a Co-Operative ? there are enough of us on Beoworld and I'm up for a little investment flutter....
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Oh boy. Bang and Olufsen 'open to bids'
129 replies
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I am a bit split in regards to what I think about Tue.
He's had some great ideas: BeoPlay, and trying to conquer the Chinese market. Also we've seen B&O news all over the internet since his arrival.
However the design of BeoPlay product is somehow questionable. Everyone I show the V1 to don't like the hinges for example.
I also think he has delayed the development of the newer generation of products (NL) initiated by the previous CEO, thinking that rich people don't care if they don't have the latest techno. This has resulted in a unsellable product line for a few years.
You can do all the marketing you want, if the products are not up to scratch, they won't sell. Today (but that will hopefully change with the release of the Beosound Moment), I could not recommend to anyone to buy a B&O hifi.
Only in the last year can we finally see great products appear: the line of WISA speakers, and the AVANT.
Tue is a Marketing guy, the previous CEO, Karl Kristian Hvidt was a technical guy.
Karl's strategy was to create a single digital platform so that product development would be faster and cheaper. I think NL products are the outcome of this strategy and they should sell well as soon as the whole range has made the transition and if software isn't too buggy. Karl had returned the company to the black.
As a technical guy myself, I think I preferred Karl's strategy. Making better products, fining a way to make them cheaper, at let their quality sell them.
If only those two had been able to work together...
I'll never forget being at the launch of the Serenata and seeing the Samsung 'chiefs' there in Berlin. I've never seen execs from a company look so disinterested and bored during a product launch, and I've never seen anyone leave so fast when it came to a 'meet the team' Q&A session with the international press. They just walked straight out as soon as the presentation finished. Not interested. Goodbye. You're not important enough.
Apple, for me, would be a no-brainer. Apple love cool, stylish, effortless - and things that just work. This, to me, typifies a B&O product too...
Apple have bags of spare cash, a reputation for great quality products - and they respect the Danes, Danish design and Danish culture.
Lee
B&O don't need 'a buyer' - they need an investment partner to be able to expand the sales.
They need cash for better marketing and better sales operation.
They need to be present in the market today. No product - no matter how good it may be - will sell on it's own. This is extremely important.
And again - if the cash flow isn't there, there can be no further products/product development.
Imo - they do have a great product line as of today (for such a small company), and they do have the NL running. The problem is to communicate that fact - even many Beoworlders don't seem to have realized what NL (and the BLGW) can do.
That said - it is and will be extremely complicated to sell an audio-only product today. Who really needs an audiosystem in times of streaming from portable devices to all sorts of boxes with or without built-in speakers?
I am looking forward to see how the Moment integrates with the NL-BV's. I have a feeling, that we will be quite surpriced from, what they have developped during the last couple of years.
All in all I am not that sceptic. If B&O finds an investor, who will accept, what B&O stands for and is willing to support the integrety of the company, we will be fine.
MM
Location: Flensborg————Danmark
I'll never forget being at the launch of the Serenata and seeing the Samsung 'chiefs' there in Berlin. I've never seen execs from a company look so disinterested and bored during a product launch, and I've never seen anyone leave so fast when it came to a 'meet the team' Q&A session with the international press. They just walked straight out as soon as the presentation finished. Not interested. Goodbye. You're not important enough.
Apple, for me, would be a no-brainer. Apple love cool, stylish, effortless - and things that just work. This, to me, typifies a B&O product too...
Apple have bags of spare cash, a reputation for great quality products - and they respect the Danes, Danish design and Danish culture.
Lee
Can't see it myself, I just can't see Apple willing to accept 2nd billing in the product branding - it wouldn't take long for the products to become branded Apple rather than B&O - at that point all is lost.
Can't see it myself, I just can't see Apple willing to accept 2nd billing in the product branding - it wouldn't take long for the products to become branded Apple rather than B&O - at that point all is lost.
Toyota created Lexus, Mazda made Infiniti, Apple can have B&O surely?
I haven't seen them replacing the Beats logo with the Apple logo as yet either..
Lee
Can't see it myself, I just can't see Apple willing to accept 2nd billing in the product branding - it wouldn't take long for the products to become branded Apple rather than B&O - at that point all is lost.
Toyota created Lexus, Mazda made Infiniti, Apple can have B&O surely?
I haven't seen them replacing the Beats logo with the Apple logo as yet either..
Lee
To be fair, if I was Apple, I wouldn't put my logo on Beats headphones either!😁
Tue is a Marketing guy, the previous CEO, Karl Kristian Hvidt was a technical guy.
Karl's strategy was to create a single digital platform so that product development would be faster and cheaper. I think NL products are the outcome of this strategy and they should sell well as soon as the whole range has made the transition and if software isn't too buggy. Karl had returned the company to the black.
As a technical guy myself, I think I preferred Karl's strategy. Making better products, fining a way to make them cheaper, at let their quality sell them.
If only those two had been able to work together...
Totally agree, the current NL is a mess. Kalle really was starting to turn things around, BeoSound 8 etc.
His vision was to have a seamless sytem. We are a long way from that now and all the money has gone.................................
With a great marketeer as a partner (maybe Tue?) things would have been good.
When the show is run by PR people there is a tendency for BS to take over :)
Well, when you chase yachts, luxury hotels and Chinese millionaires, don't be surprised if you lose sight of your core market. I've written enough about my thoughts on where B&O "went wrong" in the mid-2000s. The company's brand cachet was eminently placed to benefit from the digital content now available through streams, etc -- and the store footprint was brilliant for creating experience "playgrounds" where those benefits could be displayed. Stopping for a demo at the B&O store could have been a given.
Instead we got idiotic marketing and a gradual disconnect from "ordinary" customers who got the feeling B&O didn't consider them important any longer. Piggy-backing active loudspeakers to laptops and mobile devices is still possible, but requires an all-out effort to communicate the advantages - I haven't seen that all-out effort.
Hoping for the best for the brand.
Totally agree with you Soundproof. I knew things were bad when they launched that 105" TV. It was the most vulgar, crass and downright scummy thing that I'd ever seen - totally not how I knew B&O.
Lee had some very good points with regards to Apple AND he knew Samsung management in the same way that I do!
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