Indianapolis – Klipsch Group is implementing a new
go-to-market strategy for its Jamo and Mirage speaker brands to accelerate Jamo
product development and reposition Mirage as a Jamo adjunct series focused on
application-specific speakers, said Klipsch Group CEO Paul Jacobs.
Klipsch will also merge the brands’ dealer bases.
The efforts will
bolster both brands’ market share in North America and globally, Jacobs said.
Some of the first North American products developed under the new strategy will
be shown at the CEDIA Expo in sample form, he added.
To accelerate Jamo
product development, the company is closing Jamo’s two-person R&D facility
in Denmark to “bring the full resources” of Klipsch’s near-30-person
state-of-the-art R&D facility in Indianapolis to the brand, Jacobs said.
All of Jamo’s industrial design, however, will remain in Denmark to maintain
the brand’s distinctive cosmetics. “You’ll see a lot more visionary innovative
products coming faster from Jamo,” Jacobs promised.
For its part, Mirage
will leverage Jamo’s stronger distribution, particularly in markets outside
North America, while offering products clearly differentiated from Jamo’s,
Jacobs said. Jamo will continue to focus on direct-radiating speakers, while
Mirage will continue to offer its signature omnipolar driver design. Mirage
will also focus on bringing omnipolar technology to application-specific
“form-follows-function” speakers, such as a planned SKU that will be displayed
at the Expo and do triple-duty as a floorstanding, wall-mount or ceiling-mount
speaker, Jacobs said.
Jamo will also offer
a greater breadth of products than Mirage, he added.
The two brands will
maintain a “totally different approach in technology and form factor,” Jacobs
promised. Neither brand will share core differentiating technologies, though
they will share other engineering resources, he said.
Besides sharing some
engineering resources, the two brands will share distribution. Both brands
previously had separate dealer agreements, but they will be replaced over the
next 90 days with one dealer agreement. In general, Jamo dealers will become
Mirage dealers and vice versa as long as the change doesn’t create channel
conflict in a market, Jacobs said. “We’ll deal with that [channel conflict]
first,” he said.
At the CEDIA Expo,
Klipsch will outline its product roadmap for both brands, show samples of new
products, and by January’s International CES, “be in full stride,” Jacobs said.
Jamo products on display at the Expo will include active, freestanding speakers
incorporating wireless-RF technology to stream music.
Also as part of the brand
strategy, Glen Fuller assumed the role of lead product designer for the Jamo
brand. He has more than 20 years of product design experience.
In other changes,
Jamo is relocating its EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) office to Paris to
provide “a centralized hub for direct sales opportunities, the brand’s first
dedicated showroom and training facility, and improved channel management,” a
Klipsch statement said.
