Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Will Meridian survive?

That thought occurred to me as I read these posts; Aston Martin's potential customers " are currently sending a very important 'hidden' message to " AM - the prices are too high.

Mark S

Which reminds me of the old Chinese Curse..."May you live in interesting times"

Well if they aint interesting now, they are sure getting a bit lively.... Chris

I don't want to persist in taking this off topic with car analogies but Aston Martin's problem is really their ambition (or do I mean how they perceive the value of their brand).

They expanded their production volumes very fast by introducing a middle market car (c.f. Meridian, F80) and devalued the exclusivity and residual values of their cars.

I am interested in the concept of an F80 being middle market. This is not a low cost 861 - its a $3,000 boom box, portable music system - whatever. This may be a different product, but its still for a high end market.

Given the existence of the 800-series components, are the G-series middle market products? If not, then I suggest the Aston Martin analogy is not apt.

In response to both the above posts from whumpf and Frank, I agree that "middle market" might not be a good description.

Vanquish/DBS = 800 Series
DB9 = G Series
V8 = F80

The V8 isn't "cheap" but, as you say, neither is the F80 in it's sector.

The competitors to the F80 are generally lower in cost but might not be so desirable.

By contrast, Ferrari (Meridian's collaborator) have announced they will not be bringing out a lower cost car (Dino 2010?) and will stick to the high end where they still have 2 year waiting lists which they actively want to manage down to 12 months. This indicates how they view their brand.

Malcolm

An order is different to paid up car's. Many orders were placed with Ferrari prior to the fiancial turmoil. When these cars come to be collected I think you will find that many will be looking for a new buyer as people pull out of the sale!
The problems are hitting the higher price markets as the majority of people losing their jobs at the moment are from the high wage finacial sectors!
This sector has seen 150,000 job losses since September alone! How many of those are Ferrari customers, also Meridian target customers for that matter?

From the United States to Asian export giant Japan to European powerhouse Germany, the world's top economies are now in recession as the global crisis deepens. They are not the only ones with Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong also joining in.

The money is just not going to be there to pay for high value items that are not really needed!

Regards Paul

With more and more advanced digital electronics now available to the masses for peanuts (and some of it pretty good) is going even more upmarket Meridian's (and other boutique hifi manufacturers') only choice?

Meridian bought Sooloos today. Not the sign of a company lacking confidence or capital.

If a company builds a great product that no one knows about, does it exist?

I don't think credit crunch is solely responsible for any sales dip.
Sales will be slow until there is something new to whet our appetites ann open our wallets. There's not been much to go at in quite a while for those that already have an established 'traditional' system. M need to move into some new areas and I suspect they clearly know this (ref...Sooloos).

How quickly they can get to market with someting tempting will be the biggest factor.

A few days ago, a (free) copy of "Inside Living (Milton Keynes)" was posted through my letter box. It's one of those upmarket glossy advert mags which will have been delivered to every "upmarket" home in Milton Keynes. This was the front cover:



Bigger picture available here: http://www.ezimag.co.uk/live/Main.php?MagID=1&MagNo=4

Now it just so happens that this advert was paid for by B&O of Milton Keynes which is owned by the same people as former Meridian dealer Technosound. I can't say that this advert wouldn't have happened if Technosound was still a Meridian dealer, but there's nothing like competition to focus the mind.

What I can say with reasonable certainty is that, since the two Meridian dealers nearest Milton Keynes are no longer dealers, any "Joe case of champagne" who wants "high end" hifi in MK is very unlikely to be buying Meridian. And although Meridian is attempting to go even more upmarket, page five of the mag talks of �4550 and over �5000 B&O purchases which is still a lot of money in these difficult times. Meridian may be aiming at �20k and higher, but it risks losing all grass-roots brand equity.

End of ramble...