Heroclix is a collectible miniatures game featuring superhero battles. All of the game stats are integrated into the figures' "clickable" bases.
The Heroclix brand had been Wizkids' top earner for years, but sales fell into a steep decline. There was talk of retiring the brand. Things looked bleak. The challenge was to figure out what went wrong and fix it.
Through surveys and interviews, we learned that the best HeroClix consumers were much older than previously thought. Some spent more than $1,000 per year on the game. A more sophisticated logo and package design energized the brand's power purchasers.
The logo change was important. First, Increasing the weight of the release name allowed marketing to pack more power into each new product release. Second, we learned the Clix system had strong equity with gamers. Some were just not superhero fans. The logo redesign allowed for brand extensions into other licenses and genres.
Brand extensions like Halo ActionClix helped the Clix product line to expand into non-superhero licenses. It also permitted new game variants like vehicle combat.
A big part of the sales problem was consumers were buying fewer packs per release. The research showed their price tolerance to be as high as $100. The "Buy It by the Brick" program wrapped 10 packs together and offered customers an exclusive figure for a "brick" pre-order. The players, the retailers, and our revenue numbers all loved the program.
After implementation, revenue immediately began to climb. Even in the face of a an industry down turn, Wizkids posted 30% growth. Now, 10 years later these brand changes are still running strong, and HeroClix is the #1 Selling Collectible Miniatures Game in the world with over 750 million figures sold.