I certainly appreciate YOU Jeff, and your contribution to educating us enthusiasts.
Syncro has only been out a few months, and my suspicion is Gyeon jacked up the price because they COULD.
Lose all the fancy packaging and you could keep your prices reasonable.
Thank you very much sir, as I really hope the bit of info I can offer is of value and ensures a good experience with GYEON and other products.
We do hear the packaging reference quite a bit, and I can honestly say in the volume that it is produced globally it is minuscule in terms of the overall cost discussion. We as the USA market are the babies with GYEON. The global market is well, well, well ahead of us in terms of volume and time in the market and GYEON uses those efficiencies in production well. The packaging does not play in to the price increase. It costs pennies.
I can also say I was directly involved in the price increase decision. The price decision also did not come down from GYEON HQ, it was dealt with here as the USA Distributors. It was not at all an attempt to take advantage of the consumer as the popularity of the products grows. I am more than humbled with the growth we have seen in the brand. We took it from something three years ago that not only people knew nothing about, but that people questioned. And now we have an awesome group of enthusiast who appreciate the quality, performance, and ease of use built in to the products. There is also a real cost to that growth in terms of shipping, warehousing, management, and support to the Reseller Team. Our cost on the products themselves from the GYEON factory have risen every single year as their own costs have. We have waited 2.5 years for any increase, but it was necessary to maintain the health of the business and continue to offer as much value as we can. There is no "good" time to do it, and I expected some backlash, but I very much do not want anyone to feel like it was a cash grab. Shoot the rent on my shop goes up 3% every single year and it's in the lease. All the costs of business rise every year and as a business owner I am always reluctant to raise price with the fear of this exact conversation. But it is an inevitability in every business. The cost of the inputs to run the business increase and eventually the cost of the goods themselves have to pick some of that up or the business can't grow and add value. All you can do is add enough value to where the price discussion is irrelevant, and that is my goal.
Are there other products out there that work well? Absolutely. But we do see GYEON as a premium brand. We are more expensive than some and less expensive than others. For what you receive in the SYNCRO kit we think the $179.99 price point is accurate. Not that this is considered fact, but there are comments on this section that it out performs comparable products from other brands. It is cheaper and a more substantial product system than buying the Mohs 50ml and Booster combo that is awesome.
Being completely transparent, we also have a global responsibility to GYEON quartz to not be the cheapest products on the Global market as that presents a whole new set of issues. We have a very "discount heavy" culture here, and I don't have a position on whether that is good or bad. But I do have a position on what we have to do as one of 71 individual country distributors of a strong global brand. GYEON goes on sale over seas RARELY and if it is, it's at 10% or 15%. We constantly buy, and wait to buy, at 25% off MSRP here in the States. So yes MSRP is up a bit but how many are actually ever buying at MSRP? The actual price that most of the purchases are made is much lower than MSRP.
Thank you very much for opening this up as it's a great way/place to have the conversation. Totally open to answering questions. I'd hate to loose the trust we've built based on the products performance and presentation over the last few years over a price increase that is unavoidable.
Thanks Guys!!
While the packaging doesn't influence any purchases, gotta say Gyeon stuff just looks so cool on the shelf, love the packaging. The 4L are especially nice for me considering the form factor being more squarish and 'book-like' than a round jug, easier to pack more of that stuff on my shelf. I'll leave the question of value to others as I'm really in no position to speak to that considering some of my purchases, some of which would likely put packaging costs alone on a whole new level...but that's also part of the fun for me...I just kinda dig cool-looking stuff be it on a shelf or on paint....all things being equal with regards to effectiveness I'll usually go with 'eye-candy' in any form provided cost difference is not too extreme. Not a practical course of action but I've rarely been accused of being practical.