Industry Voices

July 30, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

Once there was an electronics Camelot era, when computers were bigger than DeSotos, the Internet a gleam in Al Gore’s eye, and people devoted time to music. (Specifically those people were college students, who shopped Wednesday afternoon when classes ended at 11:55 am, and all of Thursday when they cancelled Chem Lab.)

Hunkering down with Stereo Review and Popular Electronics, in ancient days preceding PCs or video games, technologically gifted consumers obsessed over Hi-Fi. They spent hours at Tech Hi-Fi, Sound Advice, Playback, or Pacific Stereo listening to speaker nuances, memorizing amplifier specifications, and generally driving floor sales people crazy.

In those days company X was a middle of the road electronics line, competing with Pi...Read More

January 23, 2007 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

Selling more dealers might result in lower sales volume

Raising prices could increase unit sales

Simplification may undermine success stemming from complexity

Manufacturers or retailers counting on low prices to compete — rather than their range of options like service, expertise, bundling, installation, education, et al — may actually collapse sales and customer support.

Everybody in our industry grumbles about a lack of profitability. You’d think the groundswell of disgust alone would launch actions to counter the trend. Probably in time it will. As a catalyst to spur just such a movement, I’m outlining four examples of past marketing opportunities. Maybe some decision makers can apply these historic lessons to today’s marketing mess. The fi...Read More

December 19, 2006 | Link This | Email this | Comments (11)

This blog will attempt to pass along historical views, along with a sometimes impious perspective on marketing tools like UMRP, distribution or relationships. No single answer works for every question, and any activity can be dead wrong under certain circumstances. For example:

• Selling more dealers might result in lower sales volume
• Raising prices could increase sales
• Simplification may undermine success stemming from complexity

Example 1 comes from the 1960’s — Smirnoff Embraces Price Chic

Years ago a popular college case study in marketing had to do with vodka. Use of vodka itself was also somewhat popular in college. Designer drugs had not yet been developed, so brown liquids (Scotch, beer, bourbon) dominated intoxication. Vodka was faintly alien, like wine, ki...Read More