It’s the time of year for saving money!
When I read that Lexicon was dropping the price of their flagship MC-12 HD B Pre/pro from $10,999 to $7,999 I felt like someone had just taken $3000 out of my pocket. I own an MC-12 HD B, and like other MC-12 owners, don’t exactly love the fact that Lexicon just devalued my pre/pro by $3k.
Lowering the price of a product near the end of its production cycle may be a good way to increase sales, but it’s also a GREAT way to show existing customers how little they mean to a manufacturer. Common knowledge says existing customers are the best prospects for new products, especially if you give them an upgrade path. Lexicon may have just burned those bridges.
Lexicon used to offer customers a relatively painless way to migrate to their newer products by supporting liberal trade-in deals through their dealers. That program kept early-adopters loyal and gave retailers a secondary revenue stream selling the trade-in gear. I know I took advantage of this program several times to keep my MC-12 current.
The price reduction of $3k instantly removes that sum from a customer’s equipment budget for their next equipment upgrade. That’s bad. But even worse for Lexicon, most early adopters try not to let a company screw them twice. Oh wait, didn’t Lexicon try that already with their re-branded Oppo BDP-83?
I used to be a big fan of Lexicon, but watching a brand go down in flames is never a pretty sight.
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