Re: Behringer line array
Forgive me for appearing cynical, but I've been in the industry for a while and a student of how the business world works. For the record I do not underestimate the resources and capability of the Behringer parent company. Routinely under-appreciated by markets is how much harder it is to make cheap products that don't suck. It is much harder to engineer a VW bug, than a Ferrari.
If you look at where the money is in any industry it is generally in the higher volume lower price point market segments. A paradox that successful mass market merchants must face is that their success in the mass market, poisons their ability to reposition themselves upscale, not that they would ever want to walk away from the larger revenue of the low end. When successful value brands purchase (formerly successful) premium brands often at a discount, it is rarely for technology, but to gain a larger slice of the market pie, with the good will surrounding that premium brand and additional distribution/customers they can't effectively capture using the parent brand. Large companies buy small ones for novel technology all the time, but it is usually very small companies with names we've never heard of, where they actually have some unique technology. These small companies and workers, generally get absorbed into the mother ship and disappear.
This is a natural progression when a value brand has reached a major market share in their target segment and top line growth becomes harder to increase. The high end brand acquisition if properly managed becomes not only incremental sales but a line leader that helps sell the low brand (like the all too familiar whisper rumors that they're all the same inside, just using a different badge, to make the gullible think they are getting a bargain), while hopefully not injuring the high brand too much by the ownership connection. At the same time the premium brand's former customers must be made to believe that the premium brand will not be cheapened, even if prices get reduced.
I feel like a parent telling the children that there is no Santa Claus, at Christmas time, so I apologize. I am very impressed by how well Uli is managing this compared to others who have followed similar paths (it is not easy to manage both sides of such brand related acquisitions). The biggest change I see recently is the active formal participation on several web forums, to counter opinion leaders who hold the brand in low regard. I am impressed with how well the PR campaign is being executed with Uli serving as the poster-in-chief.
For those who believe the parent company is born again, or never knew the old Behringer it's all good. I don't have a pony in this race (any more). I will not argue about what Uli thinks or believes (it can't be known by anybody but him). His message sounds admirable taken at face value, and as long as he walks the new talk, he deserves the chance to keep walking it.
I form my personal judgements from decades of observation and experience so i remain a hard sell.
Merry Christmas all...
JR
PS: The X32 looks like it would be a hit from any brand due to price/feature set. The implied and overtly stated Midas connection surely does not hurt Behringer sales (where the money is). Time will tell how well Midas makes out, but it looks like they have defined a sustainable higher-end segment with how they've parsed performance/feature differences between the two brands.
Forgive me for appearing cynical, but I've been in the industry for a while and a student of how the business world works. For the record I do not underestimate the resources and capability of the Behringer parent company. Routinely under-appreciated by markets is how much harder it is to make cheap products that don't suck. It is much harder to engineer a VW bug, than a Ferrari.
If you look at where the money is in any industry it is generally in the higher volume lower price point market segments. A paradox that successful mass market merchants must face is that their success in the mass market, poisons their ability to reposition themselves upscale, not that they would ever want to walk away from the larger revenue of the low end. When successful value brands purchase (formerly successful) premium brands often at a discount, it is rarely for technology, but to gain a larger slice of the market pie, with the good will surrounding that premium brand and additional distribution/customers they can't effectively capture using the parent brand. Large companies buy small ones for novel technology all the time, but it is usually very small companies with names we've never heard of, where they actually have some unique technology. These small companies and workers, generally get absorbed into the mother ship and disappear.
This is a natural progression when a value brand has reached a major market share in their target segment and top line growth becomes harder to increase. The high end brand acquisition if properly managed becomes not only incremental sales but a line leader that helps sell the low brand (like the all too familiar whisper rumors that they're all the same inside, just using a different badge, to make the gullible think they are getting a bargain), while hopefully not injuring the high brand too much by the ownership connection. At the same time the premium brand's former customers must be made to believe that the premium brand will not be cheapened, even if prices get reduced.
I feel like a parent telling the children that there is no Santa Claus, at Christmas time, so I apologize. I am very impressed by how well Uli is managing this compared to others who have followed similar paths (it is not easy to manage both sides of such brand related acquisitions). The biggest change I see recently is the active formal participation on several web forums, to counter opinion leaders who hold the brand in low regard. I am impressed with how well the PR campaign is being executed with Uli serving as the poster-in-chief.
For those who believe the parent company is born again, or never knew the old Behringer it's all good. I don't have a pony in this race (any more). I will not argue about what Uli thinks or believes (it can't be known by anybody but him). His message sounds admirable taken at face value, and as long as he walks the new talk, he deserves the chance to keep walking it.
I form my personal judgements from decades of observation and experience so i remain a hard sell.
Merry Christmas all...
JR
PS: The X32 looks like it would be a hit from any brand due to price/feature set. The implied and overtly stated Midas connection surely does not hurt Behringer sales (where the money is). Time will tell how well Midas makes out, but it looks like they have defined a sustainable higher-end segment with how they've parsed performance/feature differences between the two brands.
