With the advent in our society of dual income families, Saturday, between soccer, basketball and baseball games, has become very important sales day for retailers. Because retailers are in business to sell, they cannot talk to or give consideration to new games on Saturday.

Retailers need to sell the inventory already on their shelves. Remember that retailers have finite shelf space. That shelf space cost $x dollars a month. Therefore, it is necessary to sell what is now on shelves to have the money to "rent" shelf space the next month.

On the other hand we have the game inventors who give too little consideration to marketing their games. Money is spent on manufacturing and perhaps "sell sheets" (information about the game and the suggested retail.) A game inventor may have inventory, but isn't savvy about how to recover their investment in time and money. Many inventors think their game will be discovered. They don't realize that the even the most successful games like Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary took years of hard work to be discovered.

Then how does an "indy" (independent) game get shelf space? One method is to send a sample game with a sell sheet. It is important to send the game because a sell sheet alone does not tell a retail game buyer about the quality of the manufacturing, the components and most importantly, the game rules.

Do not expect a retailer to immediately order the game or to return a sample. Sending a sample game is just one step in marketing to the people who will make the decision on whether or not to stock a game.

A retailer bases their buying decisions on a number of factors. The most important factor is a retailer's customer profile. If the customer base is mostly women looking for a party game or a children's present, then a game not fitting those parameters will probably not get shelf space.

In other words a game should be marketed to those retailers mostly likely to carry the game.

But not on Saturdays!

Pam Canfield
Gamelady, Inc.
Email - pamcanfield@hotmail.com

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