International marketing and sales

[Frankschtaldt]

I'm not sure how to word this but I think it should be possible to get sales from regions you don't have branches in through the branches you do have.

For example, it impossible to buy Chevrolet in Australia, however there are at least a dozen or so Camaros that people imported brand new here as well as the odd Corvette. Similarly there are no Bugatti dealers here as far as I know but there is at least one Veyron.

This could also be tied into a global marketing budget that boosts your rep in cities you don't have branches in. Everyone in the city I live in has heard of a Ferrari but I'd bet less than 10% have ever seen one and I doubt any have ever driven one.

The global marketing generates global interest in the marque. Interested buyers pay the freight, probably at double what the player pays because they don't get the bulk rates massive companies shipping hundreds of units get. The freight cost will effect what people are willing to pay. Someone in Moscow isn't going to pay to have an economy hatchback shipped from London but every now and then someone from Melbourne or Tokyo will probably be willing to pay a fortune to have a really nice limo or super car shipped from Milan.

This wouldn't help massive companies turning over high volumes of cheap cars much but it could make a big difference to someone trying to run a small boutique brand.

[freeman2344]

Very cool idea. Should not have much of an economic impact, but adds a lot to immersion and realism IMO.

I don't know whether this would be feasible though, or worth the effort (which I would suspect is substantial?). If this were to be implemented, one might as well go for a "purchase specced car from manufacturer" or "preorder" sales model, as that would also be more realistic than just producing cars and hoping for the best, but as it stands, I think that these changes would be too significant and would probably have to wait for Eric's expansion (I'm sure there'll be one, let's be optimisic here).

[Frankschtaldt]

You're probably right about it being too much effort for the amount of gain.

Also, good point about the made to order.

Perhaps the first expac could focus on playing the boutique, each car built for its customer game play? =p
I wonder if it could even be done without a completely new game though?

[freeman2344]

I don't know. It would certainly be a significant change to the entire system...but well, you could still keep the normal distribution stuff as it is right now in the game, just add preorders or custom-ordered vehicles on top (and decrease demand for the standard produced vehicles accordingly). In fact, one easy way would be to just add another line to the "sales overview" ledger, which is titled "Ordered". The number of "ordered" vehicles could be a small percentage of the sales for the next month as calculated by the game. The produced vehicles would then first be used to "settle" the "ordered" vehicles and the remainder would be sold at the branches. There should, of course, be a small deduction for shipping and handling (though maybe that could be offset by charging a player-defined "premium" for "ordered" vehicles).

The more I think about this, the more I believe something like this should be implemented. I'm not sure how applicable it would be to the early 20th century, but nowadays, 99% of all cars (in the West, at least) are ordered...then again, wouldn't this make branches unnecessary?

[Arakash]

Just reading through the suggestion, i wondered if the extremely complex sales system that is already implemented takes into account these kinds of sales in branch sales.
After learning some of the complexity in the calculations, i honestly wouldn't be surprised if it did

Lets just assume it doesn't for the conversation.
While it could be said that in large mass market sales these kinds of things might be small enough in number not to be significant, in really high price luxury or sports vehicle sales, where selling a small number is important, i could imagine it might have a significant impact.
For example some prince or sheik in the middle east wants to import one of your sports cars, but there is no branch nearby.

Another point ill make(mostly to freeman) is that(as ive got in my faq) the Branches dont sell anything at storefronts, they sell to 3rd parties (Dealerships) who do the selling.
So considering that, i dont know how ordering would be any different from what the branches are already doing.
The other point Freeman made that was on custom-ordered vehicles, i wonder if that deserves its entire own suggestion thread? It sounds interesting enough to deserve one and something id be interested in seeing in the game.