A
secular change in attitude is sweeping the country, replacing conspicuous consumption with conspicuous frugality. From big business to mom and pop, it's smart and trendy now to save money, ask for discounts, and shop for bargains. As the stock market sinks and unemployment rises, today's status symbol is the hot deal.
It seems like only yesterday that conversations in the office and the mall centered on new houses, new cars, private schools, and planned summer vacations. Now folks openly admit stock market losses while proudly boasting of self-reliant lifestyles and making do with less.
The thrifty mood of the country, prompted by a deepening recession, is helping Alibre take advantage of our penny-pinching ways. We were frugal before it was cool, and now we can see a growing appreciation for our approach among customers.
During the boom years, Alibre was sort of like the Rodney Dangerfield of 3D CAD, we couldn’t get any respect. Companies would learn about Alibre, check out our product, learn that we could do the job and then buy SolidWorks or Inventor anyway. When asked why they would say “my boss doesn’t understand how Alibre can be so inexpensive” or that they “wanted to make the popular choice to use what others were using” or that “cost was not a factor.”
During the last few months the conversations have changed, now we are much more likely to hear, “we were looking at Solidworks, but there is no way we will spend that kind of money.” This is especially true of companies that need to buy multiple design seats. With our recent 2 for 1 seat sale, companies could by 5 seats of Alibre Design for ~$3,000 including maintenance, whereas 5 seats of Solidworks with maintenance would have cost $30,000.
And with recent addition of Alibre Translate, companies can be successful with their older CAD files and take advantage of Alibre’s Professional, Affordable 3D CAD.
A factor of 10 in a down economy is pretty compelling.
Comments