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Clearest explanation yet, of the vanishing market for high-end. Read it and weep.

This is from a column by the excellent Robert Ain, cast as an explanation for the failure of Tweeter Etc., but branching out to an even unhappier topic.

I give you the closing paragraphs (emphasis added):

Putting aside the different store names and the lack of clear focus among managers, towards the end, it was mostly the changing customer that caused Tweeter to fail. As I mentioned earlier, Tweeter was born out of the audio hobbyist business. The love of music and their passion were always clearly evident. With this passion, there were enough customers who shared this desire and passion to allow Tweeter to grow and prosper. It also allowed the chains they bought to have strong positions in their respective markets. With only a few exceptions they did purchase the strongest specialty player as the owners of these chains looked for exit strategies.

But the customer was changing, and changing dramatically. The hobbyist was no longer king. And Tweeter tried to continue as if the hobbyist still existed. The clearest example of the downfall of the hobbyist is the number of magazines in circulation in the hobbyist market. During the 1980s, there were over 1.2 million consumer audio magazines published each month. Stereo Review with nearly 600,000 circulation led the bunch follower by High Fidelity with almost 400,000, then Audio magazine, along with numerous others that allowed manufacturers to promote their products to an audience that just loved music and purchasing the equipment that is used to reproduce it. Today, the largest home theater magazine has a circulation of approximately 200,000 with the next largest at 100,000.

Not a lot of consumer interest on the hobbyist side. There are very few videophiles. Tweeter tried to talk to them as if they existed and they don’t. They want solutions, not education. An example of this is I ask at the CEDIA video technology courses I teach the following question of the participants. “How many of your customers have ever complained about the performance of a DVD into their HD display. A hand is never raised. Why are these customers not up in arms that they are usually only seeing 480p resolution and not a high def resolution?

[Sigh]

clark


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Topic - Clearest explanation yet, of the vanishing market for high-end. Read it and weep. - clarkjohnsen 11:35:12 09/28/07 (136)
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