ThroWeight Rocketry Questionnaire - Please take a look!

Hi there!

At ThroWeight Rocketry (www.throweightrocketry.com), we are looking at ways to increase sales of our low-power and mid-power kits.

If you would, please take a few minutes to take a look and answer these questions about our kits and our website.

• Our kits come with uncut balsa fin stock, and you cut out the fins yourself using a cardstock fin template. Do you consider this a good design choice? Would you be more likely to buy a kit from us if it had laser-cut fins?
• Our kit selection is rather small at the moment, but we have more kits in the pipeline. What is your honest opinion of the kits we currently have on sale at our website?
• Are there any changes or additions you would like to see in our current kit selection?
• How do the prices of our kits look to you? Too high? About right? Too low?
• What other kinds of kits would you like to see for sale on our website?
• What do you think of our website? Is it clear and easy to use?
• Any other comments you have would be appreciated.

Thanks, and we really appreciate your comments!
We are always looking for ways to improve the customer experience at ThroWeight Rocketry!

Personally, I now try to avoid 3FNC kits now. From my point of view, I would like to see some kits with more "character"

Looking at some of your competitor sites, I think your prices are just a little bit high

Having to cut my own fins is not an issue - but I will admit the curves for the shark fin would be more difficult

The web site presents and operates nicely - no issues there

It's great you guys started a small rocket comany. How is it working out?

Here's my feedback:

Our kits come with uncut balsa fin stock, and you cut out the fins yourself using a cardstock fin template. Do you consider this a good design choice? Would you be more likely to buy a kit from us if it had laser-cut fins? I would prefer laser cut fins, especially for the curved parts.
Our kit selection is rather small at the moment, but we have more kits in the pipeline. What is your honest opinion of the kits we currently have on sale at our website? They aren't really my style, but that's subjective and a matter of personal taste. Two of them look a lot like a 2-stage or 3-stage rockets, but they aren't actually multi-stage, so that seems kind of odd to me.
Are there any changes or additions you would like to see in our current kit selection? I like 24mm motors and larger size rockets for LPR and MPR --- BT-80 kits for flying on D and E motors. This is a niche without a lot of offerings from other vendors it seems like to me.
How do the prices of our kits look to you? Too high? About right? Too low? These prices seem close to MSRP for similar kits, but a lot of times you can get kits for less than MSRP. So maybe they are slightly high. I'm not really sure.
What other kinds of kits would you like to see for sale on our website? This is similar to the earlier question about changes or additions.
What do you think of our website? Is it clear and easy to use? It is very basic, so it is very easy to navigate. The one issue I see is that it does not seem to have a "shopping cart," so it seems like your only choice is to purchase one rocket at a time for a fixed shipping cost per rocket. I'd expect to be able to buy several and have a single shipping quote for the whole order that would cost less that several kits shipped separately.
Any other comments you have would be appreciated.

les said:

Personally, I now try to avoid 3FNC kits now. From my point of view, I would like to see some kits with more "character"

Looking at some of your competitor sites, I think your prices are just a little bit high

Having to cut my own fins is not an issue - but I will admit the curves for the shark fin would be more difficult

The web site presents and operates nicely - no issues there

Click to expand...

I'm looking for rockets with more "character" as well.

I think you're off to a good start. From what I've seen of other offerings you're pretty close on price. I'll have to see what I can do this Feb., I like the Shark

JRThro said:

Hi there!

At ThroWeight Rocketry (www.throweightrocketry.com), we are looking at ways to increase sales of our low-power and mid-power kits.

If you would, please take a few minutes to take a look and answer these questions about our kits and our website.

• !

Click to expand...

• 
  

  JRThro said:

  [*]Our kits come with uncut balsa fin stock, and you cut out the fins yourself using a cardstock fin template. Do you consider this a good design choice? Would you be more likely to buy a kit from us if it had laser-cut fins?!

  Click to expand...

  No, not really... laser cut parts for really complex stuff, like the air intakes or stuff, is fine, because it can be quite challenging to make well-fitting parts hand-cut from balsa stock. Fins, OTOH, are pretty simple. Laser cutting will just drive the price up. If yall come out with a kit with really complex parts, consider the laser cutting. Otherwise, to keep prices reasonable, I wouldn't bother for simple stuff like fins. Course, I'm probably not like a lot of consumers. Most folks now seem to want "turn key" simplicity for everything, and consider cutting fins "too much trouble" for them.
  
  

  JRThro said:

  [*]Our kit selection is rather small at the moment, but we have more kits in the pipeline. What is your honest opinion of the kits we currently have on sale at our website?!

  Click to expand...

  They're okay for "3FNC" type kits... kinda generic IMHO, which isn't my forte. I'd like to see more interesting designs...
  
  

  JRThro said:

  [*]Are there any changes or additions you would like to see in our current kit selection?!

  Click to expand...

  See above...
  
  

  JRThro said:

  [*]How do the prices of our kits look to you? Too high? About right? Too low?!

  Click to expand...

  Looks broadly similar to Estes prices... so I guess most folks would think "about right". Course, I think Estes prices are too high for regular "3FNC" type rockets, so I don't buy them unless I get them on deep sales discounts or closeouts or clearance at Hobby Lobby, or on the 40% off coupon. I like Dr. Zooch's prices a lot better (all around 20-25 bucks for the most part).
  
  

  JRThro said:

  [*]What other kinds of kits would you like to see for sale on our website?!

  Click to expand...

  Some Sci-fi designs are always cool. Semi-scale rockets are cool, both military and NASA-type (space launchers, whatever nationality or use). Original, interesting, non-3FNC type designs are more to my liking.
  
  

  JRThro said:

  [*]What do you think of our website? Is it clear and easy to use?!

  Click to expand...

  Yes, clear and easy, but takes surprisingly long to load. Could use a shopping cart as someone else mentioned. Like the fact that the website isn't OVERDONE with blinkies and pop ups and other crap that just make it take longer to load and harder to use. Nice and functional is good.
  
  

  JRThro said:

  [*]Any other comments you have would be appreciated.!

  Click to expand...

  Looking forward to your future offerings!
  

JRThro said:

Thanks, and we really appreciate your comments!
We are always looking for ways to improve the customer experience at ThroWeight Rocketry!

Click to expand...

Best of luck in your new endeavor...

Later! OL JR

I'd get some photos on the website of built rockets, only having rendered images make them look like vaporware. A nicely staged static photo, or well done 'off the rails' shot would work wonders.

Add some decals, the color schemes lack 'pop' to them. The company name is catchy and has all sorts of images to make a cool logo.... so make a cool logo!
Seriously, I'm picturing stuff like flying anvils and things like that.

Personally I like the lines of the Fire Shark but the color scheme just isn't very inspirational in the simple rendered image.

Long Star and Moving target look like multi-stage rockets, but aren't, and are just too similar. I'm curious what the 'Parachute Surprise' is, definitely show people what that is!

With the newness of the company, people also don't have any concept of your design philosophy. How are your motor mounts done? How are you recovery lines attached? What do your instructions look like? Get some sample kits out there and have them reviewed, maybe do some build threads on the forum, gets some exposure!

-Hans

What a bunch of great feedback!

That's exactly what I was looking for, so thanks, everyone.

Please keep the comments coming!

Here's what we have so far...

People would like to see kits with more character, maybe something sci-fi themed - I agree with this, and have a few things in mind already. Just need to get them down on paper. And then build them, of course.

Prices might be a little high - I wondered about this, but keep in mind that as a small vendor, we buy our parts from retail suppliers just like you do. We add a reasonable markup to each kit, but we aren't making a killing by any means.

Some would prefer laser-cut fins, others don't mind cutting out their own fins - Again, at small volumes, laser-cut fins could add as much as $3.00 to our cost for some kits, and some of that added cost would have to be passed on to our customers. We are looking into laser-cutting services, but believe me, if I can cut out the fins on the Fire Shark, so can you! It's not as much of a pain as you might think.

Consider some larger kits - Will do!

Add a shopping cart to the website - I definitely agree with this, and it's already in the pipeline.

Website takes a while to load on slower Internet connections - I replaced the graphics with smaller .jpg files, so loading should be faster now.

Add decals to the kits - This is already in the planning stage.

Use photos, not just renderings of the rockets - Good idea, and we will implement it at some point.

JRThro said:

[*]Our kits come with uncut balsa fin stock, and you cut out the fins yourself using a cardstock fin template. Do you consider this a good design choice? Would you be more likely to buy a kit from us if it had laser-cut fins?

Click to expand...

Cutting fins is no big deal for me. The people that I envision buying from a small vendor are either more experienced or more willing to take on a new challenge.

JRThro said:

[*]Our kit selection is rather small at the moment, but we have more kits in the pipeline. What is your honest opinion of the kits we currently have on sale at our website?

Click to expand...

I like the kits that you have. The Fire Shark is not quite to my taste but I like the concept. The LongStar and Moving Target speak to me since I like long, skinny rockets. The Moving target reminds me a little of a Sidewinder without being a knock off design.

JRThro said:

[*]Are there any changes or additions you would like to see in our current kit selection?

Click to expand...

I think that the LongStar would be awesome developed into a three stage rocket, this could be an additional offering in your line up. Maybe the design of the the Moving Target could be morphed into an additional offering that is a stylized version of an air to air missile.

JRThro said:

[*]How do the prices of our kits look to you? Too high? About right? Too low?

Click to expand...

I don't mind the prices. As others have commented, they may be just a bit on the high side but I don't mind paying a bit more to help support a small business. Maybe later you can bring prices down with increased volume.

JRThro said:

[*]Any other comments you have would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Don't give up, it is great to see an entrepreneur venturing out! It is also wonderful to see a new vendor in the market! I'll be looking y'all up after Christmas, I think that a Moving Target is in my future.

JRThro said:

[*]What do you think of our website? Is it clear and easy to use?

Click to expand...

My first venture to your web site was on my phone and it was a tad clunky but that is not unusual on mobile web sites, an option for the web version would be nice. When I visited on my computer, I liked the simple layout. I agree with others that recommend some kit photos. Keep the simple format and let your product speak for its self.