Q:
Limited Time Offers in the Gem Store
A:
It’s tactic used to create urgency, getting people to spend more in a short amount of time. It also makes these items exclusive to players who are fast enough to buy them.
Exactly. Consumers have been conditioned to buy things that are “limited time only” or “on sale”. JC Penney learned the hard way how conditioned the consumer is when they got rid of sales and just priced the items the same as when they were on sale (instead of 60% off $30 jeans they simply offered them at $12 all the time). Store sales plummeted.
Strangely enough it’s the “hunt” for bargins and “foraging” for specials that still drive us.
So from what I am gathering is that this practice of “limited time only” is actually anti-consumer?
Kind of. It’s a little more complicated than that. There’s a sense in which limited-time-off sales could be considered anti-consumer (“why are the items not simply priced that way at all times?”), but they are demonstrably beneficial for the seller and the overall success of the business, in what is essentially a noncompetitive atmosphere, is highly beneficial for all consumers, along with, in this case, non-spending players.
So yes, on the one hand it can plainly be viewed as anti-consumer. It’s a sales tactic, it benefits the business. On the other hand, decisions that benefit ArenaNet financially (not just on a conceptual level, but in effect) in turn benefit all consumers of the game.
It’s tactic used to create urgency, getting people to spend more in a short amount of time. It also makes these items exclusive to players who are fast enough to buy them.
IMO, a better method would be something along the lines of what you mentioned. It would be better to sell the items with an “introductory discount” and then keep them up for a higher price after the discount is gone. This is because sales not only creates urgency but they also let the player feel better about spending less than full price. These players will also have the option to buy them later at full price if they miss the sale giving them more freedom to spend their gold/gems, and ANet can cycle the items through their sales to keep people interested in the gem store.
Because farming gems, via the gold transfer system, doesn’t give Anet the money they need.
It’s tactic used to create urgency, getting people to spend more in a short amount of time. It also makes these items exclusive to players who are fast enough to buy them.
Exactly. Consumers have been conditioned to buy things that are “limited time only” or “on sale”. JC Penney learned the hard way how conditioned the consumer is when they got rid of sales and just priced the items the same as when they were on sale (instead of 60% off $30 jeans they simply offered them at $12 all the time). Store sales plummeted.
Strangely enough it’s the “hunt” for bargins and “foraging” for specials that still drive us.
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It’s tactic used to create urgency, getting people to spend more in a short amount of time. It also makes these items exclusive to players who are fast enough to buy them.
Exactly. Consumers have been conditioned to buy things that are “limited time only” or “on sale”. JC Penney learned the hard way how conditioned the consumer is when they got rid of sales and just priced the items the same as when they were on sale (instead of 60% off $30 jeans they simply offered them at $12 all the time). Store sales plummeted.
Strangely enough it’s the “hunt” for bargins and “foraging” for specials that still drive us.
So from what I am gathering is that this practice of “limited time only” is actually anti-consumer?
It’s tactic used to create urgency, getting people to spend more in a short amount of time. It also makes these items exclusive to players who are fast enough to buy them.
Exactly. Consumers have been conditioned to buy things that are “limited time only” or “on sale”. JC Penney learned the hard way how conditioned the consumer is when they got rid of sales and just priced the items the same as when they were on sale (instead of 60% off $30 jeans they simply offered them at $12 all the time). Store sales plummeted.
Strangely enough it’s the “hunt” for bargins and “foraging” for specials that still drive us.
I wouldn’t go as far as simplify like that-psychobiology is far more intricate than people make it out to be- but yeah, finding a relative savings feels nice. Companies often employ this as a control tactic, and it’s within their rights to do so. However, there’s a point where people wise up to sleazy control tactics and stop supporting them, and there are cases when companies attempt these tactics but very poorly and, as a result, they backfire.
I’d wager this is partly why Zynga hasn’t been doing too well lately. Perhaps it can be argued that triple-a is losing sales because the average consumer has been burned too often by hype and false promises (As an aside, XBOne kind of burned themselves blaming losses on used game sales, when it fact most losses can be attributed to poor decision making higher up. No one buys it.). I don’t mean to imply that the same thing will happen to GW2’s Gem Store; they’re just sales really. But there’re no guarantee that players will always care about the items they sell, or they can simply become desensitized to it.
(edited by TwoBit.5903)