D'Addario Players Points Program has been gone for three months now....

[studio1087]

I wonder if it was a good move for Jim DAddario to end the program?

I've played D'Addario strings since I was 13. That's 35 years.

I like D'Addario strings the best. I've tried other brands but I like D'Addario.

I always thought that the Players Points program was silly fun....a bonus.....a perc......I never really thought that Players Points caused me to be more brand loyal.

I'm wondering now.

I go to the guitar shop and stand in front of a wall of string brands and now I find myself thinking...."Hmmmm...no more Players Points.....I should really try a few brands. I should try something new. I should live a little - mix it up".

I tend to stock when I buy picks or strings. I'll buy $50-$100 worth of picks and strings and then I don't buy for a few months. I change acoustic strings at least once every 4 weeks and I play acoustic a lot.

I think that I've been a Players Points Prositute and I didn't even now it.

I have T-Shirts, wooden stools, laptop bags, coffee mugs.....tons of stuff.

Now I'm thinking.....I like D'Addario but I should really be open minded and try new brands.



I think they should have kept the program in place. My eye is wandering.

 

[jimd]

I had a bunch of points I was saving when I noticed there were no points on the new pack of strings I just bought. I checked it out and saw they were ending the program. I didn't have enough for a lousy t-shirt, so I just tossed the points I had. I am kind of bummed about it, because I like their strings and thought the points program was a cool thing to do and free advertising.

They are having a contest now where you enter the codes on the string packs into their website and you can win stuff. I got a pack of strings out of the deal.

http://promotions.daddario.com/contest/dtrain/

 

[Mike Bruce]

Luckily I cashed in my last 400 or so points right before they closed the program. Most years I had between 400 and 1000 points to use so I got some giveaway stuff for students and a few t-shirts and whatever for myself.

When I enquired about it, they told me they closed the program because most jurisdictions have recycling programs that take their garbage and they didn't need to encourage people to recycle anymore. It's true where I live, though the recycling company isn't giving me any swag for my efforts...

It won't stop me from using D'Addario strings.

 

[blowtorch]

Shows you how oblivious I am to advertising/promotion. D'Addarios are what I've mostly used my whole life, and I was never even aware of players points

 

[jwsamuel]

In addition to liking the strings more than any other I have tried, I use d'Addario strings because Jim d'Addario has kept manufacturing in the USA and has gone to great lengths to preserve jobs here.

Jim

 

[studio1087]

I saved Mallow Cup points when I was a boy.....I would send away for free Secret Spy Decoder Rings and stuff. It was fun.

The exctintion of Players Points won't stop me from using D'Addario but they might get 80% of my strings now that I'm more apt to try a few packs of something new.

I don't believe that the program ever had anything to do with recycling.

It's just clever marketing. You build a tiny amount of residual money into the product and give back a "freebie" that provides advertizing.

40 people work in my office. Everyone knows that these are my beloved coffee mugs and I've explained to everyone that D'Addario makes the guitar strings that I've used since I was a boy. I've sat through countless meetings with people from all over the country and they've asked about these goofy mugs......

image removed

Thousands of people walk around wearing the shirts. I don't know. Seemed like a fun and clever program to me. They made me feel happy when I got a freebie (I clearly understand that none of this stuff was free to me) and they got tons of advertizing. Branding!

Now I get emails from D'Addario. I get a steady stream of email from D'Adarrio with contests and the sorts of offers that Epiphone emails weekly. It's nearing SPAM.

I liked Players Points.

 

[studio1087]

In addition to liking the strings more than any other I have tried, I use d'Addario strings because Jim d'Addario has kept manufacturing in the USA and has gone to great lengths to preserve jobs here.

Jim

That's a really good point. Thanks for whacking me along side the head with that one. Good reminder. Good point.

 

[Bud Veazey]

Don't throw your accumulated points away. D'Addario says they will start a program later this summer that will allow those of us who still have a pile of points to use them on various Tchotchkes. I buy strings in 25 set bulk packs so I accumulated a lot of points. The Planet Waves gig bags were great deals. Sorry to see the points go, but I'll stick with D'Addario.

 

[DuncanAngus]

Hopefully they do something. I have a drawer full of packages and not sure what to do with them now... I really liked that program.

 

[orpheoet]

Yeah, they told me something is coming late summer as far as the points go. I actually had an issue last year when they were out of everything. Guess this is why.

 

[Stubee]

Man I've used D'Ads for decades on flattop & Fenders & never even heard of this points program. Guess I won't miss it much.

 

[HiggyDude]

Don't throw your accumulated points away. D'Addario says they will start a program later this summer that will allow those of us who still have a pile of points to use them on various Tchotchkes. I buy strings in 25 set bulk packs so I accumulated a lot of points. The Planet Waves gig bags were great deals. Sorry to see the points go, but I'll stick with D'Addario.

That is good to know - I have never redeemed any string points but have just about every package from strings I have bought over the last 10 years...guess I better get busy when they start the program again.

 

[JayFreddy]

Just think of this as a good opportunity to try Rotosound guitar strings. Seriously, the Rotosounds are excellent strings, they remind me a lot of DR strings, but a little less expensive. I like the fact that they give you an extra E string too. I try to buy British products when I can afford them, to reward the Brits for keeping the pound... And for speaking English! lol

A friend of mine recently gave me a box of GHS Boomers as a gift, and I think they've improved alot over the Boomers I remember from the 1980's (when I switch to D'ads). GHS are also made in the USA.

LBNL, Darco strings aren't bad either. Sometimes you can find 'em on sale for stupid-cheap. Made in Mexico, but Mexico's part of NAFTA, and besides, these are the people who invented tacos... Pure genius! :idea:

 

[PrivateIron]

Don't throw your accumulated points away. D'Addario says they will start a program later this summer that will allow those of us who still have a pile of points to use them on various Tchotchkes.

Well fingers crossed! I was saving up for something significant enough to make posting a package full of empty string packets to America worthwhile. I can't justify paying international shipping for a key ring.

 

[ddawson2012]

I saved Mallow Cup points when I was a boy.....I would send away for free Secret Spy Decoder Rings and stuff. It was fun.

The exctintion of Players Points won't stop me from using D'Addario but they might get 80% of my strings now that I'm more apt to try a few packs of something new.

I don't believe that the program ever had anything to do with recycling.

It's just clever marketing. You build a tiny amount of residual money into the product and give back a "freebie" that provides advertizing.

40 people work in my office. Everyone knows that these are my beloved coffee mugs and I've explained to everyone that D'Addario makes the guitar strings that I've used since I was a boy. I've sat through countless meetings with people from all over the country and they've asked about these goofy mugs......

image removed

Thousands of people walk around wearing the shirts. I don't know. Seemed like a fun and clever program to me. They made me feel happy when I got a freebie (I clearly understand that none of this stuff was free to me) and they got tons of advertizing. Branding!

Now I get emails from D'Addario. I get a steady stream of email from D'Adarrio with contests and the sorts of offers that Epiphone emails weekly. It's nearing SPAM.

I liked Players Points.

Don from D'Addario here - we'd like to address your concerns about Players Points and the current "goings-on" in that regard.

Back in the early 90's, I was part of the team that developed players points. It was an important part of our environmental effort to get some of our paper waste back into the recycling stream. The thought that this was a marketing effort truly isn't a fair statement. That effort changed everything from how we disposed of our waste, repurposing things such as Green Bar printouts (remember those enormous tractor fed print-outs - we shredded it and used it as packaging material for shipments), the type of paper we chose to print on - it really altered the way we did things. It was NOT a marketing spin.

Back in the 90's recycling was not nearly at effective and widespread as it is now. Communities have their own recycling program which has greatly diminished the need for us to push harder on this initiative. Jim D'Addario posted this on his blog a few weeks back:

"The D’Addario Player’s Points program was launched in 1991 as a way for us to say thank you to our loyal customers for their continued support of our products. As the marketplace for our products continues to develop globally it has become more and more difficult for us to successfully implement this wonderful customer loyalty program. We have recently decided that we will be phasing out this twenty year old program and will be focusing our efforts on offering exciting giveaway and promotional initiatives on Facebook and our promotions page. Feel free to “Like” us on Facebook to stay up to date on all current promotions.

While we have begun to remove the Player’s Points values from our packaging it may take a while for all the packaging to filter through our operations and our network of distributors and retailers. It is our intention to honor any requests from customers that have collected Player’s Points packaging. Unfortunately we will not have the same extensive catalog of Player’s Points merchandise available going forward, but we will be adding exciting new designs to the existing items. We are pleased to announce that we’ll be introducing an all new Swag Store in late summer 2012 with brand new merchandise and swag items. For the first time we will be offering this merchandise for purchase as well as redeemable with any Player’s Points values that are left out there. We encourage you to use your remaining points now if you see something you like on this page or hold on to them until we introduce the new Swag Store this summer.

We thank you for your continued support of our products and if you have any questions on how to redeem your Player’s Points please contact us at playerspoints@daddario.com.

Yours truly,

Jim D’Addario

So basically, it's going to take 18 or more months to see all the points that are in the marketplace filter thru stores, warehouses, etc - and then back to our offices for fulfillment. We recently added two new shirts and have restocked the Guitar Stool. So although the players points program is officially going away, it'll easily be around for another 18 to 24 months. So save your points - we'll be adding more items over the summer - you can check what's currently available here --> (link removed)

And lastly, i would like to address the concern about Spam or in this case "nearly spam". Our FRET BUZZ email goes out once a month. We don't contact anyone on our list privately either. If you are on our email list for any of our other products (Rico Reeds, Pro Mark Drumsticks, Evans Drumheads, or D'Addario Bowed Products), you would receive another point of contact from them.

If you feel you are receiving too many emails from us, please let us know. Our intent is to provide you up-to-date content on our products, programs, promotions and artist involvement. You can email me directly at don.dawson2@daddario.com if you would like to have your name removed or if you have further comment you'd like to share with me privately.

We appreciate everyone's past patronage and to those of you that have enjoyed the players points program, please know that it was not an easy decision to make. As one who was integral in getting the program started, it was with a very heavy heart that I agreed that it was a good idea. Thanks for your comments.

 

[Skub]

Shows you how oblivious I am to advertising/promotion. D'Addarios are what I've mostly used my whole life, and I was never even aware of players points

Likewise,it's all news to me.

 

[drb1346]

Thanks for the comments, Don. You've cleared things up, which was needed. . . .

 

[drb1346]

No way I'm changing from my electric 9's and acoustic EJ's

 

[sixstringbastard]

Never heard of it. Now I'm wondering if Ernie Ball has a similar program

 

[Mike Bruce]

Don from D'Addario here - we'd like to address your concerns about Players Points and the current "goings-on" in that regard.

Back in the early 90's, I was part of the team that developed players points. It was an important part of our environmental effort to get some of our paper waste back into the recycling stream. The thought that this was a marketing effort truly isn't a fair statement. That effort changed everything from how we disposed of our waste, repurposing things such as Green Bar printouts (remember those enormous tractor fed print-outs - we shredded it and used it as packaging material for shipments), the type of paper we chose to print on - it really altered the way we did things. It was NOT a marketing spin.

Back in the 90's recycling was not nearly at effective and widespread as it is now. Communities have their own recycling program which has greatly diminished the need for us to push harder on this initiative. Jim D'Addario posted this on his blog a few weeks back:

"The D’Addario Player’s Points program was launched in 1991 as a way for us to say thank you to our loyal customers for their continued support of our products. As the marketplace for our products continues to develop globally it has become more and more difficult for us to successfully implement this wonderful customer loyalty program. We have recently decided that we will be phasing out this twenty year old program and will be focusing our efforts on offering exciting giveaway and promotional initiatives on Facebook and our promotions page. Feel free to “Like” us on Facebook to stay up to date on all current promotions.

While we have begun to remove the Player’s Points values from our packaging it may take a while for all the packaging to filter through our operations and our network of distributors and retailers. It is our intention to honor any requests from customers that have collected Player’s Points packaging. Unfortunately we will not have the same extensive catalog of Player’s Points merchandise available going forward, but we will be adding exciting new designs to the existing items. We are pleased to announce that we’ll be introducing an all new Swag Store in late summer 2012 with brand new merchandise and swag items. For the first time we will be offering this merchandise for purchase as well as redeemable with any Player’s Points values that are left out there. We encourage you to use your remaining points now if you see something you like on this page or hold on to them until we introduce the new Swag Store this summer.

We thank you for your continued support of our products and if you have any questions on how to redeem your Player’s Points please contact us at playerspoints@daddario.com.

Yours truly,

Jim D’Addario

So basically, it's going to take 18 or more months to see all the points that are in the marketplace filter thru stores, warehouses, etc - and then back to our offices for fulfillment. We recently added two new shirts and have restocked the Guitar Stool. So although the players points program is officially going away, it'll easily be around for another 18 to 24 months. So save your points - we'll be adding more items over the summer - you can check what's currently available here --> (link removed)

And lastly, i would like to address the concern about Spam or in this case "nearly spam". Our FRET BUZZ email goes out once a month. We don't contact anyone on our list privately either. If you are on our email list for any of our other products (Rico Reeds, Pro Mark Drumsticks, Evans Drumheads, or D'Addario Bowed Products), you would receive another point of contact from them.

If you feel you are receiving too many emails from us, please let us know. Our intent is to provide you up-to-date content on our products, programs, promotions and artist involvement. You can email me directly at don.dawson2@daddario.com if you would like to have your name removed or if you have further comment you'd like to share with me privately.

We appreciate everyone's past patronage and to those of you that have enjoyed the players points program, please know that it was not an easy decision to make. As one who was integral in getting the program started, it was with a very heavy heart that I agreed that it was a good idea. Thanks for your comments.

You see, besides the great reliable product, this attitude is a reason I keep buying D'Addario. Much appreciate you input. Thanks.