Hi Fi which has been ignored by consumer electronics Companies in favour of display TV marketing is set to get a big injection of dollars with Sony Australia set to promote the category in an effort to expand sales of their Hi Fi range of products.
Hi Fi which has been ignored by consumer electronics Companies in favour of display TV marketing is set to get a big injection of dollars with Sony Australia set to promote the category in an effort to expand sales of their Hi Fi range of products.
Sony CEO Carl Rose believes that most Hi Fi Companies have done a “poor” job of marketing Hi Fi and that the time is now right to promote sound and Hi Fi products.
Backing Rose up, JB Hi CEO Richard Uechtritz said that his Company needs to take a fresh look at how they promote and sell sound. “Carl has a very good point. Sound has been ignored at the expense of display” said Uechtritz.
Rose said “We have spoken to several retailers lately and most of them are keen to expand their sound offerings. In the past Hi Fi has traditionally been sold by the specialist and the Hi Fi Companies have not necessarily been good marketers of sound. We believe that today the consumer wants a good sound experience at home from both their display attached products to their portable music devices”
Uechtritz said “If you look at retailers catalogues today they are full of display products. We need to address this as I believe that the consumer will spend on sound products if they are presented properly. The word Hi Fi is in our brand name yet we spend more time promoting display”. He said.
He added “We need to better train our staff to sell Hi Fi as the consumer wants a good sound experience but are intimidated when they walk into a specialist Hi Fi dealer. I believe that the mass retailers like us and Harvey Norman can do a good job of selling sound as long as we present it in layman’s terms”.
Rose said “We are taking sound up our priority list and I think that both Sony and retailers will benefit” he said.
Among the Sony sound offerings are receivers, high end speakers, Blu ray players with new audio codecs as well as CD players and later this year wireless audio products.
