Are Doll Companies Biased?

Must admit, I am just grateful that so many companies take the trouble to create their sites in English. If they are pricing dolls at more than they seem to be worth, I don't buy.

Mind you, when I see a resin person I like, the words "value for money" don't even flit through my brain. Words like "Credit card debt" do, but that's a whole other story.

Please don't misunderstand this question. The only language I have is English, so this isn't a criticism or an expectation that everyone should turn themselves inside out to please me. I just had a charming letter from Soom, but after the first sentence I could not work out what they were trying to tell me. Why would the company have difficulty finding some one who writes moderately good English?

I know many Asian students learn English in school.

Also, how do I get back to this thread after I leave it?

Many thanks,

Kat in freezing cold Sydney

 

~Do doll companies show favoritism towards people of their own country?
I don't think favoritism is the right word.

In order to sell internationally doll companies have to do a lot of work. Many set up an English-language website, which means paying someone to create English-language content and provide customer service in English. They have to set themselves up to accept payment from foreign credit cards or via paypal (which can be an even bigger pain outside the US than in). They have to fill out complicated customs forms every time they send something out. It is much, much easier for them to sell within their own country and if some companies don't want to go to all the trouble of doing international sales I honestly can't blame them.

~Are they trying to get more money out of English-speaking customers, and why?
No. The international pricing doesn't seem unfair to me at all. In fact, I get the impression that the companies are trying to be fair to their international customers. If they weren't, they wouldn't have adjusted prices downward when the Korean won weakened against the dollar recently.

~What are other reasons that their prices are different between the different-language stores/certain dolls and doll events are limited to their own country?
If international prices are higher I suspect it's to defray the costs of all the stuff mentioned above that is necessary for international sales.

Limiting dolls and events to just one country's market is just a way to make the doll more limited, and I suspect it would be tricky to run some sorts of events in multiple countries, especially when the companies have a different website for each language.

Maybe a company in Asia doesn't want to spend a bunch of time having a translator write an explanation of an event in English, even.

I don't think any of these things indicate bias, just the logistical issues inherent in doing business internationally and in multiple languages.

 

I am an English professor at a university that is bringing many Asian (primarily Chinese and Korean, with a few Japanese and Vietnamese) students to campus. The majority of those students are discouraged at first, when they realize that their practical English skills--listening, speaking, reading, and writing in everyday situations such as going to class or living in the dorm--are quite a bit weaker than their international language exam scores predicted. Because they're good students and want to succeed, they work hard to adjust, and to improve their "real world" English. But it's a shock when they find that there's such a big difference between learning a language in school, and being able to produce speech and writing that will make sense to a native speaker of English . . . especially one who isn't used to communicating with non-native speakers. And that goes double for situations that don't fit the prefabricated subjects and sentence structures of school lessons.

Customer service would be one of those situations!

 

In many Asian countries, English is taught at a very basic level in school. Very, very basic. Some international schools will teach mostly in English and some schools with Christian backgrounds will be more comprehensive when it comes to the English lanugage. Others will learn more of English through family influence, upbringing, tuition, own initiative, etc. But in general, it's basic to the point where not everyone really understands grammar.

About your second question...heh. If you can't find your way back to this thread, I don't think an answer will help you anyway.

Ps: I'm in unexpectedly cold Sydney too. ^_^

 

~Do doll companies show favoritism towards people of their own country?

As a number of people have pointed out, the companies started in those countries. Would an American or Australian company doing business in Japan or Korea show favoritism toward its own people? No, it would try to do a good business at home and abroad. It is interesting that BJD companies (to my limited knowledge) have generally not opened stores or even sales offices in the US, UK, Canada, etc. Volks has Tenshi no Sumika in Torrance, CA (which is only open on weekends, so I've extended my business trip to LA next month by a day!). And I've heard of several reps for different companies. Also some online stores carrying a whole line. But BJD makers are fairly small businesses, so an Iplehouse USA division, for example, would be great for me but difficult to justify for IH. Or would it?

~Are they trying to get more money out of English-speaking customers, and why?

Quite the contrary. Japan and Korea are richer than the US by many measures now. Tokyo and Seoul just came out in the top ten most expensive cities to live in worldwide. Tokyo is #2 and Seoul is #5. London is #3, so my argument doesn't quite work for UK BJD fanciers. And Sydney is #15. New York is #22 and Los Angeles is #55! (The most expensive city in the world, by the way, for the last three years, is Moscow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_cities

You may say that the above isn't really a valid measurement, but my point is that we Anglophones shouldn't assume that everyone is trying to milk us just because our countries USED TO be rich.

~What are other reasons that their prices are different between the different-language stores/certain dolls and doll events are limited to their own country?

People who noted the cost of international business have already commented, but I just wanted to note that it takes some time and money to translate those websites. And some of the translation is decidedly belabored. Not to mention incomprehensible. How many times have I seen people on DoA trying to decipher comments from the makers about upcoming dolls and such? I've fantasized about learning Korean so I could read the original websites... Then I picked up a phrasebook and realized what a leviathan task that would be! I'll be content to decipher as best I can now. (By the way, I'd love to go to Seoul and visit some BJD makers! But that would be a different thread...)

 

I wouldn't take any of it personally. How easy it is to sell things in one's own culture, where it's easy to know your market and so forth. Selling to overseas countries must feel like such a shot in the dark!

I don't think it's 'patriotism', xenophobia or anything like that. And even if it was, everyplace has it to spare, the US is no better. Seriously. How many US companies
A) Actually manufacture what they sell
B) Sell it on websites in foreign languages?

Well I'm sure there are some, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. I'm no shopaholic, however.

Raven

 

Hm... as far as I've seen, most of the country-specific limited dolls are actually more like event-specific limited dolls. To me, it's not surprising that most of these events happen to be in the home country of the companies in question- it's very expensive to fly over your staff, your fittings, your merchandaise, and hire a venue for a big event in a foreign country. Not to mention the visas you'll need to arrange for the staff, the customs fees and taxes you might need to pay... etc etc. Even so, Volks has had US (and Korean) events and allowed overseas buyers to try for online after-events, and many other doll companies offer their limiteds online for anyone to buy.

In the case of a company selling dolls made in Asia from a store in the US, then there are obvious reasons why the doll may be more expensive- they've had to ship them overseas already, and the company will probably have paid a customs duty since they are imported goods intending to be resold. I'm not sure on the specifics of US customs law, I know toys and dolls are exempt from customs charges for the ordinary buyer, but I know that sometimes customs laws can be different if items are being imported for the specific purpose of resale. This is why imported goods are often more expensive than they would be in their country of origin.

The inherent instability of exchange rates has been covered already, and that's obviously a factor, as are overseas transaction fees, currency exchange fees, etc.

Honestly, I think most of the doll companies do a pretty good job of offering things to their overseas customers. As much as the US and Europe may seem like large markets for BJDs and BJD items, I can't help but think that sales outside of Asia still probably only amount to a minority of sales for those companies. I would honestly be surprised if Volks' sales outside of Japan amount to more than 25% of their total sales, and I'd imagine it's actually quite a lot lower than that, even with Volks USA and the international webstore.

 

Those figures are actually quite hard to use to infer anything much, as they're specifically costs relevant to expatriate employees- i.e. people living abroad who are not citizens of the countries in question, and who may thus be ineligable for government benefits and may also be charged higher tax rates.

However, I would say that the US is generally a pretty cheap place to live, when compared to other 1st world countries. Here in Australia, pretty much everything is more expensive- clothes, food, books, internet plans, you name it. We also have a higher minimum wage- it's about $12 here, compared to the US's... what, $6 or so? While it's not the exact point of this debate, I do think that things that seem overpriced to Americans are less likely to seem overpriced to people who live in countries with higher wages and higher costs of living. I don't know if it's a reliable figure, but someone told me that the average Japanese teenager has a weekly allowance of 15000 to 35000 yen! When I was a teenager living in the US, I'd be lucky to get $30 a week, so obviously it would take me a lot longer to save up for the same thing. The US definitely isn't as super cashed-up as some people think it is.

 

I just really wish I didn't have to pay in USD, would much prefer to pay directly in the companys currency.

 

I guess technically we do have this option with PayPal, if the companies offer it. (That is, either PayPal or the option to pay in their native currency). But the ins and outs and fine-prints of PayPal make my mind boggle ... maybe it's not as easy as it seems.

 

With the exchange rates changing so much lately, companies haven't been able to keep the prices on their English sites right.
If you intend to buy a doll, you'd be best off contacting the companies with the correct USD equivalent.

 

I've found it a lot worse on American stores. I found a lot of American Ebay sellers as well as websites for larger companies will not sell to me because I live overseas.

Whereas if I find an internet shop which is only in Korean, I just e-mail them with what I want to buy and I've never been turned down a sale.

So I'm just glad I'm buying from Korea not the USA really.

 

to be honest, i have never taken the time to look and thus i have never noticed that this might be the case.

i also agree with babytarragon, that has happened to me many times through ebay and it really gets to me.

 

I think they are, but I don't think it is a bad thing. I work in Tesco and a lot of the offers are directed to those people who have Clubcards and collect the points, a lot of stores work like this now; cardholders have discount advantages compared to the occasional customer.

I don't see any difference between this way of operating and Volks having more limited editions for the Japanese market. They're based in Japan, their first customers were Japanese and they do most of their business in the Japanese language, it seems fair enough that Japanese customers get more offers and deals. I would imagine that the international market is stalling right now because of the credit crunch, so the people who are more likely to spend money with Volks are the Japanese, who have a longer history of these dolls than elsewhere in the world.

I think if their customer service was biased, that would be bad, but I've dealt with both Fairyland and Volks and they were both excellent, regardless that I am neither Korean nor Japanese and I'm based in the UK.

 

Even if they are favouring their own country, I don't see the problem with that. Everyone favours their own country...

 

*cough* My friend posted on a certain company's Q&A board in chinese and they gave her a 10% discount. xD *cough*

Ah well, I agree with chizzie, I don't really see a problem with that either. :3

 

babytarragon, I agree. I tried to buy art supplies from US story, I asked my friend to help put funds on my PP account, but story told me they don't take PP payments from non ppl out of US, I can pay with CC only. I do not live in my country now, and where I live I can't have CC as a foreigner. So, that's was way too complicated....

 

dont i just know it. what is that about? what hurts to have something shipped overseas? the buyer is paying the additional expense and also risks the loss of items. ive not had this problem with korea/japan : /

 

Other people have said what I would say about recordkeeping and tax preparation, credit-card and Paypal transaction fees, and bank currency-conversion fees for payments made in foreign currencies/by foreign customers; about the extra costs involved in maintaining an online shop and customer service in a foreign language; and about the small amount of actual overseas BJD business in proportion to the domestic markets in Korea and Japan.

Here's something that I don't believe anyone has pointed out yet: the limited editions that seem to offend the OP so much are, in fact, normal and appealing to consumers in Korea and Japan, in every area of the consumer market. There are seasonal, limited-edition flavors of Pocky, for heaven's sake! Those are not "bias" or an attempt to discriminate against some consumers; they are ways of keeping a company's offerings interesting and fresh, and of holding consumers' interest in a market overflowing with competing products. Why on earth would companies not operate under the business model that they understand, and that is successful with their primary market?

The last I noticed, McDonald's was trumpeting the "limited reappearance" of the McRib sandwich in some regions of the US. Does this, too, offend the original poster? It's the same marketing technique as a Volks LE Irvin is; the difference is one of scale, not of kind.

Oh, wait. Irvin was a US-only limited edition. How dare Volks be biased against its loyal customers in Japan?

Irony aside (and yes, I do know what happened with Masha after the US LE release!), I would like to add that the language of the original post here really works against the claim that this wasn't intended to be "a negative discussion." The post is loaded with negative language--"bias," "favoritism," "unfair"--and even has a negative icon attached to the original post. I don't understand the purpose or the value of choosing that accusatory, belligerent tone if the OP is genuinely trying to learn something, instead of simply stir up resentment. As in so many Dolly Debate threads, the choice of language turns what could be an interesting discussion topic into a straw-man argument. I'm glad that the people responding in this thread aren't taking the bait.

 

It's fine, really. Those iare the pros and cons of living and not living in any particular country. The people who live in the company's country ought to be given some kinda advantage. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any need for people to travel if there's some of everything everywhere.