Announcing The Platinum Club Plus [Beta] Program
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except that if you're intentionally buying things at a higher price than you usually would to be impartial, you're actually jinxing the data in the other direction. :roll: A better way to be impartial is to collect your old receipts (off your e-mail confirmations, which have the actual prices paid, rather than the worthless "invoices" DAZ is currently providing in your account) and look at what you buy in the average month, both in terms of number of items, and the average prices paid, then compare those figures with what you've actually bought at the end of the month. (And if you buy a lot at other sites, then do the same there and cross compare the data. I find I spend about the same in the average month, but the larger percentage of the $$$ tends to balance back and forth between DAZ and Rendo, which is a huge change from a few years ago when I was spending almost exclusively at DAZ.)
except that if you're intentionally buying things at a higher price than you usually would to be impartial, you're actually jinxing the data in the other direction. :roll: A better way to be impartial is to collect your old receipts (off your e-mail confirmations, which have the actual prices paid, rather than the worthless "invoices" DAZ is currently providing in your account) and look at what you buy in the average month, both in terms of number of items, and the average prices paid, then compare those figures with what you've actually bought at the end of the month. (And if you buy a lot at other sites, then do the same there and cross compare the data. I find I spend about the same in the average month, but the larger percentage of the $$$ tends to balance back and forth between DAZ and Rendo, which is a huge change from a few years ago when I was spending almost exclusively at DAZ.)
I think we're comparing apples and oranges, or else I didn't explain it right. Maybe impacts my purchase choices would have been better wording.
I have a certain amount of money budgeted for fun stuff each month, which includes 3D stuff, yarn, books, etc. I'm also one of those customers who *does* try to pick up as many of the PC items that I want as possible upon release, unless the fun money budget is running low. So if I wait for August, then the July PC items are now being purchased with August's budget, impacting my purchase of August's items. Nor do I get a real sense of how much more the PC items would take from July's fun money budget, because there is no impact from July's PC items at all. Yes, I could hold over the money from one month to the next, but I know me. That won't happen. Something else will come up - probably not 3d at all - that will end up using the money I intended to hold for PC items, pushing them yet further back. (3D sites aren't the only place I have mile long wish lists.)
DAZ is probably going to get roughly the same amount of money from me either way. What I'm looking for is how much continuing my normal purchasing patterns for the PC will eat into my ability to purchase non-PC items, be they other 3D items, or books, or fabric, or whatever. Thus how the PC+ pricing impacts my fun money budget.
My experience:
I have been a PC Member for over a year. In that time I have collected a lot, and I mean A LOT, of PC items. Typically, each week when the PC items are announced I throw them all in my cart and purchase them. The $1.99 price makes even the worst of them a pretty good deal.
At anything more than $1.99 I wouldn't do that.
I am also a "Prime" member at another site, where the prime items are set a $3.50. I did some math, and after an initial large purchase of $3.50 items I have only purchased about a dozen items at that price in the past year.
The price difference may seem slight, but my purchasing habits amplify the difference. I buy around ten items or more at a time. Ten $1.99 items works out to $19.99. Ten $3.50 items works out to $35. That is what make the deal a deal breaker for me. I will think twice before making a $35 purchase, but a $20 purchase is a micro-transaction to me. It's all a matter of perspective. Sammy Davis was once asked if he could make change for a 20 and he replied "A 20 is change, baby" :)
Not to say I am rich, I angle for bargains all the time and appreciate good deals. The PC membership has been a good deal. The PC+ will more than likely fail for me.
I did convert to give it a shot.
The new $6 coupon that applies to older PC items got me two older PC items for free. (Was very hard to find two older items I didn't have, probably can't do it again)
The 30% vendor list was GREAT for the dx30 items. They are averaging $3.50 and are stunning models that I would not have bought at full price as just how many shoes does a lady need? (Silly question ladies?) But at $3.50 my Vickys now have a broader variety.
I already have every Jack Tomalin model, except the French Chateau set, so nothing to get there.
Silver's items are gorgeous but the G2F characters I am interested in are $12 with the 0 discount which is too much to pay without a specific need for a character.
I did take advantage of the Pretty3D and Zev0 deals as the discount is stacking on many items and I filled in some holes with items that have long been on my wish list.
Bottom line for me is these 30% discounts are a gimmick. We see these discounts and MORE often enough. If you are patient I think every PA store goes on sale at 50% off at least once a year. I don't see this as any benefit a non-PC+ member gets throughout the year.
Honestly, I think the marketing people are running amok. When they started the snowball promotion I gave up. Add to that the caveats that certain things purchased are not eligible for the 100% 30 day money back guarantee and you lose me. It is no longer a 100% guarantee at that point and is borderline false advertising in my book.
The folks in accounting can sum up my purchasing trend if the marketing people are interested. I am now more of a smaller "binge" customer than a steady one.
I don't have an answer to the PC problem, but PC+ doesn't work for me. Thankfully I only have another few months on the membership so if it changes permanently I haven't been impacted too much. I have recommended a few friends to join the PC club because it is such a boon for those just starting out, but it looks like it won't be if it moves to PC+ so I will think hard before making that recommendation again.
I think that there are a couple of simple answers to the PC problem, the most obvious of which is to copy one of the better elements of Prime by adding monthly temporary items supplied by both DAZ and PAs. Does that sound kind of like the Value Category? Yes, it does, but that concept didn't fail because the basic idea was bad, it failed because DAZ's marketing people botched the execution so incredibly badly that it beggared belief. As in New Coke and J.C.Penny's Everyday Low Pricing badly. And the sad thing is that if someone had simply come out, up front, and said "this item and this item" will be $1.99 for six weeks and the go up to $2.99, it would have flown and those specific items would have moved a lot quicker, just as intended. Instead, they tried to get cutesy, pissed everyone off royally by trying to force people to buy on the chance that any item MIGHT go up in price and managed to foul the entire concept. Such a simple thing, and yet here we are again with rules filled with potential weasel words, shoes still dropping weeks after the program's introduction and a completely ambiguous future. Looks like DAZ is going for Kodak "Invents Digital Photography and then let's others use it to put them out of business" bad.
Your experience is much the same as mine, although I find myself spending quite a bit in that other PC. However, that's PRIMEarily because the Platinum items have had such a limited range and tend to work a single theme to death. If you want temples, hair, fantasy outfits, bizarre vehicles and enough texture sets to snap the now non-existent DAZ Camel's back, the DAZ PC has you covered. Whereas Prime's been a lot better balanced overall and is now pumping through four times as many items in the same period, so even though the price is higher there are much better odds of being something interesting in a given time period.
I think that there are a couple of simple answers to the PC problem, the most obvious of which is to copy one of the better elements of Prime by adding monthly temporary items supplied by both DAZ and PAs. Does that sound kind of like the Value Category? Yes, it does, but that concept didn't fail because the basic idea was bad, it failed because DAZ's marketing people botched the execution so incredibly badly that it beggared belief. As in New Coke and J.C.Penny's Everyday Low Pricing badly. And the sad thing is that if someone had simply come out, up front, and said "this item and this item" will be $1.99 for six weeks and the go up to $2.99, it would have flown and those specific items would have moved a lot quicker, just as intended. Instead, they tried to get cutesy, pissed everyone off royally by trying to force people to buy on the chance that any item MIGHT go up in price and managed to foul the entire concept. Such a simple thing, and yet here we are again with rules filled with potential weasel words, shoes still dropping weeks after the program's introduction and a completely ambiguous future. Looks like DAZ is going for Kodak "Invents Digital Photography and then let's others use it to put them out of business" bad.
I let my Prime membership lapse because I found myself buying a lot of things I didn't really want, and if there was a Prime item I wanted, I could usually get it for $4-6 at some point. After a couple of years of not being a member, the catalog has grown enough to make it worth the price of annual membership again. I also let my PC membership languish for quite some time, until the DSON converter worked well enough to make buying new PC items worthwhile. But being a Poser user, I STILL spend far far more of my dollars on content that is natively compatible, and that means props and environments and PA back catalogs. So for me, the PC+ way of doing things would be an improvement.
But I agree that having known time limits on the Value Category would have been a whole lot better here. I like to know exactly when things go off sale as well. No knowing may cause me to splurge -- but it has also caused me to intentionally leave a few several hundred dollar carts to languish until a sale was over, only to remove all the items.
As far as computing my typical spending habits, the recent months long spending spree I've been on, thanks to the sales at the main marketplaces, have buggered up any hope of coming to reasonable conclusions about my "normal" spending. I'm not complaining about that (though my bank account would, if it could speak). :D :D
I don't know whether the typical customer at either marketplace puts so much thought into their purchases. When I first started buying, I had no idea that sales were common, so I just paid full price for things I wanted. Hah.
The Kimiko & Friends advertising says "2 DAYS ONLY! Your Platinum Club Plus discount applies to these New Releases!"
How so?
They are simply 30% off like new releases usually are ...
Either the advertising is off - or new releases aren't 30% off for everybody anymore - or this is again too complicated to set up ...
The Kiriko hair is 7.96 and color is 4.60
EDIT: Meant 7.96, not 7.06. I fixed it.
The outfit is 8.39, ballroom is 7.97.
The Kiriko hair is 7.96 and color is 4.60
EDIT: Meant 7.96, not 7.06. I fixed it.
That is ... funny? For lack of a nonoffending word ...
My Platinum Club panel says: Platinum Club Plus
http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/kiriko-hair-for-genesis-2-female-s-and-victoria-4 is showing for me at $13.27
A hard refresh of the page doesn't change that.
Are there good and bad PC+ members?
That is ... funny? For lack of a nonoffending word ...
My Platinum Club panel says: Platinum Club Plus
http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/kiriko-hair-for-genesis-2-female-s-and-victoria-4 is showing for me at $13.27
A hard refresh of the page doesn't change that.
Are there good and bad PC+ members?
If you add it to your cart it becomes $7.96 - another COMPLICATED practice that I disapprove of because it requires you to add items to your shopping cart to find out what they're going to cost.
The site went down for a few minutes about 20 minutes ago (got that error page when Magento is updating.) If a hard refresh isn't doing it, maybe rebooting will do it? Try putting Janna Hair in your cart and see what that does. Maybe it's a trigger. I had that hair and then those I mentioned (as tests.) The discount was there.
I don't mind adding them to the cart to see the price, because they tell you very clearly at the top of the page that you'll get the discount. We asked them to be more clear about what was discounted/stacking, they did, and I don't think they need to babysit us any more than that.
OK, that's your POV. There are so many people who like all this complexity and smoke and mirrors. I'm not one of them. It's a bad, complicated, practice. It's not about babysitting. It's about clarity and transparency. I don't like it. Am I allowed to say that, or must I go along like a lamb to the slaughter?
OK. in the cart it is reduced ...
(I LOVED the T-Party sale - it was clear and unmuddled)
The banner add is still misleading.
"New releases & Artist Store Sales" would indicate that the 40 percent includes to new releases. It does not.
That's in the small print under the whole speel.
Because of this, I bought nothing but 2 of the Kiriko items.
Example
If you click on the banner you will get the elaborated version:
2 DAYS ONLY! Your Platinum Club Plus discount applies to these New Releases!
And as for example the hair is originally $18.95, the PC+ price at $7.96 IS greatly reduced!
Will the 30% off reduction applying to new items be a permanent change or just a one day promotion?
As the PAs have to give their permission to stacking sales, I doubt it is permanent.
To me the ad (the ad about the Kiriko items which I linked to Example link I put in my post for clarity) implies that the discount in the PA stores (after buying the kiriko items) is up to 40 percent even on new items in the PA stores.
Link to the ad I am referring to with the misleading portion circled
It may very well just be me that finds the ad misleading. But when I went to Predatrons store to buy the new set of flowers, they weren't discounted. I went back and again examined the larger ad and saw the small yellow print *excludes New items and PC club items. If thats the case, why put the misleading bit on the banner?
As the PAs have to give their permission to stacking sales, I doubt it is permanent.
I also think that it would be too nice to be true... Thank you Kerya. :)
To me the ad (the ad about the Kiriko items which I linked to Example link I put in my post for clarity) implies that the discount in the PA stores (after buying the kiriko items) is up to 40 percent even on new items in the PA stores.
Link to the ad I am referring to with the misleading portion circled
It may very well just be me that finds the ad misleading. But when I went to Predatrons store to buy the new set of flowers, they weren't discounted. I went back and again examined the larger ad and saw the small yellow print *excludes New items and PC club items. If thats the case, why put the misleading bit on the banner?
I agree that the banner is confusing. I believe that the reduction does not apply to the items having a "NEW" tag on their thumbnail (in the PA stores participating to the PC+) since the reduction seems to apply to the ones that do not have it. Perhaps that the banner means that the reduction applies to all of today's new releases and not only to the Kimiko items since it is what happens...
Um,,,,, Jack - they withdrew my PC benefits this morning and gave me PC+ 7.99 PC products do not look appealing to a PC member. A trial downgrade IMO :(
Sooooo think this will be going over well with us? Wow PC Plus for a day...not impressed that the opportunity to TRY + at the loss of PC bennies, especially the way was thrust upon us considering the - feedback. My kid does not like the look of Peas, I offer it to him, but do not force feed them to him. In time he may give peas a fair shake. So I do not go out of my way to force feed him some so he will remain open to the opportunity. Disturbing.
By adding cross-incentives and big incentives to try, you are contaminating the behaviors you are trying to track., Heck the World Health Organization would not even find the trends with the sample data you are generating!
A PLAN FORWARD...
Just increase the price and stop the tormenting...
You want $200 profit/year/customer? Strive for 60/40 split and make that the goal and back from that. That's $440 revenue, leaving 220 for cost. Multiply by current PC base and figure out how many DO acquisitions a year that will support . Set the membership fee to cover cost (220/yr) so you have a solid B/.E point. Then you can sprinkle with sparkle & hoot (low risk incentives, intangibles, zero cost exclusive venue's etc).to your hearts content. Build the community and KEEP IT EXCLUSIVE. You want people peering tin the windows watching the fun. NO FREE TRIAL ACCESS - DON'T CONTAMINATE with NON PREMIUM. Administer with diligence, remain consistent and if the adjust one dimension and examine results before tweaking another facet.
Unfortunately none of the new releases appeal to me so I'm unable to take advantage of the PC+ discounts. This I think is the fatal flaw of the stacking promotions - if the discount could be applied to products I wanted then I probably would have bought a few but I'm not interested in buying things I don't want to get a small discount on those I do.
What the BLEEP! is going on? I am a regular PC member but all I am seeing are NON-PC prices, even when I put what should be a PC item in my cart. Is the store broke again or is this an entirely new species of sales bug? I got a newsletter that says Welcome To Platinum Club Plus but like I said, I'm a regular member, did not sign up for Plus. This is not making any sense to me at all right now. :-/
The thing is, for people who've been here a long time, sales WERE relatively intermittent back then. I see you came on in 2004 and I joined in 2006, and IIRC, the Fast Grab was the only consistent day to day promotion. There were huge sales with crazy prices, but they were fairly widely spaced apart. However, for anyone who's joined in the last three-four years, and especially since the NEW! IMPROVED! store went online, there has rarely been a period where there haven't been multiple uber-promotions going on simultaneously.
For example, if someone is a real newb and joined in just the last two months, the 80% off promotions have been running almost every day they've been here, a good selection of the major-hitter PAs have had store sales of 50-60% off, and all Genesis DO's have been 60% off (at least twice, I think) and that's without being a member of the PC or participating in any of the stacking schemed promotions. Not to mention the free copy of DS4Pro and all the content that's bundled in the two starter essentials packs, and the four current tutorial bundles that have another 15 free items between them. At this point, the relative perception of the value of a CG asset has to have tumbled through the floor for anyone who's just coming into this hobby, yet I can't see the current marketing people changing their stripes anytime soon.
OK, that's your POV. There are so many people who like all this complexity and smoke and mirrors. I'm not one of them. It's a bad, complicated, practice. It's not about babysitting. It's about clarity and transparency. I don't like it. Am I allowed to say that, or must I go along like a lamb to the slaughter?
I agree with making prices clear and upfront. Who has the time to keep adding and deleting things from the cart. What next? Price haggling! That would be the ultimate guessing game.
Yep. I expect to hear some vacuous PR in the near future about how " ALL our members tried the new PC+ and everyone loved it!"
("Everyone", of course, meaning everyone in the Marketing department.)
Oh hey wait a second, is that really a Plus sign at the end of PC +? Or is it actually a grave marker for the original PC?
I'm a regular PC member but non of the PC items are showing correct prices for me either.
Yep. I expect to hear some vacuous PR in the near future about how " ALL our members tried the new PC+ and everyone loved it!"
("Everyone", of course, meaning everyone in the Marketing department.)
Oh hey wait a second, is that really a Plus sign at the end of PC +? Or is it actually a grave marker for the original PC?
Oh... like how V6 was the best selling figure of all time... so much in fact we give it away a year later . I really wonder if that was true and if the R&D ROI was actually met.
I am crossing my fingers that this all was a ruse to get us to recognize teh value of the PC the way it is!
While I think that $1.99 may have gotten a bit cheap for PC Items, I'm not a fan of the 70% off PC item prices. Usually one can get at least 65-70% off DOs several times during the year. If that discount were to stack with the PC item discount it might make it worth while, but i suspect it won't.
I'd rather see the PC price increase a bit (or eight) and remain a flat price...
I'm not complaining about a $1.99 PC item going to $2.99, or even around 5 bucks for a larger set. That I think is reasonable after all this time. But what I'm seeing now for most things is full price. No PC discount whatsoever on Daz O's and many of the PC items in my wishlist. Putting them in my cart and taking them through right up to the final checkout makes no difference either.
And yes, I am logged in.