Results Of The 'Pay What You Want' Tangible Goods Experiment

from the sorta,-almost-worked dept

Thu, Mar 31st 2011 3:03pm — Mike Masnick

We recently wrote about an interesting experiment with a "pay what you want" business model for an iPad stylus. While I tend not to be a fan of "pay what you want" for tangible goods (since there's a significant marginal cost), the two designers behind the device decided to combine it with Kickstarter's "threshold" setup. Basically, they asked people to pay what they wanted for the stylus, but also only left open 3,000 spots, and said they needed $50,000. Well, the 3,000 slots went quickly -- in just about a day. But the funding didn't quite reach the necessary level. Instead, it came out at just around $45,000.

While this is just a single data point, it probably isn't that surprising from a psychological standpoint. I would imagine many people went through the thought process of realizing that they could try any price, but if they went too low... it might not get made at all. So, for people who want to be cheap, perhaps the "logical" price point is just a bit below the necessary average, hoping that some others will overpay and subsidize you. And that's what happened. As some in our comments noted, perhaps a much more interesting (and possibly better) model would be if there were a way to take the 3,000 highest bidders. In that scenario, if you bid too low, you wouldn't get the stylus at all... but others who bid slightly more would. I'd be fascinated to see how something like that worked out.

Either way, with a few weeks left, and the ability to change bids, many expected that enough people would change their bids to hit the necessary threshold. However, rather than wait for that, the designers just added some new fixed-price tiers, that priced the item at the $25 they plan to officially market it at, and a whole bunch of people have paid up, so the overall project did end up going well past the threshold. Definitely an interesting business model experiment, which, once again, highlights one of the risks with a pure "pay what you want" model especially with tangible goods. It can work, but there are pressures to keep in mind.

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Filed Under: ipad, kickstarter, pay what you want, stylus

17 Comments

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Mike42 (profile), 31 Mar 2011 @ 3:37pm

Not really a "pay what you want" model...
I think this model should be named, "pay more if you want", since "pay what you want as long as it's more than this amount" is kind of long and tedious.
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Squirrel Brains (profile), 31 Mar 2011 @ 3:48pm

Tragedy of the Commons
I don't have a device that the stylus would have been useful for, but I went to the page because the idea intrigues me. I calculated the amount of money each person was required to pay to make it to the goal. It turns out to be $16.67, well under the $25 dollar ultimate price. When I went there, over half the 3000 slots were taken, but the goal was less than half met. It turned out that the average person was giving $15.50 at that point. It makes you wonder. If I was interested, I would have put in $17ish because if I thought it was cool, I knew the minimum amount required and it would still have been a good deal. I guess my engineering background does not prepare me to deal with the irrational whims of humanity.
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Jay (profile), 31 Mar 2011 @ 3:54pm

Re: Tragedy of the Commons
I'm always interested in other engineers. It seems that engineers and copyright go together like oil and water.

Copyright is woefully inefficient and if anything, most engineers would look at ways to maximize that goal.

OT - I'm not surprised you came to that amount, it just takes a little more to understand the incentives placed for a person to give X amount and adjust accordingly.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2011 @ 8:48pm

The market spoke, the value was pretty consistent through the full experiment. If anything, the average slipped towards the end, as they were slightly over $15 before, and now they are dead on it.

50k to produce 3000 plastic stylus seems like an incredibly high price. Unless there is some true magic in them, it would appear to be a "pennies a piece" item.
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RyanMPLS (profile), 31 Mar 2011 @ 9:04pm

Do it right
Try it this way instead...

The concept of a second item auction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_auction#A_second_item_auction) is somewhat similar to a Dutch auction but better applied to a multi-item action. It's the way Treasuries are sold and some IPOs have even been sold this way including GOOG (Google).

An interesting, if not old, article on the process can be found at the Fool's site: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2004/05/26/going-dutch-with-google.aspx
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Anonymous Coward, 31 Mar 2011 @ 10:10pm

"you wouldn't get the stylus at all"

Wait, how would this be enforced without copy'right'. Not that I support such laws.
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kryptonianjorel (profile), 31 Mar 2011 @ 11:28pm

Re:
You try using a regular piece of plastic on an ipad, or any capacitive touchscreen, and let me know how that works out for you
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Mike Masnick (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 2:09am

Re:
50k to produce 3000 plastic stylus seems like an incredibly high price. Unless there is some true magic in them, it would appear to be a "pennies a piece" item.

Someone doesn't know how capacitive touch works, huh?
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The eejit (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 4:03am

Re:
It wouldn't be made. Like, at all.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 7:31am

Re: Re:
I know how they work... and I also know that people are selling them for about a buck and half retail:

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/universal-capacitive-touch-screen-stylus-pen-with-strap-colo r-assorted-55696

I also see that Nextag has them retailing in the $13 - $15 range. It makes it very hard to justify a $25 price tag as their "retail" price. It also suggests that, with a retail price in that range, that each item's marginal cost is in the range of pennies, FOB China.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 7:34am

Re: Re: Re:
Not to forget:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/385798480/capacitive_stylus.html

or

http://www.al ibaba.com/product-gs/407851160/stylus_for_iPhone_iPad.html

All in the 20 cent to $1 range for 1000 pieces.

Sorry Mike, a little research can show you how incredibly overpriced this "offer" was, and how people pretty much fairly priced it to retail, which is why their failed.
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Robert P (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 8:44am

They got their funding
I'm one of the backers (I bid $20) and the latest update indicates they dropped the 3,000 backer limit. They're now sitting at over $80K in funding.

I like Mike's idea (highest bidder) but it might be challenging to implement. When you bid, you actually pay that amount. How would they work getting the money back to you if you don't bid high enough? I know this wouldn't be insurmountable, but it would mean a change in how they deal with the funding. I think it would essentially convert the process to a pledge method, then you have to worry about people bailing on the pledge when it's done.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 8:49am

Re: Re:
No, because look at the following sentence.

"but others who bid slightly more would."
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2011 @ 10:03am

Re: They got their funding
How does it feel to offer to pay $20 for about a $1 piece?
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Mike Masnick (profile), 1 Apr 2011 @ 10:12am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
You assume, falsely, of course, that this stylus is no different than those other ones. And yet, the whole reason why people want this is because it is different.

And, if by "failed" you mean they've actually succeeded in passing the threshold, then, yes. They "failed." All the away to the bank.

Sometimes your attempts at being disagreeable just make you look stupid.
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Squirrel Brains, 1 Apr 2011 @ 3:14pm

Re: Re: They got their funding
You are missing several key points. Anyone with manufacturing experience would know that doing a small run with a specialize material is very expensive. Most of the initial cost is a setup fee. On top of that, it is probably being made in the US. Obviously, people want it and it is different enough from everything else on the market.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 4 Apr 2011 @ 11:52am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
You know, looking at those links and thinking about how it would be to use them on my touch screen devices, I can see why people would be willing to pay more for this version.
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