Wow - that was actually news to me!  I thought it was a company owned store now...

Another one bites the dust.

Yes, in my opinion the Dealer Network will continue to shrink as I suspect that B&O are looking to get rid of the Franchise Model as much as possible and only keep an association with the most successful dealers.

If you think about it from a purely financial perpsective, if B&O can "cut out the middle man" and run the stores themselves, they can make higher margins and also have a tighter control over levels of service, installation and repairs.

Only a thought, but it's kinda pointing that way imho.

Lee

So now is a bad time for a career change in the retail sector?

9 LEE wrote:

Yes, in my opinion the Dealer Network will continue to shrink as I suspect that B&O are looking to get rid of the Franchise Model as much as possible and only keep an association with the most successful dealers.

StUrrock wrote:

9 LEE wrote:

Yes, in my opinion the Dealer Network will continue to shrink as I suspect that B&O are looking to get rid of the Franchise Model as much as possible and only keep an association with the most successful dealers.

 

link

B&O seemed to be damned if they do and damned if they don't, I do feel for them sometimes!

€900k fine for not allowing online sales in France!

Dealers are bound to have a difficult time, particularly now that the likes of John Lewis are selling a wider and wider range of BeoPlay products. Perhaps the introduction of BeoPlay was a deliberate way of getting around area franchise contracts which possibly only applied to the B&O branding itself???

The end/renewal of building or shop leases, typically every 7 years, will be the tipping point for many B&O owned showrooms. Franchises will only survive if they provide B&O with the agreed franchise returns after any start-up running-in period, failing which, if I am not mistaken, they revert to direct B&O  ownership.

Graham

vikinger wrote:

The end/renewal of building or shop leases, typically every 7 years, will be the tipping point for many B&O owned showrooms. 

Amen.

You couldn't have hit the nail on the head more if you were armed with a mallet the size of a large town (with it's own closed down dealer)..

I think B&O are in what's known as a "financial tailspin" at the moment - and the only thing that will seize the controls and get the company out of it is some killer products and a decent marketing strategy.

I feel I have an obligation to B&O, as the owner of the site, to blindly promote the company as I DO genuinely and honestly love the brand. I believe totally in my heart what Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen wanted - and achieved in many ways, and that ethos is exactly the same as my approach to life - and where possible, business. If you're going to do something, do it properly. Be the best - even if your budget is smaller. Never stop. Never look back. Always think 'how can I do it better' - and do it better - or if you can't afford to do it better, do it smarter - or the same but with more style at the very least.

I'm afraid I was hooked as a kid. I saw the adverts in magazines. I walked into the multibrand showrooms and gravitated towards this amazing section with a strange name to a 12 year old boy. "Bang & Olufsen" to a small boy from a poor street in a small village was very strange..  The BeoVirus has stayed with me ever since and never left though. I always promised myself Bang & Olufsen when I grew up. No compromise.

Now, the marketing department focuses on affluent 40+ year olds who knew the brand, like myself, when they were children - who aspired to own it. Yes, you're preaching to the converted chaps - and milking the cows that have been in your field for many years.  However, we won't be around forever..  You need to focus on the new generation of buyers.

What I'm trying to say is MARKETING...  If i had bigger capital letters, I'd use them. 

Bang & Olufsen still make some great products. Really. I'm sorry, but the latest Samsung, Panny, Loewe TV - you name it.. The motion handling, the image quality, the contrast - it's simply not as good as B&O as a 'whole delivery'.  The style and sound quality (combined) of B&O speakers is right up there too - no matter which drivers or crossovers they use. There are SO many little stories which have been told to me about manufacturing processes, innovations, triumphs in engineering that have blown me away and made me think "wow - THIS is what B&O is all about... the ethos still lives" - yet NOTHING is mentioned in ANY of the advertising and marketing.  It's just photographed in a room nobody would ever live in, with a strap line at the top of the advert, and a web address.

I can honestly say that the employees at Struer who I have met take immense pride in their jobs and genuinely give their all in areas from R&D through to Production.  However, the marketing team are failing to create that "magical and mystical" aura the brand used to have back in the heyday.

B&O have some gifted people. Look at Geoff Martin - and I'm sure he has equivalents in other departments who Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Linn, Chord, Loewe (and please name A. N. Other company ad infinitum) would love to employ - but they stay loyal as they know they are really at the cutting edge of their craft and are allowed to do so at B&O (they are, honestly - B&O encourage innovation). So, why do the things they do get brushed over?

Personally, I'd be wheeling Geoff out on a podium about thrice a week in front of the world's press to talk about something which would baffle the dribble-stained clowns from 'Stuff' magazine into writing articles which brought B&O to the fore once again. However they get flown out to launches, put up in a hotel, get shown the product on a table, then sit through a powerpoint style presentation whilst stuffing a canape into their disinterested faces. Then, they go back and type "uber expensive" and "uber stylish" and then "over priced" because they simply do not understand the research, manufacturing processes, engineering, styling and huge amount of thought which has gone into the product. Why? Because it's not marketed.. at all...

I know the lady who organises the press events and trips (who works harder than anyone I've ever known), I know the people who design the products, I know the people who make sure they are absolutely the very best they can be, and I've met the people that assemble them - and each of them has a very special tale to tell which has enchanted me, keeping me believing in what B&O is all about.   However, all of these facts and stories (all true) have been very quietly told to me in private. Why?

Bang & Olufsen are thinkers, innovators and creators. The marketers are procrastinators. 

Tell the story. Let the world know what B&O do. Stop being modest. To a degree, stop being so Danish! 

Lee

9 LEE wrote:

Tell the story. Let the world know what B&O do. Stop being modest. To a degree, stop being so Danish! 

You're not wrong. I realised the other night the majority of my furniture is Danish. However, I also realised that most of this furniture was bought from me bothering to do some research. Locating sofas, finding top fabric (also Danish -

The lack of marketing from B&O is not a recent phenomenon. It was not a lot different 50+ years ago!