Alex:

I'm one of Bang & Olufsen's biggest cheerleaders ... but some of the decisions we make as a company really make me scratch my head.  Bang & Olufsen certainly isn't for everyone ... but I think without any real entry level products in a way we might be damaging the future of our business.  We'll see what happens!  

Alex,

Thanks for your candor.  I can hardly wait to visit your store.  However I won't be looking for a Beosound 3.  My iPhone as it turns out is a really good alarm clock. 

Affineur:

Hi Alex,

I am surpised that B&O has not given you and your collegues a background presentation on their demographic marketing approach. This is the origin of the pricing strategy. It is not clear how you could successfully market the products without this knowledge so shame on B&O. I would expect that they will want all associates to understand the pricing rationale.

Interesting observations but could you explain this marketing approach? 

I do not really understand the Louis Vitton analogy. Just taking a quick look at their web page a pocket organizer is $250 and man's billfold is over $300. I am not criticizing their prices. Just commenting that their prices on the entry level items are 5 to 10 times the price of mass market items. The same multiple people complain about B and O.

linder,

I do not know what the details of the B&O pricing strategy is but they do have a rationale. Typically such strategies are not made public but often a breakdown of the various customer types is presented in some way to those who will be doing the endpoint marketing (salesmen, client representatives, and product specialists). Often pointers are given in how to engage with such prospective clients thereby partially setting the tone of the store experience. Any approach that I might propose is done in ignorance of full understanding of the demographics of the B&O client base. I do know why the products appeal to me but that may not be typical or even common.

Puncher:

Is it a coincidence that a lot of the "don't change anything, our TV range is the best and there isn't a real alternative" supporters on this thread seem to be from the US? Is the market landscape that different there? Maybe the stores there aren't closing at an alarming rate, or B&O US's business report looks significantly different to Europe's....

I do of course realise that all I've said is futile

Not all futile, I hope!

Perhaps the schism you see between the EU posters here and the Colonists has as much to do with the product portfolio as anything else.  We don't get the BV-6/BR-6, wedon't get the BV-8 26, we didn't get the BV-7 MK1 or 2, and never a 32" at all.  For the last 9 years or so, our opinion of B&O video has been built upon the Avant/US/BeoSystem1, The BeoVision 4, the BeoSystem 3 family, and the BV8-32.  

In another thread recently I jokingly noted that we never suffered the heartbreak that must have been the BV-7 MK 1 & 2...and we didn't.  When someone here disparages the BV-7 for picture quality, we look at 'ours' and scream "What are they talking about?"  Look at what we've seen.  If you'd seen only those sets, what would you think?  Those TV's don't need to change (My opinion of the BV-9 notwithstanding), and there really isn't anything else like them anywhere.

As to questions of an 'entry level TV', this is what happens in US stores is this:  Guy walking down the mall with wife/girlfriend...sees the TV's through the window...doesn't recognize the store name, but decides to pop in...first words out of mouth:  "So how much does that TV cost?"  Game over.

In the EU, at least there are fair odds that the guy knows the name and has at least some expectation about the price.  Not so over here.  

It would be nice to have another BV-8 here to fill the $10,000.00USD price gap we currently have in the line.