Star Spangled Dolls

Scone, you have to keep in mind that people don't like being treated like herded cattle that can be profited off of. In this hobby that is riddled with scammers, scalpers, and people trying to make a quick buck off of those that will spend hundreds on dolls, people are not very forgiving. It is great that he is trying to change things, but it doesn't make people forget the initial marketing ploy, nor does it make people want to do business.

The common consensus seems to be that Aaron has tried to find the easiest way to make a quick buck off of people. That may or may not be the case. Usually when somebody has a dream they actually WORK for it. They don't usually outsource that dream to China to see it realized and then make claims that are untrue. That is not something that people forgive or forget easily. In time, people may let it go but for now people are still hot under the collar about it, myself included.

 

If he feels like he's made a bad call in the way he reacted, he should probably be the one posting his own apology . Until then, dodging the issues with a plea for pity from an anonymous defender doesn't do a whole lot for those who have been insulted.

We all understand dreams and emotions, but we also expect a bit of professionalism here.

 

Scone, we would give him more credit if he came in here and spoke reasonably, rather than dismissing us as "silly" and allowing his friends to defend him (and I can only assume that your reason for posting this way is that you are a friend of his, given that this is your first post on DoA).

And, likewise given that this is your first post, while you may have been a champion lurker since you joined, "what I've learned in this hobby" doesn't carry much weight from you. From what I'VE learned in this hobby, the stock photographs are all we, the consumer, have to go on when deciding whether or not to spend our hard-earned money on a particular doll, especially a doll from a new company where owner pics aren't available yet. Those photos? Do not make me want to spend money on those dolls. The sculpts may be better looking in person; I can't say, I haven't seen them. But the pictures make them look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this, pretty ugly. Comparing one of those dolls to another company's doll in a comparable price range? It's frankly ludicrous to me that he expected to make money. Even a cursory look at the competition should have made it obvious that something was lacking, or that something needed to be improved, or that the price should be lowered. I don't like saying it, because I know it's very difficult to be an entrepreneur and put so much effort into something like this to end up with bad feedback, but I also know that when starting any business venture, it pays to do your homework. He didn't do his homework. That's all there is to it.

I don't want to be mean, I don't want to "crush" anyone's dreams. But I do think that anyone starting a business needs to be pragmatic and realistic above all. People do not buy dolls because they want to support someone's dream. They buy dolls because they are pretty; because they judge the doll's attractiveness and quality to be worth the money. Period.

 

I dunno.. I'd kind of like an apology for having my opinions blown off as "silly".

I realize you're trying to defend a friend, but using your first post here to do so hurts his cause more than it helps.

 

Scone, I hate to break it to you, but when your only post is just to defend someone who can't stand up for himself, it's just gonna get you both in bad favor in this hobby.

Aaron wanted to run a business, and everyone at Den of Angels is either a consumer or saving up to be one. His behavior is not excusable, and you're only making him look worse by acting as his defense.

 

You know, after looking at the stock photos for a while I think some of the face sculpts have great potential (Adonis and Daphne don't look half as bad as the others). Like others have said, presentation is everything in this hobby and if better stock photos are taken and prices lowered (unless they come as fullsets) SSD might have a few customers despite the negative feedback.

I would be willing to offer my services as a webmaster for free if it would help the presentation a little.

I am glad to see that Aaron has begun to settle down and work on improvements. I think conceptually the Star Spangled Dolls concept is a cute idea (just poorly presented) and I will be watching to see what happens.

 

Honestly, without an apology, it just looks like he's reaping all the benefits of our feedback without having to openly admit he was wrong.

And while us calling the dolls "ugly" may be just as bad as him saying our opinions are "silly", the difference is, we're not the ones trying to sell dolls here.

 

There's a host of ways that "Star Spangled" could have been approached. If they're no longer using the flag (which is a good move), I'll offer a couple ideas. Use a star, a comet, or something of that nature. Even a cluster of stars, which may count as "spangled." They could even go in the direction of mythology, explorers, etc. with the names they've chosen for their dolls. There's endless possibilities just going off the original name. Whatever they do, it should be consistent.

Now, as for the website... it still looks like FrontPage threw up. Maybe they could use Wordpress or another tool and use a nicer template. But first they need to pin down the name, design a new logo, pick some colors, take some killer photographs of the dolls, and stick it all up. They need to wait a while before they try a relaunch. Do it all the changes at once, not a bit at a time.

Other than that, an apology is necessary. And one-post friends get IP addresses checked.

 

Okay, the removal of the flag background is definitely a step in the right website direction...the menu is better now too.

I agree that the price is still too high, though--if he's set on charging that, the least he could do is offer a special introductory price in order to get his product out there...once a few people pick up his dolls, they will let people know if they like them, and if they're worth the money...and if people think they're worth more than they paid at, say, $250, then perhaps they would still be willing to pay $450 for their next doll--but not their first, from a new company, presented like this. The shipping seems a bit excessive, too.

...and I would suggest that the text on the website get tossed through the spell-checker before being posted.
I don't think the dolls are made of "Polly Urethane Resin".

 

Careful, Scone, when your only posts are to defend a user thats in hot water you run the risk of being seen as a sockpuppet.

And honestly, all this talk about this being his dream come true, is ridiculous. Are you suggesting that we should bite our tongues and fork over our hard earned money because he's living out his dream? In which version of Earth is that a viable reason? He's decided he wants a business, and one of the biggest hurdles for a business is customer service. It doesn't matter if he thinks our opinions are silly (though, if they were so silly, why is he actually adhering to them, hm?), we're his bread and butter at the end of the day. You don't become a success by blowing off the people with the money. And maybe you'd have noticed that the harsher criticisms of the dolls did not crop up until after Aaron started the name calling; before that people were being rather tactful on voicing their thoughts on the aesthetics of the dolls. Two wrongs don't make a right, but let's not make him out to be some poor victim in this entire thing.

 

Having his friends come in here and say that we're all so cruel to poor, poor Aaron honestly just makes him look way, way worse. As the owner of a business, he should be in here issuing is own apologies, not going through friends directly or indirectly. Aside from how downright ugly most of the heads look (Adonis and Daphne look pretty okay), that is vastly unprofessional. Who would want to fork over hundreds of dollars to a man who can't even apologize for himself?

 

I agree with this, I hadn't looked at all of the factory sample photos, but they definitely look more appealing. I think better photography would be a huge help, as the dolls do look much better in those factory photos.

When marketing a product, you always want to show it in the best possible light- your customers will be making their choice whether to buy these dolls or not 100% based on the photos you have on the website, so really try to wow them! They don't need to be super artsy photos, but at least ones that present the doll beautifully, that would make someone think "I really want to own that!"

Even if you have to pay a photographer to come in and do some really nice shots of your products, it will be worth it if it helps them sell where your existing photos do not!

 

Market research would be a start? He's clearly hugely misjudged his potential customer base.

Yes he's only human and people make bad judgment calls all the time but as a business there's very little room for taking things personally and acting in such an unprofessional as insulting your potential customers. You're not going to get much sympathy from anyone on that front I'm afraid.

As for calling the dolls ugly... most of us went for a more tactful approach, they need more work. Which frankly they do, especially if you're asking $500 for them. Part of being a business and hell part of being an artist (which honestly one would hope a doll sculptor is) is learning to take critique and use it to improve ones work, not getting all defensive over it.

 

While your pride in country is all very well and good, your name and marketing choice is somewhat limiting. You are quite successfully alienating a portion of your potential non-American customer base, who do occasionally get a little tired of having the USA’s rampant ethnocentrism, disguised as patriotism, constantly rammed down their throats. If you find this concern silly as well, you are just proving case in point…

 

Echoing idrisfynn's comments above, this thread has been open for long enough and it seems at this point that nobody really has anything new to add. Thank you for keeping it civil and relatively tactful, some really good suggestions have come out of this, which it would be good for any budding doll artist or doll company to take to heart.

 

Hi Everyone –

I wanted to make a post and yes I was watching this thread and so is the SSD factory manager in China! We wanted to thank everyone who gave us constructive criticism on our new line. We're going to make some changes based on your feedback, such as: We will change the name of the line to another name with some new head plates for the back of the head; we've requested the box with the USA flag in Silver be changed or at least a sticker stuck over it since they already bought all the boxes in bulk; as for the website, we're looking into possibly getting another domain name.

We did not intend for people to think we were using a flag as a symbol to get additional sales or as a marketing ploy, nor to do anything Un-American or use the flag to our advantage. We're new to the business world and honestly didn't anticipate this reaction. We apologize if we offended anyone with our choice of brand. Also, I wanted to personally apologize for saying it's silly. It was obviously a poor choice of words on my part.

After I saw all the threads on the board I really wanted to change the site so I started on it right away as well as an email to my factory to change the headcap and boxes. A.S.A.P. We have edited the site and I will be making a new one and it will take me some time since I have never created a real site so it takes me a long time! :-)

I also wanted to clarify something I said on the board in my comments. I was not trying to be racist about head sculpts but I do feel that each sculptor/manufacturer has a way with doing sculpts that is their unique style, and that shows up in many of the sculpts they do. That is why it is nice to have new sculpts more often and sometime by another sculptor.
We do feel that we have a great product. I hope everyone will give us another look after we've acted on your suggestions.

I believe the forum administrator is going to close this thread at this point, so if you have any further suggestions, comments, or criticisms please send them directly to me via a PM via the board.

We look forward to hearing from you!