That’s certainly good news, but how can you possibly give a good demo in your 4,000-sq.-ft. store when a priest, for example, will use the product in a huge church? We asked Gibson for the answers. “Of course, it’s great if you have a track record of some installations you’ve done. It’s also great if you develop a good relationship with any installation you’ve done. That way, you can ask, ‘Occasionally, I may need to do a demo, is it OK if we use what we put up in your sanctuary to show to somebody else?’ That’s always a good idea.”
Technological Boom?
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Many pro audio products have remained popular for years, if not decades. But there’s still a better-than-even chance some younger customers will walk into your door wondering what the latest innovations and technological breakthroughs the pro audio market will offer in the near future. We will see efficiency rule the day? Will a company focus on launching similar product quality at lower price points? Or can we expect some great innovations?
“One thing that’s happening is costs to the consumer are continually dropping,” said DeLoria. “And the quality keeps going up. It’s amazing that companies from the biggest to the smallest have found ways to drop prices, still maintain reasonable margins, and bring the quality up. Almost every year, you can chart this.”
Castle has spotted that trend as well. “One of the trends is cheaper products,” he said. “Our company is not heading in that direction though. We plan to continue to make innovative and interesting products that bring something valuable to the market. We’ve had many requests from customers. I’ll just flat-out say it. One was to compete with [Shure’s] SM57, which has been around for a long time and is very well respected. But there’s always a way to make something better. It was a challenge for us to come up with a competitor to that mic but I certainly feel we did.
“As for another trend, the ultimate way to sell and market products is through the Internet,” he continued. “That offsets the fact salespeople may or may not know everything about all products. People are going to the Internet for that information. The more effective marketing a retailer has, whether it is the Internet or interactive CDs, the better.”
“I think the computer-based category will continue to grow and we’ll be seeing more USB-compatible products, as well as further integration of MP3 products,” responded Soucy. “For mobile guys, ‘lightweight’ is something I hear about on a pretty regular basis, and I think we will see a number of lighter products [speakers and amps] on the market in the future.”
“I think we’ll see more solutions for people than just plug-and-play systems,” responded Gibson. “Better ease of use will be the No. 1 thing.”
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