Audio Advistor, Music Direct, Acoustic Sounds… the big time… or last gasp?
OK. Well. The title kind of says it.
When a product starts appearing in one of these, the 3 big high-end audio mail order catalogs [we can all elusivedisc here too], what does it mean? What do people think?
Is this is kind of similar to them appearing in Ultimate Electronics (bankrupt now), Tweeters (bankrupt), Circuit City (uh…), Best Buy (still with us), …
Is it an act of desperation on the part of the manufacturer? Is it a vote of no-confidence in their dealer network? Is it the old extended ‘middle finger’ to their dealer network? Is it a way to have ‘internet sales’ without ‘being on the internet’?
Why do people buy from these catalogs? Do they have more confidence in a telephone jockey who has never heard any of this gear than in a dealer? Are they unable to find their dealer [what with all the geographical restrictions and many manufacturers not listing their dealers, requiring the audiophile to make an extra call]. Do audiophiles feel that dealers are just plain more obnoxious sales people than a catalog sales person?
Is it just the convenience of leafing through a catalog, or browsing an [well done] online store – combined with the ease of clicking Buy or just dialing the number printed on every page – that allows these catalogs to make sales?
Ultimate Electronics (Sound Track) had good catalogs. But they died. However, they were put out, I think twice a year, not every month. So maybe that is the difference. I do not think Amazon killed them – the prices weren’t all that different, and the convenience factor of shopping locally is huge. The Ultimate Electronics sales people were often creepy, though, which can be a bother.
Anyway, I see brands in these catalog, some of which we carry even, and we hear various reports of how these mail order catalogs DO and/or DO NOT [all insider info we have heard to date is that they DO NOT sell much gear – but let’s ignore that for a bit] generate any sales. And it is just a strange kind of eco-system, separate from the fray of actually listening to music, playing music for other people, meeting people, making friends, investing in equipment to show people, etc. and in some sense they should not be very successful.
But we do see various brands that had not previously been associated with ‘mail order’ in these catalogs – new ones every month [and some dropping by the wayside]. And it always makes us wonder…. why? Are manufactures trying to sell mass quantities through these catalogs, giving up on their withering dealer network?
Should dealers themselves be mailing monthly catalogs out? Should they have online ‘stores’, perhaps without carts, but offering the audiophile a pleasant browsing learning experience? Perhaps all us dealers should get together and create a giant – UN-mail order SUPER catalog for the rest of us – automatically routing audiophile’s inquiries and sales / pickups to their local dealer?
Thinking about car manufacturers (like audi.com) they do some of this, and even some high end audio manufacturers do some of this, but perhaps they need to add a Buy Now button, offering no fuss no muss buying and local pickup. Then they would actually support their dealers, the new internet economy, and their customers – as opposed to running from the internet and disenfranchising their dealer network – which is what is happening now when they sign up with the mail order catalog industry.
That is if the DO make money… that these mail order catalogs DO sell equipment (and not just music). What if they DO NOT?
Manufactures definitely appreciate the additional eyeballs / mailing lists that these places have built up. But they do not have as many eyeballs as one might think [about 6 to 10 times as much as this blog does on a good month].
In the end, after all this, are these catalogs nothing but audio porn? People read. People lust. People wish fervently. But in the end – nothing real comes of it?
[These catalogs give Neli heartburn. However, I do not mind them at all; they are kind of like a hard copy brochure-ware-type show report with a lot of photos of gear and some facts. So I just thought I’d explore the world of mail order catalogs here a little…]
I doubt that there is any one reason why manufacturers choose to sell products through mass market distribution (MMD), but suspect that you have identified some of the major causes. It may be useful to look carefully at what a particular manufacturer is selling through MMD. For instance, some manufacturers use MMD to unload out of date equipment or product (last year’s model) much in the same way that new car dealers unload stock at the end of the model year. I think that this is the case with Audioquest. Others may have the need to convert inventory to cash. Given that many manufacturers have adopted the just in time sourcing model or only build product after they have received an order and a down payment, this makes some sense. Others may be experiencing temporary cash flow problems. In any event, I think that ther is little doubt that this practice takes sales away from brick and mortar retailers and is contributing to their demise. Personally, I like the model where dealers try to represent products that strongly police their dealers and do not sell out of the back door or through MMD.
As you have pointed out, the falacy of buying from these MMD’s is the lack of knowledge of the products and support to the customers. In the end, you get what you pay for.
Well put, Fred.
The only innocuous scenario is that manufacturers are using these catalogs as free advertising vehicles – because no one is buying anything from these catalogs – but a lot of us are looking 🙂
I mean not buying *equipment*; we personally have spent a good deal on *music* at all of these places 🙂
Take care,
-Mike
It would be interesting to know if gear purchases from these catalogs occur disproportionately frequently from folks in rural areas where even the nearest dealer may be hundreds of miles away. It’s a big daggone country.
I do know that dealers feel like they’ve been given the finger when one of their brands appears in a catalog.
On the other hand, audio stores and their personnel, particularly high end stores, do frequently take a very snotty attitude toward potential customers. I experienced it first-hand with someone I’d never met at an NYC store I had once worked in, and I overhead a sales person in the Westchester outlet of another NYC store, (who normally worked in the Manhattan store), express frustration that he couldn’t determine which people coming in the door were ‘worth talking to’ based on their clothing. (Millionaires dressed like farmers really pissed him off.) He actually had to TALK to them.
Now, this is East Coast, specifically NYC-biased, but I’ve read enough anecdotal evidence on-line to know it ain’t just the big apple.
Hi Dave,
That sales person would be REALLY upset out here in the west, where we don’t dress like farmers [not sure what that is exactly] but we all do dress REAL casual.
Then again, dressing down is a way to tell sales people to ‘leave me alone, if I need you I’ll ask for you’.
Continuing on the general subject…
in the recent April 4 hardcopy issue of TWICE, There were two [so far] large articles on Best Buy and its problems [as a representative brick and mortar ‘survivor’]. “Best Buy Beefing Up Web, Downsizing Stores”. Cutting CD shelf space in 1/2. Focusing on Mobile, gaming and … appliances. “Best Buy’s Problems are Industry’s Problems”. “Salespeople to be retrained to be knowledgeable, professional and consumer-friendly”.
The Best Buy people I run into are all that – but I realize it is uneven across stores and across salespeople. When you get down to it, if you want to create a little home theater for your new flatscreen [or a decent, or maybe even, a great, sounding stereo] , you can hang out at some forum for several months, spending 100s of hours – or ask a smart salesperson and get something today. This is THE advantage of good brick&mortar. But there DOES have to be trust and mutual respect, as well as expertise present.
Take care,
-Mike
Hi Mike,
To a Manhattanite high end salesperson (at least the one in question), it means wearing khakis or jeans, a flannel shirt and shoes not handmade in Italy or England with your multi-kilobuck suit.
No doubt rent, salaries, insurance (loss liability and health) and energy costs let a lot of air out of the bricks ‘n mortar business model balloon. And that’s for a store with a broad appeal and a steady flow of customers. High end, esp. minus home theatre, is very much a niche, boutique-y industry where there is not a steady flow, even in urban centers.
In the case of high end audio, that gets intensified by the ever-accelerating of the lowering of musical expectations and dumbing down of the music reproduction gear customer. If heavily compressed CDs and MP3s are the norm, lets’ face it, there’s very little point, for the VAST majority of the population to high end audio.
That explains the transition to home-based, high end, 2 ch. stereo outlets run by people with day jobs. But it doesn’t really explain the appearance of high end gear in catalogs. To make purchase decisions that don’t end in disappointment, a customer really needs to hear the gear, which is clearly impossible in a catalog-based model. Or at least the person on selling end of) the phone needs to have spent a lot of informed listening time in order to provide useful, reliable advice. Again, not possible in the catalog-based model.
I think perhaps the problem is one of desperate manufacturers scrabbling to stay in business combined with musically (in terms of musical repro quality) starved, under-educated consumers.
Dave
Well, while that vast majority of sales are software, I think that more hardware is being purchased at these places than meets the eye. This is especially true in the vinyl space with cartridges and turntables. Cables are another relatively hot area.
The fact is that consumers are learning to buy more and more things – including big ticket things – sight unseen. The ‘sales guidance’ comes from mags, web sites, and forums.
And the risk to the consumer can be lower than buying local. Many of these sellers have no-questions-asked, 30-day money-back guarantees. This is better for knowledgable audiophiles than the policies of many local dealers. This gives the buyer 28 days to test synergy and fit, with only postage at risk!
I predict that this trend will accelerate. Look at the new “local shows” construct. Great place to get a (very?) rough idea of how a piece looks and performs. And, let’s be honest, few local dealers have your expertise Fred. And I don’t see a lot of new Fred’s coming up through the ranks.
Finally, audiophiles are loners. Most of us don’t like to deal with negotiating price, begging for a 3-day home audition, or – heaven forbid – explaining why we want to return a custom order.
Having said all that, a great local dealer rekindled my interest in the high end 10 years ago…and I love to go to certain dealers and just “talk shop.” (I live in the Bay Area, and we are blessed with some very good shops.)
So the change brings with it definite costs and regrets.
Bob