A Star Trek Franchise Should Take A Lesson From John Deere.

[Dayton3]

John Deere is one of the most successful and long lasting tractor and farm equipment companies.

The Star Trek franchise could learn some lessons from them.

John Deere has made its name synomonyous (did spell that right? I'm in a hurry), with tractors and farm equipment.

How did they do that beyond simply selling those things?

Marketing and merchandising.

John Deere also sells a huge line of toys that represent all kinds of John Deere machinery and clothes as well.

Childrens books are sold everywhere that feature John Deere equipment.

In short, the company knows how to put into the minds of consumers the name "John Deere" at a very early and with people who might never buy a tractor.

Star Trek needs to learn to do the same. What has been the major items sold over the last three decades connected to the franchise?

Those 300-400 page novels that only people serious about the series bother reading.

They need to market coloring books, toys, games, models, anything and everything possibly related to the franchise.

And not show the arrogant disrespect to fans by announcements (such as regarding books) that "these things are not canon" or whatever they say to that effect.

In short, Star Trek needs to bring their merchandising into the 21st century.

 

[Michael]

Are you kidding? I can't think of franchises besides Star Trek and Star Wars that have a larger variety of merchandise.

 

[JustKate]

You were very close: synonymous. One of those words that appears to be spelled wrong even when it's spelled correctly.

I think your analysis is very interesting - not sure I know enough to agree or disagree (and I agree with NCC-1701 that there is a WAD of merchanidizing for Trek), but it's interesting.

Another thing Deere did (and still does) that might be applicable to Trek is develop enormous brand loyalty - the kind that's actually passed down in families. In farm country, loyalty to a particular brand of tractor is kind of like loyalty to a sports team. My husband is a big John Deere guy, and you might safely assume that his dad and his brother are green tractor guys, too, and you would be right. That's the way it works. I know a lot of Case guys as well, and that is also passed down from family to family.

Can loyalty to Trek be passed down from father/mother to son/daughter? Probably not, but it is fun to think of all those new Trekker dads buying their adorable baby his or her first Trek T-shirt.

 

[Dayton3]

Aside from novels, a few magazines, DVDs, and computer games, exactly what other stuff connected to Trek is out there in abundance?

Sure, the movie will have some tie in merchandise, but where has everything else been?

Coloring books? Picture and activity books? RPGs? Toys, both for playing with and as collectors items?

For the massive abundance and range of source material available, it sure seems like the Trek merchandise available is thin.

 

[JustKate]

Well but Dayton...there hasn't been any new Trek for quite a while now - do you really expect them to come out with just everything for one movie? If the movie goes on to become a hit and another movie or some other sort of follow-up is planned, I'm sure we'll see a lot more.

I did a quick online search and I found: T-shirts and hats and posters, of course, but also action figures, Barbies (really), a radio-controlled flying vehicle, a Star Trek Scene-It DVD movie/TV game, a 20Q Star Trek Trivia game, a Star Trek-branded Monopoly edition from USAopoly, and co-branded games for UNO, Scrabble, Phase Ten, All About Trivia, and a Magic 8 Ball.

No, so far no coloring book. But it's rated PG-13, right? Would you really call that the ideal movie for a coloring book promotion?

 

[Anthony Sabre]

I just purchased a Sony Digital Reader PRS-505. The device looks dead on like a PADD. Would have been great if there were some Trek themed ones, with a nice LCARS GUI and Star Fleet Delta on the leather cover that comes with it. Instead it was a special edition Ian Flemming with 007 on the cover, and a free copy of Casino Royale and Quantam of Soalce novels. Nice but Trek would have been a better fit.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

John Deere pays close attention to the quality of their product, to keep their brand credible. That is what Star Trek can learn from.

 

[cardinal biggles]

I dunno, I think Trek would be way cooler if the Enterprise was bright green and yellow.

 

[Praetor]

John Deere pays close attention to the quality of their product, to keep their brand credible. That is what Star Trek can learn from.

I'll ditto that.

 

[phylogeny]

Star Trek needs more quality control. They can't expect to put a bunch of people in Starfleet uniforms, stick them in a starship and slap the Star Trek label on it and wait for people to lap it up like hungry lemmings. People expect good plots and interesting characters too. If there is a quick way to kill a popular franchise, it's cheapening it to the point that all we have is fluff and no substance.