Star Spangled Dolls

I'm not overly patriotic, I do enjoy living in my country, don't get me wrong. But I'm even offended by this.
It's a tacky, unoriginal idea for business. If you look at the big picture, they're made in China, designed in China shipped from China, ect. Then they're called 'the American BJD" when it's popular to support your country? No, I don't think so.

And now the seller is calling people silly? I'm sorry but this is very offensive. :/
So...no, I wouldn't buy them partly because I find the dolls unappealing (there's only one sculpt that looks proportionately correct) and because the seller herself is rude and off putting. I'm sorry, call me immature, or mean or what you like, perhaps I should have cooled down before posting this, but I don't foresee much success here, if any.

 

So not only are your dolls called "Star Spangled Dolls" and have the American flag plastered all over them and their boxes when they are clearly NOT American but you are now calling potential customers "silly"? That'll surely increase your sales.

 

I'm also concerned about this being a legit company - because someone mentioned that they aren't signed up as an e-commerce site which is required for an LLC to run an online business.

 

There is absolutely nothing American about these dolls, except for the people at the top who want to make the money off of them (IE, you). They aren't designed by Americans, they aren't sculpted by Americans, they aren't produced by Americans, they don't even have American FACEUPS! So what I don't get is why they cost more than any other doll produced in China and cost about the same in shipping as one from overseas. Also what is supposed to be American.

Even if I liked these dolls, which I don't, I think they're hideous, I'd be totally turned off from ever buying one from the exorbitant prices and the unprofessional behavior I've seen here. I'm ashamed you're using this country as a marketing ploy.

 

I think loz64 put it better than I did.

Quite frankly, I could easily ignore the patriotism. It's the looks of the dolls.... I actually do think they are interesting. But I wouldn't buy one. And obviously neither would a lot of the people you are marketing towards.

Madonnafanme, if you want to sell, you might want to listen to your customers.

 

I don't know why I didn't catch this the first time ...but

Isn't that sort of racist thing to say anyway?

 

One of the things that I want to address is that the name Star Spangled Dolls was used by Mattel for a line of dolls from about 1973-1976. They were dolls with a historical bent based on different early American themes, i.e. a Revolutionary War-era doll, a pioneer settler doll, etc. While I don't think they retained rights to the name, it may be worth investigating.

Second, using the imagery of the American flag - a symbol that people have fought and died over - to illustrate American pride on an item that doesn't have anything patently American about it is really misguided. Perhaps a better display of that pride could mean hiring American craftspeople to do the sculpting, casting, finishing, packaging, marketing, etc. As it's already been pointed out, outsourcing manufacturing is what's killing the American economy. Goodness knows that Las Vegas is a town on the rise for more than casinos and gambling, surely there are people looking for jobs doing this stuff!! It's an ideal climate for casting because it's so dry - you don't need to worry about humidity screwing up the resin pours. I have a buddy who did some casting work in the area, and it was a year-round operation. Seriously, look into this. Working with the industrial-grade stuff will probably require a good, well-ventilated space and a license from the city, but it's not terribly hard. If you can mix cake batter and make an edible cake, you can do this. The idea of a doll made with the principles of quality American craftsmanship, something that's keeping Americans employed and fed, would be really appealing. Heck, if you can somehow make the manufacturing process less pollute-y/caustic, then you can even sell the dolls on the principle of being green! If there's some way to decrease packaging materials or to figure out some energy-conserving shipping method, well, bully! Speaking of shipping, maybe one could make exclusive use of the U.S. Postal Service? Truly it is the delivery service of all Americans, and it belongs to everyone (though I recall there's something unique about the postal service v. other gov't agencies and services in terms of revenue, can't remember what anymore - anyone know what I'm talking about?). Just throwing out ideas. If that doesn't float one's boat, I dunno, include a little sheet of fun facts about U.S. Presidents or something. Pocket-size Constitution. I dunno. Business cards that encourage customers to register to vote? Write to their representative in Congress? Point out the web address of the National Park Service so you can go visit a national park this summer?

Finally, on a lighter side, I remembered this glyph included in a font set that I used a while ago, thought I'd share it:



Overall, the dolls aren't even offensive so much as they are misguided and a bit quarter-baked. The marketing seems like it could've used a lot more research.

 

the first thing i thought of, was that the marketing just seems way off for the customer base as far as i can see. especially since this is such an international market.

hopefully it all turns out okay in the end. for the owner, and for those who choose to purchase the dolls.

 

Maybe our entrepreneur friend here figures all Caucasians look alike? Being that he had such a hand in designing the dolls and all. Oh, wait, those were just the boxes. Or was it the logo?

 

I just wanted to say sorry that personal opinions offended you, Madonnafanme. You probably weren't expecting so many people to be put off from your company and I can't imagine how frustrating that would be. I'm not going to mention the "silly" comment, but once you're calmed down, look back on your replies. They weren't very professional, think of where us, the potential customers are coming from.
Instead of defending your company, try to meet us half-way at least. Why not talk to your other staff members about what you could do to make your company appeal to us? There's been a lot of comments about the face sculp put-offs, so why not work on those? There's a lot of distaste for the marketing, so work on that too.

If this is your dream, find a way to make it happen. ^_^ Just remember "the customer is always right", without that money you don't have a business.

 

Tho myself am not American I have to agree with all the comments and I would feel exactly the same if this was marketed the same way by a English person putting the Union Jack/British flag all over the dolls and site. To have a country flag/Union Jack all over them would mean to me British made.


[edit]

Also you said in another post We are not trying to desecrate the American Flag and we called it that and use the American flag since we are the only ones selling this line and we are from the USA! Not that we will not sell them to people outside the USA since that was not our intentions but on this post, you say you can and would ship INTL http://www.denofangels.com/forums/sh...0&postcount=10 meaning you would sell to people outside the USA.

I read this part wrong and apologies as pointed out by angelsecho, thank you [edit]

also I presume that on the box/paper work it would read, made in China thus making it a Chinese doll, not a American one. Giving it the name and putting the American flag all over the site and the dolls headcaps could be misinterpreted, which would not be a good thing for you or your company.

 

Two negatives make a positive, at least in math, so they didn't said they'd only ship within the US.

 

ok I stand corrected and apologies for the mistake, I did miss read this twice.

Tho I still stand by my other comments.

I believe that your work and idea, time and effort are good, but you need to market these dolls correctly for them to sell.

 

As someone who has a long history of collecting dolls and family members who worked for Mattel, I'd say it's likely that the trademark may still be in effect. This plus the other new line of dolls "American Girl" that has been posted on this board would be best to consider possible name changes given that Mattel is very protective of their trademarks and copyrights and has attorneys like you would not believe. Especially the use of "American Girl" which is a very well known doll line.

And just to add, even though I don't post much on here, that as someone born in America, has lived here all my life, has ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War and so on, I feel rather used by this. I would hope that the person attempting to market these dolls consider doing some market research prior to continuing with the current one. Pride is not necessarily the best way to make business decisions.

 

Well, I would imagine that even if they wanted to, it's a little difficult to change the logo at this point in time as the headcaps have already been created, the website set up etc. It's now been 4 pages of people saying how much they dislike the name and the fact that it's manufactured in China, so unless there's something new to add, isn't it about time to give it a break. I think Madonnafanme (Aaron) viewed the dolls as a creation of his, much like Goodreau. They are marketed as an American BJD, while being produced in China, and didn't get one tenth of the butt kicking that Aaron is over that advertising, perhaps because they were sculpted in the US. Obviously it's deeply offensive to some people having the flag on a foreign import, so perhaps should look at calling his doll company the Star Spangled Doll Store (meaning located in the US doll store) and have Star Spangled Doll store exclusive lines such as his current ones, which would hopefully clarify the matter a little more and be less misleading for people.

 

The whole 'Yay America' thing aside I think these dolls are grossly overpriced for what they are. The website appears to be down at the minute but if I recall they where around $500. That's a LOT of money to pay for something that frankly looks, at best, incredibly unrefined.

I'd suggest either working to improve your sculpts or rethinking your pricing structure to one that's more suited to the good's you're selling, because as they stand they simply aren't worth the price being asked

 

Their site was closed temporarily to be updated, it seems. It's up now. Looking slightly better. Still much room for improvement.

Tile backgrounds and counters are parts of a novice web page design...
More for personal web sites, than for companies. Just my personal opinion. Anyways...

I was visitor #1! Do I get a prize?

I even took a print screen of it! XD Though when I refresh, it's still stuck at 1...

Prices as posted on the site:

SD or 1/3 Size - 22 Inches (Boy or Girl)

$450.00: No - Face-Up
$500.00: Yes- Face-Up

The first site said there are 11 dolls available.

There's only 6 named sculpts:

Boys ~ Adonis, Kali, and Kumara

Girls ~ Bridget, Daphne, and Flora

Does that mean there are 5 more yet to come?

 

I think that everyone has already expressed the same sentiments that I currently have about these dolls, but I have a question specifically for Madonnafanme, if he is still reading this: Are you the same man from Las Vegas who attended past Elfdoll Artmaze events in Burbank, California and advertised your own dolls there? I apologize if this is unrelated, but the name "Aaron Egawa" sounds familiar and how many male doll distributors from Las Vegas are there?

Nevermind, I've looked and found that you're one and the same.

 

I completely agree with this.
The dolls are kind of ugly, honestly, but I'd be interested in the bodies in the future should that occur. I hope the seller ca take our advice now and change the name of the site, or even keep the name but stop trying to glitz it up with American flags etc. Its good to be patriotic but....

 

Purely from a legal point of view, I don't know what the American equivalent is of the Trading Standards Office here in the UK - is it the Better Business Bureau? - but you could get into a whole heap of trouble for marketing dolls as being American when in fact, they are Chinese - Chinese design, Chinese manufacture, painted by Chinese workers, and the only American thing about them being the distributer. You can plaster it with US flags till the cows come home but it still won't make it an American doll, and I'm pretty certain that trying to market it as one will fall afoul of trading standards legislation regarding misleading descriptions.

Hope Madonnafanme has paid up their legal insurance premiums....

(FWIW I personally think they look damned ugly, and if I were going to buy a Chinese doll I'd get one from AOD who are at least honest and have decent sculpts - and don't insult their potential customer base.)