B&M Launches Official Website

No. Enthusiasts do not make a difference in a park that buys a B&M coaster. Now, had you said that General Public, who really are paying the bills, because they pay to get in, pay for a bunch of usless crap once they're in, and usually take the 2.3 kids and wifey, then you'd be correct.

As is evident by the way that most parks shy away from enthusiasts now adays, and rightly so, we aren't thier 'concern'.

I chewed, but it didn't agree with me, so I spat.;)

I think Gonch has hit this one on the head. The site is up to protect their identity on the web.

They don't need to kiss enthusiasts asses. Actually the only reason anyone kisses an enthusiasts ass is for word of mouth advertizing. After an event enthussiats walk around talking about what happened at an event so kissing their asses is a way to get good word of mouth publicity out in the general public. Why should companies like B&M have to kiss ass of an enthussiast, they shouldn't. You are not their first line customer, you are a secondary customer to them. B&M don't need a dazzling website. They DAZZLE with their products. Nothing is better marketing that a great product which is what B&M has.

Thanks for the correction Tekno. Please substitue the word 'General Public' in place of the words 'we' and 'us' in my post above.

You're confusing 'enthusiasts' with 'Paul Ruben' in your post.;)

I don't care what their website looks like, their coasters on the other hand...
I don't even care if the website works or not. They build great coasters and that's enough for me.
Long live B&M!

---

Radius said:
True, not their direct customer as in choosing which ride to build, but I would say we do pay the bills for the coasteers they build by simply showing up to the park wanting to ride the cool coasters and spending all that money on food, drinks, etc...which does make us their customer and definately their concern.

---

Not even close. That's like saying the company that maunfactures the bumpers that go on GM cars should have a website catering to car buyers.

The only people who'd care are people who already know about the product or a few weirdo 'bumper enthusiasts' and the bumper people certainly don't care about the end car buyer.

You don't change B&M's business in ANY capacity. They could personally tell you face-to-face 15 different ways to "F" yourself and they're not going to be affected one bit. They could tell every single person who belongs to an organized coaster enthusiast group the same thing with the same end result. They could tell every person who posts regularly to any park or coaster related webforum the same thing with the same end result.

99.9% of the people at a given park don't even think about (or know) who made, designed, built or manufactured a coaster. Most likely they think the park built it.

The coaster manufacter/park visitor relationship simply does not exist and there's no reason for it to.

B&M, Intamin, Vekoma, whoever - they really don't need to establish any kind of repoire whatsoever with anyone short of those with millions of dollars burning a hole in their pocket and a large plot of land.

Beyond that, it's the responsibility of their customers to do what is necessary to create a ROI.

EDIT- similar situations would be:

-The people who supply lettuce to McDonalds
-Those responsible for making the bedsheets on hotel beds.
-The company manufacturing the shelves for department stores

You get the idea.

*** Edited 7/8/2005 9:49:33 PM UTC by Lord Gonchar***

Regarding Lightning in the Kuwait park, found one small photo:

http://www.kuwaittourism.com/NR/rdonlyres/5144BD69-8732-4502-BE96-7D21AC55EEF8/791/enter_city9.jpg

Excellent post, Gonch...I mean stud...I mean Gonch ;)

You want me. :)

LOL...you WISH! ;)

Lord Goncher said:

99.9% of the people at a given park don't even think about (or know) who made, designed, built or manufactured a coaster.

And I'm that .1% ;) *** Edited 7/9/2005 1:35:07 AM UTC by Tycoontitan***

ClubXJeff: Gonch already said it, but I'll repeat. You're not the customer. Next question.

If the story about Ed Hart's situation when he bought Chang is true, perhaps it's B&M's customers who need websites to increase recognition.

Most likely they think the park built it.

Guilty as charged. Until about 5 or 6 years ago.

Me too. Same time frame even! :)

I'm not too big to admit I've only been into this whole coaster thing for 4 or 5 years now.

And before Moosh does it:

---

I'm not too big...

---

That's not what I've heard, Gonch. ;)

(I'm friggin' psychic :) )

I actually didn't start learning manufacturers until I signed up for this site. The first time. And that was only cause I was searching for another site for RCT stuff.

Darn, I wish I could go back to the good old days.

And Gonch, we all share a brain here(well, not all of us, but the ones that matter :-P), you're not really psychic.;)

It was the original RCT that kickstarted my enthusiast ways too. I think the potential was always there (we visited CP a lot and KW yearly and the internet opened my eyes to things a bit more), but RCT really upped the ante for me.

Then we moved to Florida and I visited IOA and WDW and Sea World.

I never had a chance. :)

I was always more or less an enthusiast, knew what ACE was, kinda, but RCT kickstarted it only because I started using the internet for RCT stuff, and found quite a few good sites.

RCT is what introduced me to the online community. Never quite been the same since...

I never knew like anything about roller coasters until my grandparents bought me the first RCT game. My parents still haven't forgave them for that. ;)

For that I say "Thank You RCT"