Expanding branches

[stevo]

Hi All,

I do not have much of a problem with understanding the expansion of factories (it is fairly predictable as far as capacity/costs), I can't really say the same about the branches. What does the cost/efficiency tradeoff look like here? When it is adviseable to expand a branch or maybe to downgrade one? What is the mechanics behind it?

Thanks in advance!!

[Eric.B]

Originally posted by stevo:

Hi All,

I do not have much of a problem with understanding the expansion of factories (it is fairly predictable as far as capacity/costs), I can't really say the same about the branches.

Branches act as middlemen between the manufacturer (you) and dealerships (other companies you don't control.) Dealerships are typically Independent franchise companies. They agree to a set amount of terms and conditions with a manufacturer and in doing so they're allowed to sell the manufacturer's products.

Dealerships normally order vehicles/parts from their branches, and directly sell to costumers. (Although sometimes dealerships are forced to take products they don't order due to the above terms and conditions.)

So what does this have to do with building/redesigning larger branches? You are given two sliders when building/redesigning a branch. As the help buttons state for each slider: Dealership Support Resource Slider will increase the amount of dealerships your branch sells to (How many franchises you sign.) Thus over time the higher this slider is, the more dealerships you'll have, the more dealerships you have the more vehicles you'll sell.

The other slider's help button states: The Sales Resource slider adjust the amount of resources given to Dealerships in order to move more product off their lots. This could be everything from training dealership staff, creating in-dealership promotional materials such as banners and posters etc. The more you resources you put into supporting Dealerships, the more vehicles those dealerships will be able to sell... The more dealerships sell, the more vehicles they'll need to order to fill their inventory.

What does the cost/efficiency tradeoff look like here? When it is adviseable to expand a branch or maybe to downgrade one? What is the mechanics behind it?

As for the rest of this, I'll have to let others chime in. But it's pretty simple behind the scene. Dealerships sell vehicles. The higher the top slider is, the more dealerships you'll gain (over time.) The higher the bottom slider is, the more vehicles will be sold at those dealerships.

Thus the higher the sliders, the more vehicles you will sell.

The down side is expense...


Also know there is nearly a finite number of customers. If you have a monopoly on a market, increasing the number of dealerships will not increase sales very much. (Although each dealership gained does increase the total overall number of customers possible.)


Hope that covers the answers. ;)

[stevo]

Thanks for the answer.

My Dad happens to be a Honda dealer, so I know pretty well how it works :-)

On the other hand, I'd like to know if I am using the full capacity of my dealers/branches (=expansion needed) or not really (=better products or prices are the only way to increase sales). Or maybe I have already penetrated 100% of the market and no additional investments can improve my situation...?

In factories it's easy, because their max capacity and running costs are known. On the sales side it is not the case, hence my question.

[FearFighter]

+1. Branches can be hard to spend right for. If the reports in this game keep improving, I hope that we can access almost any relevent data in the game engine. Distribution costs are the trickiest thing to spend for in the early game.

[Eric.B]

Originally posted by stevo:

Thanks for the answer.

My Dad happens to be a Honda dealer, so I know pretty well how it works :-)

Sorry, I don't know the backgrounds of everyone, so I typically explain too much. ;)

On the other hand, I'd like to know if I am using the full capacity of my dealers/branches (=expansion needed) or not really (=better products or prices are the only way to increase sales). Or maybe I have already penetrated 100% of the market and no additional investments can improve my situation...?

Currently the game does not show you if you've reached maximum number of dealerships. However, I can tell you that the maximum number of dealerships increases every year and will also increase more with the dealership resources slider turned up. On top of this, the pace of new dealerships signed to your branch will increase faster with higher sliders...

In factories it's easy, because their max capacity and running costs are known. On the sales side it is not the case, hence my question.

Originally posted by FearFighter:

+1. Branches can be hard to spend right for. If the reports in this game keep improving, I hope that we can access almost any relevent data in the game engine. Distribution costs are the trickiest thing to spend for in the early game.

If this data is important, I could probably work in the maximum number of dealerships currently possible into the "View Branch" section of Branches on the world map.

[Flashback]

Concerning the sliders-

So, if we want to sell a cheap car to the masses we want a higher value on the 'Dealership Support' slider to get more Dealerships = more customers.

While if we have a high end car, theirs only a small number of customers so we should have a higher value on the 'Sales Resources' slider.

Might be nice to have a 'Estimated Market Penertation' or something - at the moment it feels like guesswork on where to put the sliders.

[Eric.B]

Originally posted by Flashback:

Concerning the sliders-

So, if we want to sell a cheap car to the masses we want a higher value on the 'Dealership Support' slider to get more Dealerships = more customers.

While if we have a high end car, theirs only a small number of customers so we should have a higher value on the 'Sales Resources' slider.

Not exactly. There is no specific effects based on vehicle types. More dealerships just means more possible customers, and higher 'Sales Resources' means your vehicle competes better against other vehicles in the market.

No more no less.

As for what to set the sliders, more is better. Just remember it takes time for the Dealership slider to have effect, as dealerships are not all signed overnight.

[Flashback]

Originally posted by Eric.B:

Originally posted by Flashback:

Concerning the sliders-

So, if we want to sell a cheap car to the masses we want a higher value on the 'Dealership Support' slider to get more Dealerships = more customers.

While if we have a high end car, theirs only a small number of customers so we should have a higher value on the 'Sales Resources' slider.

Not exactly. There is no specific effects based on vehicle types. More dealerships just means more possible customers, and higher 'Sales Resources' means your vehicle competes better against other vehicles in the market.

No more no less.

As for what to set the sliders, more is better. Just remember it takes time for the Dealership slider to have effect, as dealerships are not all signed overnight.

So the Sales Resources effects the vehicle rating - Is this shown in the branch display (for when setting the price) at the bottom table?

If so - maybe we could have a 'Rating w/Sales Resources Effect (Base Rating)' i.e. '39(35)' so we know how much of a effect the Sales Resources slider is making?

[Eric.B]

Originally posted by Flashback:

Originally posted by Eric.B:

Not exactly. There is no specific effects based on vehicle types. More dealerships just means more possible customers, and higher 'Sales Resources' means your vehicle competes better against other vehicles in the market.

No more no less.

As for what to set the sliders, more is better. Just remember it takes time for the Dealership slider to have effect, as dealerships are not all signed overnight.

So the Sales Resources effects the vehicle rating - Is this shown in the branch display (for when setting the price) at the bottom table?

If so - maybe we could have a 'Rating w/Sales Resources Effect (Base Rating)' i.e. '39(35)' so we know how much of a effect the Sales Resources slider is making?

It doesn't really work like that, as "Sales Resources" is applied to the employee effect on vehicle sales and not directly to the vehicle's rating. So spitting out a value for your vehicle that takes that into effect would be inaccurate as the employee effects on a vehicle are not static and not used in calculating your vehicle's ratings.

There are a couple hundred variables that go into the final buyer rating of your vehicle. If I were to calculate the complete buyer rating dynamically to show to you, it would be 1) Incorrect due to random factors, 2) would be extremely laggy. This is why you're only given the Vehicle Type rating, which is a static calculation, the same no matter where you sell it, and the majority of the value used to calculate the buyer rating.

If you want to look at it In real life perspective, it is difficult to gauge the effects of employee training and additional employee resources by any realistic metric outside of actual sales. The slider is the amount of knowledge/resources your employees have. The results are measured only in actual sales.