The ultimate marketing solution?

[Frankschtaldt]

In this thread I suggested a number of ideas to make marketing more manageable but I have been thinking about it a lot of late (after spending three nights straight on one in game month on just setting up marketing!) and I think I have a really good solution!
Before I start I'd like to say that I still think the ideas in the above thread will be super useful and should still be implemented alongside this idea.
So the idea is basically to make marketing manageable on a regional scale in addition to on a per city scale as it is atm. I see this linking in with the ideas presented in this thread (I'll also be posting some updated ideas for the factory manager in that thread when I get a chance).
Note: although I am calling this idea a "marketing manager" it IS NOT AND AUTOMATED SYSTEM so it won't piss off people that hate them.

How I see it working: Each branch should have a check box underneath it's marketing section labeled "marketing manager" if this is checked the marketing controls would grey out and become unusable for that city.
Now, under the telephone menu (someone was talking about there needing to be more reasons to use the phone) there would be a marketing manager option. This would bring up a marketing screen basically the same as the screen used for controlling city marketing but with a dropdown box for selecting regions (the current regions used by the game ie Europe, north America etc.). This would display the combined total marketing cost of every city in the selected region with the "marketing manager" check box ticked and applying a marketing value in this screen would apply that percentage of the full marketing price to every city in that region with the check box ticked..
Also, once the values are setup in the marketing manager it should automatically add in a set numbers for and new cities that get their check box ticked.
Lastly, the manager should update marketing for every managed city so it is always the same percentage of the max value that you set it at when you set it up.

This system would give players complete control over marketing whilst MASSIVELY reducing the amount of time spent on it (especially if the apply all button was changed as per my suggestion as well)


I hope that all makes sense. It's really obvious in my head but that doesn't mean I communicated it well LOL

[Arakash]

In this thread I suggested a number of ideas to make marketing more manageable but I have been thinking about it a lot of late (after spending three nights straight on one in game month on just setting up marketing!) and I think I have a really good solution!
Before I start I'd like to say that I still think the ideas in the above thread will be super useful and should still be implemented alongside this idea.
So the idea is basically to make marketing manageable on a regional scale in addition to on a per city scale as it is atm. I see this linking in with the ideas presented in this thread (I'll also be posting some updated ideas for the factory manager in that thread when I get a chance).
Note: although I am calling this idea a "marketing manager" it IS NOT AND AUTOMATED SYSTEM so it won't piss off people that hate them.

How I see it working: Each branch should have a check box underneath it's marketing section labeled "marketing manager" if this is checked the marketing controls would grey out and become unusable for that city.
Now, under the telephone menu (someone was talking about there needing to be more reasons to use the phone) there would be a marketing manager option. This would bring up a marketing screen basically the same as the screen used for controlling city marketing but with a dropdown box for selecting regions (the current regions used by the game ie Europe, north America etc.). This would display the combined total marketing cost of every city in the selected region with the "marketing manager" check box ticked and applying a marketing value in this screen would apply that percentage of the full marketing price to every city in that region with the check box ticked..
Also, once the values are setup in the marketing manager it should automatically add in a set numbers for and new cities that get their check box ticked.
Lastly, the manager should update marketing for every managed city so it is always the same percentage of the max value that you set it at when you set it up.

This system would give players complete control over marketing whilst MASSIVELY reducing the amount of time spent on it (especially if the apply all button was changed as per my suggestion as well)


I hope that all makes sense. It's really obvious in my head but that doesn't mean I communicated it well LOL

Yes, i think you managed to communicate that clearly.
Im certainly seduced by the idea that you can do all marketing in a region simply and quickly.

How about having the manager menu/area have a different section for each marketing type? (e.g. newspapers magazines etc.)
It does increase the micro/complexity required, but i consider it more practical to deal with each marketing type individually than together. I think ive mentioned before that having them all together set as a percentage brings certain practical difficulties.

Consider the cost of Newspapers 10% and Miscellaneous 10% in a city like London for example. Looking at my 1902 save those slider percentages are, $50-100 for newspapers, $2000-3000 for miscellaneous.
Having Newspapers and Miscellaneous dealt with separately, but still for all models across all cities, avoids this problem.
I considered whether having a lump sum or having the AI spend a certain cash amount per marketing type would be a good idea, but i like a different percentage slider for each marketing type better.

Let me give an example of how i would use the marketing manager.
Right when i was about to release my first car, i would go into the manager and set only:
Newspapers to 100%
Then once i started to make more money i would probably throw 1-5% into every other category, just to test the waters.
Eventually, once im selling units in the thousands, i can set Billboards and Magazines to maximum(i think they cost the least), and perhaps keep the rest at 20% (Newspapers stay at 100%)

[Frankschtaldt]

Yes, i think you managed to communicate that clearly.
Im certainly seduced by the idea that you can do all marketing in a region simply and quickly.

How about having the manager menu/area have a different section for each marketing type? (e.g. newspapers magazines etc.)
It does increase the micro/complexity required, but i consider it more practical to deal with each marketing type individually than together. I think ive mentioned before that having them all together set as a percentage brings certain practical difficulties.

Consider the cost of Newspapers 10% and Miscellaneous 10% in a city like London for example. Looking at my 1902 save those slider percentages are, $50-100 for newspapers, $2000-3000 for miscellaneous.
Having Newspapers and Miscellaneous dealt with separately, but still for all models across all cities, avoids this problem.
I considered whether having a lump sum or having the AI spend a certain cash amount per marketing type would be a good idea, but i like a different percentage slider for each marketing type better.

Let me give an example of how i would use the marketing manager.
Right when i was about to release my first car, i would go into the manager and set only:
Newspapers to 100%
Then once i started to make more money i would probably throw 1-5% into every other category, just to test the waters.
Eventually, once im selling units in the thousands, i can set Billboards and Magazines to maximum(i think they cost the least), and perhaps keep the rest at 20% (Newspapers stay at 100%)

Apparently not THAT clearly LOL

Yes, I meant for each marketing type to still have its own individual sliders and numbers in the manager, not for all marketing to be controlled by one giant evil slider.

You would basically be setting a marketing percentage for each marketing type for every managed city in a region with two clicks.

The biggest problem would be if all cities within a region aren't selling all the same cars. I suppose the manager would display every car sold by any branch within that region but would hopefully be smart enough to not apply marketing for cars in branches that don't sell them. If that is too difficult to program, well, that's one of the reasons there's a check box to choose which cities are managed and which aren't =)

In a related note. Perhaps you could still have a manually enterable value to bypass the slider but rather than being a dollar value it be a percentage?

[Arakash]

Apparently not THAT clearly LOL

Yes, I meant for each marketing type to still have its own individual sliders and numbers in the manager, not for all marketing to be controlled by one giant evil slider.

You would basically be setting a marketing percentage for each marketing type for every managed city in a region with two clicks.

The biggest problem would be if all cities within a region aren't selling all the same cars. I suppose the manager would display every car sold by any branch within that region but would hopefully be smart enough to not apply marketing for cars in branches that don't sell them. If that is too difficult to program, well, that's one of the reasons there's a check box to choose which cities are managed and which aren't =)

In a related note. Perhaps you could still have a manually enterable value to bypass the slider but rather than being a dollar value it be a percentage?

Yeah, im a little picky on making sure your talking about marketing types. But for good reasons, i think. I hope you can tolerate my pickyness .
"Marketing Type" the only way i know to describe when people are talking specifically about things like newspapers rather than advertising for a model overall.

I think we are basically in agreement now you've clarified your position. That's cause to celebrate i think.

I think the current thing where the game allows you to market in places you arent selling is a frustrating bug. If it did happen when you were using the manager you proposed, marketing in places where they aren't selling vehicles, i would also consider it a bug then and report it.

On your last point:
Im guessing here, but were you looking for some kind of ability to override the marketing manager for a specific slider, without turning off the marketing manager for all sliders in the city?
The reason i ask is because i think the system you are proposing, in a few threads, has a built in on/off switch for each city. (i may be confusing threads though)

[Frankschtaldt]

On your last point:
Im guessing here, but were you looking for some kind of ability to override the marketing manager for a specific slider, without turning off the marketing manager for all sliders in the city?
The reason i ask is because i think the system you are proposing, in a few threads, has a built in on/off switch for each city. (i may be confusing threads though)

No, I was looking for a way to make fine adjustments to the sliders without having to move them by a single pixel manually to try and set your marketing at 1% (for example).

I'm generally a fan (as you could probably tell by how many times I've suggested it around the place) of having the ability to manually enter the value you want with they keyboard rather than having sliders as the only input option.

[Arakash]

On your last point:
Im guessing here, but were you looking for some kind of ability to override the marketing manager for a specific slider, without turning off the marketing manager for all sliders in the city?
The reason i ask is because i think the system you are proposing, in a few threads, has a built in on/off switch for each city. (i may be confusing threads though)

No, I was looking for a way to make fine adjustments to the sliders without having to move them by a single pixel manually to try and set your marketing at 1% (for example).

I'm generally a fan (as you could probably tell by how many times I've suggested it around the place) of having the ability to manually enter the value you want with they keyboard rather than having sliders as the only input option.

Ahh, ok. I understand now, thanks for clearing that up

[Frankschtaldt]

So, I think we're on the same page with this one.
In appearance the marketing manager would look pretty much the same as the current screen for city marketing with the addition of a way to select which regions marketing you were adjusting.
It would probably need to have a manual entry field that accepted percentage values but should display the total dollar value spent on each marketing type across all managed branches in that region.

I think we're also in agreeance that this would possibly be the best thing ever since stuff was invented and it doesn't give people who complain about automation something to complain about to boot! HA!

[Arakash]

So, I think we're on the same page with this one.
In appearance the marketing manager would look pretty much the same as the current screen for city marketing with the addition of a way to select which regions marketing you were adjusting.
It would probably need to have a manual entry field that accepted percentage values but should display the total dollar value spent on each marketing type across all managed branches in that region.

Yep sounds right.
Your original paragraph from your first post sums it up very well. It only needs the minor additions weve been discussing(values listed and making it clear its talking about marketing types), but i think it does a good job of explaining it.
Here i copied it into the post, admire your handiwork

How I see it working: Each branch should have a check box underneath it's marketing section labeled "marketing manager" if this is checked the marketing controls would grey out and become unusable for that city.
Now, under the telephone menu (someone was talking about there needing to be more reasons to use the phone) there would be a marketing manager option. This would bring up a marketing screen basically the same as the screen used for controlling city marketing but with a dropdown box for selecting regions (the current regions used by the game ie Europe, north America etc.). This would display the combined total marketing cost of every city in the selected region with the "marketing manager" check box ticked and applying a marketing value in this screen would apply that percentage of the full marketing price to every city in that region with the check box ticked..
Also, once the values are setup in the marketing manager it should automatically add in a set numbers for and new cities that get their check box ticked.
Lastly, the manager should update marketing for every managed city so it is always the same percentage of the max value that you set it at when you set it up.

Just in general, not in response to that quote .....
Now that we have hammered a good suggestion out, i guess we wait to see what Eric thinks of it.

[Arakash]

I was discussing this idea with Sarchez again today and i started wondering whether the current idea could be implemented into the current mega menu?

Im not sure you would be able to still keep a "region selection" kind of thing, but i think you could perhaps modify:
The sliders to be percentage based (still displaying number values)
The sliders automatically lock at the percentage you leave them at.
The add/set all button to set every branch to that specific percentage level for that marketing type and that model/broadbase.

This is not as ideal as having something that is region base and also removes the ability for you to turn the thing on and off in specific cities, but i wonder if it would be much easier and practical to implement?

Anyway, just a thought i had.

[Frankschtaldt]

I did consider that as an option early on in my thought process but there are some drawbacks compared to my suggestion and it was all about the best possible solution I could think of.

If my suggestion is too hard then this would be an acceptable compromise and would still be a lot better than the way marketing is handled atm.