major department from each part of the country
John,
I think that your research will show that collectors tend to be territorial, that is if code 3 comes out with many trucks from a certain department, most collectors want all of them. That being said, why do you not divide the country up into regions, i.e., certain states in the west, south, midwest, northeast, then pick the major departments from each region, then put out a poll and let the collectors tell you what major department they want from each region, total the votes, list the department from each region, and then focus on tooling and producing said dept trucks. An example is if a vote showed Houston as the top pick for the region, they have all ferrara's, so the cost of tooling is one time, you can justify you costs, and you can give the collectors an entire dept from pumpers to ladders to heavy rescue's?
While it may appear that we do not look at all regions of the for subject matter that is a not the real situation. There are folks from across the country that I communicate with to suggest subject matter for new introductions on a regular basis.
However, I like your suggestions and Ken and I will put together a “POLL” to give everyone a chance to suggest new releases on a regional basis. We will divide the country into sections, like you mention, and ask for key cities/Departments to consider. Give us a couple weeks to develop this so it is easy to navigate. Remember that just by suggesting a model won’t insure that it will be produced.
There may be a section for specific models that we are searching for included in this poll.
JHD
