Big name being sold on i-net

mhardy6647

Moose68Bash wrote: »

No data, just a guess:

McIntosh sales have likely been plummeting; the sales VP decided they should go online (mostly to preserve his bonus, probably); somebody with more clout didn't like the decision.

Sayonara, Mr. Sales VP.

McIntosh may be in trouble as a company.

As I said above, "just a guess" -- based on a few years of experience in the corporate world.

I'd concur that your postulates are consistent with the limited information available externally. Hard to say what is actually going on, though -- only time will tell, and, even then, many details probably aren't relevant enough to the operations of the company ever to be officially disclosed.

Oh, and just a minor :-/ point: McIntosh is not an independent "company" per se, being wholly owned by another entity (albeit operating, it is said, more or less independently). It has been a long time since they were an independent business entity (the original company sold out to Clarion in 1990).

motorstereo

I have some old Audio mags from the 50's that I like browse through occasionally. These old mags are full of advertisements from American manufacturers hawking their wares. There's some that I've never heard of, and some that are long gone or they've morphed their name into something less desirable; except one. The same company that survived the loss of Gordon Gow 25 years ago, a subsequent buy out by a Japanese company and now they're finally getting their toes wet in 21st century marketing. They are survivors and as a Mac owner I'm not the least bit worried about them going down the tubes so to speak by offering part of their line up to someone other than the b&m retailers.

Mikey081057

I only see used Mac gear on Amazon... Why all the hoopla... Same as Ebay...

mhardy6647

The brand and name will live on for at least a while, no doubt. It's steadily changed, like everything else (Klipsch, Polk, Quad, KEF, etc., etc.) and will rise or fall on its ability to turn a profit.

I, also, wouldn't worry too much.

[Deleted User]

leftwinger57

This smacks to me as selling Bose3 room amps/then H/T lifestyle systems. Only dealers could install the stuff years before they were in the big box stores. If you were a distributor you had a set price, very little margin and where the cash came from was volume sales. Remember this was in the late '80s/90s and home owners just ate them up. Another example of set pricing would be the Saturn cars. There was no more telling the sales dude to talk to the manager, oh no the price on the window is what you paid. With McIntosh a world wide company w/ a great rep took on another marketing strategy which is selling on/line and again guaranteed not a dime will be shaved off the MSRP. I still would like to see hear and touch something I was going to spend that kind of cash on.

[Deleted User]

"I still would like to see hear and touch something I was going to spend that kind of cash on."
There is the rub then.

marvda1

say the online retailer offers free shipping and then there's no sales tax. this will kill the b&m store.

tratliff

I for one am not really worried about the change in marketing. When I was on the hunt for the MC601's (a big investment from my perspective). I wasn't really interested in a demo as I had visited many stores that had them in a system and had studied them for the past couple of years. Some were good setups and others were marginal at best.

The one thing I found that surprised me was that all but one dealer (audio concepts) was ready and willing to discount new in box units. Now most of them had to place the order but could have them in 3'ish days. This went against my understanding of how the brand was sold but why would I argue.

This was not my first purchase and I always prefer B&M over any other method of purchase but sometimes considerations have to be made for any number of reasons.

I honestly think this is a good move on Mcintosh part. They will need to control the marketing, price and retailers. But that is no different than it has been in the past and from my experience not all dealers are following the rules today.