What is Martin Logan's current policy regarding discounts?

[Peter Hogan]

You ever notice that Bose are never setup so they can be A-B'd with other speakers or systems? Unless, of course you go to a Bose store and then you can compare them to other Bose speakers.

Also, Bose must have an enormous budget for marketing and advertising. Same for Monster. Speaking of Monster; didn't they buy the rights to put their name on a stadium last year?

Just two examples of over-marketed brands and all the associated costs ultimately passed on to the consumer. Too much money goes into ads. Much more so than research/development, quality control and customer service.

[vent]
Hi,
Have you ever tried to get even BASIC specs for any Bose product from a brochure or the website? Like watts per channel, distortion figures, or speaker size, frequency response, or even size and/or number of drivers? You won't find them, makes it too easy to see how little you're getting for your money...if you could do an easy comparison based on standard specs, you'd never choose their brand.
[/vent]

Peter

 

[LaserMark4]

[vent]
Hi,
Have you ever tried to get even BASIC specs for any Bose product from a brochure or the website? Like watts per channel, distortion figures, or speaker size, frequency response, or even size and/or number of drivers? You won't find them, makes it too easy to see how little you're getting for your money...if you could do an easy comparison based on standard specs, you'd never choose their brand.
[/vent] Peter

Definitely smoke and mirrors, especially to the uninformed buyers-- which is where they continue to market to.

 

[longhorn]

That is because Bose employs some very good marketing people. If you remember a few years back, Alpine was known for having the best car stereos on the market. Now Alpine is made in Japan just like the majority of their competitors but their claim to fame was that they were featured in some exoctic sports cars as standard equipment. Alpine has a distribution center here in Indianapolis and an old classmate of mine was their North American Sales Director. I was visiting him at the DC one day and happened to run into their Chief Engineer over from Japan. Not to pass up an opportunity to learn, I asked him "What makes Alpine so much better than your competition?" His response was simply "Sales and Marketing". I had to ask what he meant and his next response was "All same inside. We all buy same parts. All same parts inside. Sales and Marketing make us better." You might also be surprised to learn that the stereos in the old Chrysler "K" cars that were known for their failure rate came from Alpine. You used the word "mystique" but I prefer to use the phrase "Sales & Marketing".

I use the word mystique,because people buy Bose on blind faith. Because the prices are higher,it must be good,so the masses think. Again, you will find steep discounts on Pioneer,Sony and the like, but not Bose (in general).

I was in an audio/visual store in San Antonio called Bijorns,walked into one of their rooms with McIntosh gear. The customers were impressed with the gear by the name only stating how their dad's Mac gear was still sounding great and that they aspire to one day own Mac gear. People think the same for Bose too.

The masses SHOULD have that type of thinking when it comes to highend. So while Monster,and Bose may spend alot on marketing, it may be template in how to do business. Martin logan has shown that they get "it",by selling some of their speakers at the big box stores.

 

[MarkNewbie]

I use the word mystique,because people buy Bose on blind faith. Because the prices are higher,it must be good,so the masses think. Again, you will find steep discounts on Pioneer,Sony and the like, but not Bose (in general).

I was in an audio/visual store in San Antonio called Bijorns,walked into one of their rooms with McIntosh gear. The customers were impressed with the gear by the name only stating how their dad's Mac gear was still sounding great and that they aspire to one day own Mac gear. People think the same for Bose too.

The masses SHOULD have that type of thinking when it comes to highend. So while Monster,and Bose may spend alot on marketing, it may be template in how to do business. Martin logan has shown that they get "it",by selling some of their speakers at the big box stores.

I certainly agree with you're comment about it being a template in how to do business. Of course, I was a Marketing major in college so I pay very close attention to these things. The business world is all about ROI (return on investment). This is even more intense in publically traded companys where year over year and quarter over quarter improvements are the expectation and anything less is cause for alarm for those in the thin air at the top. Comparing McIntosh to Bose is more like comparing Apples and Oranges. One is hifi while the other is midfi. The masses think Bose is great stuff because Bose markets itself as great stuff. Great marketing campaigns take so much and so many minut details into account. Colors play a factor. Shapes of letters play a factor. The list goes on and on. A great marketing campaign is expensive. It has to have ROI. Where do you think that ROI comes from? If you guessed the buying public, you have finished business 101 and can now proceed to business 201. Others have made comments about A/B comparisons or the lack thereof. Makes sense in Bose's marketing strategy. "I'm telling you that I'm great and thats all you need!" But then there are people like you and me (and others on here). We have listened to Martin Logan, B&W, Wilson and others. We know the difference between that midfi sound and our hifi sound. To stop rambling, I think you have made some excellent points in you're post. I think the masses will always be as they are, thinking something is great because some smart marketing guy came up with a great way to tell them it's great.