July/August Editorial
Dear Gary:
I want to say thanks, first of all, for such a lucid analysis of what’s going on in the Consumer Electronics market these days. I worked at Nicholson’s Hi-Fi here in Nashville for 16 years, and always focused my very successful retail and CI sales career on demonstrating better products and educating my customers. The whole time I worked there, we maintained our largest showroom as a two-channel-only demo room. I firmly believe that there is still a responsive market for this kind of store. Unfortunately, Nicholson’s has now been purchased by a custom-only installation company that as yet, has no showroom at all, and when they do have one, it will be in a model/sales unit of a condominium tower!
I read an interesting article about three years ago that chronicled how as automobiles have gotten exponentially better over the last 30 years, they have also gotten commensurately more expensive, while as consumer electronics products have also improved, their prices are declining! The article was basically asking, what’s up with that? I don’t understand why our industry continues to march down a path that may lead to its ruin, or at least to its extreme degradation in terms of quality and performance.
Brian Warford, President, LSA Group, www.thelsagroup.com
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments:
The trend in custom installation and hybrid retailers is to focus on lifestyle showrooms without the capability to A/B compare product performance. This is contributing to the “dumbing down” scenario that is impacting the high-performance segment. When I am told that consumers are putting their trust into a custom installer to pick the products and spend their budget, I find it hard to understand why. It is not within my experience to purchase, for example, an automobile (costing in the thousands of dollars) blindly and have the dealer choose the features and upgrades, or to design a home and not dictate the build quality and the selection of materials and appliances. A high-performance home theatre is expensive and is more than just the screen and projector or display that is typically the feature product of the lifestyle showroom. There are numerous options in both the video department and the audio department, as well as the quality of the connectivity and control aspects that should be demonstrated for the potential customer to appreciate the performance nuances and price differential.
If performance is desirable then I believe that it is wise for the consumer to experience in person the range of product performance and to do comparison evaluations. If, on the other hand, the home theatre purchase is driven by the interior design “look,” to impress or to “hide” from sight, then for those consumers high performance could be less of a prerequisite in their purchase.
I fully realize that it is becoming increasingly difficult for “high-end” companies to find and hold a niche. However, I think there will always be a niche for better quality products and services as long as there are people who can afford them and see the value in them. The high-end performance segment is now challenged with figuring out how to educate them and capture their imagination.
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