The Art Of Bose Bashing
Dan Baw
lifting your article, Perry):
Tips from the Bose Marketing Playbook
by Perry Marshall Copyright © 2003 Perry Marshall, All Rights Reserved.
Before I tell you what every marketer and product developer should
learn from a successful stereo speaker manufacturer, you need to know why
you should listen to me in the first place.
I've been part of the audio industry for 21 of my 34 years - I built my
first pair of speakers when I was 13, and as a young entrepreneur, made my
first speaker sale to a paying customer when I was 14.
I studied electrical engineering and acoustics in college, then
designed speakers at Jensen, where I was involved in projects for the Honda
Civic, Ford Probe, Acura Vigor, Jeep Cherokee, Chrysler Cirrus/Stratus and
even a skunkworks subwoofer project for Advent.
Today, as a marketing consultant to tech firms, I constantly talk to
people who are frustrated because they have a "superior" product but can't
get anyone to take a serious look at it. If you've ever had that
frustration, then take a look at how Bose attracts new customers.
Several years ago, I moved from engineering to the dark side -
marketing. These days, I don't design cutting-edge products; I help people
publicize and sell them. So having walked along both sides of the fence, I
can assure you there are a few lessons to be learned from a marketing-savvy,
technology-driven company such as Bose.
Some people in the speaker business don't like Bose. Bring up the
subject in a bar full of audio engineers and you'll get an earful of
epithets and insults. Kind of like mentioning Keanu Reeves in a room full of
aspiring actors.
There are two reasons for that. First, the company is wildly
successful. Bose is often the first brand consumers think of when someone
says "speakers," and irritates designers at competing companies. Second -
its designs violate all kinds of industry conventions, and Bose speakers do
not always perform well according to the traditional criteria many speaker
engineers consider important.
Simply put, Bose does not build the speaker that a typical acoustical
engineer wants. They build the speaker that a butcher, baker or candlestick
maker wants to buy. Their products are packaged brilliantly - not from an
engineer's point of view, but from a customer's point of view. That's why
they're one of the biggest companies in the business.
Consider the Bose Wave Radio. After people hear the story about the
acoustic wave guide and integrated signal processing, it never occurs to
them that this thing is a glorified boombox.
For example, their acoustic wave guide is valuable, not because it
suspends the laws of physics for never-before-achieved bass response or some
such thing, but because it creates a story for Paul Harvey and the rest of
the advertising department to tell.
The waveguide is not better, it's just different. And different is the
key. Bose commands a lot more money for this product - more than almost
everyone else out there. That really upsets engineers who know this stuff
is not magic.
So here is the lesson: Most products have some kind of subtle
innovation or twist inside, something that might not initially seem to
matter but can, nonetheless, create an interesting story.
What untold story lurks beneath your product?
Other tactics from the Bose playbook:
* They package their products to make it hard to comparison shop.
Consider the Wave Radio again - not quite a boombox, not quite a clock
radio; and far more profitable than either
* They use celebrity endorsements: Paul Harvey extols their virtues on
his popular radio program
* Bose creates a story for every product they sell. Simplified
illustrations of their speakers show sound wave diagrams that make you feel
smart
* Their ads are keyed with special codes so they know which ones are
producing results
* They recycle old ideas. Their Acoustimass products, which can be
credited with popularizing subwoofers in the 80's, are patterned after some
obscure designs that were popular in the UK in the 60's. "If you need a new
idea, read an old book."
I'm part of a newsgroup that discusses audio topics. I recently got a
message from a guy named Alan who says, "I went out with this girl on a
blind date. When I told her I built speakers, she asked me if I could make
some just like those neat Bose speakers she saw in the store."
His response? "Aaaarrrrgghhh!"
So I told him this: "I've been in the speaker world for 21 years, three
of them as a professional driver designer. Throughout my engineering career,
I harboured a healthy disdain for Bose. During my Jensen days, when people
would find out that I designed speakers, they would ask, "What do you think
of those new Bose [AM5] speakers?" Translated this means: "As a professional
speaker designer, can you comment on their wonderful breakthrough technology
and the thunderous bass that comes from those tiny little cubes?"
At the time, I viewed the AM5s as something designed to help buyers
part with seven hundred bucks. A fantastic plan on Bose's part, considering
what I estimated it cost to manufacture them. I often told people what I
thought, too. A couple of times, though, I had to remove my foot from my
mouth when I learned that the person I was speaking to owned a pair.
For the last seven years, I've been away from the engineering side and
in the profession of sales and marketing. During my first two years in
sales, I had the exquisite privilege of living on baloney sandwiches and
Ramen soup. Things started to turn around for me when I got through my thick
head something Bose clearly understands and has understood for many years:
Don't sell people what you think they should want.
Sell them what they want.
Do most people want flat frequency response?
No.
Do most people want low Total Harmonic Distortion?
No.
Do most people want phase coherence, imaging that's precise to the
twelfth decimal place or superior impulse response?
No.
What do people want? Small, unobtrusive design. Exciting sound.
Glamorous, impressive technology that will make their friends salivate and
their wives amorous. (Note: huge, room-dominating Klipschorns or Cerwin
Vegas don't have that effect on most women).
Bose gives the people exactly what they want. Everybody else gives them
a woofer, a tweeter and a simulated woodgrain box. Have a close listen to
all those non-Bose $600 speakers on the showroom floor, and they all sound
similar because most speaker manufacturers know how to get a reasonably flat
frequency response.
Audio journalist Tom Nousaine once told me about visiting Bose in
Framingham, Massachusetts, meeting Amar Bose and listening to an amazing
concert hall architectural simulation software/hardware system they had
developed. Very impressive, state-of-the-art technology, according to Tom.
Clearly, the people at Bose have the technology; no one can say they
don't. But they use their technology to their advantage, and they make a lot
of money doing it.
So does that make the people at Bose bad people?
No, just fantastically wealthy people, with happy customers, who get
more respect than most speaker guys out there.
And there's a lot to be said for that.
Larry
hucksters at the carnival. He gives his listeners the impression that he
personally will send them his products. Heck he probably goes down to the
mail room occasionally to tell the boys to be careful when they send Miss
White her new Bose radio since she's been a faithful listener for over forty
years. Unfortunately my own mother was one of those "Miss Whites". I don't
dislike Paul Harvey. In fact, I admire how he has been able to sell. It
would be nice to know the sales figures for Bose radio and his listeners. I
bet he commands top dollar for his endorsements.
"Dan Baw" <dan...@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:BC57DD90.AA83%dan...@swbell.net...