ILive Brand Loyalty.

[ceejayParticipant]

I have been seeing many manufacturers for certain consoles, offer loyalty upgrade programs for newer version consoles.

As small business owners, the product life cycle of consoles has certainly been challenging.

Has any consideration been given to current owners of iLive, to upgrade to DLive from Allen & Heath?

We all know that tech changes very quickly.

But the major selling feature of this brand, was the “upgrade ability” compared to the competition at the time.

For 25K list price, I would have expected a lot more.

Look at what other manufacturers have done to keep customers just in the last 18 months.

Not a rant, but a valid business discussion.

[mervakaParticipant]

The “upgrade ability” saw this console last 10 years.

[ddff_lvParticipant]

What do you want? A trade-in iLive as 50% of dLive? How many manufacturers have upgrade plans like that? I think last I remember was from Soundcraft 10 years ago and old console made up to 20% discount.

ddff, has bunch of iLives and 2 dLives

[ceejayParticipant]

Both Yam*** and Dig*** are offering current owners of their products incentives to upgrade.

[ceejayParticipant]

Modular, yes. T series, no.

[ddff_lvParticipant]

Oh, really? My Yam rep knows nothing about it. Do you have more detailed info?

ddff

[Mark OakleyParticipant]

Here’s some info: https://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,158219.0.html

Yamaha is a big, diversified company that manufactures a huge assortment of products. I don’t think A&H has the margins to do this. At this moment, I’m glad I own an iLive, as it is a mature platform, with the dLive still in development. If I had to start using a dLive tomorrow, I’d have to give up:

I-Pad control (a big one)
Off-line editing and mix building
Multiple users tailoring their monitor mixes via I-Pad
Network cards.

Of course, all this is in the pipeline, and once available the dLive will be an awesome product. At the moment though I’m not regretting my iLive purchase (2 years ago) one bit.

-Mark

[ceejayParticipant]

https://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/news/story.asp?ID=FJ51C6

https://usa.yamaha.com/about_yamaha/corporate_information/product_rebates_and_promotions/ls9_loyalty_program/

This post is not a comparison to capabilities or benefits of each manufacturer.
There are many options available, and who knows if hardware upgrades are coming to ilive. I don’t. But I hope they will.

I do see where some companies have recognized that brand loyalty is important and offer incentives to keep customers.

[mervakaParticipant]

Of course your post is a comparison between manufacturers, why else mention them? I second Mark’s words. Your iLive isn’t suddenly a crap mixer, just carry on using it.

It’s already been stated that further iLive development will amount to critical bugfixes only. If you’ve had the iLive for a few years and the investment still hasn’t paid off, then I question your business acumen.

[ceejayParticipant]

Mervaka, you are exactly right.
The business acumen that resulted in a good outcome, was for some manufacturers to recognize that brand loyalty was key to providing upgrade programs.
The customer voice is always a factor for improvement efforts.

There are many iLive users and I am sure many would welcome such a program or a reconsideration of that announcement of no further development. Maybe they should of asked the users.?

I would spend money on hardware or software upgrades.

If it was “crap” I would have sold off a long time ago, and not bothered to post anything.

[DetonatorParticipant]

CEEJAY –

You are confusing a thinly veiled (Yamaha) discount program with a nonexistent “trade-up” or trade in (you get to keep your LS9) or a “trade-up” program (Digico) that was offered in October of 2012, with no specifics…

Yamaha is offering their program for the simple reason that sales are low, and the LS9 ownership requirement is their marketing scheme to involve previous customers. Think about it: everyone who doesn’t own an LS9 is left out! Not a good plan to attract new customers. If their sales were good on these mixers, this “loyalty” discount program would not exist!

Understand that Yamaha and Digico are fine companies with first-rate products, but the plan of offering ongoing and free improvements to the mixers (Allen & Heath iLive, and now Behringer X32 series) has proven to be of more value to customers than an occasional marketing discount scheme.

Cheers,

-Tim T
Detonator Sound

[ceejayParticipant]

Tim,

I agree with all of that, and with most of the other comments the past few days.

Those examples were purely points in reference to my subject. Whether it is current or past, the manufacturers want to keep those customers using their branded products. You are absolutely correct, they are fine companies with first rate products and they continue to be that way.

It’s an idea that I would well receive, and I think others would too.

I look at it as an opportunity for A&H to get the DLive in more hands of companies small and large.

My initial post may have stood some hair up some necks, but frankly… if the GLD is the mid tier from this brand going forward, they may be missing out on some sales.

[daveParticipant]

For that one, you can get equal and even more on your expectation when you try this one at https://eatmywords.com/.

[Anonymous]

the manufacturers want to keep those customers using their branded products.
I look at it as an opportunity for A&H to get the DLive in more hands of companies small and large.

frankly… if the GLD is the mid tier from this brand going forward, they may be missing out on some sales.

I agree. Although I dont have an Ilve. I deliberatly missed the boat on that one however…
If the GLD is the middle between QU and Dlive I would look at other products just above the GLD.
my 10cents thoughts. The lowest monetry value of our currency here down-under NZ.

[ArtParticipant]

So if someone offered you a trade-in on your iLive towards the purchase of a DLive, would you buy it?

Art

[Author]

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