An improved GROUP BUYING scheme

[andyt]

I suspect a lot of people will plunge for the PMI Old Lady now that it has "safely" reached 81. Which means the the people who "risked" buying at the lower discount points ... bore the risk for no significant advantage. From now until 6th December, it essentially an ordinary sale.


If Michael had said "we will limit the number on sale to 90" ... then I think the 81 figure would have been reached even faster. Some people's thinking would have changed from "well, I'll buy if it reaches 81" to ... "I can't risk missing out on this. I'll jump in sooner, rather than later".

Another option would be to have the discount start to reduce AFTER the upper limit had been reached ... but just for those people who agreed to jump on AFTER 81.

so
40 to 60 = 50%
60 to 80 = 60%
80 to 90 = 55% (for the late arrivals)
90 to 100 = 50% (for the very late arrivals) ... or whatever


The upside would be that I think more people would jump to buy sooner, rather than later .... and the optimal price would have a greater chance of success. The early buyers would be rewarded with the best price ... but the late arrivals might still be attracted to a very decent bargain... but just not rewarded as much becuase they didn't take as much "risk".

OOooooh. Think of the mind games.


But then again, maybe this is a solution in search of a problem.

[andyt]

In terms of sales psychology, you'd be playing to both people's greed and fear.

[midphase]

The system appears to be working for now, unfortunately (for me) the products that I am after have not come up!

You have to look at it like this:

The first guys who are going to put their money down are people who would have bought the thing anyway at no discount, so for them it's a win-win situation. The late comers are people who would have not bought the product at the original price no matter what, they could only afford it at the heavily discounted rate.

So as the saying goes....if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[Joseph Burrell]

I agree. I would not have normally purchased the Old Lady at any cost due to the fact that I don't really need it (or really justify the purchase.) However, I'm the kind of person that can't resist great deals like this especially on such quality products. So when I saw it heading toward 80 bucks, well, the credit card came out and now I'm one piano library richer.

[maszat]

Don't punish people just bacuase they are not reading the threads every single day. There is a one month limit, and whoever was the very first one to sign up did not risk anything at all ! He just wanted to buy this product. Think about the person who purchased at full price just one day before this group buy, did he risk anything buying at full price ?
Well said : not broken, don't fix it :)
regards

[Looper]

I agree. I would not have normally purchased the Old Lady at any cost due to the fact that I don't really need it (or really justify the purchase.) However, I'm the kind of person that can't resist great deals like this especially on such quality products. So when I saw it heading toward 80 bucks, well, the credit card came out and now I'm one piano library richer.

I'm in this group as well. I just bought the Bos 290 in the PMI stock clearing sale but $80 for the Old Lady seems like such a good deal I'll probably jump on board too.

[wes37]

It seems to me that this is a group offer to the NS community and should therefore be open to all that wish to join.

[Martin Hines]

The first guys who are going to put their money down are people who would have bought the thing anyway at no discount, so for them it's a win-win situation. The late comers are people who would have not bought the product at the original price no matter what, they could only afford it at the heavily discounted rate.

This is the classical economic example of a "Demand Curve", where different individuals each have their unique "buy price".

[fozzy]

Exactly my thought as well!! Leave it as it is.




You have to look at it like this:

The first guys who are going to put their money down are people who would have bought the thing anyway at no discount, so for them it's a win-win situation. The late comers are people who would have not bought the product at the original price no matter what, they could only afford it at the heavily discounted rate.

So as the saying goes....if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

[pantonality]

I'm wondering if there isn't some misunderstanding of the group buy scheme. Everybody pays the same price,. it doesn't matter when you plunked down your money. In the case of the PMI group buy, if I have this figured out correctly, everyone pays $80 up front. When the group buy is over if they hadn't had a sufficient number of subscribers the difference between $80 and the final price would be charged. Since $80 is the final price no additional charges will be made. Am I misunderstanding something here?

Steve

[kitekrazy]

Lete's keep in mind that they are offering this discount by choice. Do they really have to?

[KevinKauai]

Interesting topic. And an interesting marketing approach. I can see where AndyT is coming from in his original thread starter. It does seem like those who were "early birds" did take more risk than those who can now safely sign up for the guarranteed low price.

It would be interesting to have a built-in benefit for the early birds where they got more of the discount (proportionally) than the late-comers, since they took the "risk". For example, a pricing algorithm that gave more of the "benefit" to the early folks would also seem fair.

In any case, I'm with Joseph Burrell, with a price this great on a product this good, it's a no-brainer. I've got a "tickler" on my Calendar to whip out the old over-used plastic prior to the deadline! (The major temptation is the EWQLSO Group Guy -- if that gets to the lowest price, it's going to be hard to resist!)

my $0.02 ... KevinKauai

[Theodor]

I personally don't like "Gambling" . I want to be sure on what price i am buying something . Either it's discounted or not .

Since the end result will be 81 = Lowest price and everyone is going for that figure, they could just say " If there are 81 buyers there will be a discount of 60% " .
That will make more buyers respond and the magic number reached earlier. If the number is not reached, they can always extend the group buy for a few days . If again the number is not reached at the last two days , there will be some unhappy "bidders" but that will also force them to get more buddy's of theirs to order .
As it is now , there might be 100 potential buyers who want to buy but only 20 of them which that have the cash/guts to do so . So the thing stays at 20 while another 100 are waiting for the price to drop .
The poll idea is good too.