So, last Friday I finally experimented a kind of Black Friday event.
It has been such fun!
Of course, the lack of resins of several characters didn't allow me to display my full power, and after all Durgin Paint Forge is not Games Workshop, so I didn't expect you to fight to death, for grabbing the last Iron Crow Warrior available.
But I had a lot of fun and, believe me or not, it helped me so much to bear the unfortunate news that scourged the renovation of my new forge.
I was, in fact, in the center of what it was supposed to be my living room, trying to figure out why there wasn't the kitchen I paid for (estimated delivery: end of September. And it wasn't even a Kickstarter!!). Things went approximately like this:
"Sorry, mr. Matteo (of course they don't call me Mr. Matteo, but I like to think about myself as Mr. Matteo), we are on delay. Probably we will assemble your kitchen for the end of November..."
*ding* you have a new order!
"...Moreover, the heating plant machinery only arrived yesterday, so we are still behind on the installation..."
*ding* you have a new order!
"...That means that we weren't able to complete all the work on the ceiling..."
*ding* you have a new order!
"...For this reason, it's really hard to believe that the house will be ready for December"
*ding* you have a new order!
Now, you may imagine why this Orange Friday saved me from the deepest depression.
So, even if the renovation isn't going on at all as I expected, I'm quite happy about the last days, and I think it could be useful to talk about what I learned (or I suppose to have learned...) observing your purchase behaviors.
As always, I encourage you to take part to the debate, because who knows better than you why you have (or have not!) bought something?!?
THE NUMBERS
58
58 orders were placed during the Orange Friday. Ok, maybe it doesn't impress you like reading that every year hippos kill 500 individuals, but to me 58 is a big number.
2100
Almost 2100€ were collected during the Orange Friday. Again, I'm not about to buy two one-way tickets to Tokyo, but these incomes are incredibly useful, thinking about the pre-production of our new Kickstarter campaign.
261
The number of little dwarves that are leaving the forge to find their new homes.
THE GOOD NEWS
I noticed that the majority of orders received during these last months, and during Orange Friday in specific, comes from those who pledged during our Kickstarter, or that placed an order in the first months of our web-store.
That means, or at least I like to think so, that those who bought our dwarves have been happy about them, and decided to buy more.
To me, it's a great satisfaction and I thank so much those of you that are repeatedly supporting us since the beginning!
Moreover, I noticed that the Sentinels and Iron Crows in general (Veteran, Warrior, Iron Warrior) are your favorite ones: they sell very well!
Obviously, it's simple to explain their success: they have a classic concept and they fit well in almost every "classic" setting or game.
I'm really happy that you like my Iron Crows concepts, because it means that people still love the fairy-old school style and this makes me think about the future of our production more serenely.
During the Pledge Manager and Kickstarter in general, few backers added to their orders the Great Master of the South, Godric.
I was a bit worried about it, cause I liked it so much (and, above all, he was the first step of the Zorn Uzul design!), but then I thought that his price (15€) might be the problem.
After reducing his price to 12€, we started to sell A LOT of Godric: basically, 80% or orders included a copy of this character.
Goikos are a thing!!
I started my career with Goikos (the japanese-style dwarves) and in my very initial plans, I wanted to make a full-oriental style range of miniatures (with humans inspired to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Saint Seiya-style elves and so on). That first idea was discarded, but during the KS campaign I thought "what about inserting Goikos in Inneath?!".
Yro and the Goiko Demon Hunter were the first Goiko of Inneath created, and judging by your orders, it seems that you like them by far!
To me, this is a great news because I'm very fond of those concepts, and now I have a valid argument to think about making a little expansion dedicated to Goikos.
French people love to read!
The vast majority of the booklets that I sold during these last months went in France: merci beaucoup!! peut-être qu'un jour j'aurai assez d'argent pour payer une traduction française, mais en attendant-t-il, tenez bon: vous êtes mon seul espoir!
I wrote this little booklet putting (as always) my heart in it, and I want to reassure you: I didn't make the english translation!
Knowing that many people are reading it fills me with joy (and a bit of pressure!!).
About the booklet, I've decided to reduce its cost from 12€ to 6€: it's important to me that you start to read about Into the Quest! lore and if a cost-reduction can work, so be it!
THE BAD NEWS
Ok, maybe "bad news" is exaggerated, but as always there are things that could be fixed or that don't properly work (or just things that I didn't know how to do!).
Of course, if the vast majority of customers are people that have already bought, it means that I have a lot to work to enlarge our audience. Don't get me wrong, my friends: I'm not telling you that I don't care about you, at all. Instead, I need more customers because I want to forge a great community altogether!
Here, I think that I have to start to improve my (limited) marketing skills: I'm kind of allergic to classic advertises, but I fear I can't avoid to invest something on a more traditional marketing.
Of course, my personal situation doesn't help at all: the Kickstarter setbacks just destroyed my painting time, and now I'm still not able to paint, while moving (or trying to...) to the new house. Because yes, I've already packed all my paint stuff!
You see: being positive (or naively) it's a huge weakness, sometimes!
I think that sharing my painted dwarves on socials can surely improve the visibility of our products, so while I'm here in this limbo, I ask you a favor: paint your dwarves and share them with your friends and social contacts!
The slowness of resin production doesn't help at all: an Orange Friday without the best-seller dwarves, it's like a pasta aglio&olio without peperoncino.
Good, of course, but it lacks raw impact!!
The storms that have invested Italy during last weeks, they flooded the garage where I kept my stock of boxes, and now I'm out of packaging!
However, I don't want to complain about that, because a lot of people here lost way more than cardboard boxes (I don't know if you've seen on your local news, but here in Italy, especially in Liguria, it was a tragedy), so I want to see the bright side of this setback: NEW PACKAGING INCOMING!!!
IN CONCLUSION
So, here we are at the end of another wall of text written in horrible english.
The Orange Friday has been a great success for me, and I can't wait to make another one, next year! I think that it's time for Durgin Paint Forge to make another little step forward, because I feel like we have much more to offer you, and I have to improve my skills as a manufacturer, by far!
I really thank you all for your support during this little event, and I thank you again for giving me the opportunity to grow up as a creative.
After all, I feel like you are walking with me hand in hand, during this journey!
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