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As Bay Audio celebrates its 15-year anniversary, Ira Friedman shares his thoughts in 2014 and talking to his younger self in 1999.
Ira 2014: So why did you start Bay Audio?
Ira 1999: I had left Boston Acoustics as VP Sales and Marketing in 1998 and I had two choices: start a customoriented speaker company focused on Cl dealers without retail locations, or work for someone else. I just couldn't see working for someone else.
Ira 2014: Let's review some of your prognostications from 1999, and see if they came true.
Ira 1999: Well, I felt the dedicated Cl dealer's business model was a shift from the old retail model. It needed product, pricing, marketing and services unique for this new way of doing business.
My initial product plan was easy: Bay Audio's product line was always driven by the "Krupps Coffee Maker Principle," which states a product speaks of its own performance. A product built of higher quality materials, with a keen focus on performance will serve the customer better, even when priced above the competition. A shopper at Target sees a Krupps coffee maker sitting next to a Mr. Coffee. The Krupps is simpler, more elegant, heavier, built to a higher level of precision, and it costs more. The discriminating customer chooses the Krupps - despite being unable to test its coffee-making abilities-because the product is apparently better than the competition.
Our product design...