This thread is starting to confuse “lifestyle” and “hobby” too much.
Eating well and exercising daily is a lifestyle.
Base jumping, skydiving, and living everyday to the fullest is a lifestyle.
For 99.8% of the people on this site, myself included, Pinball is a F’ing hobby.
Quoted from Buzz:[quoted image]
Thats a great screen capture from my 2nd interview with Gary Stern.
This post was brought to you by Cody while wearing his Munsters styled Stern logo shirt!
Quoted from Yoko2una:This thread is starting to confuse “lifestyle” and “hobby” too much.
Eating well and exercising daily is a lifestyle.
Base jumping, skydiving, and living everyday to the fullest is a lifestyle.
For 99.8% of the people on this site, myself included, Pinball is a F’ing hobby.
I think after a certain number of pins and your living space taken up. It becomes a lifestyle personally. They should make a shirt that says " I know Gary" or "Gary is my home boy".
When I first glanced at the title of this thread I thought it said Howard Stern pinball. I thought, wow thats an interesting idea, but 20 years too late. Oh, and even after reading through this thread I still have no idea what is meant by the expression "lifestyle brand " pinball.
Quoted from Buzz:I think after a certain number of pins and your living space taken up. It becomes a lifestyle personally. They should make a shirt that says " I know Gary" or "Gary is my home boy".
Bingo!
I think it fits frankly. A lot of people plan their vacations around pinball shows. Thanks one of people listen to pod casts while driving or tourney pinball before falling asleep. All owners carve out a substantial portion of their home to hold machines and parts... All of us are tearing this message board late into the evening.
If pinball is not a lifestyle industry then what is?
Quoted from JY64:Pinball is old school too much innovation and it is no longer pinball think virtual pinball
You want innovation, you want things to change to find new audiences. All things evolve doesn't mean the old ones are out of style. Look at muscle cars they're more popular today than ever, however a new Hellcat is a whole hell of a lot more fun to drive and it has power steering, air condition, and well the list goes on and on. There are more pinball games already made than will EVER be built new into the future combined.
So new pinball games can be different, feature more ways to connect with the game via technology. Nothing wrong with that.
Pinball doesn't have to be old school, and it wont. Pinball will evolve otherwise what's new again is always old again with the next generation.
Guys in their 50's grew up with Pac Man and Pinball, they're popular again today. When I was a kid a 55 Chevy was the hot collector car now no one talks about a 55 Chevy. What was old can be new again, and back to old with a change of the guard. Pinball has to find ways to embrace tech to compete with what is going on for young people.
Nothing wrong with that... consider even if 200 new games are between now and say 2075 it still won't compare to the hundreds and hundreds made prior. Pinball will never loose its old school, and new games nothing wrong with going new school.
I will say this because it's 110% FACT!!!!!!!!
There is not many more ways to build a playfield that hasn't already been done in some cases 10 times already. Look at Stern they seem to be coping everything they've done in the past over and over again.
Why not do something different? If you don't like it who cares there is only 2000 other pinball games for you to choose from
Does it really seem like in Stern's case they're even trying? When is the last time we've seen something fun happening inside the backglass like on NBA Fastbreak? Why doesn't Stern do that? I can tell you why they're not trying! What happened to the video modes why not bring those back? Stern doesn't care that would take to much effort and more money. Why not make games connect to wifi, bluetooth, would that be so hard? Why not an online gaming community for pinball, ouch that gives Stern a headache.
Just keep making games the same as they've always done until people stop buying the games. Black Knight is the perfect example of putting the least into the game, but asking the most ever for a game. This is going backwards.
I can't wait to see what Deep Root comes up with, and I hope JJP can get their company in the fast lane putting out games more than every two years.
Once these two companies get moving, you'll see brand loyalty to Stern die down fast, unless they embrace the concept of making their games more fun, more interactive, and adding more bells and whistles.
Quoted from drfrightner:You want innovation, you want things to change to find new audiences. All things evolve doesn't mean the old ones are out of style. Look at muscle cars they're more popular today than ever, however a new Hellcat is a whole hell of a lot more fun to drive and it has power steering, air condition, and well the list goes on and on. There are more pinball games already made than will EVER be built new into the future combined.
So new pinball games can be different, feature more ways to connect with the game via technology. Nothing wrong with that.
Pinball doesn't have to be old school, and it wont. Pinball will evolve otherwise what's new again is always old again with the next generation.
Guys in their 50's grew up with Pac Man and Pinball, they're popular again today. When I was a kid a 55 Chevy was the hot collector car now no one talks about a 55 Chevy. What was old can be new again, and back to old with a change of the guard. Pinball has to find ways to embrace tech to compete with what is going on for young people.
Nothing wrong with that... consider even if 200 new games are between now and say 2075 it still won't compare to the hundreds and hundreds made prior. Pinball will never loose its old school, and new games nothing wrong with going new school.
I will say this because it's 110% FACT!!!!!!!!
There is not many more ways to build a playfield that hasn't already been done in some cases 10 times already. Look at Stern they seem to be coping everything they've done in the past over and over again.
Why not do something different? If you don't like it who cares there is only 2000 other pinball games for you to choose from
Does it really seem like in Stern's case they're even trying? When is the last time we've seen something fun happening inside the backglass like on NBA Fastbreak? Why doesn't Stern do that? I can tell you why they're not trying! What happened to the video modes why not bring those back? Stern doesn't care that would take to much effort and more money. Why not make games connect to wifi, bluetooth, would that be so hard? Why not an online gaming community for pinball, ouch that gives Stern a headache.
Just keep making games the same as they've always done until people stop buying the games. Black Knight is the perfect example of putting the least into the game, but asking the most ever for a game. This is going backwards.
I can't wait to see what Deep Root comes up with, and I hope JJP can get their company in the fast lane putting out games more than every two years.
Once these two companies get moving, you'll see brand loyalty to Stern die down fast, unless they embrace the concept of making their games more fun, more interactive, and adding more bells and whistles.
...and the whole “lifestyle brand” BS worked for Gibson guitars about as good as it is working for Harley.
All BS spewed by talking head investors trying to justify a 150% profit margin.
Quoted from drfrightner:You want innovation, you want things to change to find new audiences. All things evolve doesn't mean the old ones are out of style. Look at muscle cars they're more popular today than ever, however a new Hellcat is a whole hell of a lot more fun to drive and it has power steering, air condition, and well the list goes on and on. There are more pinball games already made than will EVER be built new into the future combined.
So new pinball games can be different, feature more ways to connect with the game via technology. Nothing wrong with that.
Pinball doesn't have to be old school, and it wont. Pinball will evolve otherwise what's new again is always old again with the next generation.
Guys in their 50's grew up with Pac Man and Pinball, they're popular again today. When I was a kid a 55 Chevy was the hot collector car now no one talks about a 55 Chevy. What was old can be new again, and back to old with a change of the guard. Pinball has to find ways to embrace tech to compete with what is going on for young people.
Nothing wrong with that... consider even if 200 new games are between now and say 2075 it still won't compare to the hundreds and hundreds made prior. Pinball will never loose its old school, and new games nothing wrong with going new school.
I will say this because it's 110% FACT!!!!!!!!
There is not many more ways to build a playfield that hasn't already been done in some cases 10 times already. Look at Stern they seem to be coping everything they've done in the past over and over again.
Why not do something different? If you don't like it who cares there is only 2000 other pinball games for you to choose from
Does it really seem like in Stern's case they're even trying? When is the last time we've seen something fun happening inside the backglass like on NBA Fastbreak? Why doesn't Stern do that? I can tell you why they're not trying! What happened to the video modes why not bring those back? Stern doesn't care that would take to much effort and more money. Why not make games connect to wifi, bluetooth, would that be so hard? Why not an online gaming community for pinball, ouch that gives Stern a headache.
Just keep making games the same as they've always done until people stop buying the games. Black Knight is the perfect example of putting the least into the game, but asking the most ever for a game. This is going backwards.
I can't wait to see what Deep Root comes up with, and I hope JJP can get their company in the fast lane putting out games more than every two years.
Once these two companies get moving, you'll see brand loyalty to Stern die down fast, unless they embrace the concept of making their games more fun, more interactive, and adding more bells and whistles.
Nothing will really slow down Stern but parts availability and lack of quality licenses.
Gary and Stern aren't worried and shouldn't be about jjp, chicago gaming, spooky, american and the sad group of pie in the sky haven't made even 1 pinball machine fake news pinball companies...
Stern gets themes that people buy, ship them in orderly fashion, have a good distribution network and there games are the most reliable.
Any pinball company making and actually selling games need not ever desire or seek to grow as big as Stern, that's a damn pipe dream. Any company not Stern just needs to figure out how to max out profit per machine and be happy with any market share they get.
Quoted from TigerLaw:I think it fits frankly. A lot of people plan their vacations around pinball shows. Thanks one of people listen to pod casts while driving or tourney pinball before falling asleep. All owners carve out a substantial portion of their home to hold machines and parts... All of us are tearing this message board late into the evening.
If pinball is not a lifestyle industry then what is?
I refuse to take part in a trending marketing gimmick.
...even if I do plan vacations around pinball shows, listen to pinball podcasts, and have pinball machines & parts everywhere... 
Quoted from Yoko2una:This thread is starting to confuse “lifestyle” and “hobby” too much.
Eating well and exercising daily is a lifestyle.
Base jumping, skydiving, and living everyday to the fullest is a lifestyle.
For 99.8% of the people on this site, myself included, Pinball is a F’ing hobby.
But many pinball players consider themselves professional athletes.
Quoted from MrBally:But many pinball players consider themselves professional athletes.
In all fairness if all you ever did was stay in and play video games on the couch switching to pinball would feel like a legit sport.
Quoted from jwilson:“Pinball 4 Life!”
[quoted image]
Wilson you need to get out more
Quoted from branlon8:Williams is my lifestyle brand.
For boots!
image (resized).pngimage (resized).pngA big one around us seems to be North Face or Patagonia. Not sure everyone who wears it is "outdoorsy" but that's the lifestyle I feel that those brands have created. It does seem that Stern is trying to build their brand with the whole Stern Insider thing. They also seem to be doing most of their photo shoots with Jack Danger and going for a bit of a hipster / barcade vibe.
Quoted from JY64:Wilson you need to get out more
I already go to too many pinball shows.
This "lifestyle brand" gambit wouldn't be so annoying and sad if they didn't start every press release with it.
Put it on a tagline at the end.
It's dumb marketing. You want the first thing people to read about is your exciting new Jurassic Park pinball machine, not the wheezy idea that you are a a global lifestyle brand based on the iconic and outrageously fun modern American game of pinball.
Oh yeah, also, we have a new pinball machine coming out. If you got this far.
Lifestyle brand? No, too many knuckleheads, degenerates and fringe lunatics are attracted to pinball, anyways.
Largest maker of pinball and filler of dreams? Yes, definitely.
D8914E72-1381-48BF-ABA1-6D77972A27BF.jpeg
Everyone’s Feeling the Stern or will be this year. Stern is so hot, they are on fire!! That makes them an American powerhouse of pinball themed design, manufacturing and digital content. Every other major pinball company summed together equals about 25% of Stern’s size.
There have been issues with various Stern pinballs and drama around some of the resolutions, but that pales in comparison to the remaining drama and intensity that goes around. Stern is low maintenance with little drama and they deliver what you buy. I can see why they are so popular.
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:No, too many knuckleheads, degenerates and fringe lunatics are attracted to pinball, anyways.
Quantify "too many"... there are odd people into every hobby haha. Pinball people are far more times than not nice people.
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:Lifestyle brand? No, too many knuckleheads, degenerates and fringe lunatics are attracted to pinball, anyways.
Largest maker of pinball and filler of dreams? Yes, definitely.
[quoted image]
Everyone’s Feeling the Stern or will be this year. Stern is so hot, they are on fire!! That makes them an American powerhouse of pinball themed design, manufacturing and digital content. Every other major pinball company summed together equals about 25% of Stern’s size.
There have been issues with various Stern pinballs and drama around some of the resolutions, but that pales in comparison to the remaining drama and intensity that goes around. Stern is low maintenance with little drama and they deliver what you buy. I can see why they are so popular.
Sheesh...what a Fanboy you are! 
Quoted from PanzerFreak:"A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values, aspirations, interests, attitudes, or opinions of a group or a culture for marketing purposes. Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of their products contributing to the definition of the consumer's way of life."
Waiting nearly 30 months for Ghostbusters code doesn't really inspire, motivate, or align with most consumers way of life. Wife "Can you get this done?". "Sure, the task has been delayed but remains in my schedule" repeat monthly for next 2 1/2 years lol.
Your first paragraph is good and then in typical fashion, you spew negative garbage about Stern from your keyboard. Why don’t you just stay in your JJP fanboy threads and talk about all the JJP playfield and subpar low powered JJP PC issues they have to suffer through???
Quoted from lowepg:It’s like telling someone you have a good sense of humor.....
But, I am very funny. You should listen to my jokes.....
Lifestyle marketing is just trying to make associations and promote your image as something people want to associate with so that people will buy and promote your products outside of your actual product space.
I like the way this person described it. “...customers aren’t necessarily buying because the product is superior to the competition, but because it makes them a part of the fraternity.”
Their goal is to get customers to buy their products based on the perception of what the company projects. Customers buy not just based on the products merits, but maybe because they feel they want to support what the company does, or because the association of what they think they get with the brands image.
You promote your brand as being tied to ideals or ideas that people want to attach to or project themselves as being.
All that so instead of just buying an energy drink when you need one... you drink them all the time, you buy t-shirts, logos, etc. (Ex: Red Bull)
You associate your brand as being associated with certain mindsets or popular people and millions wear your logo and products even outside of their intended use (Ex: Nike)
You promote your brand as some chic thing people want to be associated to... and they’ll buy anything with your logo (Ex: Supreme)
You promote your brand as projecting certain ideals or life associations (like ocean appreciation and millions buy stickers of your brand and put them on your car’s (Ex: Salt Life)
You try to project your brand as representing some image or thoughts that people want to associate with so that they will buy and use your products or logos even outside their initial purpose.
Suburban people who vacation one week a year sporting salt life stickers
Wannabes paying thousand for a supreme logo
Suburban people overpaying for Yeti T-shirt’s and hats
Kids drinking Red Bull energy drinks thinking it’s counter culture..
Etc.
Right now... stern is just saying it more than actually projecting an image people can pin down. But it’s a good move to try to capitalize on this idea of pinball’s resurgence and create sales potentials besides just pinball machines and the people that would actually buy them. It helps with product competition and expands your product opportunities and price points.
TL: DR - stern is trying to sell more than just Pinball’s and parts... they want to sell shirts, stickers, etc and have you all running around wearing their logos and promoting their brand as something cool to be associated with.
Quoted from JodyG:Here you go....can't wait until they come out with the new line of Stern branded underwear.[quoted image]
So if I sew my Stern insider patch to my backpack does that count?
Quoted from JodyG:Here you go....can't wait until they come out with the new line of Stern branded underwear.
I saw this too. What a weird thing to sell. Who is the target audience for a Stern backpack? High school kids? I'm guessing a large majority of the people on this site don't get outside and hike too often.
That's why their hobby is indoors.
i'd buy it. i use a backpack to carry minimal tools, novus, micro clothes, paper towels, windex, keys, spare parts, bulbs, and whatever else to my location pins so i don't have to carry my toolboxes in
Quoted from TheRudyB:Every time I buy a NIB pin, my lifestyle changes to hot dogs and ramen.
Sincere apologies for my previous elitist exaggeration: just ramen.
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