for private companies however...


In v1.21.1, an Auto-marketing system has been implemented. It defaults the budgets to around 10% of profits.

[Giacomo]

Shame about those old buttons being gone for good. If I were an unreasonable man, I'd troll you until you changed your mind.... (Awkward silence)

I believe there may be marketing budgets in the stock reports of publicly traded companies. You can access this information by clicking the line graph button in the stock menu for the selected company. If you don't see the marketing budgets there, let me know, and I might be able to work it in.

You have no right to the information for private companies however...

Either I'm a complete useless bastard, or those marketing budgets in the stock reports of other companies don't exist.

You've mentioned that we don't have the right to see the marketing budget of a private company and yet as a player we have access to every single competitor's "cost per unit" stat for each car. Does this mean that the figures are just an approximation?

In regards to competitor's marketing, I'd like to have an idea if my rivals are placing any ads in the cities I'm opporating in. I like to think of the concept as simply opening a newspaper/magazine/radio/etc etc and looking to see if my competitor has placed any advertisement.

With the marketing efficiency report, is this really measuring efficiency, or is it simply stating the money I've allocated for each city and its marketing channel? What I mean is, if I go to a city and move the slider to half way, is the efficiency report simply stating this (eg: newspaper coverage is 50% which equals "poor" in the report). Or is there another calculation going on? Is there a time element as well? Would running a newspaper budget at 50℅ over a few years slowly raise my company's profile in that city? How about the option of allowing a company to pay for some marketing analysis from time to time?

[Eric.B]

Sorry for the late reply, busy day today.

Either I'm a complete useless bastard, or those marketing budgets in the stock reports of other companies don't exist.

You are correct, you are shown dealerships there and not marketing budget. I can work it in though.

You've mentioned that we don't have the right to see the marketing budget of a private company and yet as a player we have access to every single competitor's "cost per unit" stat for each car. Does this mean that the figures are just an approximation?

I assume you mean "Unit Costs" IE the material costs of the vehicles. While it is rare to the know the exact material costs in real life of your competition's good. There is a whole industry of being able to predict the build costs of goods. To figure out the material costs of any good, simply break down that good, components that are not produced by the company, you find out how much it is to buy those parts, parts that are produced by the company, you weigh the materials.

You are shown the Unit Costs of AI vehicles. But i'm pretty sure you're not shown the real costs, IE Total Cost Of Delivery Total Production Costs. Nor are you shown RnD Budgets, etc.

With the marketing efficiency report, is this really measuring efficiency, or is it simply stating the money I've allocated for each city and its marketing channel? What I mean is, if I go to a city and move the slider to half way, is the efficiency report simply stating this (eg: newspaper coverage is 50% which equals "poor" in the report). Or is there another calculation going on? Is there a time element as well? Would running a newspaper budget at 50℅ over a few years slowly raise my company's profile in that city? How about the option of allowing a company to pay for some marketing analysis from time to time?

The efficiency is timed base. So If you set the slider at 50% you will go from 0% to 50% over a period of time. The speed at which it goes up (and how high the max is) depends on your marketing skills and employee moral.

Your marketing skills go up based on the average of sliders you have. Over time.

There are no "profiles" for cities. As your marketing image in the city goes up, you will get a bonus to your consumer buyer rating which will make your vehicles more desirable to your competition.

[Giacomo]

OK. Thanks for your reply.