Today, as Part 2 of the Ten Tenets of Brand Development blog series, I’ve got a crazy announcement as promised. Before we get into that though, let’s talk about our next tenet:

FANS SHOULD TAKE AN INSTRUMENTAL ROLE IN GUIDING BRAND DEVELOPMENT

This is a pretty wide and consuming goal for Brand Development. While we have data on customer demand for figs, (secondary market prices of figures, top eight lists from OP, comic sales, forum…uhh… feedback, and more…) we can never know for certain what the fans’ exact demand/taste for a product/figure are. Brand Development must make the most educated guesses that it can, then iterate upon successes and fix shortcomings.

Particularly vocal segments of our player base could guide the brand in the correct direction or the incorrect direction. Fans may not know the super-secret plans our licensors have for upcoming releases. Figures that appeal to one player base may turn off another. Despite all of these potential pitfalls, you, the customer, remain well…the customer. From a purely board room point of view, it’s our job to satisfy your demand with our products. If we can learn precisely what you want, we can meet that demand better.

Coincidently, our super-awesome Tech dude, Ben Phu, has gotten our polling software live for the blog, and we’re gonna use it.

The big announcement for Election Day is as follows: Brand Development is going to work with you, the customer, to help select, design and develop a HeroClix figure for a future set.

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