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Chimera Industries Cerberus: The 18L, mATX, USA-made enclosure
- Thread starter PlayfulPhoenix
- Start date
Hopefully lots of supporters on Kickstarter. 12 Days left and not even a third of the way there, those are really worrying numbers. It would be a shame if the crowdfunding failed.
I think so, the first few days and last few days of a crowdfunding campaign see the bulk of the pledges so even if the video doesn't go up until the end of next week we should still be good. We'll just have to wait and see.
Media coverage is really lacking 
If it's that people are unaware of the campaign than it's probably the price.
If it's that people are unaware of the campaign than it's probably the price.
Media coverage is really lacking
It is, we assumed we'd get coverage for both the reveal and the campaign launch but that was a mistake. Lesson learned.
No, we never got a response and they seem pretty busy anyway so a video from them probably wouldn't get posted in time.
Do you have plans, if the campaign fails? Hopefully not just scrap the whole project^^
I don't know how the policies on Kickstarter are, but does it allow you to restart a campaign?
Maybe it would be a good idea to send the prototype on a tour to more reviewers, before the start of the campaign with "NDA" until the campaign start? To have a bunch of reviews ready and allow people to directly back it, without the chance of them forgetting about it after watching the videos.
Did you send a "press notice" to different review websites/blogs?
- Feb 22, 2015
- 1,052
- 1,990
We have thoughts and ideas on what to do next, if that's how the cards fall. We won't be doing nothing, whatever happens, though, I can promise you that much
We've reached out to a lot of places already, and we don't really have the influence to do something like this. Most websites have schedules, and we're an upstart that has yet to sell a product - why should they invest time and effort only to be at the whim of when we want them to release information?
Plus, shipping the case around is pretty expensive and time consuming, so this would be complicated to do, logistically and otherwise.
I sent out formal press releases when we announced Cerberus, and when the Kickstarter launched. The burst of coverage for the former was in significant part due to those press releases, and a lot of sites simply cut and pasted my own copy in their reporting. But that meant that most news outlets didn't want to cover the Kickstarter launch since it would have been a repeat story only ~10 days later.
Whether or not that dynamic had a negative effect, I'm not so sure - we got a big boost in traffic here and on our website, and a surge in newsletter subscriptions, so it isn't as if we didn't/don't have a captive audience (all of that has been sustained since then). But it would have been nice to have the likes of PCPer and Tom's Hardware link to the Kickstarter directly, from their sites, for sure.
We'll be announcing when there's only a week left in the campaign, so we'll see if that can get us some coverage as well, since it will have been a month since any news websites have reported on us (to our knowledge, anyways).
If we can't get a relatively small number of people to order cases, I don't think we're going to get the same people to collectively pay for cases that they won't get, and that will cost more due to the small number. I don't think that's worthwhile for anyone - we already have a prototype, we already have a final design. We just want to get it in the hands of you all!
- Feb 22, 2015
- 1,052
- 1,990
Without getting into the nitty-gritty, there are basically three ways we can approach refactoring production:
1. Stick with our current production pipeline, change nothing, and sell a small number of cases at a higher price.
2. Stick with our current production pipeline, make changes to the design, and sell a small number of cases at closer to the current price.
3. Move production overseas (or at least to a different manufacturer), make changes to the design, and target selling the same amount (or more) enclosures at a lower price.
As you go from top to bottom, the time-to-delivery goes up, and the pricing and quality/attention-to-detail go down, basically.
...I suppose there's technically one more avenue, which is
4. Partner with a big manufacturer and license the design to them, and have them make and sell it.
I wish we lived in a world where that was a thing, but AFAIK that's never been done before.
Mind you, all of the above ignores what Aiboh and I want the manifestation of Cerberus to look like. I personally am open to any of these avenues so long as we find a way to make Cerberus with the current design and quality and manufacturer, to those who want it. Even if at a very small scale, I want the case as it is today to be created, because I think it's just too good for it not to be made. It's a pure realization of our design vision, and quite literally the nicest version of itself that money can buy (at least, in our own estimation). I don't even have one myself, today, since the one prototype we have belongs (rightfully) to Aiboh
I don't suppose going back to the older prototype design where there was a swappable plate for the PSU rather than an entire back panel would save any costs from not having to manufacture two different versions, would it?
Let us look at a few other aspects:
1. I'm very sure most people outside the US have lost interest because of the +120$ tacked on the price immediately on Kickstarter, this alone makes the case seem 50% more expensive (it is, ofcourse) than without. Disillusioning many people right there when they need to decide.
How often haven't we bought something online: "oh that's a nice price" - click click +20% shipping - "oh well, I got this far" - throws money at screen.
And 25% in taxes need to be added.
2. Steel isn't being perceived as a quality material but as a cheap material. Even though a few people understand why and how, most know steel from the SECC cases that have 0.x mm panels in thickness, dull grey looking pot metal, not shiny brushed anodized aluminium.
If you were a large enterprise with a marketing department, the Senior Marketing Manager would have 12 hour workdays just to figure out how to spin it so people would learn to appreciate steel.
1. I'm very sure most people outside the US have lost interest because of the +120$ tacked on the price immediately on Kickstarter, this alone makes the case seem 50% more expensive (it is, ofcourse) than without. Disillusioning many people right there when they need to decide.
How often haven't we bought something online: "oh that's a nice price" - click click +20% shipping - "oh well, I got this far" - throws money at screen.
And 25% in taxes need to be added.
2. Steel isn't being perceived as a quality material but as a cheap material. Even though a few people understand why and how, most know steel from the SECC cases that have 0.x mm panels in thickness, dull grey looking pot metal, not shiny brushed anodized aluminium.
If you were a large enterprise with a marketing department, the Senior Marketing Manager would have 12 hour workdays just to figure out how to spin it so people would learn to appreciate steel.
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