Atari Coin Connection

OF AA€N AND AAACHIN€S
community, just might find a little
sympathy with an anti-game selectman or
board member. How many
churches have small game centers for the
licensing
maximize income. This is only achieved
by testing-the-water with new ideas and
new products.
Maybe the manufacturer
sometimes
at fault for not tooting his horn loud
enough. Breakout™ is a classic example.
I wonder how many tens of thousands of
dollars have been lost and are being lost
today because of bad merchandising.
By
C.
is
If every operator in America who
decided
Breakout^M
that
was just
another paddle game or who placed it in a
rough-and-tumble bar room and saw
mediocre to good earnings had been
convinced that it was a cerebral (thinking-
man’s-game) and placed it in a college
type or swinging discotheque type loca-
tion — he would have seen prolonged
Marshall Caras
Caras joined Atari in April after being
General Manager of Rowe Intematio7ial, Ded-
ham, Mass. He has been in sales-marketmg for
over 20 years. VJe are proud to have him as our
new Director of Marketing — Editor.)
superior earnings.
(Mr.
How many
Not
for believing.
thousands of pieces are
earning good money today simply be-
cause a wise operator decided that a given
just an arcade piece —
machine was
but had top earning capacity in a bowling
alley or 5-10 piece game center. We all
become prejudiced. Our natural inclina-
tion is to prejudge equipment and to
decide that it will only go here or it won ’t
go there. Let’s try to break out of that
kind of unproductive thinking. Many
drug store chains and variety stores
learned long ago not to put cigarettes
smack-dab at the front door — but rather
draw people into the center of the store.
NOT
AND MONEY.
After
all,
what
that’s
about. Profits. A fair return on the
number of your dollars invested in your
it’s all
The
business.
answer
may
well
be
MERCHANDISING.
One of
the
most successful not-so-
secret techniques used in retaOing
is the
short-run special. Bloomingdale’s Depart-
ment
New York —
a legend in its
time — this past Christmas installed a
perfume and make-up counter in a
normally dead-space between 2 escalators
store in
own
special
—
and did phenomenal volume on a super
high mark-up item. Many a wise old-time
juke box operator slides in a whole row
of Sinatra or Bing Crosby records (worth
‘nothing’) every time Frank or Bing hits
the front page. Extra dollars from dead
space. Every move you make costs money
— but when was the last time you plugged
a ‘winner’ back into a location just for a
few weeks of flash play?
When was the
piece when it was
time you moved a
still earning well but on
the down-side of its income curve? Why
not capitalize in two ways by moving it
to a secondary location — something
‘new’ — before it has worn out its
welcome
in a
last
territory
and replacing
it
with what’s current — and hot. Don’t be
guilty of battle fatigue. Many territories
across the country are still getting a
strong play on cocktail tables — but are
now demanding a change. Smart mer-
chandising, by way of balanced buying,
would give the operator the kind of
dexibility
he needs to change and
Yet,
seen
how many game rooms
with
driving
a
game
brand new
right
at
have you
high-impact
the
kids — kids
corners?
experienced or adventuresome players
seek it out, but many of his seasoned
pieces win those extra dollars as players
change their walking habits. He’s a
merchandiser.
off the
street
from your buying and operating
which by now is mostly habit, and
few new rules and ideas to
your business pattern. Walk into your
location as if you were a stranger and
take a fresh view of your machines and
your placement of equipment. Change,
just for the sake of change, is one of the
out”
cycle,
try applying a
techniques of smart retailers — to entice,
excite and interest the consumers. You
are a retailer,
your consumers are your
quarter-dropping players. What have
lately? Let’s hear from you.
YOU
done
TECHNICAL TIPS
QUIZ SHOW
SYMPTOM:
Game locks up during play
and can only be reset by
turning
the
game off
and on.
SOLUTION:
You do
not have the latest
modification which is a
simple substitution of a
chip on the P.C.B. The
new
chip
is
P/N
005464-5C which replaces
the chip located at grid K1
on the main P.C.B. Con-
tact
your distributor
for
this modification.
SYMPTOM:
While in play, questions or
answers
sometimes
be-
SOLUTION:
This condition is a result
of improper information
reaching
the
computer
board. Common causes are
worn tapes, dirty or worn
tape heads or improper
head height adjustments.
come
And
there are other things to merchan-
besides the machines. The operator
with a local service organiza-
tion such as Kiwanis or the Knights of
Columbus, to place a game in the lobby
are
Maybe the secret is not merchandising,
but conditioning. Condition yourself to
develop new habits. Periodically “break-
entrance,
enough to trip one on entering, and with
5 and 6 year old pins and tired paddle
games relegated to a ‘deadsville’ corner.
We know of one smart game room
operator in a small town who uses radio
spot announcements to advertise a new
“Special-of-the-Month-Piece” and then,
when he has created INTEREST and
DEMAND, he moves it to a different spot
about every three or four days. The
who
This kind of merchandising is being
done every day: — it might not make you
wealthy in that particular instance — but
it is merchandising your industry — your
business and your own credibility in the
community.
unreadable.
dise
who works
of a bank with a proper sign to let the
public know that the proceeds of a
drawing for the machine or the income, if
it
is
on
coin-play,
will
benefit
the