TDLR; Version:
You need crossgrade pricing and/or sales offers. Currently, you only acknowledge existing customer value in the form of version upgrades within a specific EZ Line product. Some elements of the way you offer things create a scenario where you are functionally saying “Your existing product has *zero* value”. Look around the industry and you’ll find the concept of crossgrades to be functionally the norm, and I doubt I’m the only person you’ve lost sales opportunities to based on our existing purchase having a taste of “That’s history and has no value to us today” to it.
If I’ve missed something of a pathway to this, let me know, but it seems a clear miss in your marketing/sales/customer relationship effort to this existing customer.
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Longer Version:
I came into the EZ family via a deal a while back that set me up with EZMix and some related packs. At the time, you could have easily sold me the EZLine bundle and had me fully onboard with the “gateway drug” to squeezing more money out of me with various expansions. Unfortunately, the bundle wasn’t on sale. Indeed, since I became aware of you the bundle has never been on sale and there haven’t been any “upgrade” licensing offers, which means if I ever purchase the bundle, I am functionally throwing away my existing investment in Toontrack products by functionally repurchasing that which I already paid for. OK, fine, I can buy the other products in the line, but that too has a feeling of being punished for my original “See how this works in practice” approach.
So, I guess “the nut” of my request is for upgrade/crossgrade pricing options similar to what is widely available in the industry. The specifics of the discounting is less important than that the concept of “I’ve already invested in you, please interact as though you appreciate that investment” is honored. Many companies do standard discounting for cross-grades or loyalty purchasing- sometimes as simple as “We’ll take the price of the item you already purchased that is part of this package and discount the package by that amount or, in the case of a package that is also on sale, by the relative percentage of that amount.” It is also common to see at least some level of always available discounting on cross-grades. In my case, for purely example purposes, were I to purchase EZDrummer, I would currently have to pay the standard $179 that anyone other than owners of prior versions of EZDrummer would pay (they would get it for $99) would pay even if they were not someone that has any history of investment in Toontrack products. A crossgrade shouldn’t necessarily match an upgrade, but the concept of “thanks for investing in us, here’s a thank you/incentive discount to encourage you to invest in us further” is a valid and worthwhile concept.
For many, it may have no impact in their buying habits, but I can definitely say I am in the camp where it does matter. Honestly, it’s been the difference between me buying in further (Bass and Drums in particular, but once I’ve gone that far rounding it out seems inevitable) versus almost forgetting you exist. This is probably particularly true sinze EZMix (what I own) is such a different animal from the instrument-oriented products. As it stands, what I see if looking at the EZ Line bundle is a recognition that I already own EZMix, but only in the form of it being grayed out in the bundle list with an “OWN IT!” notation. That recognition stops there – it means literally $0 to what the EZ Line bundle is offered to me for. The net result is that I feel *LESS* valued as a customer because I am getting 3 products for that price whereas newbies are getting an addition product valued at $129.
