At all costs!
The above is taken from an email sent to me by Marvel Comics soliciting my interesting in buying an immediate download of #3 of their limited series “Original Sin.”
Let me just say that Marvel isn’t kidding when they promise, above, “ANSWERS AT ALL COSTS!”
I’m amazed by the pricing of these “Digital Special Editions.” To send you, essentially, nothing — and certainly nothing that you can own, or share, or gift — they are charging SIX DOLLARS AND 99 CENTS.
When it’s a music download, I can make up to 6 copies. I can burn a copy, or digitally transfer a copy to another device, or share with a friend. And because it’s music, I will listen to it over and over for years.
This comic “book” download would get one, and perhaps two, readings, restricted to me. No way to share, unless I feel like lending my iPad around. (I don’t.) This digital comic book is both overpriced and untransferrable.
Of course, it’s only overpriced if not enough people buy it. I have no way of knowing if, say, 30,000 people will pay $7 for this — in which case Marvel would pocket $210,000 almost completely net because they’re just repurposing existing content at almost no cost.
But I’m flabbergasted at their audacity. No idea if they’re right from a business perspective to be so audacious.
A couple of years ago, I read four books on pricing within the space of two months. Pricing, and therefore price negotiation, it shouldn’t surprise you, is based upon a perception of fairness. (Google “fairness in pricing” and read at your leisure.) So that while yes I know that the 12¢ comic-book I grew up with is far in the rearview mirror, it nevertheless strikes me as unfair that a non-physical comic book would cost seven bucks, and that’s just one of at least eight and more likely probably 30 issues, counting tie-ins, that you’d need to buy to read the complete story.
Two weeks ago, when I was in Nashville, I went to the Grand Ole Opry. While I came away with my personal dislike of country music fully intact, I was impressed with the quality of the production and especially with what an egalitarian bargain the evening is. On the evening I went, I saw 10 acts (each plays just 2-3 songs — mercifully), and ticket prices started at just — wait for it — $29.50. I bought a ticket for 42 bucks and got killer seats. (And, meanwhile, I’m seeing four semi-broken acts from the 1980s at the Greek Amphitheatre later this year where my middling tickets cost $87 each.)
June 6th, 2014 at 12:08 am
You probably don’t remember when comic books were a dime and paperbacks a quarter, do you?
June 6th, 2014 at 6:11 am
Right, wrong from the company’s perspective doesn’t matter. What matters is the answer to the quetion “are we going to make money at this price point?”. If the answer turns out to be yes then it is the right decision. If no money is made or less than forecast then the decision was wrong and a new price point needs to be found.
June 10th, 2014 at 4:13 pm
I keep coming back to the old idea that “If they made it cheaper, more people would buy it, and they’d make the same or greater profits in the end”. Silly me.