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October 21, 2009 - 7:15pm
#1
Letter: Consumers vs. Retailers: My response
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That was a great blog entry.
Good insight into how your business model works.
Really depressing about how a manufacturer needs to churn model numbers to satisfy the retail world!
Seriously, a company could make a great unit, but if it stays on the market too long, it kills its own retail value! I had never thought about it that way. It was an eye opener!
Welcome, by the way. I bet you have some fresh takes!
Cheers.
Thank you for the kind words. It needed to be said. There is a lot of misunderstanding about what an e commerce business is and can do. Especially in the audio industry. Manufacturers have been bullied into "no ecommerce" policies by brick and mortar retailers who don't understand what it could do for their business if they embraced it.
I was treated rudely by a manufacturer at RMAF recently. The moment this individual heard I had a web site, he stopped talking to me. I couldn't even Ayre out the fact that I had a showroom and serve local clientele too. I didn't even get the chance to tell him that I could serve customers who didn't have dealers near them. He wouldn't hear it. The wall just went up, and his brain shut down.
Sadly, that is not an uncommon reaction. And people wonder why this hobby is dying.
very interesting post. i liked it. interestingly, i live in an area that has a large population, but is underserved by the traditional high-end stores. a good friend of mine has been a cable maker and high-end amp builder for several years. he went to the last rmaf and has made agreements to represent several good products that are highly underrepresented in the marketplace. he too is using a dedicated room as a showroom and does a great deal of internet marketing with an excellent webpage.
i think you both have probably hit on one of the waves of the future for marketing this type of product.
best of luck.
Trunkslammers unite!
I realize the model is changing but my seemingly farcical reply has an aura of truth to it (with respect to how the prior and in flux 'B&M' retailer based market sees it), whether we like it or not.