Marvel's biggest screw-up in Alpha Flight Marketing?

[cmdrkoenig67]

Most fans seem to like the originals and/or characters from Vol 1....Polls have proven this, both here and on other boards. Favorite team line-up threads tell the same story, here and elsewhere....

Marvel keeps marketing the original characters in different forms:
*The Byrne AF action figures from a few years ago(plus the Guardian exclusive from Toyfare)
*Heather, Mac and Puck's many appearances in Wolverine
*Alpha's recent appearances in Wolverine(versus Mauvais and then later under a different writer...some sort of Demon), X-Men and X-Men Unlimited
*The Bowen Guardian mini-bust NEW!
*The Marvel 2 Mighty Beanz NEW!
*The AF Heroclix(all original AFers) NEW!
*The X-Men Legends "easter eggs" with Mac and Puck NEW!
Are there more, that I'm missing?

The biggest screw up in AF marketing?....Making a series WITHOUT the originals as the stars....how does that make any kind of rational sense?

Dana

[Barnacle13]

Makes about as much sense as having a full page spread of DC Trading Card Game in Alpha Flight #10 and Sabertooth #4, but not offering subscriptions for Marvel titles, like Alpha Flight, She-Hulk, etc. They have no trouble promoting the competition's products, but won't promote their own. Puzzling!

[kozzi24]

Most of the other products would be lisenced, not from Marvel direct.
As far as the subscriptions being pre-empted by lisenced competitor's products, probably the one in hand for ad revenue vs the potential 2 in bush for subscriptions.

[Barnacle13]

Yeah I know advertising money is money in hand, but they're promoting their competitions product. Seems like the real money they're making in that instance is for DC. Why not promo their Trading Card Game in its place? That make more sense to me, but then I've learned not to expect common sense or uncommon sense from Marvel. Let's see I can sell lemonade at my own personal stand or I can take 50 cents from the kid around the block to advertise his lemonade stand so he can make $5, even though I have a better location. Doesn't show a whole lot of faith in your product if you ask me. But then I guess I'd get to sit around and play video games while he was sweating it out in the sun. Maybe that's what Marvel is shooting for, more down time to make movies while DC runs the only comic business in town.

[Mokole]

Marketing has never really been that good for Alpha Flight, with v2 maybe being the exception.

I agree that they Market 1983 Byrne AF style things now instead of ANADAF anything, and that makes no sense. It's like creating a play card set of the NHL but the Leafs are all guys from the 50's. Great promotion.

[kozzi24]

The analogy does make sense if they're marketing 1950's all stars and record breakers versus current players that the average person never has heard of or wouldn't recognize

[Canucklehead]

Very true. Plus the only marketing this new team received were those god-awful solicits. How could they honestly think mentioning Avril and Saskatchewan would attract readers to a comic book? Seriously, if you took a pole, how many people do you think said, "Wow, I really HAVE to read this book" as opposed to just read it and groaned.

Dave

[cmdrkoenig67]

I guess someone at Marvel thought the solicits were funny.

Dana

[Northcott]

Very true. Plus the only marketing this new team received were those god-awful solicits. How could they honestly think mentioning Avril and Saskatchewan would attract readers to a comic book? Seriously, if you took a pole, how many people do you think said, "Wow, I really HAVE to read this book" as opposed to just read it and groaned.

Rick Mercer was running around an American University (either Princeton or Harvard) with a camera and microphone: he was asking students and professors alike what they thought of the Saskatchewan situation -- several thought it was in Russia. I think that speaks to the power of mentioning Avril and Saskatchewan in solicits.

The analogy does make sense if they're marketing 1950's all stars and record breakers versus current players that the average person never has heard of or wouldn't recognize

I see your point, but it doesn't quite hold true with fictional characters who don't need to age. If the Habs could have Maurice Richard back at the peak of his ability, they'd be silly not to take advantage of it.

Marvel recently set a standard for Wolverine's appearance to make sure that they'd have maximum brand recognition -- that's smart marketing. Why they didn't follow a similar thread of thought with their other products mystifies me.

[kozzi24]

Marvel recently set a standard for Wolverine's appearance to make sure that they'd have maximum brand recognition -- that's smart marketing. Why they didn't follow a similar thread of thought with their other products mystifies me.

They knew what the brand recognition for Wolverine was.

No one had yet stepped forward to admit to being the writer of the solicits. Judging by writing style as compared to other solicits and what appeared in Alpha, my money's still on Scott Lobdell.

[Northcott]

My bad. I had meant to tie the brand recognition concept in with the spate of anciliary goods released using the recognizeable characters from Alpha Flight, and the relaunch of the title that utilized almost none of them. It only makes sense that if you're going to do a big market push with a number of images, that the core title should make use of those images. I think that was a pretty serious stumbling block.

I agree about the solicits. If they weren't written by Lobdell, then somebody was doing a heck of an imitation.

[cmdrkoenig67]

My bad. I had meant to tie the brand recognition concept in with the spate of anciliary goods released using the recognizeable characters from Alpha Flight, and the relaunch of the title that utilized almost none of them. It only makes sense that if you're going to do a big market push with a number of images, that the core title should make use of those images. I think that was a pretty serious stumbling block.

Exactly my point in starting the thread, Ed.

Marvel puts out all these various Original AF character products...saying to the consumer..."Here's Alpha Flight, folks....Guardian(you all know and love him, right?), Puck, Shaman and Northstar....Snowbird too(You know them too, right?)....Oh...but the Alpha Flight comic....well...they're not in it...sorry."

Dana

[Northcott]

Yeah, you're not the only one who was confused by that move. Not that there's much consolation in it.

Oh well, hopefully Kazz is right and we'll see a relaunch a little down the line with the old standards. And hopefully they won't be screwed around this time.

[birdygirl]

My two cents on the subject:

I've been a fan of Alpha Flight since their first appearance. In its long history, I've seen that every time some writer tries to jettison the originals and then replace them with an all-new team, the attempt has failed. It failed with Mantlo, with Seagle, and now with Scott Lobdell.

Not that Centennial, Major Maple Leaf, etc. aren't interesting characters. But people don't seem to want to accept anyone but the originals as Alpha Flight.

It's interesting to note that when the action figures came out, the fans voted for the original team to be made, rather than the volume 2 team. Also, when Alpha appeared in the X-Men TV show, it was the original John Byrne team. And now in HeroClix.... guess which team is represented?

Yet, when the latest volume of Alpha Flight was published, the originals barely appeared. Didn't Marvel realize that yet another revamp of the book (with yet-unknown new characters) was likely to fail?

[Canucklehead]

They likely asked a few writers to submit their version of Alpha Flight, most likely a different version then the "failed" original and Vol 2. They must have figured the name itself would keep the old readers and the new 'hip' characters, would bring in the new. It obviously failed, so hopefully they will try once more with the original before cancelling the series for good.

Dave