After Market Sales and the Slow Down Economy
by: Guest
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I have been a proper consumer – and by “proper” I mean I pay for my own stuff and have stopped mooching money off of one or both of my parents – for almost a year now, and as most consumers who are thought of as part of the middle class, I am always looking for a good bargain. And by “good bargain”, I obviously mean “will haggle within an inch of my life, if it means I could haggle it down to seventy-five percent of its original price.” These days, in a world where the economy has started to slow down, consumers have begun to look for less costly options when shopping for essentials and consumer goods.
I personally believe that this is why piracy and similar ventures have become so very successful over the recent years, especially in areas of the world where earning money is difficult in the first place. China, especially, has realized that they can create products that are just as good (or even a little better) than the products sold mainstream and sell them for a lower price. These days, it seems that cheaper doesn't necessarily mean “not good”. Sometimes, they can be even thought of as better.
It makes me wonder, though about the after market sales strategy – that is to say, I have to
wonder how this will affect the sales of after market products. I mean, sure, I understand that a good deal of after-market products have been custom-made for the product that has been initially bought – what comes to mind would be buying a printer and having to buy the corresponding printer ink cartridge. But third party businesses – not necessarily competition, because competition in business implies that they are selling a similar primary product, when third party businesses tend to sell only the after market products – are becoming more and more adept at replicating the after market products being sold by the more legitimate businesses.
I would like to use my own experience as an example: I have, in my possession, a beautifully-working Hewlett-Packard scanner/printer. By some stroke of luck, I had managed to buy it at a slashed price and I merrily go about appreciating its features. That is, until I ran out of ink.
Now, if I were a bit richer, I would have not thought twice about buying a brand-spanking new set of Hewlett-Packard ink cartridges for that printer. But I'm not quite as rich as I want to be, and there are other, seemingly less frivolous expenses that I am expected to pay for, such as food, transportation to my day job, and the rent to my home. I can't possibly be expected to pay steep prices – because from my point-of-view, prices for Hewlett-Packard ink cartridges are steep – for those things. But at the same time, being able to scan and print out images is a source of livelihood for me as well, and not having a working printer will cost me money that I need. Obviously, I was in a bind.
But then, I remembered that just within walking distance of our house is an ink refill station, where you can take your empty cartridges and refill them with ink. This is rather brilliant, as most of the time, what stops you from buying printer ink from other sources is the fact that the cartridges are custom-fitted to your printer. By by-passing the cartridge and focusing on the ink, these ink refill stations managed to make money off of an after market product without too much trouble. Obviously, I got my printer ink from there, and it worked just as well as if I had bought the “official” printer ink.
Things like this should be quite alarming for businesses are pretty much dependent on their after market sales. It's not just the after market product revenue that is being hijacked from them at this time, after all – even services are being offered by third party businesses. These days, I don't even have to go to the designated service centers to have my printer fixed – I can just ask Joey from down the street, who can pretty much fix anything, and for a cheaper price.
I don't think I even have to mention the fact that consumers nowadays are also learning to resent any product that tried to gridlock them into buying the after sales product by making sure that the primary product only works with it. That is to say, when the primary product and the after sales product are customized in a way that they would only be suited for each other, potential customers will now be immediately turned off by the very idea – not only because it would cost a lot of money, but also because it would potentially curtail any possibility of them personalizing the item.
I suppose what I'm trying to get at here is that while the after market sales strategy is indeed an effective long-term business strategy, anyone using it is encouraged to be sensitive to the changes in the market and their installed base and react accordingly. Maybe prove superiority when it comes to courtesy and service, or even just refraining from enthusiastically raising the after market sales prices. Or just somehow let the market know that they are important. Because unless something is done, pretty soon everyone will just go by the cheaper and perhaps more personable options.
About the Author
Elea Almazora, contributor to AfterMarketSales.Com
Elea Almazora currently works as a contributor to many information-based websites, writing about many subjects ranging from culture to sciences.
For more information related to this article, please visit AfterMarketSales.Com
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