BenLaw
Well-known member
bigboss said:I was specifically speaking with AKG in mind.
I think it really depends on what ambitions you have with the market. Take TVs for example, B&O and Loewe survived while Kuro ceased to exist. All of them concentrate(d) on a small sector of TV business. While Pioneer had smaller models for the mass market, it never really concentrated on them.
Of course, there won't be large manufacturers solely concentrating only on 2), as the segment itself is small!
Agree with all that, and Pioneer v B&O / Loewe is a good example. Pioneer tried to fudge market 2 with 1 & 3, ie premium quality product but (close to) mass market price. Whereas the others have niche quality and price product.
Companies like AKG clearly are more ambitious than that. If it concentrated only on market 2, I doubt if this latest line of headphones endorsed by a DJ would have ever come.
Yes, I'm sure that's right. Fwiw I agree with AlmaataKZ's point - I wouldn't expect anyone to have a problem with an endorsed product if its quality & price were at least as good as if it was not endorsed. But further than that, if the additional markets and income opened up by selling products with endoresements and more mass market appeal allow the company to continue producing high quality but more niche products I would be very happy. Bringing it back to the example of Pioneer, I think there would be a lot of happy people if they'd had a successful and profitable mass market business which had allowed them to continue manufacturing their premium Kuro plasmas.