Good mood to you, dear readers of our blog. Oh, let’s talk about the sore point – the prices of metal detectors. After all, for an inexperienced layman or a complete humanist like me, a metal detector looks like a Siemens C 50-level mobile phone with a piece of carbon fishing rod and reel. Therefore, the question arises: “What is this money for????” With all the ensuing anxious feelings that somewhere I am being deceived. So, let’s figure it out.
Patents. The cost of all high-tech products, be it an epilator or a quantum particle accelerator, includes the cost of intellectual property rights. Likewise, in metal detectors, the cost of conventional “hardware” (boards and microcircuits) is determined by the cost of patents. The simpler and more ingenious the electronic board layout, the higher the cost of the patent.
What does this look like in practice? We know, for example, that the AKA Signum and Fisher F-75 have similar characteristics in terms of detection depth and cost. However, the Fisher F-75 can run on 4 batteries for forty hours, and the AKA Signum eats up 6 batteries in eight hours of operation. What is the difference? In the patented chip layout.
The production of microelectronics is constantly being improved, new equipment and new technological capabilities are appearing for the creation and development of new solutions for the layout of microcircuits for metal detectors. Therefore, large manufacturing companies invest tens of millions of dollars in research and patent their new inventions. So, the cost of a metal detector directly depends on the cost of research data.
And, in the USA, manufacturers or distributors of metal detectors regularly sue each other for stealing patented ideas. They probably have funny trials. However, as a humanist, I absolutely don’t understand what’s going on there)))
Cost of software. Yes, dear friends, we are the generation of the 00s, accustomed to buying any software on Gorbushka or Mitka at a price of 100 rubles per disc, it will be difficult to understand that the software in a metal detector can account for up to half the cost of the entire metal detector.
So, according to unverified data (and who will talk about this openly))) Half the cost of the legendary Deus is the price for the software. I also happened to read a story that Fisher Labs, when developing its flagship F-75, spent at least 20 million dollars on software creation. I did not find official confirmation on Fischer’s website, but according to experts, this is quite a real amount. In general, the cost of developing your own software is the very factor why so few companies are engaged in the production of ground metal detectors. And, by the way, this is precisely why there are so many manufacturers in China.
Marketing and product promotion.According to classified information from one of the popular metal detector brands. I won’t name the brand of this company, that’s why the information is closed. So here is the cost of metal detectors from this company, taking into account the first two points described above, plus assembly and the cost of hardware. In general, the total cost is only half of the final cost of the devices in retail stores. The remaining 50% of the cost is marketing and loyalty programs. We understand the scale? This is the company’s marketing policy.
And here, someone may say indignantly. What nonsense!!! Why waste money on advertising and all sorts of lost bloggers. No one listens or watches them anyway. It’s better to make the price lower, then people will flock to them and buy their devices, not their competitors.
That may be true, but consumer behavior when purchasing a high-tech product is very different from buying buckwheat or kefir. There are many nuances, specifics and very subtle threads of influence on decision making at the very last moment. I’m not going to quote a textbook on marketing theory here. I can give a specific example of the company White’s, which has already died in bankruptcy. In its marketing policy, this company has been pursuing a strategy of reducing prices for the end consumer for the last ten years. As a result, very good and high-quality metal detectors were less and less in demand. Even regular customers and loyal fans of the brand, under the influence of aggressive advertising from competitors, left White’s. Last year, White’s declared bankruptcy, and all its assets, patents and production were bought by Garrett.
On the market of high-tech goods there is an unshakable law prescribed back in the 30s of the last century. If you have created a product similar to your competitors, but its final cost may be cheaper than that of your competitors. You need to sell this product at the price of competitors, while increasing profits will invariably be invested in aggressive advertising.
No matter how standard it may seem, we ourselves want metal detectors to cost so much. After all, if there weren’t those same “paid” YouTubers. Many of us would still not know that there is such a wonderful, exciting and interesting hobby – instrument search.
