Wendell Hanks said:
The question hangs: Why is Aristo-Craft screwing around marketing this product under their brand name..uh, ...er..unless the large scale part of the company is not making it.
So by that reasoning, does every model train company that starts a line in a second or third or even fourth scale do it because their first or primary scale ". . . is not making it?" Would you apply that conclusion to Atlas, who manufacture in N, H0 and 0 scales? How about Accucraft who manufacture in 1:32, 1:29, 1:24 and 1:20 scale? And Bachmann who manufacture in N, H0, 0, 1:22 and 1:20 scales?
Is your thinking that a model train company must manufacture in only one scale? That requirement would take a lot of very popular products off the market and probably put a lot of these companies out of business!!
Wendell Hanks said:
The product does not, per the above comments, make for a product quality match with Aristo's own self-proclaimed large scale image. Likely, any such comparison was not intended under K-Line mgmt. I doubt K-Line ever compared themselves to Aristo or anybody else. So does this product absorbtion and marketing support Aristo-Craft's image of product quality?
Aristocraft is hardly the paragon of high quality. Mostly adequate, but with spotty results in both operational capabilities and in service and support. As Steve pointed out above, these K-Line 0 scale units are toys rather than accurate, highly detailed scale models. In that regard, they require lots less support than the LS engines and accessories. That means fewer quality demands, fewer returns and fewer complaints. Yet, the same production equipment (reportedly belonging to Kader Industries, the owner of Bachmann) could be operating on a more continuous basis, thus actually providing better financial support for the LS stuff.
Wendell Hanks said:
Imagine, fifteen years ago, LGB absorbing a company producing products of lessor quality and then marketing same under their own brand. Heads would roll.
The marketing arm of this continually diminishing hobby needs a marketing class text book. What a study.
Wendell
LGB’s business model is hardly one to be held up as an example for success. In case you don’t know or remember, LGB went bankrupt while sticking to their combination of a lack of scale fidelity and so-called ‘quality at any cost’ plan. In response to that business model, heads did roll!
Meanwhile, the companies I listed above appear to be doing fairly well, mixed scales and all, even in these times of world financial stress and failures. Perhaps the marketing study you propose would applaud their decisions to spread the cost of the R&D involved in designing and producing any railroad model across several scales and a range of quality ranging from toys to serious scale models. Bachmann (a long time H0 producer) producing and selling large scale models in both the ‘Big Haulers’ (a basic toy line) alongside their ‘Spectrum Models’ (a high fidelity model line) comes to mind.
BTW, this is all kind of old news. The K-Line manufacturing has been done by Kader at least since 2004 or so. When K-Line went under in ~2007 (possibly due to trying to survive on a single product line?) the same products were then sold under the “K-Line by Lionel” brand name. Lionel withdrew from that arrangement within the last 24 months. I’m pretty certain that putting the products in a new box labeled “RMT by Aristocraft” represents a relatively small change for this very large manufacturing company.
Just my thoughts.
Happy RRing,
Jerry