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'Expecting' Gift/Event heads: Have we developed an entitlement attitude?

Nov 11, 2008

    1. I agree with this statement completely. It makes me think of how it was a thrill making out a Christmas list when I was little and wondering, right up until the day of, what was going to be under the tree...

      You save and plan for so long for the doll... isn't opening the gift and seeing a little extra surprise inside a part of that too? If it's expected... it's not a surprise...

      Nowadays, I watch kids pick up a package at Christmas, and they can say "Oh, this is (insert item here), I knew I was getting it, thanks...." and not even unwrapping it!

      A gift is just that, something special, a surprise... call me old fashioned, but I love that element of surprise!:)
       
    2. I dont care if I'm being childish. I WANT the free head/gifts.
      Maybe you wouldnt care as much if you were better off but if usually when your spending £400 on a doll it wouldnt be unfair to expect an extra little something just to take away the sting of all your money suddenly disappearing. ^^
       
    3. I don't know, I don't think anyone really has the right to expect gifts from a company, no matter how loyal a customer you are. You're paying them for their product, they don't have to reward you for it.

      Planning for and expecting an event to happen that has happened repeatedly makes sense, although it doesn't mean the company owes you that event, you just have to hope they decide to keep up what is an awesome promotion.
       
    4. Ha, it tends to be sometimes. I was afraid I'd come across as acusatory or something. No harm done, I guess.

      On topic, I don't consider myself "too cool for Christmas". LolaWants... really put how I feel about the whole thing nicely. I just really miss how the season 'felt' when I was a little girl. I made a list and didn't really know for sure what was coming. Now I tend to know what I'm getting from my parents, and there's no thrill and excitement for me when I look at the wrapped packages anymore cause I know most of what's in them. I've usually negotiated what my 'gifts' will be and while it's cool to get things I want/need, I'm starting to feel rather drab about it all. This year I've really tried to put off arranging for anything in particular.

      So if I spend a lot of money at Macy's every year, and come December when I buy my Christmas dress and some gifts from them, I should expect to be able to say to the cashier, "Okay, I'm a loyal customer and I'm spending more than $300 today, give me something for free!" ??!
       
    5. I think that because a lot of BJD owners feel a strong emotional connection to their dolls and because the way Volks markets their dolls is very personal, people tend to impose a lot of emotional connection and personal concern onto BJD companies, and assume that what would be seen as a marketing decision for another company stems from some kind of sentiment on the part of the BJD companies.

      I see the event head thing as a straight-up marketing tool. Yes, it's NICE of the companies to give away something for free, but it also benefits them enormously. Someone who might have been on the fence about buying a doll may buy one to get the event head. Someone who was going to buy one doll from the company may turn around and buy one doll AND a doll body for the free event head -- and bodies cost a heck of a lot more than heads do!

      As far as asking if a company is going to do an event... well, I can't blame people for wanting to know! Wouldn't you be frustrated if you bought a doll and a day or a week later the company announced an event you would have been eligible for had you just waited? And similarly, wouldn't you be frustrated if you'd saved up all the money for your doll by the beginning of November but waited until December in hopes of the company having a Christmas event, only to discover they weren't doing one this year and have to wait for your doll to ship during the big holiday ordering rush? I don't think companies are under any obligation to have gift events or to disclose ahead of time that they're having one, but I certainly can't blame anybody for asking.

      Of course, I also don't see a problem with knowing what I'm getting for Christmas ahead of time, so who knows. (I got a lot of ugly sweaters I didn't ask for as a child, maybe that's why. ;) )
       
    6. chibaraki you made some really good points regarding the people asking about the event. There is definitely a lot of logic to it. I also went back to see what Luts had to say in response to them and they don't seem to mind one bit, so I'm sure they see it the same way you do, too.

      After working so many years in retail during my high school and college days, I tend to be a bit cynical about how customers should act. It has a lot to do with how it is asked, I guess.
       
    7. Sure! Ask! Do say please-and-thank-you, but ask! If they're not having that offer that day, then the salesperson will simply tell you "no". It's not rude to inquire if there's discounts or sales offers available to you. That is how you get information. If the salesperson gets all eye-rolling-bitchy because you asked, then s/he can just go home and stew in it, and get a different part-time job next year. I used to work retail too (didn't we all?), and I learned before age 18: Either you butch up, keep smiling, & cope with the morons, or else you quit & go work in a library. (I chose 'B' before age 19.)

      Macy's is a particularly amusing example, btw.... Macy's would rather put out their eyes with hot pokers than NOT hold a massive sale every day in December. :lol: The shoe department here in San Francisco offers me a different spontaneous discount every time I'm in there ("10% off because you're local!" or "Well, we don't want you going back to Amazon.com for these boots, do we? 10% off!"). I swear they make half of it up, but they sure keep getting my sales. Having the membership-card also ensures that, come December, I first go to Macy's instead of Nordstrom's for that Christmas dress-- and they know that. Doll companies may not bend over quiiiite so far as those random in-store discounts, but offering a ~$100-value head for free is a great way to ensure mondo sales. I'm pretty sure they know that people chase freebies & discounts, and I'm sure Luts know (and hope) that people wait for the December event to place an order.

      I enjoy getting surprise presents, even when the presenter has chosen completely wrong. Other people want to know what they're getting. People who like the spirit of surprise don't get to complain about the choice of gift. ^^ But if the gift is expensive-- which is what a lot of kids AND grownups are getting these days-- you REALLY don't want to risk getting it wrong. If I were getting my kid a $100 videogame cartridge, or a $400 BJD, I would want to make damn sure they knew I was buying the right thing, right down to the last detail.

      (PS. That loss of magical-Christmas-feelings that happens when you get older? The fading of childhood thrills? That's called the Human Condition. ;; It is only through activities like playing-with-dolls-at-age-40 that you get any of it back.)
       
    8. I worked at Macy's, that's why I chose it. And how horrible it was dealing with working there is WHY I put the effort into getting the hell out of retail (option 'B' as you called it; I do data entry and billing now to supplement the comic book commission I'm working on). I confess I was the cashier that got bitchy and stewed in it. It's the repetitive questions and the demanding way people ask them. But I'm glad to see you at least make sure to be polite about it. You'd be surprised how many people are rude and sometimes even nasty when dealing with employees.

      I think what a lot of customers forget is that it's more the managers and the owners that are concerned with the success of the business. The cashier making minumum wage? They're not getting any benefits worth writing home about if you buy the latest Calvin Klein jeans vs. the Style & Co. clearance jeans. (Trust me, I know x_X; ) So it's just common courtesy to be nice about it and keep a friendly attitude with the cashier. Same goes for whoever is running the Q & A board at Luts. (Then again I really hope they pay their Q&A people better than Macy's pays.... )

      Side note that it is true you get sweet deals at Macy's with your card, and I still shop there even though I hated working there.

      Sad but probably true. :/
       
    9. I have never gotten a gift or event head from a company. Granted, I've ordered only once in my life xD
      But I think it's really cool that companies give away doll heads. Like has been said before, it's a great marketing strategy, and if I got an event head, I'd definitely come back for more :D
      even if it was just some clothes or a pair of shoes or something, it would certainly make me want to return to the company and buy more things from them ^^
      As for those nifty little gifts that some companies include with orders, the only gift I have received is a candy necklace from junkyspot when I ordered some MSC. The candy was really good :D

      As to the question, I don't really think I've been around long enough to notice this 'entitlement' attitude. However, I do think it's quite alright to ask a company if/when they will be doing an event, to plan the order of a doll and even quite possibly a body and accessories to go with an event head.
       
    10. I don't know... as an adult, I'm kind of tired of getting gifts that sit around because I feel too guilty to get rid of them. Clothes that don't suit me, DVDs I'm not interested in, stuff that just sits around gathering dust. I'd much rather talk to people and get something I want or even get nothing at all, rather than have someone waste their money on something I'll never use. I do like getting surprise presents when they're something I like, or something home-made, but often I end up with things that just aren't "me" and I have enough stuff already.

      This year the only things I really want for my birthday and the upcoming holidays are BJDs or lolita clothes, and I'd never ask another person to buy me a $500 or $1000 doll. Especially in these tight financial times I'd rather not get any gift or get something handmade- even a drawing or a personalized greeting card- than know that someone is spending money they shouldn't be spending, just becuase it's what you do at Christmas. : /

      I guess I'm old and grown-up and have no sense of wonder anymore... but then I can always get all dolled up in lolita on the weekend and tote my dolls around and get my fun back! :lol:
       
    11. I don't really equate event heads with family gift giving. I mean, yes, the doll companies are showing their appreciation and it is nice of them, but it is also good for business which is their primary concern (it has to be or they wouldn't stay afloat). It's not the same thing as getting a gift from a loved one.

      I enjoy holidays, but it isn't the same as when I was a child, and that's a normal part of getting older. It's nice to get gifts, but it's very special to be able to spend time with family that, as people have grown up, are now scattered across the US and also to enjoy the sense of tradition and all the memories.

      I was at Resin Con a few weeks ago and that was much more like being a kid at Christmas for me, lol.
       
    12. I think it’s not so much that there is a sense of entitlement as that people don’t seem to have a very good grasp of how to properly communicate with a company. I think most people look upon event heads as something special and while they certainly expect companies that have traditionally offered major gift events to continue doing so, I don’t think people deluging the Q&A boards with questions about this year’s event is evidence that they feel entitled to the head. If anything, I think the problem may be that we (especially those of us in our teens and twenties) feel entitled to having our own say and getting one-to-one customer care. Because if the speculation about whether or not there would be a Juri head this Christmas was contained in a general discussion thread here, I suspect people would feel much less like there was inappropriate/entitled behaviour going on. I think what bothers us is the idea that people are bugging the companies about these things, not really the fact that people expect events (once established as annual) to continue. This is the reason, I suspect, that the discussions of which Volks limiteds people are hoping for at the next Dolpa are just not going to come up in this thread (whoops, they just did, haha). Because people, for whatever reason, aren’t cluttering up the Q&A board at Volks (is there even such a beast?) with “OMG WHEN ARE YOU GONNA ANNOUNCE THE DATE OF THE NEXT DOLPA???” nobody is seeing entitlement, even though if you read the threads about these long-running and expected events you will encounter a lot of the same sentiments as in threads about event heads proper.

      And now a few quibbles which may or may not be on topic:

      I’m not sure if this was just poor wording, but I think what you describe is rare and, as you say, kind of ethically questionable. To my knowledge, people don’t just up and buy a doll for poops and chuckles specifically intending to sell the event head and somehow considering that "profit". They may choose to wait a few weeks more to buy a doll they already intended to purchase in order to get the event head, but I think in most cases where people sell the event head, it’s because the thing was extraneous—they wanted the doll that qualified them to receive it, not the event head itself.
      I know it's kind of OT, but...selling event heads, whether or not you consider it ethical, is really not "profiting," but simply defraying your rather significant costs...

      I know that some companies sometimes include freebie gifts that you might not/should not expect, but the way I understood it, this thread was meant to focus on recurring events with significant giveaways (or discounts, etc.), which are usually well advertised on the site, so that most people who receive the event head know it’s coming. It’s already not a surprise. (Side note: I actually was totally surprised to find out I would receive a Nanuri ’07, although I found out long before I opened the box. I was that much of a n00b and hardly even read the company site before ordering, haha.)
      So while I’m definitely on the side of those who enjoy the surprise aspect of gift-giving, I also feel like distaste for or disappointment with the growing trend of pre-discussed gifts is kind of tangential to this thread. And discussing whether or not the magic has gone out of Christmas, and whether that’s the human condition or a result of certain societal trends, is definitely moving away from subjects having directly to do with BJDs.

      To the best of my knowledge yes, Black Friday is pretty much limited to the US. Certainly we don’t have it in Canada (although when I worked at Michaels we were obliged to participate in the chain wide “turkey days” Black Friday weekend sale. Which was weird, because Canadians celebrate thanksgiving about a month earlier…
      But I do think most countries have similar events that are a common time for many retailers to offer certain sales or special events, so it’s a pretty universal phenomenon.
      And I had another thought to answer the person who said (s)he relied on fliers to tell hir whether or not to expect a sale…I get what you’re saying, and for most retailers both in and out of the doll world, I’m the same. In Canada, Boxing Day (Dec. 26) is the big sale extravaganza. Unless I’ve heard from someone or seen an ad, I don’t usually expect a store to have a big Boxing Day sale, just that their Christmas merchandise will be marked down a bit. But there are some companies that do a really big sale for Boxing Day, and have for years and years. A&B Sound has a sale every year that has people lined up around the block for their deals, and quite frankly if they didn’t have a sale at all I think there would be some backlash from the community, upset would-be customers giving the poor managers an earful and writing impassioned letters to the company. You can’t make a big deal of how you do something every year and then expect people not to care if you decide not to do it next year (of course, you can certainly scale back gradually over a few seasons without arousing upset—that has definitely happened at some stores in my city). People may not have a right, per se, to expect companies to continue doing whatever they’re doing, but it certainly is very sound business for companies to recognize that humans have expectations based on past experience, and work with that rather than against it.
       
    13. I personally don't beleive that asking a company whether they are planning on doing an Xmas event is expecting anything, to me it's common sense. If you are planning on making a big order anyway, it would be nice to do it in the xmas period and maybe get a free gift too. You'd only be kicking yourself if you missed out by a day or two!
       
    14. kindof an old thread i suppose, but i was talking about this with someone the other day, about how most doll companies will include a little gift with the order, even if it's just candy or extra eye putty. i had ordered something from a company in asia (not a doll company, but still), & they sent me a really nice free gift, & i mentioned the christmas event head that dim is giving. and it made me realize, we don't get this kind of thing from western companies. i mean, if we spend six hundred bucks at amazon.com, we're not going to get a free hundred dollar gift. we might get an offer for free shipping (if we sign up for amazon credit card), but no gift. so i think it's something really special, & perhaps everyone should feel more gratitude than entitlement.

      although, looking at this from a business sense... how many people have spent a few extra bucks in order to reach the 'over $100 limit' needed to get a free pair of eyes or something? i think the incentive of a free gift could make people spend more, or make a purchase when they weren't really sure if they should. like debating, get a doll from this company first, or this company. and company one is offering a free gift, so it's more likely that the person would order from that company. i know this has been said already, but i felt i needed to add it, so you guys wouldn't be under the impression that i think companies are just being altruistic & nice. psh, they're a business.

      but my point is that they don't have to do it, & we should just be grateful that they do.

      however if they do the same event every year, i see nothing wrong with hoping they'll do it again. it's nice to have something to look forward to. especially when christmas no longer means presents to open. it's like the excitement of waiting for soom to reveal their next monthly doll. omg, what's it gonna be?! xD so from that aspect, it's pretty cool.


      (and someone said "poops & chuckles". that made me laugh. xD thanks.)
       
    15. For me it's something I look foreward too, although I never have actually gotten an event head. I just like to see all the Christmas promotions. It's fun to see wht they come up with.

      But perhaps we (the doll com) have come to expect X-mas deals and heads. It just wouldn't be the holidays without it!
       
    16. I have to say that the free event heads they are currently giving out at Iplehouse did have something to do with my recent purchase (my first BJD). I had been on the fence as to when I was going to purchase, but the idea of "hey, free $100!" was a nice incentive to go ahead with it. So it's certainly a very sound business plan, especially during a time of year when people are more likely to be buying gifts for others than dolls for themselves.
       
    17. lol, i like your thinking ^_^

      this is what im planning on right now - LUTS have the DELF EL which i have had my eye on for a while and an event at the moment, fair enough the head offered for the freebie isnt what i would want but seeing as though LUTS have recently put the price of the dolls down quite a bit AND are offering a event head, which i could sell if I wanted too - hence lowering the price of the EL i want even more - id say its a win win for me.

      Then on the other hand > Dream of Doll also have Camine, who i have wanted for a while now and also have an event on. I only have to wait for a few extra days to see what this head will look like and also take a look at their new limited. IF I love the limited ill buy him (if its a HIM and if its a DOT, lol), if not theres then the choice of Camine and get the free head, which I could sell if I wanted too - hence lowering the price of the Camine or Limited DOD even more
      again a win win for me. :)

      either way ill be very happy this winter with whatever company i purchase from :goldstar
       
    18. I think punkchaos touched on a good point, that Asian companies tend to give out gifts more frequently than Western companies. One Japanese company I order from fairly frequently always sends out a little surprise in the box and a handwritten thank-you for purchasing note. For something little, it might just be an origami crane made from really pretty paper, but with a bigger order you can get some pretty neat stuff. Repeat customers also get better surprise gifts. They don't ever mention anywhere that they are going to give a gift either, it's just a surprise, which makes it all the more exciting.

      From a practical standpoint it is the basic idea of: if you take care of your customers then they will take care of you. But at the same time it seems all quaint and old-fashioned and personal in a Mom-and-Pop store kind-of way even though the transaction takes place over distances of thousands of miles.

      Does this influence my decision when I am looking to order something? No, things I'm usually looking at are usually one of a kind, so once sold, probably won't be available again. If one company has something I really want but never sends me a gift, and the other company that does send gifts has something that might be kind-of similar but I just don't like it nearly as much I'm still going to go for the one I really want. Could this influence my decision about a doll? I think maybe it could. A free head is usually worth quite a bit more in relation to the value of a doll than the gifts I'm used to recieving. Plus, if I was thinking about buying another doll that wasn't a limited, couldn't that just wait a while longer?

      I will be ordering my first doll in the next couple of weeks, and you can bet I'm checking out the offers and waiting to see what everyone will come out with. I'd hate to finally order a doll and then have someone else come out with an amazing limited or an event head that was to die for. I wouldn't buy a doll to get an event head to sell, but I would buy a doll to get the event head to keep and then sell the other head.
       
    19. I don't feel "entitled" to a gift head or other gift, but given that there are like 50 doll companies competing for my dollar, and a lot of them do promotions at Christmastime, then what they are giving out does influence whether I will buy from them and in what priority. Sort of like when stores are having their holiday sales, you could probably buy that TV at 100 stores but you pick the one where they have the deal that interests you the most.

      As for being mad at a company, it's really no skin off my teeth if I buy my Luts doll now or next July, and if it's so limited they won't have it next July I'll be buying it now whether they offer a gift or not. I certainly don't waste my time getting mad at companies or even thinking twice about it if they don't offer a gift. I just count in the lack of a gift when totting up in my head where I can get the things I most want and get the best deal.

      As for regularly given gifts taking away the "thrill" and "surprise", c'mon. It's a business transaction. I don't get all thrilled and surprised when I get stuff from a company that wants my business. I buy skin care products, the company puts "free gifts" of tons of free samples in my box so I'll buy from them again or buy certain brands again. I don't dance around the room with glee because they gave me stuff, I think it's nice but...it's business. Pretty ordinary really.
       
    20. I think it's important to take into account the nature of this hobby when looking at an issue like this. Do we have an "entitlement attitude" in the sense that we expect companies to have such promotions? Yes, but there's a reason for it - they themselves have set the precedent that at such-and-such a time they have promotions. We wouldn't(at very least shouldn't) expect something they hadn't given us reason to expect. If Company A has, in its history, promoted absolutely nothing, given absolutely no discounts or any freebies, we would not expect them to start doing that now.

      This is a hobby that has, admittedly, been growing ever since it began, but it is still to a certain extent a "fringe" hobby, as hobbies go. DoA isn't inundated with hundreds of new members every day, and especially due to the expenses involved this hobby has a limited reach. Therefore, doll companies depend a lot on repeat business - customers coming back for more. If all of us who have previously bought from, say, Dollmore, just up and left the hobby there'd be serious money problems. Once we get into this hobby, most of us stay around for quite some time, if at least one or two years. Those who make our dolls are still bound by the reigning almighty yen, dollar, or whathaveyou. They wouldn't be able to reach their profit margin, let alone break even, if they didn't make a product that people would likely buy more than once and have a selection wide enough to encourage and support that. New business is wonderful but unfortunately something that doesn't come up as often in this hobby as might be more helpful.

      Thusly, as others have said similarly, they incentivize, making it more "worth it" to come back again. They want to keep our business, as they rightly should, and make maintaining that a priority. Gift heads, promos, and offers are in part a manifestation of that, something to encourage us to come back again. Similarly, if they're nice to us customers and treat us well and with courtesy and occasional extras, we're even more likely to return. Would you buy from the boutique with the snotty staff if you could go somewhere else just as nice and be treated with courtesy?

      Doll companies have needs too, they have a quota to fill if they're going to stay afloat as businesses. For all we know these freebie gifts and promotions could be the BJD world's version of a Black Friday sale. They call them Black Friday sales because in business profit is measured in terms of red and black - red meaning you haven't broken even yet, and black meaning that you have successfully passed the point where you've at least made back the money you spent in production and advertisement, et cetera; and this includes making a profit. A Black Friday sale is largely intended to get people in the stores buying things to at least get to that break even point, thereby putting them "in the black," at which point profit can come into the picture. This negative connotation of the word "profit" is itself an interesting bugaboo, but that's entirely off-topic.

      Basically, any feelings of entitlement are not so much an entitlement to most people, I think, and as those before me have also said, as it is an expectation of continuity from respectable businesses who engage in respectable and reliable business practices. As for those who think they should get a little reward or something extra for spending $500 or somesuch amount: isn't the doll itself the reward you're looking for?