More on Re-Branding

I heard it through the grapevine. Someone I know heard something from someone she knows. Mayfair Games was not going to support The Settlers Organizer. I had been hoping that they would recognize that there was good opportunity with The Settlers Organizer. Of course, calling my card organizer box "The Settlers Organizer" was to closely align my product with The Settlers of Catan, for which it was initially designed. I had wanted to call it "The Organizer of Catan", but that was not at all possible unless fully blessed by Klaus Teuber. Even so, if Mayfair Games objects, then I really can't even call it "The Settlers Organizer"

What I hadn't realized, until after speaking with Guido Teuber, was that the good folks at Mayfair Games considered The Settlers Organizer to be an identical (or sufficiently similar) product to The Catan Box.

I like The Catan Box; it is lovely, seems well designed and is quite practical (I just love practical), although it is not yet available for the North American sized cards. However, The Catan Box doesn't seem very useful for playing the games, just for storing them. I pointed this out to Guido Teuber, who will be reconsidering The Settlers Organizer as a product aligned with the Settlers family with some of the other members of Mayfair Games.

However, it might be much better simply to re-brand the product so that game players consider the Organizer in terms of its usability for other games. This would expand the market for the Organizer, thus allowing a lower price point, which would make retailers and consumers happier. It would obviate the need to align the Organizer with The Settlers of Catan; although I still like the idea of being aligned with The Settlers of Catan, it would be less complex and that is attractive.

Either way, the Organizer must be available for sale as soon as possible, or no one will be able to buy it, and that would be sad.

What do you think?

Email and Branding, but not together

Just to let folks know, the sales@SettlersOrganizer.com email address has been fixed. I apologize for anyone who tried this address, but didn't get through.

Then on other fronts, we are seriously considering rebranding our Settlers Organizer product. We believe that there are a large number of games, from traditional board games to CCG's (Collectable Card Games, such as Yu Gi Oh, Pokiman, Magic the Gathering, etc.) to new board games (Carcassone, Torres, Puerto Rico, etc.) that would benefit from the use of the Organizer.

More coming soon.

Wow, What a Rush!

Close, so close. The first production run will ship on October 17. The retail packages and the product labels are scheduled to be completed on October 19. I am fairly confident that we will be able to ship our first orders by October 21. This is welcome news, delightful news and much anticipated news.

It also needs to be said that I have been working on this product since April of this year in an effort to get it to the market by September, 2005. Here it is in October and I have only a few first shot samples, no retail package or product labels yet. But they're coming!

However, I have something to relate that has made me sad. Some folks on the BoardGameGeek forum were talking about The Settlers Organizer (yea!), but they didn't particularly like the idea (boo!). Well, they liked the idea (yea!), but not necessary my implementation of it (boo!). Maybe what they didn't like what the price.

OK, I know you've clicked on the link and read the post, but just in case you haven't, here are the key points.

• The Settlers Organizer is not a real product
• It is only a $1 piece of plastic with a label
• A business card organizer will do the same job for a fraction of the cost

Well, there is no such thing as bad publicity, and I posted a reply to thank the folks for talking about The Settlers Organizer and to set the record straight. Let's also summarize the truth about The Settlers Organizer, all in the interest of accuracy.

• The Settlers Organizer is a real product that is custom designed for board games that use cards, such as The Settlers of Catan. It was prototyped, designed for production, had a production prototypes producted, was user tested and market tested, had a custom mold made and is not in production.
• Well, it cost a bit more than that. We'll just leave it there. ;^)
• Here is where the real difference are. First, your off the shelf business product won't meet your needs for Cities and Knights because it doesn't have enough card slots. Realistically, though, you will be much happier with The Settlers Organizer because it is far better designed and is far more durable. Drop one of those polystyrene boxes off the table and you have a few unusable plastic pieces. Drop my Settlers Organizer from two meters onto a brick walkway and you have a small scratch in an otherwise undamaged (and fully useful) Settlers Organizer. Check out the Photo page on the web site

You won't be able to by an $8 business card holder and expect that it will really meet your needs the way The Settlers Organizer will. Hey, there's an unconditional guarantee, how good is that??

I am really pleased that folks are noticing the Organizer. I really believe that it is a great product and that you will really enjoy using it when you play Settlers of Catan. And I am really thankful for those folks for talking about the Organizer.

Thanks so much for reading.

Notes on USPS Bulk Mailing

Here are some things that I learned with my bulk mailing campaign.

First, you need to spend money to save money. Small campaigns (under a few thousand letters) are not worth using bulk mail. One person recommended not using bulk mail for highly qualified leads -- people like seeing the stamps.

In order to send use bulk mail, one needs to have a Bulk Mail permit. With this permit, one may use a meter to print postage, or one may purchase "precancelled stamps". With an additional permit, one may print a mark called an "imprint" right onto the envelope. The imprint permit allows one to do much more with office equipment.

If return mail is desired, such as a comment card, then a Business Return permit is required. This allows one to pay for only those comment cards which are returned. Since a relatively small percentage of cards are returned, this turns out to be quite cost effective.

All permits referred to so far, the Bulk Mail, Imprint and Business Return, are $150. This fee does not include the cost of the postage.

Postage for first class is now $0.37 per piece. With a Bulk Rate permit, it can go down to $0.26 per piece. With Automation, it can go down further to $0.22 per piece.

With a clean address list, one can take advantage of the automation features of the USPS. This requires using a tool that checks addresses against a database. This is called CASS, and you can read about it on the USPS web site. The tool must be CASS certified, because the reference database is updated regularly.

Finally, if you want to print envelopes that have validated addresses in a sorted order that will be accepted by the post office for automation rates, you need PAVE certified software. You can also read more about PAVE on the USPS web site.

We ended up using DAZzle Express from Envelope Manager at www.evnmgr.com, which is CASS and PAVE certified and is priced very reasonably.

Having gone through this now, I might recommend pre-cancelled stamps when getting started, if you don't want to use a commercial mailing house. However, I am satisfied with the solution which was finally achieved.

The real goal, however, is to connect to you, my retailers and customers, and ensure that you get what you want and need.