World Of Warcraft, WoW Hand Armor

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Stealth Marketing- Does it work in WoW? Of Course it Does!

What? A gold making post on a gold blog? Really? With all the giveaways and such that has been going on, I haven't rocked a gold making post in a few days, so here you go folks:


To lead or to follow? Most people will say the only way to make gold is to lead. I will partially agree with that statement. Your main "niche" market, you definitely want to lead. No doubt about it. But the "smaller" markets, feel free to follow, there is nothing wrong with that, and you can scoot in and out before you are even noticed. And with that, you have whats known in the business world as "stealth marketing" (my version is a bit different, but the main thought is there).




Now, stealth marketing or "undercover" marketing is how I made quite a bit of change in the MFC market early on (and still use on "peak" server times). I use them as an example for easy explaination. Here's how it started:


Within the first week, I was able to hit max on my Scribe. When I first started making the Mysterious Fortune Cards, I instantly knew that there was money to be made. Back in BC, there were quite a few "lotteries" going on, and alot of folks made a ton of gold. Blizz started banning accounts that were doing that, and added to their long list of "bannable offenses". They [blizz] knew that the players wanted gambling in the game, and it took them a few years, but they found out what they could use. MFC's.

So after flipping a few myself to no avail, I realized there is a market. I tossed a few on the AH for 50g (Auctioneer hadn't seen any, so I was the first on the server to do so). I then announced in trade chat "Blizzard has gambling? Mysterious Fortune Cards in the AH! I am outside the AH in the Dalaran, come on over and get a free one, just open trade". And man did they start selling. A ton of em. I couldn't keep them in stock. I was paying crazy fees on all the herbs just to get enough cards to keep the market happy. This was the Saturday that I made just shy of 30K in an evening.

*Now there aren't too many markets that you can really utilize this on, but I have snuck into the giving away some Vanishing Powder (really cheap to buy) for free just to get folks into changing/buying out glyphs.

Ya'll know from reading my blog, I give away quite a few of my "tricks of the trade" that I have used for making gold, but here and there, I leave out a few. I thought it was time that I tossed this one out there, as the MFC market has dwindled (slowed), and this is a very viable option to get the rush back in on your server. No, you probably aren't gonna get 50g each anymore, but this is a great way to get the market flowing again. I have changed from my original format, as now when I do my "bark", I am in ORG, and I say "To my first five buyers, open trade for a free card. Make sure you purchase from XXXXX".

It seems there are issues with folks under "firewalls" to leave comments, I just wanted to post this email, as there is some great information here:

Hey Alto,

I was just reading your post on Stealth Marketing and was considering making a comment but for whatever reason, my work firewall disapproves.

In any case, I just wanted to say that a few days ago I started my own version of stealth marketing (probably similar to what others do) and have found it incredibly successful against the goblins more established in the market.  I’ve noticed that in the crafting markets (bsmith pvp gear in particular) the big time crafters have been posting 48h auctions, throwing a dozen pieces up and waiting to see what falls into their mailbox.  It’s almost as though they expect gold to be handed to them on silver platters. 


And to quote The Count of Monte Cristo, “So neglect becomes our ally.”  In order to combat them without actually posing as a threat I’ve been BARELY undercutting (usually a gold or 2) but posting in 12 hour increments and only 1 piece at a time.  With 15 minute hearthstones and the portal network in org, I can ping pong around without any real difficulty.  This allows me to post new materials almost as soon as they sell and if they do happen to log in they see one lone competitor posting for short time frames and usually only a single piece of gear in any one segment.  It doesn’t matter that I just stole a truckload of gold off of their silver platter and sold 3x what they had posted.  To them, I’m small fish and hardly worth the time.  All they’re going to see from their side is a slowdown in sales on a few craft-ables unless they’re an Undermine fanatic with OCD tendancies.  I’m will to bet they’re not.  On a side note, I love your blog and read it daily.  Keep up the good work.

~Fal


Do you guys/gals have a "little secret" that you do that you want to give away to the masses? Is there a trick that you have used or use that adds to your sales? Speak out! And if you try this little method on your server, bounce back here and let me know how it worked for you!

6 comments:

XanderEragon said... Reply To This Comment

Fai that is a great idea i will try to out i never thought of that as a tactic to use. But like you said i think it can only be used in the crafting niche to see better results as there are limited players in that niche.

XanderEragon

Azuriel said... Reply To This Comment

I'm a little confused about how the middle part of "stealth marketing" in this article meshes with the beginning and end. Are you suggesting riding on other goblins' coattails is stealth marketing, or are you saying "[Notalto] says: Wow, Alto's auctions are cheap!" is stealth marketing?

I think the story would make more sense in context if someone else was barking about MFCs, and then you tossed a bunch up undercutting them.

P.S. I hope you'll excuse the stealth marketing of linking my own blog in the comments of your blog. :P

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Az,

Nope, I am not saying that is stealth marketing...

I received that email shortly after posting, and it does pertain more to a different style of business marketing, for lack of a better term, that's more of a "stolen" sale (or like you said, riding on coattails) than a "stealth" sale (if you go by the official meaning of stealth in the marketing world).

Even though it was not of the exact meaning I was going for, I feel that Fai covered it well, and it deserved a spot in my post. To Fai, that is their style of "stealth" marketing.

If someone else was barking about them, then I tossed them in by undercutting them, that once again is more of the "stealing" or "coattail" style of sales, not stealth.

I kinda went on and on there, it might just be easier to google stealth marketing (or undercover it's also called) to see how my story fits there....

Dewey said... Reply To This Comment

Just a note, it's Fal, as in Falzoon with an L , not an I. :)

-Dewey

Prncesspwn said... Reply To This Comment

Alto, there is no post today! Thought I would remind you, bc it seems you forgot! haha jk

Admin said... Reply To This Comment

Just got done with it! My daughter wouldn't let me even look at my computer till she went down for her nap!

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