I'll stray a little off topic for this post and I won't cover a specific light but rather Mag Instrument's pricing strategy. Mag very rarely changes the prices of its lights. They are able to do this by finding manufacturing efficiencies. This helps in a few ways. The largest way is through inflation. Mag was able to capture markets that were willing to pay a premium for their lights early on. Every year after that the cost of the light became less through inflation and the market grew for the light. For example a 2D light has been consistently priced at right around $26 since it was introduced. Shown below is a dealer's pricing guide from the second year of production in 1980.
The price for a 2D today is still around $26. However you'll notice through inflation that:
$26 in 1979 = $92 in 2017
$26 in 1989 = $52 in 2017
$26 in 1999 = $38 in 2017
$26 in 2009 = $29 in 2017
The now discontinued 7D lights are listed as well although they're a little higher in price at $32 which is $114 in 2017. Maglites were really a premium light with a premium price tag when they were first introduced!
Over the first decade of production the price stayed the same but the cost to consumers roughly halved. Early on many professionals and enthusiasts, just as today, had no problem spending almost $100 for a light. But, those are few and far between as is evident by their serial numbers and sales. There are certainly more customers at each price point and by the mid 90s sales really picked up. So, really the early buyers financed Mag's R&D and made the lights more affordable for a broader range of consumers which is why Maglites are so prevalent today and really such a low cost for what they are.
I remember that this was the selling point for my first light. I needed a light to help with changing a starter and Walmart had mostly cheap plastic ones or ones geared towards hunters with a price tag.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the Maglites, I saw $19.99 AND it came with batteries. One and done shopping trip. This was around 2011.