Attn Software Companies: How to increase your revenue and customer base

[modz1]

Very interesting opinions.. thread stickied..

[Monarch]

Originally Posted by sureno

Dev's just need to put the sureno seal of approval on their product, they will sell millions

Business as usual here then?

[EdRyan]

There are some companies that don't seem to take notice of the world around them. Ableton being a prime example.

I had LE, and found its limits pretty quickly. But it left me wanting to upgrade. 8 came along shortly afterwards, and I was quickly dumbfounded by Ableton's business model. Here we go in a lesson on how to not value existing customers. For this class, I will be using Ableton's own website and DV to show what I mean.

I bought LE Boxed from DV for £70.
Ableton want £156 for the same thing.

Now I can't remember how much the upgrade to suite 8 Boxed was. But upgrading worked out to be more expensive overall they buying a new complete suite 8 for £644 from Ableton. With DV offering Suite8 Boxed
for £499 at the moment.

To add even more insult, customers purchasing the same items elsewhere (ie the US) get an even better deal. It equates to around £480.

So anyway I found a buyer for LE, turns out it's his first nonpirated and completely legit software. It went for the same price I paid for it, so I don't feel so bad. Overall the application cost me £6 in postage to get rid of it.

I emailed Ableton to get the license moved over to his account, and whilst I was there told them why I had sold up and left. The structure of their pricing makes no sense. In an age of 'the global market', why charge different amounts in different countries... how does it work out that their retail and distribution can sell boxed copies in this country for less then they will sell a download for ?

They replied saying sorry, with a 30 euro discount for their online store. I pointed out that this still didn't bring them anywhere near the retailers pricing.... If they could match the price, I'd consider parting with my cash directly to them, at which point I was told to simply buy from a local shop.

How does that work. Focusrite (their UK distro) will take some of my money, no doubt DV will as well. Unless their is some bizarre clause banning Ableton from matching retailers pricing, which still makes no sense.

Why would any company act like this? Their behaviour has put me off buying suite 8 regardless of cost. I now consider Ableton to be a greedy company. Non of their pricing for existing or new customers is reasonable. And when I questioned them, they gave no reason and didn't even seem to care..

[Dave Boulden]

International pricing has always been a thorny issue as it's fairly easy for any pricing structure to be quickly "out of whack" as currency exchange rates fluctuate.

We have always been at something of a disadvantage in the UK as it seems we are always regarded as the place where anyone can charge more "simply because they can"... good old "Rip Off Britain".

But there is far more involved of course. When a manufacturer signs a deal with a regional distributor, they agree to supply a certain volume of products at a certain price.... the price varies dependent upon the volume of goods being supplied (and quite possibly also the quality of the lunch before signing the deal ). But most deals will always include a clause where the manufacturer agrees never to undercut the distributor and the shops they distribute too. The last thing any shop or distributor wants is to have to compete on price against the manufacturer since they can artificially lower or raise the price far more than the shop can who are bound by the price they bought the goods at.

That is probably the reason why Ableton wouldn't price match the deal you got locally... their distributor agreement with Focusrite probably prevents it.

[EdRyan]

Anyhow, I will be buying from DV instead of them. Putting some bread on another Brummie's table