This booklet will be emailed directly to our stores. Have we described the OSG customer correctly? Please let us know of any changes or additions you might suggest before we send this out...

Now that you have invested in the OSG line of games for your store, the question is, 'WHO is going to buy them?' This booklet is designed to help you identify who the customer is, to connect the product with the customer, and to inform him about the product. OSG games are carried by about 100 stores in the United States and we service them directly. When we talk to the buyers, many have no problem selling our product. In other stores the games seem to sit there on the shelf for a long time.

You know a lot of your customers very well, you know what they're going to buy and what they aren't going to buy. Others of your customers are not as well known to you. They come in and make a purchase from time to time. The typical OSG customer is probably in the second group. We have only one game in print right now which is a likely sale to non-wargamers. This one exception is La Guerre de l'Empereur (The Emperor's War). That game was designed to bridge the gap, to try and build on the cross-over from people who play Warhammer and similar things. But the other games in our line-especially the games in the Campaigns of Napoleon series-these games are aimed at the existing wargamer, somebody who is already in the wargaming hobby.

As you know, the existing wargamer is a hard sell. He has so many games already, his wife is complaining to him about all the games he's got and can't understand why he should want to buy any more.

Unstuck in Time

At OSG we do not advocate the purchase of our games just to gather dust on the shelf at home. We want people to actually play them. Call us crazy, but we design our games to be played. We put the effort into the graphics, the writing, into the design, the historicity, to pull the whole thing together so that when you play the game, you're going to have that moment where you come unstuck in time. That's what we're going for. But it only happens when you play. It doesn't happen if you just look at it. We also believe that the more people who play our games, the more people who will buy them. But if they just sit on the shelves at home there won't be any ripple effect.

Play Them Yourself

The first thing-which applies as much to the hobby at large as it does to our line-is this: encourage the play of our games. The stores that are the most successful at selling OSG games are the stores where the store manager himself is an active player. If you play games you set an example. So play games with your customers. Have a wargame set-up, and underway, at all times.

It doesn't have to be an OSG games but that would surely help. Of course, that is contrary to the standard wisdom which says, 'Keep it under wraps. Keep it shrink wrapped so people can't see it.' That may be true of the average wargame but we think that in our case familiarity doesn't breed contempt-it breeds interest.

What Sort of Person Plays OSG Games?

After having talked to many of our customer over the years, I can honestly say they are the most intelligent, the most polite, the most well spoken of all gamers. These are people who are inner-directed, in the sense that they aren't worried about what other people think. They have their own agenda, their own criteria, they make up their own minds-they are very independent. They do not follow the herd. I've noticed that insecure people spend the most time trying to convince you how much they really know. In my experience those are not the customers likely to buy an OSG game.

Another characteristic of our customers is that they don't celebrate death, they don't think that spilling blood is funny. They're very serious. They are more likely to play Chess than they are to play Squad Leader. They're more interested in problem solving and in abstract strategy than they are in 'guts and glory.'

A customer likely to buy an OSG game colors outside the lines. He's probably been to Europe or at least is very interested in other cultures. A high proportion of our direct mail customers-37%-live overseas. Each year we take a group of our customers to explore the route of one of Napoleon's campaigns in Europe. An OSG customer is more likely to be interested in classical music, or at least his taste in music will be very eclectic. He won't be someone who listens to the same music that everybody else listens to. He's more likely to be at least an amateur musician himself. These are some clues for you.

Our Customers Are in Your Store

It's just a matter of getting to know them. Start a conversation. The conversation doesn't always have to be 'Is there something I can help you find?' It can be completely off the subject.

Get to Know Your Customer

Find out about their other interests outside of wargaming. You will find that the customer who is going to buy OSG games has many interests outside of gaming. He's not one-dimensional. He's got things going on. Gaming is just one of his interests.

Knowledge is power

Once you identify the customer that we've described above, the next step is to introduce him to the product. 'Here's something that I think you would be interested in.' You can proceed to tell him about our line of games. In order to give you the information that he's going to need, we are including on the following pages independent reviews of our products. We have received consistently high ratings from the hobby press, among the very best in wargaming, as you'll see for yourself.

Read the Reviews

They will tell you a good deal about the line.

How Can We Help?

Let us know how we might be able to help you sell the product. For example, we have a 'retailer of the month' section in our monthly e-news. We can provide extra game maps for display purposes. Other ideas? Let us know ...