THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

SALES & SATISFACTION MAPPED TO BLAKE & MOUTON’S GRID

CODY MARTELL

ARTICLE REVIEW

• In early January FFG released an article that gave a glimpse to players of a new major expansion to release in the coming months. While it doesn’t give too many specifics, it does contain a few images of what the pack comes with.

• More specifically, you can see how many of particular upgrades cards come in it. At a glance, it looks like a lot, and it is. But there’s an imbalance of a particular card that would set the X-Wing community ablaze with upset comments on forums everywhere.

• Players do love FFG, most don’t acknowledge the balance of sales and satisfaction that the business must uphold. Much like the Blake-Mouton Management Grid.

BLAKE & MOUTON’S MANAGERIAL GRID

• The task orientation and people orientation as two independent dimensions is the core of Blake & Mouton’s Grid. Building on the work of the researchers at these Universities, Robert Blake and Jane Mouton proposed a graphic portrayal of leadership styles through a managerial grid. (MSG Management  Study  Guide)

"MSG Management  Study  Guide."

TRANSLATING X TO Y

• The grid depicts two dimensions of leader behavior, concern for people and for production.

• Similarly, FFG is always having to manage a balance between making sales, and keeping customers happy.

• Thus, FFG should try utilizing this grid to find the right balance for their product line.

SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE ARTICLE?

• In order to understand the background of the problem in the article, you need a quick lesson about the game.

• Within X-Wing, players build a squad to control using 100 points. Ships, pilots, and upgrades all cost points. All have varying costs and differences. Some cheap, some not.

• The small ship included in the expansion is the ‘M3-A’, which already exists in the game. When it was released though, the cost to use one was over-valued at 14 points. Model of a “M3-A Scyk Interceptor”

THIS IS WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE ARTICLE

• The expansion comes with 6 copies of a new ‘title card’ that reduces the cost of the ship by 2 points. This allows players to fly 8 M3-A’s, the standard amount of ships for a “swarm”. (which is really important, just take my word for it)

• Note that the expansion comes with 6 copies, even when 8 ships is the new amount playable. In the official rules of the game, players MUST have all legal cards in order to play at an official event.

• So anyone who wants to fly the coveted 8-ship swarm of M3-A’s, needs to buy TWO copies of this new expansion to have enough. And it’s not cheap, roughly $89.99.

THE OVERLAP

• On Blake & Mouton’s Grid a (9,1) point is referred to as Strong Task Management, also called dictatorial or perish style.

• The management has MUCH greater concern for product over people, or in FFG’s case, revenue over player satisfaction.

• Players are NOT happy with the need to buy two expensive packs when most of it won’t be used. This is compounded with the fact that the card is included with the huge ‘epic ship’ which makes it so expensive.

• (Epic Ships are used for a different format of play that very few people get involved in.)

IT’S NOT ALWAYS THIS BAD

• While many are upset with the cash grab, it’s not always this way. FFG has made similar things with expensive expansions that compensate for another product.

• The Imperial Raider which launched Fall of 2015 was the same design. It featured one ‘Epic Ship’ (which is used by about 1% of the players who buy it), and one small ship.

• Although, the pack had the exact amount of cards required to fully utilize the proper number of ships. Opposed to the new pack; which only has 6 out of the 8 needed.

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

• The Imperial Raider expansion wasn’t as harsh on buyers. It included the right amount of cards and had a few extras. Although the cards players wanted were still attached to an “Epic Ship” which they likely wont use and drives up the price to $89.99. As opposed to the usual $15-$20 Small Ship price.

• This is an excellent example of the (5,5) point on Blake & Mouton’s Grid. This is essentially a compromise between the goals of the company and the needs of the people. Or again in FFG’s case, revenue and player satisfaction.

BIG PRICE FOR A SMALL GAME

• As someone who bought the Imperial Raider, I would have much rather bought a normal $20 ship than the wasteful $89.99 Epic Ship. But I’m still content in the end.

• When a competitive player is always having to buy 3 or 4 new expansions every couple of months though, you can imagine how frustrating it could be FFG to place a few small cards that you want in such an expensive pack.

• Over time, the total amount of money spent on the game can be astronomical. It’s no wonder that people dream of a (9,9) point developer.

CAN IT GET ANY BETTER?

• On the other end of the spectrum lies the (1,9) point. This is when the focus is entirely on the customer. Management feels that such thoughtful attention to the customer and a good environment will lead to self motivation within employees.

• This doesn’t translate quite as well to FFG’s sales and player base. As a long-time player, I don’t recall any expansions being so amazing that I felt personally taken care of by FFG. I can’t say though that I’m upset by that, as it’s an outlier here.

• Many expansions exist within the game, but none are priced or produced in a manner that shows revenue being less than the focus for FFG.

THE PERFECT RATIO

• At the pinnacle of Blake & Mouton’s Grid is the coveted (9,9) point.  Characterized by high people and task focus, management feels that trust and respect in both directions are the key elements to success across the board.

• This is literally the best possible outcome on the grid and in some ways is impossible. Can you ever truly achieve perfection in anything? Let alone two contrasting categories simultaneously?

NEAR PERFECT

• Perfection is subjectively impossible. But can a company come close, no matter what kind of grid they’re working on? Certainly.

• The first X-Wing product released by FFG was the original core set. Coming in at a mere $29.99, it included 3 ships along with everything required to play. It was simple, fully loaded, and needed no further expansions to use beyond casual fun.

• All things considered, this is as close to perfect as FFG has ever come to (9,9).

CAN THEY IMPROVE?

• While the original core set of the game was as close as FFG has ever come to perfect, it’s always possible to reach higher.

• The fiasco with the new Epic Ship expansion not having enough cards right out of the box is a rare case compared to the past of the X-Wing products. But there has still been some less than desirable expansions that players have been somewhat forced to buy in order to get one individual card.

THE ‘EPIC’ SIZED PROBLEM

• Circling back to the original issue at hand. FFG doesn’t necessarily HAVE to sell the new desirable content inside of such an expensive product. They do so to sell more Epic Ships.

• The ‘Epic Play’ format is not very popular within the X-Wing community. Mostly due to a lack of truly fleshed out gameplay. And with each Epic Ship made, more content is added to improve upon it.

• But when so many players assume that the format is rotten, no one wants to buy Epic Ships. If exciting new Small Ship cards are included, then players will reluctantly make the purchase.

YOU CAN ONLY GO SO LOW

• The smallest expansions are the small ships, coming in at around $20. So if someone just needs one card that comes with a particular ship, there’s no card packs they can purchase. They’re simply stuck having to buy another $20 pack.

• This issue tends to lie on the (5,5) point. No one can really complain, as the problem doesn’t arise all that often. But it certainly can be frustrating.

• As easy as it would be for FFG to just release card packs, it just won’t happen. After all, they do still need to make money. This does however open a new area to explored for the 3rd party vendors such as myself.

LETTING SOMEONE ELSE DO THE DIRTY WORK

• Any point on the grid with the Y-Axis being ‘9’ is amazing for customers and buyers but virtually doesn’t exist. With FFG not selling card packs however, it can exist for the 3rd party groups to step in.

• Being a 3rd party card developer means creating essentially off-brand cards for people to buy. They’re non-official for tournament play and look different from official FFG cards but are largely accepted.

• They’re significantly cheaper than buying $20 packs, and get the job done. (1,9) FFG’s Poe Dameron card My Poe Dameron card

RECAP

• FFG’s sales with X-Wing products can’t always rake in amazing sales, nor do can always completely satisfy its consumers. Figuring out the right balance for sales and satisfaction play a key role for FFG keeping X-Wing afloat.

• While X-Wing’s track record is scattered along Blake & Mouton’s Grid, it doesn’t ever completely fail. And while the Grid is often used for product quality and employee ratios, it’s suitably swapped out in this case for sales and satisfaction given X-Wing’s unique consumer base and market.

• FFG has made mistakes in the past, but ultimately succeeds. Keeping Blake & Mouton’s Grid in mind for their future could do them good. After all, a lost customer is lost revenue.

WORKS CITED

• FFG. "Bargains, Bribes, and Battles." Fantasy Flight Games. FFG, 09 Jan. 2017. Web.

15 Mar. 2017.

• FFG. "Here Comes the Imperial Raider." Fantasy Flight Games. FFG, 19 Dec. 2014.

Web. 15 Mar. 2017.

• MSG. "MSG Management  Study  Guide." Blake and Moutons Managerial Grid. MSG,

undisclosed. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.