Hi.

Thanks for your kind words.

By the way, I have met members from the Atlanta Audio Society at shows all over the country, and so if you are not already a member, I am sure they would have the lowdown on all regional dealers.

The entire issue of where audio shows fit in the "ecosystem" of audio retailing is multi-faceted. For many people, audio is a hobby. But when you have anywhere from 2 to 43 people depending upon you for their families' livelihoods, it has to be a business. Most businesses cannot afford to advertise everywhere and promote everywhere; they have to choose their targets. If an audio manufacturer was a prime exhibitor (rather than a room-sharer) at CEDIA, CES, all the US regional audio shows, and the two Canadian consumer audio shows, it could easily run to $100,000 a year.

The problem is (other than the obvious problem that not too many businesses have $100,000 lying around) that it does not seem likely that exhibiting at all those shows is going to generate the $1 million in new business (at wholesale) necessary tp justify that level of additional marketing expense.

There is a truism that everybody knows that they mis-spend half their advertising budget, but nobody is sure which half. However, expecially in a recession, it's hard to spend that kind of money and have people tell you that as soon as the economy improves, they will think about asking their wives about buying some new loudspeakers.

I have no magic answers, but I did think I had some insights that might get other people thinking about the problem from new perspectives.

Again, Thanks.

John Marks

deckeda wrote:

You'd be surprised how unhelpful Google can be at finding local sales of high end audio.

It's not entirely Google's fault.  In order to be picked up by search engines, dealers will have to come up with ways to make themselves more visible.

In many ways, local retailers don't do themselves any favours on the web  So few even provide pricing on their sites; often all they have is a list of products and link to the manufacturers' sites; I can google that myself.  And while they are at it, update the site more than once a year - information about last March's spring blow out isn't all that useful in September. 

I have to aree with smitty , many dealers don't seem  interested in there web sites , I checked out the site of a locale dealer , under the heading ( used gear )  the last entry was a year and a half old . I guess there so busy they don't have time . I also noticed that when there is a special event approaching it dosen't appear on there site till a day or two before that event , almost like an after thought .

                                                                                                                                                                              Regards  Tim

These days, local audio salons don't make money from looky-loos among the general population, they have to target folks with substantial disposable income who might become repeat customers.  I think that's why you don't see a lot of advertising at the plebian level. Instead, they tend to use local audiophile-interest clubs, upscale home decor magazines and other high-end vehicles to promote their goods and services.

These days local audio salons can decide that they don't make any money from 'looky-loos' and then complain about declining sales, or they can start thinking about themselves as retailers instead of salon owners and view everyone who comes in the door as potential customer.