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Newsletter 003

The document discusses the challenges of starting a new company to recreate discontinued Estes rocket motors. It argues that many modelers only want the original Estes motors for nostalgic reasons, and it would be difficult to convince them to switch brands. The new company would also face competition from established motor manufacturers like Aerotech, Apogee Components, and others.

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Amin
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14 views2 pages

Newsletter 003

The document discusses the challenges of starting a new company to recreate discontinued Estes rocket motors. It argues that many modelers only want the original Estes motors for nostalgic reasons, and it would be difficult to convince them to switch brands. The new company would also face competition from established motor manufacturers like Aerotech, Apogee Components, and others.

Uploaded by

Amin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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I S S U E 0 3

N E W S L E T T E R

Recreating Estes’ Discontinued Motors


By Tim Van Milligan he is fighting a bigger foe than just Estes Industries. He is
fighting the nostalgic feelings that people had for Estes Indus-
In a popular thread on the newsgroup rec.models.rockets, tries of their youth.
many modelers recently hypothesized about the possibility of Speaking from personal experience, it is hard to convince
creating a new manufacturing company to recreate the old modelers to purchase a new motor. At first, there will be much
motors that Estes has discontinued. This article is strictly my hype for the motors. But after the thrill of “newness” wears
opinion, and you may or may not agree with the arguments off, the new company will probably face the same obstacles
that I make. that the rest of the motor manufacturers are challenged by.
Basically, I don’t think that a new company has much of How do you get customers to forget about Estes, and put their
a chance to make it successfully. The odds are against it. loyalty in a new company? This is what is preventing other
First, I disagree with many of the assumptions made in rocket companies from making significant inroads into the
the various messages. There are at least 20 “poison pill” as- hobby.
sumptions made that in my opinion could mame the potential Think about it
of the new company in very short order. Most of these were Everyones’ ears perk up when the word “Estes” is men-
tried by other notable companies such as AVI, MRC, FSI and tioned. Why do so many people care about what new products
others. But I’ll concentrate on a couple of the ones that struck that Estes creates every year? Aren’t there nearly a 100 other
me first. rocketry companies producing kits? There is certainly vari-
To begin with, the big assumption was that there ware ety. Why don’t people get the same sense of urgency when
thousands of modelers that wanted these motors. For the sake Aerotech decides to discontinue a motor?
of argument, lets call it the B14 motor. What do you think would happen if someone started a
I contend that if there were thousands of modelers that rumor that the management of Estes was considering a name
want the motor, it would be the “Estes” B14 motor. Not any change for the company. Instead of calling it Estes Industries,
old B14 will be sufficient for modelers to cough up the money they were going to call it “Rocket Industries.”
for the product. I would be confident that there would be utter outrage
In the first place, why do people want the B14 motor? within the core group of rocketeers. Wouldn’t that be conclu-
Aren’t there other motors that would do an adequate job of sive proof that the name “Estes” means more to the modelers
lofting the model the same as the B14? Yes. So maybe the than does the product?
model has something special to it that makes people want it so The other assumption people often make is that their only
competition would be Estes Industries. The truth is, that there
badly. Is it for competition type models? No. So what is it?
are other companies that make motors besides Estes. To name
I think this isn’t an ordinary model, but an ancient “Estes”
a few: Aerotech, Apogee Components, Quest Aerospace, Ellis
kit that has some historical significance to the rocketeer. There
is certainly nothing wrong with this. Maybe they want to re- Mountain, and Hypertech. And more seem to be popping up
live their youthful experiences. Maybe they want that nostal- all the time. There are a lot of alternatives to Estes’ motors.
gic feeling of the old space race. But because of this, only an Basically, all these companies are also going after that
“Estes” motor will be sufficient. core group of rocketeers. What is the probability that these
The management of the new company will soon learn that other companies are going to go out of business tomorrow to

1130 Elkton Drive, Suite A


Colorado Springs, CO 80907 USA
www.ApogeeRockets.com
orders @ApogeeRockets.com
phone 719-535-9335 fax 719-534-9050

Page 1
P E A K O F F L I G H T
make room for this new company? come. Personally, I like to think that Apogee Components has
These companies already have a pretty good head-start the solution to the question about replacing the motors that
on the new hypothetical company. Plus they certainly have a Estes is discontinuing. We have a wide selection of motors,
lot more experience in selling rocketry products. and a lot of fun add-on products like technical literature, kits
The new company is going to have to work hard to set and design software. And we think we have a lot of great ideas
them self apart from all the other guys. It is likely that lots of for future products. If you can be patient, I think you’ll be
marketing and money isn’t going to do it. If that were true, pleased with the results.
then Quest would have been an easy winner. About the Author:
Internet marketing is seen by many people as being dirt
Tim Van Milligan is the owner of Apogee Components
cheap. Why is it then that dot-com companies spend huge sums
(http://www.apogeerockets.com) and the curator of the rock-
of money going after new customers? The results of a research
etry education web site: http://www.apogeerockets.com/edu-
study by the Intermarket Group show that Autobytel.com
cation. He is also the author of the books: "Model Rocket De-
spends $20.40 to acquire a new customer; Amazon.com spends
sign and Construction," "69 Simple Science Fair Projects with
$27.60; Beyond.com $29.30; Priceline.com $32.30; and
Model Rockets: Aeronautics" and publisher of the FREE e-
bn.com outlays $42.00 in the effort. That is a lot of cash to get
zine newsletter about model rockets. You can subscribe to the
buyers, and the rocketry market is even smaller.
I don’t write this article to prevent someone from starting e-zine at the Apogee Components web site, or sending an email
a new rocket company. I think it is good for us all to dream a to: [email protected] with "SUBSCRIBE" as the sub-
dream. But there are some realities that must be first over- ject line of the message.

About this Newsletter


You can subscribe “FREE” to receive this e-zine at the Apogee Components web
site (www.ApogeeRockets.com), or sending an email to: [email protected]
with "SUBSCRIBE" as the subject line of the message.

What does this mean to you?

6
6 Degrees of Freedom software means it can find the

Degrees Of position of the rocket in the X (vertical), Y (downrange), and Z


(cross-wind) coordinates, as well as Pitch, Yaw, and Roll. Splash
is the first affordable rocketry simulation program that can

Freedom
perform this complex scenereo. This means it can give you an
accurate indication of where your high altitude flights will land.
You tell Splash what conditions might vary during the
flight, such as wind speed vs altitude; or the failure
likelihood of the parachute failing. You can vary 18 different
variables during the flight, and Splash will give you a plot of
the likely landing zone. If you're flying sub-orbital flights,
then you'll need this data to get permission from the FAA to
launch your rocket. Right now, Splash is the only software

splash
that can do this.
Order a copy today; or for more
information, visit:
www.ApogeeRockets.com/splash.asp
©2002 Hall Consulting

A P O G E E R O C K E T S PAGE 2

Page 2

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