the wife does good work when it's zero dark 30 out.
In regard to pricing for a new product launch in which claiming a large percentage of someone else's market share is the primary goal I can offer the following comparison.
I work in AV & Integration I do a lot of business with Denon & Marantz (D&M Holdings), yesterday Denon announced a new product category called HEOS, if you are at all familiar with SONOS this new product is a direct competitor.
Denon is doing ridiculous things in regard to advertising & pricing (both out of the gate and promotional) examples below.
Pricing at or Below SONOS with WAY more capability in the pipe.
Offering EVERYONE who buys one of these 30% off a second unit, doesn't matter where you buy it from, add it to your account/system and Denon will send you a check for 30% of the full retail price. Taking into account wholesale pricing and established margins they are losing money to get people into this ecosystem.
Promotions for referring friends, if i remember correctly you can get as many as 4 free units for getting X number of people to buy their first HEOS component.
Promotions for social media mentions & promotion (free units, discounts, Pandora/Spotify subscriptions etc.)
On the advertising side the budget must be ridiculous, this stuff is about to be in all the faces everywhere, they are greasing celebrity & athlete palms for social media promotion, and are running ads in a ridiculous amount of print media, the online blitz will be ridiculous.
So basically Denon has spent a ton in R&D and Software development (supposedly 8 years worth) they are spending a TON on advertising, and the product/brand (if successful) will be a bunch of red ink on the ledger for the next 2 years.
If all of this manages to work (I've seen these type of launches break companies FWIW) they will send SONOS running and get a huge share of the fastest growing and strongest category in my industry for the last 3 years running (Distributed Audio/Whole House Music).
So yeah, HK 'who by some accounts probably can't afford to do this' is running full bore at Sig, M&P, and Glock they want more LEO's packing HK and they sure as kitten want to win the Army contract. If they succeed the gallons of black ink on the ledger and colossal growth to the HK Horde of fanboys/girls will lead to scale of economy where the VP9 is printing money and they will be able to bring to market the GREATEST SINGLE STACK .380 EVAR!!!
HK has a lot riding on this and I really hope its something special, IMO this will go one of 2 ways its either a success and does everything listed above, or it will go down as HK's 'Folly' and will mark the beginning of the end.
I could list NUMEROUS AV companies that are either no longer in business or a shadow of their former glory from making missteps of this nature, HK just pushed ALL of their chips onto 'Black 9' and the roulette wheel is turning; someone is going to lose and someone is going to win.
-J-
I would have to question the judgement of someone who wouldn't but that.Originally Posted by ldunnmobile
Think for yourself. Question authority.
you know, once the dust settles from the VP9 rollout...
I wonder if there's enough room on the slide to put the 'digital' 24 and a JB signature on the slide.
'course they'd have to do the P30 and the USP in runs like that, since he's used both now.
anyone got some photochop skills they want to play with?
And the Sig...
Think for yourself. Question authority.
Wait he carried a SIG at some point?!
How could you, jack!
That's like catching your wife with the fat ugly neighbor instead of the pool boy.
You can at least understand the latter.
Think for yourself. Question authority.
OK back on topic:
Someone let me know when a VP9 is available in NJ for me to coonfinger.
At least for me, the HK cool aide is so powerful, I have kept a tab open in my browser with the new HK brochure ever since I first opened it. No idea how the new HK will be in person, but for me, HK has more "gravitas" than any other brand.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
I understand. My better judgement failed and I am on a list....
Taking a break from social media.
Reply With Quote