Marmerus Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I saw that McDonalds was having a sale the other day on Hamburgers....must mean they are going out of business and everyone hates their hamburgers. Everyone does and McDonalds is not making their profit from hamburgers but from real estate. Burgers is just a greasy side business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caladax Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) Yeah I see the issue, it depends on the price elasticity of the product. I have unlearned what I have learned. I vaguely recall "price elasticity". I got A's in both my econ classes, and did all the HW. Micro was a fun class too I think the only thing I now remember of the whole class was, "Sunk costs don't count." edit: and "ceteris paribus" Edited February 28, 2012 by Caladax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uziforyou Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 But but, the game is in great health and all, 2 mill subs and raising amirite? Inb4 the fanboys dismissing it as a non event. Right, because anybody who likes the game and doesn't cry in the forums every two minutes is a fanboy. And Amazon putting the game on sale is indeed a non-event but thanks for trying to stir hate and discontent, you're a forum pro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfeisberg Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 spell check is your friend... But, yes, "one day sales" are an important factor in a good marketing strategy (i.e. bathing suits in January), but I can't think of a reason to use a "good selling" product to bring people in the door. Its usually some hard to sell item that is drastically reduced, so that I am not leaving anything on the table if it sells. Its just a bonus that it sold at all. If I undercut myself to try and up sell other products, kinda a strange strategy. But maybe you know more than me on this one. Seriously, you really need to stop talking. I have worked for Wal-Mart and Target for a total of 10 years, and everything you have been saying have been dead wrong. I can guarantee you have never worked retail, if you did, you would not be saying the things you have been saying. heck, read up on what Valve says about having temporary sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xzenorath Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 "Things that go in their Gold Box are items that are selling well and can afford to set it at a lower price. Learn economics people." This is what I was referring to. If something is "selling well" there is absolutely no reason to highlight it as a "sale item". Again, if I am meeting my sales goals for an item and I put that on sale... 1. No guarantee that I will sell any more, which cuts directly in to my profits, and 2. I am automatically leaving money on the table with my consumers for an item that is already selling at a higher price. I can only think of one reason to do this (assuming the above scenario is true and it is selling well), drive business from my competitors for a short time to draw attention to my distribution and sales channel, taking a short term hit in profits for the chance that I will drive long term revenue through an increased customer base. But again, if it is selling well for me already, big risk to take. That's it. You sir, are digging a bigger hole every time you post. If your original intent was to "prove" that SWTOR is struggling because AMAZON (and ONLY amazon) is having a 24 hour SALE on the box, then you truly, seriously, honestly have zero grasp on how the real world works, nevermind business or retail. The day you'll be able to prove the game is struggling is the day every retailer and online website gives the box away for free and the business model goes from subscription based to Free to Play with a premium option. The game is doing fine, Amazon is doing fine, everyone's fine; but you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfeisberg Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 LOL, fanboys think of anything these days! To the rest of us, it's all about supply and demand. Game like Skyrim is STILL selling for 60 bucks, why? Cause the game is still selling at a good clip, no one skilled in economics is gonna drop the price when the game is still selling at a reasonable amount monthly. TOR is dropping quick. Next month you may find it in the 5 dollar bargain bin at Walmart. Skyrim was on Sale on Steam during Christmas for 33% off. Newegg is selling Skyrim PC for $57 regular price. Try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirorx Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 what is crazy is that i can now buy the collectors edition at Amazon for 99 dollars. Maybe i should have waited instead of paying like 70 for special edition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfeisberg Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) I have seen Tide detergent go on sale so many times in my life, and I am 34 years old. So I guess using the Meldwyn's logic, Tide has been failing for at least 34 years? And this is Tide, something that people consume and have a need to buy more, so it is not like they need to put it on sale, because people will still buy it when they run out of it. Edited February 28, 2012 by Wolfeisberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idunhavaname Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Are you new to Amazon? That is one of the many reasons why I always buy my games off amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vecke Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) "Things that go in their Gold Box are items that are selling well and can afford to set it at a lower price. Learn economics people." This is what I was referring to. If something is "selling well" there is absolutely no reason to highlight it as a "sale item". Again, if I am meeting my sales goals for an item and I put that on sale... 1. No guarantee that I will sell any more, which cuts directly in to my profits, and 2. I am automatically leaving money on the table with my consumers for an item that is already selling at a higher price. I can only think of one reason to do this (assuming the above scenario is true and it is selling well), drive business from my competitors for a short time to draw attention to my distribution and sales channel, taking a short term hit in profits for the chance that I will drive long term revenue through an increased customer base. But again, if it is selling well for me already, big risk to take. That's it. Left 4 Dead 2 was on sale for $39.99 one week after launch (and the next day it was back to $60). Skyrim has been on sale many times since its launch. I've worked in retail for over 15 years, and while you have no reason to take me at my word here, I absolutely promise you that I have very regularly put top selling items on sale. Items on sale rarely have anything to do with the manufacturer of the product. It has to do with the retailer. Every company I've worked for has occasionally put top selling items on sale. We do it for dozens of reasons. It garners goodwill to our existing customers by making them feel like we take care of them. It brings new customers to the store. It establishes a sense of urgency (one day only!) which gets them in the door and hopefully gets them to come back after they were treated well. Also, in my experience (that you can take or leave), the manufacturer doesn't take a hit on most sales. The retailer does. When we put items on sale, it was because the benefit to our store (or online space) was something we deemed greater than the loss of that one item's sales. Most likely, Bioware is getting the same amount of money for each box sale and is gaining subs; Amazon is taking the hit, which is something Amazon does all the time, for incredibly well selling products. It's not just smart business to put top selling items on sale... it's an occasional requirement. And I'm not saying TOR is succeeding or failing. I have no idea. None of us do. I'm just saying a sale on Amazon is no indication of its success one way or the other. Edited February 28, 2012 by Vecke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincynt Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Especially when the sale in question, has nothing to do with EA/Bioware, but rather by Amazon in a rather common sales tactic that Amazon partakes in....hourly. That's not necessarily true. The sale has nothing to do with BioWare as BW is a developer and not a publisher, but the sale COULD potentially have everything to do with EA. That's not a necessity, but rather a possibility. Many a manufacture/publisher discount their cost to the retailer on the back end to support a sale price. That's more of a common practice then you may assume. EA could tell Amazon that they would like a sale on their game at $39.99 to increase box sales to increase potential subscription sales and offer to subsidize Amazon the loss in cost to maintain Amazon's profit margin on the retail box. The argument was that a well selling item should have its price lowered, ceteris paribus, as a general economically sound idea, not as part of a larger marketing strategy, or in order to increase subscription income. This is the idea that Meldwyn and I were arguing against. I understand that it might be valuable to give the game away at a loss in order to make income from subscriptions, but if someone said "you should give property away at $0, learn economics people", I would argue against this as a general economic principle, which is what it was presented as. I agree with you and Meldwyn to a point. But when the item in question is a subscription based MMO you can't neglect the fact that, as I mentioned above, EA could be subsidizing the sale price to Amazon to maintain their profit margin in order to generate more potential income in reaccuring subscriptions. If we take EA at face vaule that they've sold over 2 million units (which should be true unless they're comitting securities fraud agains their investors) and most of that would be at the $59.99 retail of the regular edition but we can also factor in increases from the $79.99 DDE and $149.99 from the CE we can assume they've already broke even on development costs and are now "in the black" on the game, it would be a sound business strategy to pop up one day sales on retailers here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthSeidhr Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Things that go in their Gold Box are items that are selling well and can afford to set it at a lower price. Learn economics people. Items for which the demand is high don't get discounted. Items are discounted to increase demand. You see, if I want an item but I cannot or will not pay the asking price for it then I am not adding to the demand for that product. However, if the seller discounts the item to a price that I'm willing to pay then my demand counts. Again, prices are lowered to increase demand not in response to already high demand. I'd say you need to take your own advice and learn economics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaperkeepet Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) god damn go away. Edited February 28, 2012 by reaperkeepet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaperkeepet Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Skyrim was on Sale on Steam during Christmas for 33% off. Newegg is selling Skyrim PC for $57 regular price. Try again. Lols! Haters think of anything these days, hrm? lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vecke Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Items for which the demand is high don't get discounted. Items are discounted to increase demand. You see, if I want an item but I cannot or will not pay the asking price for it then I am not adding to the demand for that product. However, if the seller discounts the item to a price that I'm willing to pay then my demand counts. Again, prices are lowered to increase demand not in response to already high demand. I'd say you need to take your own advice and learn economics. This is simply untrue. I have worked retail for the better part of two decades and I can tell you that we absolutely put items with high demand on sale. Your principle is only true if you're only selling one item. If you are a retailer that sells more than one product, putting high demand items on sale isn't just good business, it's an absolute requirement. If I want people to shop with me, I'm not going to put the lowest demand item on sale. That won't get people to come to my store. But if I put the the item that has the highest demand on sale, that will get people into my store. Sales for high-demand items is an absolute requirement in retail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MackumDog Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I saw that McDonalds was having a sale the other day on Hamburgers....must mean they are going out of business and everyone hates their hamburgers. i hope so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gomuningen Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I have seen Tide detergent go on sale so many times in my life, and I am 34 years old. So I guess using the Meldwyn's logic, Tide has been failing for at least 34 years? And this is Tide, something that people consume and have a need to buy more, so it is not like they need to put it on sale, because people will still buy it when they run out of it. LOL...made me laugh. It goes on sale because it has a crap load of competition....Only reason software goes on sales is.......ding ding ding ding....over abundance of inventory.....we have a winner here!!! get a clue yo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NermalDetonator Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Different model all together! If my product is selling well (quoted from previous poster), I have no reason to discount it. Its actually really similar, given the subscription model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NermalDetonator Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Stores have been doing this for years. The fact that you "work retail", and then can't even grasp the simple concept of a one day sale has me floored. Based on that alone I could assume many things about your "academia," but again, I wont assume anything. Assuming is for fools. I'll go out on a limb and guess that the sackers at the supermarket dont get the best training in economics. But hey, at leats its retail experience... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfeisberg Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) LOL...made me laugh. It goes on sale because it has a crap load of competition....Only reason software goes on sales is.......ding ding ding ding....over abundance of inventory.....we have a winner here!!! get a clue yo! /facepalm Clearly Steam has an overabundance of stock when ever they do a sale. Given there has been times they had to ask the publisher for more keys because they didn't have enough. Steam doesn't buy keys from the publisher/developer, so they don't have an inventory to worry about, and the publisher/developer doesn't have an inventory with Steam as well. You are the one that needs to get a clue, you don't know what sales are used for. And lol at basically insinuating that software have no competition also, Proctor and Gable will put out Tide coupons to entice new customers to their product because of the competition. A Store who already has Tide and their competition is not really going to care as much on what brand they are buying, rather the Store just wants people to enter their store to buy things. So they'll put Tide on sale because it is a very popular brand and it will get customers to come to their store to buy Tide but will also likely buy other stuff while they are there. So no, a Store would not put Tide on sale because Tide has competition with other brands that the store already sales, instead it puts Tide on sale because they have competition with other stores and want to bring more customers to their stores. Edited February 28, 2012 by Wolfeisberg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MackumDog Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Why dont you just read http://investor.ea.com/results.cfm you will find Q3 EA results and projections. One issue they identified was a problem with European Sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthSeidhr Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) This is simply untrue. I have worked retail for the better part of two decades and I can tell you that we absolutely put items with high demand on sale. Your principle is only true if you're only selling one item. If you are a retailer that sells more than one product, putting high demand items on sale isn't just good business, it's an absolute requirement. If I want people to shop with me, I'm not going to put the lowest demand item on sale. That won't get people to come to my store. But if I put the the item that has the highest demand on sale, that will get people into my store. Sales for high-demand items is an absolute requirement in retail. In a retail setting I might agree with you. However, we're talking about online sales. When I go to Amazon I don't have to walk to the back of the store to get my item and then back up to the front of the store to pay for it. In a retail setting that exposes your customer to the plethora of other goods you have for sale. Amazon may have some ancillary advertising on the page listing TOR, but it's nowhere near what you'd get in a retail establishment, and it's not enough of a reason to discount it in an online setting. EDIT: Also, if demand is sufficiently high you still don't need to discount the item to draw people in. Having the item in stock is the draw. Edited February 28, 2012 by DarthSeidhr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xzenorath Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 Why dont you just read http://investor.ea.com/results.cfm you will find Q3 EA results and projections. One issue they identified was a problem with European Sales. And so, because of this, Amazon decided to sell the game in the US for 24 hours at 39$ Makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elross Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 In a retail setting I might agree with you. However, we're talking about online sales. When I go to Amazon I don't have to walk to the back of the store to get my item and then back up to the front of the store to pay for it. In a retail setting that exposes your customer to the plethora of other goods you have for sale. Amazon may have some ancillary advertising on the page listing TOR, but it's nowhere near what you'd get in a retail establishment, and it's not enough of a reason to discount it in an online setting. EDIT: Also, if demand is sufficiently high you still don't need to discount the item to draw people in. Having the item in stock is the draw. So are you saying that Amazon doesn't have that little thing at the bottom of their product saying something like "People who buy this also buy....." Therefore trying to entice people to go look at those products and buy them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xzenorath Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 In a retail setting I might agree with you. However, we're talking about online sales. When I go to Amazon I don't have to walk to the back of the store to get my item and then back up to the front of the store to pay for it. In a retail setting that exposes your customer to the plethora of other goods you have for sale. Amazon may have some ancillary advertising on the page listing TOR, but it's nowhere near what you'd get in a retail establishment, and it's not enough of a reason to discount it in an online setting. Yeah the 2 dozens of "Suggested Products" and "What buyers who bought this also bought" and "Create an account and get a bonus off your next purchase" and "Sign up for Amazon prime and save mad dough" things that get tossed at me while I'm browsing for The Old Republic on Amazon doesn't do anything for exposure on their customers. So let me get this straight, what everyone is saying is that Amazon, and Amazon only, decided to suddenly do a 24 hours sale on the box and this means this MMO is doomed and its days are counted. Do you realize the things that come out of your keyboards when you type? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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