What High End Manufacturers Could Learn From Bose

High-end audio is invisible - but it need not be so. Take Porsche as an example: how many people can afford one? How many people actually buy one? And how many WANT one?

Porsches are not cheap, they are not compromised (well, maybe their new cheapo ~$30-40K models). Hi-end audio can also remain expensive and uncompromised and be desired by the masses (is this not the definition of of being a target of desire in the materialistic world? :-).

So why are we not there yet? I am not a marketing maven, but it may have something to do with the fact that I never see anyone parading around the city with their brand new, bright red, Revel Salons (i.e. the 'show-off' factor is severely lacking ;-). In this way, high-end audio is like fine wine, fine furniture, (fine art does have somewhat a reputation amongst the masses, though, but only the very, VERY high-end)...

I hope someone from the other side of the fence (manufacturer) reads this thread as there are some intersting views being shared. I personally believe that largely due to technology it is becoming harder to build crap. not that technology alone makes good sound but the simple fact that in exemple 24bit Converters are now cheap, Op Amps are getting better all the time and higher tolerances are easier to achieve on passive components.
I think speakers are going to remain a chalenge because of their mechanical nature but there is little excuse for a manufacturer to build shitty CD players today.

Two words...niche market. The advertising money (even if the relatively small high end companies had it) would for the most part be wasted. The small percentage of the population that is willing and able to spend considerably larger amounts of money for a smaller and smaller increase in sound quality as prices go up (the law of diminishing returns is in effect here) is fairly constant. We are mostly dedicated hobbiests who will know all about the high end world regardless of their small advertising budgets. Bose can play on the ignorance of the masses, and therby increase their market share. They say they have good sound, and the ignorant believe. Also Bose has small and relativley cheap (compared to high end) products which increases the WAF (wife acceptance factor).

Ed, and please, I did not take this or very little personally(to manys dismay) , my point is more that the diamond or ruby or whatever precious stone or metal it might be, will last beyond many liftimes without maintenence and care and will be of some significant values, unlike many many pieces of high end audio gear.
Now I will take exception that it has to be expensive to be high end, I consider some of the lower line Magnepan, Adcom, Pioneer Elite, and actually there are many other high end bargains, though as I wrote earlier, high end is tiered. I am also always amazed by how a compnay can start out building an incredible value(B&K as an example)but suddenly become very expensive.

I really have enjoyed reading all the above posts because every single poster has added something thoughtful to this discussion. Let us audiophiles just face the facts, for what ever reason, the masses just don't find sitting in front of and attentively listening to music as important as we do. Why? Is it because they are not aware and if indeed they were, would it be important to them to travel down this road to the absolute sound, whatever that is?

Bose started out with a product that actually happened quite by chance. It wasn't "Better sound through research", that was the marketing ploy from the very beginning. My understanding is that the design was a haphazard garage experiment using multiple drivers because they were available. Amar Bose lent his name to it and Bose mushroomed from there. The 901 is probably the best known audio loudspeaker that has ever been manufactured and we audiophiles have a hard time dealing with that fact.

Lets also face the fact that even among ourselves we can't agree on what constitutes a great music making system. I have seen too many threads on this forum that berate excellent products. Why is this? Bose is the ultimate manifestation of this thought process among audiophiles. "I have chosen this so therefore this is the best". This is of course an exaggeration but there is in my observation much ego gratification and elitism among hi-end afficionados. Some of the above comments confirm this.

Bose makes their products accessible and affordable. It is indeed about marketing. They aren't exclusive and don't pretend to be. All they really pretend to be is better than they really are. Well what is wrong with that? There are many guilty of that. It is a business and marketing strategy that has been successful to a degree that most hi-end manufacturers can't grasp because

1) They don't have the resources of Bose
2) Most don't really know anything at all about marketing

Marketing is very complex. It is not always easy knowing how to reach the folks you want to let alone reaching them. The most EFFECTIVE marketing strategies create a NEED for their product and I really believe Bose falls into this category. How do you do it? Put your product out there in as many places as possible and MAKE people aware of it so its presence can't be escaped. This takes money and most hi-end manufacturers don't have the budget for this type of strategy.

The future of hi-end 2 channel audio is dubious indeed with all the aural stimuli that surrounds our culture. Listening to music for its own sake seems almost quaint to the masses that don't. These people buy products like Bose because of their most effective marketing strategy. Rhyno your analogy with scotch whiskey is a good one indeed and gets to the final point.

Hi-end is and always will be exclusive for the same reason that the best single malt scotch whiskies are and always will be. Most people just don't know, or even if they did, care enough to bother. Both are hobbies for enthusiasts. There must be enough enthusiasm otherwise it is just what many people ask after they listen to my system "Is it as good as Bose" or "Why don't you have Bose" or "Have you heard the Bose..." Damn I don't even know how to respond to such comments.

Well reproduced (hi-end) audio is about reproducing music that requires our attention because we WANT it to. Bose lifestyle systems are about low profile sound reproducing systems that fit into the way we live without bringing too much attention to themselves or for that matter our attention to anything remarkable that they do. The term "lifestyle" is appropo for this product, marketing strategy at its sublimal best, for the masses.