The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4688

"Papa?" Andraste asked as she gazed up at the strikingly colored mech with admiration and adoration. "Why aren't the Ferocious Piranhas in our fleet as pretty? They're so boring in comparison to this model!"

"There are multiple reasons for that." Ves patiently replied. "Marvaine, what do you think?"

The younger boy scrunched his face. "Is it because we don't want our light skirmishers to get shot more often?"

"That is part of the reason. You are indeed correct that mechs that look more ostentatious tend to attract more fire. Scientific studies have shown that mechs coated in plainer and more earthy tones tend to look psychologically less oppressive, which is why many serious light skirmisher models look like they really don't want to stand out in the crowd."

"If that is the case, then why sell a mech like this in the first place?" Andraste curiously asked.

Ves grinned. "Well, for a mech company like us, applying special coating and making a few cosmetic changes to the exterior to the mech doesn't cost that much. What it does do is turn the same mech into a 'limited edition' variant that can help us earn a lot more profit per unit sold. Look at the price tag for an individual unit of this particular version. What does it say?"

"It… it sells for 5.5 MTA credits!" _{freewebnøvel.com}

"And how much do we charge for a regular Ferocious Piranha?"

Andraste tried to jog her memories. "Ummm… I think it was 2.6 MTA credits last I saw."

"The LMC raised the list price to 2.7 MTA credits earlier this year." Ves corrected his daughter. "It all comes down to how much a customer is willing to pay for a mech. A standard commercial version of the Ferocious Piranha Mark III has become more popular as of late, especially now that war is on the horizon. This is why we were able to get a lot of customers to pay 0.1 MTA credits more than before. As for this special edition machine, a small proportion of customers want to feel more special than others. They don't mind paying more than double the price for what amounts to the same mech in terms of performance."

All three children looked confused.

Marvaine looked especially dumbfounded. "Can't they buy a cheaper Ferocious Piranha and paint them purple at home? They will be able to save 2.8 MTA credits if they do that."

"That is what I would do as well, but not every customer is as stingy." Ves answered. "Special edition and limited edition mechs are more valuable due to their scarcity and legitimacy. Sure, anyone with a decent workshop can modify a normally-priced mech to look exactly the same as this one, but what makes this particular model worth 5.5 MTA credits is because it is included in the official mech catalog of the LMC. To be honest, this isn't the most expensive special edition version of the Ferocious Piranha that is on sale. The Living Star Club offers more extreme cosmetic variants that are so exclusive that they get sold for 15 MTA credits or more!"

The wonders of modern marketing. The Living Mech Corporation made use of plenty of psychological tricks in the book to extract more profits from the same work.

The LMC wasn't even the worst offender in the mech market. There were plenty of unscrupulous businesses that resorted to more ethically dubious practices.

Examples of that ranged from bundling a bunch of worthless products with a mech to jack up the prices, to offering temporary 'discounts' that lasted so short that they pressured a lot of customers into making impulsive purchase decisions.

While these aggressive business practices certainly succeeded in encouraging customers to open up their wallets even further, the reputation and long-term brand value of the mech companies would inevitably suffer.

The LMC valued its long-term development far too much to risk its reputation on aggressive and deceptive sales practices.

As Ves continued to teach his children about the business side of mechs, he led them to another display model that was not as aggressive.

"This is a Buzzy Bee!" Marvaine quipped as he recognized the machine's distinctive ECM modules.

"That is correct, my dear." Gloriana replied and brushed her little boy's hair with her fingers. "I do not like the name that your father has given it, but his collaboration with an external ECM mech designer has proven to be a great success."

The sales of the Buzzy Bee model started off slow, and it took at least a year before it started to pick up steam.

As an auxiliary mech, the Buzzy Bee featured low offensive and defensive power, but made up for it with a good set of ECM systems.

The third party mech designer from Davute that Ves teamed up with specialized in developing active ECM systems that remained effective and reliable for several hours.

While this was not the most spectacular specialty that Ves had ever encountered, it was more than enough. The Buzzy Bee only needed to be competitive enough in its ECM capabilities.

What truly made this machine valuable was its communication capabilities!

"Do you know why I went against the opinion of your mother and called it the Buzzy Bee?" Ves asked his children.

"Uhm, it's because it is an annoying bee that is difficult to swat from the skies!" Andraste replied.

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