Cooperation between LHS to promote RC Hobby and activities in the forum !

[vibranthobbies]

My dear fellow LHS,
Apart from marketing our products in the forum, did we do anything to keep the forum alive or something to promote this hobby ?
Please do not take this question as personnel. I'm in the same boat.
RCMumbai has done a good job in this front and we could see some interesting builds during the Multi-rotor build competition held by them.

On the same thread, i shared my idea of organizing competition by one LHS with some prize and other LHSs contribute some more.
http://www.rcindia.org/free-donations-and-sweepstakes/multi-making-competition-by-rcmumbai-com/msg245049/#msg245049
As you know, small LHS like us can't sponsor much and a small contribution like Rs. 1000 store credit from few stores will make the competition lucrative.

I have some ideas for the competition as below;
Instead of going for generic sweep stake like the one held by RCIndia, we will focus on specific subject like
1. Build competition based on Flitetest Plans.
2. Balsa Builds
3. Coro Builds
4. FPV Builds and flying video
5. Car/Boat Builds
etc.

The above is my suggestion and any LHS can take up any subject above as you wish and we will be part of it.
RCHyper will host the Build competition based on FT Plans in few days.

To be frank, we can see many sellers in the forum than the hobbyists  now a days.
We need to change the situation. You know the reason.
Please let us join and do it in the forum now. We will go outside together to keep competitions once DGCA forumulate the rules.

Your thoughts / suggestions are welcome.

Kumaran

[RCNeil21]

Great initiative Kumaran sir

[sanjayrai55]

Great, Kumaran   

[prabal276]

great initiative sir!!
i am in!

[vibranthobbies]

Thanks all for your kind words.

@prabal276
To clarify your private message of ongoing build of FTExplorer, please note that we will not be strict on the dates of your build.
The purpose is to create content and sharing knowledge in the forum with your build logs and hence you can post your ongoing build logs once competition is announced. Even previously built models but not posted in RCIndia will be accepted for the FT competition which we will be announcing shortly.
However, rules may be altered by the host.

[prabal276]

thank you sir!

[a3ruz]

Great initiative sir

[rcrcnitesh]

Really excited about this!
Even I fell that changes need to be made how the RC community works. I think what you have done is the logical step to increase awareness about RC in India

[K K Iyer]

@vibranthobbies,
Kumaran sir,
Good initiative.
Pl see pm.
Regards.

[mateen270]

@vibranthobbies,
Great initiative! Something must be done to bring the community together.

[vishalrao]

@Kumaran

Good initiative but will this actually promote the hobby in a healthy way? Whenever there is a sweepstake, the forum gets buzzing with build logs. After that? So is money the driving factor than love for the hobby? If that's the case then it wouldn't go too far. It's the same case here in our local area too. The moment there is competition in a college, there is a flurry of customers. And the driving factor - no prize for the correct guess. It's the prize money!

There is lot of activity outside the forum. And to be frank, these people don't bother about sweepstakes or competitions. They are there for the love of the hobby.

[prabal276]

I never participate for the Money.
I just like participating in challenges.
I am prepared to participate in any challenge as long as the hobby is being promoted and there are certain objectives to be met. Completing the objectives enhances my knowledge about the topic and makes me more creative.
Regards

[vibranthobbies]

@vishal
Thank you for the first response from a LHS.
You are absolutely correct. But, my opinion as below;

The younger generation needs some sort of motivation. Also, they may lack of funds. A win can help them to convince their parents to support them.

Also, we are going to give them as store credit, and hence they are going to buy some items for their next build. Of course, we cant stop them buying and selling to somebody.

Initially they may come for the prize money but atleast a few will start loving this hobby. I hope this itself is our success.

Why to leave a gap ? Let us cooperate and start organizing these competition monthly so that they will not go away.
I think Rs. 1000 per month by an LHS is affordable. If some random 5 LHS spare Rs. 1000 it is 5000 and becomes worth. Also, we can cooperate ourselves to transfer this amount to the LHS who host the competition OR to the LHS preferred by the winner and it will become more useful for him.

I agree that there are more activities out of the forum. If we can bring them here we can have strong voice.

One member made a petition on Change.org. and after 9 months we have only 242 persons signed on them. If we had the people (who are out side) in the forum our petition could have been heard by this time.

This is my humble opinion.

Your suggestions are welcome.

Kumaran

[SI74]

Few suggestions by me (as a customer)
1. If you guys (LHS) really wish more and more people get into this hobby, (so that you have enough business to sustain) first thing to do is ,make the building materials available in your stores. Almost daily we see guys requesting depron/biofoam . The best thing I would say is stock enough and make it available in REQUESTED SIZE. Don't worry about shipping, no doubt , the customer has to bear the shipping cost.

2.Next , give discount coupons on each purchase, (like a fixed percentage, that you decide) , so that customers are TEMPTED to buy more.

3.Dont make items OVERPRICED , instead make it available at reasonable rate( most of the LHS does this,except a few)

4.And MOST important is customer satisfaction/care, for this nothing else matters other than proper and timely response from a reliable person from the store. Most of the time ,this is lacking. Many phone calls, emails, chats with no response, and customer starts to hate them, writes bad comments in public forums, which is damaging.

5.On every order, if you can give SMS confirmation (on each step) , it is really worth doing it.

Giving price money /arranging competitions are good, but without considering all the above matters, all the efforts would go in vain .

[SI74]

And no wonder RCBazaar is flourishing , they have almost all (but not 100%)  of these qualities.

[Swapnil]

... first thing to do is ,make the building materials available in your stores. Almost daily we see guys requesting depron/biofoam ...

Well, most cities have stores selling coroplast and high density foam. The bigger issue is non-availability of common parts and accessories. Don't you just hate it when you open a product page that you urgently need and it says 'Out of Stock'.

There's a better way to get young people involved than just straight-away organizing competitions.

Step 1: Stores sponsor summer/ winter workshops on aeromodeling in multiple cities nation-wide.

Step 2: Stores import RC products based on the number of registrations and provide it to the participants.

Step 3: At the end of the workshops, the participants are made aware of monthly competitions on RCI.

This way we can increase the number of hobbyists and make profits for the LHS simultaneously. I am willing to conduct workshops this summer if there are enough sponsors.

For the online competitions, there should be a small participation fee (say,   100) so there can be more prizes and the LHSs don't have to burn their wallets.  

[vishalrao]

Few suggestions by me (as a customer)
1. If you guys (LHS) really wish more and more people get into this hobby, (so that you have enough business to sustain) first thing to do is ,make the building materials available in your stores. Almost daily we see guys requesting depron/biofoam . The best thing I would say is stock enough and make it available in REQUESTED SIZE. Don't worry about shipping, no doubt , the customer has to bear the shipping cost.

2.Next , give discount coupons on each purchase, (like a fixed percentage, that you decide) , so that customers are TEMPTED to buy more.

3.Dont make items OVERPRICED , instead make it available at reasonable rate( most of the LHS does this,except a few)

4.And MOST important is customer satisfaction/care, for this nothing else matters other than proper and timely response from a reliable person from the store. Most of the time ,this is lacking. Many phone calls, emails, chats with no response, and customer starts to hate them, writes bad comments in public forums, which is damaging.

5.On every order, if you can give SMS confirmation (on each step) , it is really worth doing it.

Giving price money /arranging competitions are good, but without considering all the above matters, all the efforts would go in vain .

1. Like Swapnil have said, coroplast/sunpack sheet is available almost everywhere in India. It is not used by aeromodeller's only. As a LHS, I always have stock of building materials for my local customers. Shipping them is not worth the effort due to risk of damage in transit. Why don't you consider buying wholesale from distributors and help your local flyers instead?

2. If DISCOUNT COUPONS is the right way to tempt customers than quality and service, then I don't want to do business. What I need is customer loyalty. If I do business giving discount coupons, then there is no guarantee that that customer is going to buy from me tomorrow when someone else is giving discount coupons from his/her store!

3. What is considered OVERPRICED is very relative. One cannot compare apples to oranges, though both are fruits. Also, please try importing some stuff through legal route paying 30% duty, 20-30% freight, your margin, VAT (14.5%) and if you are unlucky, getting shipments released from customs for any reason whatsoever, and then you decide whether something is overpriced or not.

My local customers don't care much about price or discounts. What they care about is service, honesty and availability of products when required. These are my USP And I can say without any doubt that they are going to be my customers for life. Anybody doing business with low price as USP is not going to survive for long as somebody else will surely sell at a price lower than him tomorrow. But no one can replace the trust built over a period of time.

[satyagupta]

Vishal is totally right with each and every point (from business POV)

If DISCOUNT COUPONS is the right way to tempt customers than quality and service, then I don't want to do business.

Once in a while is ok but not every time and for every purchase, sometimes a new customer calls in and says if you are ready to offer a coupon i am ready to buy right now. which is total non-sense to hear. Be in one of the owners shoe and try to handle the work, then you will understand how hard it is to handle.

What is considered OVERPRICED is very relative. One cannot compare apples to oranges, though both are fruits. Also, please try importing some stuff through legal route paying 30% duty, 20-30% freight, your margin, VAT (14.5%) and if you are unlucky, getting shipments released from customs for any reason whatsoever, and then you decide whether something is overpriced or not.

Bingo!!! you have hit the point here Vishal, "try to import some stuff via legal route" i really had a very very hard getting goods, declaring very less trying to save customs duty. But when once you are caught then your every shipment would be held. And trust me it is really painfull when your goods (huge money) are stuck and you are not able to make money out of it. And not everyone has an inside guy in customs office.
When you import the goods with not very less but good value declared then there is atleast 30-35% duty + service charges by the shipment company and then there is VAT (i charge VAT extra since its bound to change)

And its not same when you import goods via banggood and when LHS import goods. LHS goods comes in big boxes or sometimes containers. So its bound to have a good duty amount to be paid.

I am speaking from LHS pov now: for us to make sure we make a good business (this is what i think) the USP should be quality products and best customer service. And i highly emphasize on the later point "Good or excellent customer service" Let it be after sales or before sales. Customer is customer and you have to provide service to them.

This is my USP, i believe if a customer is happy with the product and he is getting a good service from my store he would come back to me. Price is a factor but not for all customer. I have been operating QK since over 3 years now, have seen many ups and downs. But there are few customers who still buy from QK and only QK. Thank you guys

Hence if we need business then occasional coupons or discount is good idea but i think as Vishal has pointed good quality product with best of the service. I would also like to request to every member of the forum to consider this. Its easy to start a store, there are many, trust me many sellers in China. But getting the right product is not easy.

Coming back to the topic,

I started QK only because i came to his hobby. So if in anyway i can give back to the community then i would why not. One way i am giving back is by providing materials to the new-comers in the hobby (my online store). As far as participating in any of such event where the hobby is being promoted, if Kumaran ji you are starting any of such event do let me know i would be very happy to do what i can and is best for the event

[Ahmad Ilyas]

i really like swapnil's ideas
and if lhs give discount to everyone so how will they ever make a good income
some lhs ,anyway, sell things at very high prices while some have a very good price

[mateen270]

As stated by satya and vishal, It is not easy or cheap importing. I imported a container of furniture for a customer and it was a painful and lengthy process. Did I mention its not cheap?

About events.  I am not too keen on forum events and would prefer meet ups and group building, etc.
An event is not about the money, but the trophy you take back home feeling successful. I am sure not everyone feels that way. We need more meetups!

[SI74]

1. Like Swapnil have said, coroplast/sunpack sheet is available almost everywhere in India.

2. If DISCOUNT COUPONS is the right way to tempt customers than quality and service, then I don't want to do business.

3. What is considered OVERPRICED is very relative.

My local customers don't care much about price or discounts. What they care about is service, honesty and availability of products when required.

Coroplast, yes easily available. But ?Sunpack? What is it? And what sort of stores sell them? Is it same (light weight) like depron?
Discount coupons are definitely tempting as a customer. When I plan to buy any RC product ( which are similarly priced in all stores) , I definitely see whether stock is available in RCBazaar ( because on every purchase they give discount coupons) , and I spend there again and again( I have purchased most of my possessions from that store only) But it is personal preference, I won't argue. The basic fact is I ask help from forum members than to any LHS.
Overpriced for a customer is a fact; and if one gets quality product at a better price ( IT IS REAL!) then why not?
Vishal, I totally agree that you are honest and provide excellent service to customers, unlike many other stores.( one of the reasons why I prefer to buy from your store)
Thanks for the review!

[Ahmad Ilyas]

@S174 ,
i don't want to argue so i am here to only answer one question of yours
and that is what i sunpack sheet
sunpack is a name for coroplast that most shopkeeper use
if you ever come to delhi and start searching for coroplast you won't find it by the name coroplast but by sunpack

[SI74]

Okay , but for a beginner, depron IS the material for builds;much much easier and success is almost certain, than coro. This is especially so in Kerala, where large grounds are difficult to get( most of the grounds have restricted entry)

[Tanmay.mathur]

Yes fyi  coro is available BUT whats available could not be used to make planes. Thats is 2mm and very soft and flimsy.

[SI74]

@S174 ,
i don't want to argue

Ahmad , both of us won't argue . but see this, which ( not only me) but many customers like.