Dear manufacturers: “Please contact your dealer for pricing”

[PHC1]

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by metaphacts

With all due respect, you speak from pure conjecture as to what our world-wide customers/ potential customers expect. Actually in our case no one needs a price on a web site.

Simply put, every customer wants to be treated fairly.

You are correct, it is conjecture and a pure personal opinion formed with the aid of seeing many similar or parallel threads on many audio forums over 2 decades with comments as to what consumers including myself believe manufacturers could or should do to better engage with their customers.

It is also formed by having teams with real Data Scientists engaged with customers analyzing both historic and real time data feeds and drawing conclusions as to why customer attrition happens in many of the consumer markets in the world including retail, luxury products, banking, telco, etc.., the factors that could limit initial customer engagement, what positive steps affect less attrition, promote higher affinity, initial engagement, brand loyalty, etc...

All that stated, it is definitely only conjecture and opinion and I do not know much at all about "every" customer of your brand, whatever it is, or other brands.

[W9TR]

The whole manufacturer/ distributor/ rep / retail structure is rife with waste and inefficiency.

MSRP is interesting but just the tip of the iceberg.

Markets tend to reward efficiency over the long haul. So things will continue to evolve in our tiny world of high end hifi.

The market is moving toward large regional brick and mortar stores and forum/online/home audition salons (ex. Legend) so I’ll go to them for pricing because the manufacturer is not an active participant in the relationship apart from hosting demo events.

Just my opinion of course.

[damacman]

This is a function of the tail wagging the dog in response to a 75yo multilayered business model between the manufacturer and consumer ... which is by and large irrelevant to the end user - as exemplified here.

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by SCAudiophile

You are correct, it is conjecture and a pure personal opinion formed with the aid of seeing many similar or parallel threads on many audio forums over 2 decades with comments as to what consumers including myself believe manufacturers could or should do to better engage with their customers.

It is also formed by having teams with real Data Scientists engaged with customers analyzing both historic and real time data feeds and drawing conclusions as to why customer attrition happens in many of the consumer markets in the world including retail, luxury products, banking, telco, etc.., the factors that could limit initial customer engagement, what positive steps affect less attrition, promote higher affinity, initial engagement, brand loyalty, etc...

All that stated, it is definitely only conjecture and opinion and I do not know much at all about "every" customer of your brand, whatever it is, or other brands.

I thought it was common knowledge on AA that I work for Wilson Audio. My apologies for causing confusion.

46+ years of mining data, obviously more efficient these days than in the early days, provides incredible insight to the market and who our customer is/could be. But at the end of the day, the decisions we make won't agree with everyone else who would have access to the same detail. That's ok. We are very fortunate to be growing continually and have one of the most loyal customer bases in the industry. The most likely person to buy a Wilson already owns one.

For what it's worth, the Wilson site is loaded with detailed product information, manuals (every product ever made by Wilson), Press Releases (which contain US MSRP), dealer listings (including models each has on demo), a Parts Store, almost 90 Wilson Audio videos, a Certified Authentic page explaining how Wilson actively supports the refurbishment/resale of every product we've ever made, 59 reviews of current products (and even more of discontinued products), and Awards by year back to 1992, among others.

But no excuses. We have no laundry list price list(s) on our site, nor are we likely to have them in the future. We certainly understand why other companies might do it on theirs.

ymmv.

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by metaphacts

I thought it was common knowledge on AA that I work for Wilson Audio. My apologies for causing confusion.

46+ years of mining data, obviously more efficient these days than in the early days, provides incredible insight to the market and who our customer is/could be. But at the end of the day, the decisions we make won't agree with everyone else who would have access to the same detail. That's ok. We are very fortunate to be growing continually and have one of the most loyal customer bases in the industry. The most likely person to buy a Wilson already owns one.

For what it's worth, the Wilson site is loaded with detailed product information, manuals (every product ever made by Wilson), Press Releases (which contain US MSRP), dealer listings (including models each has on demo), a Parts Store, almost 90 Wilson Audio videos, a Certified Authentic page explaining how Wilson actively supports the refurbishment/resale of every product we've ever made, 59 reviews of current products (and even more of discontinued products), and Awards by year back to 1992, among others.

But no excuses. We have no laundry list price list(s) on our site, nor are we likely to have them in the future. We certainly understand why other companies might do it on theirs.

ymmv.

No worries, I personally did not know that or recall that if I'd ever seen reference to it. Congratulations on that,...working for such a manufacturer is a great accomplishment...

[lorddj]

The bottom line is that manufacturers believe posting MSRP will not generate higher sales. If they did, they would publish the prices.

[JWJW]

Originally Posted by lorddj

The bottom line is that manufacturers believe posting MSRP will not generate higher sales. If they did, they would publish the prices.

Good point. Hard to understand or agree with though...posting MSRP’s works for luxury brands like Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Porsche and M-Benz.
Not sure if McIntosh posted MSRP’s they would see a decline in sales.

[Formerly YB-2]

Would also like to see MSRPs listed, but not a big deal.
As mentioned, between the current pandemic (there will always be the 'next one') and the internet, marketing & sales have definitely evolved and will continue to do so at a rapid rate. I recently attempted to purchase a pair of new speakers but was unable to do so as the mfgr (not Wilson) would not drop ship to me. They had to be shipped to their nearest reseller (60mi from me) and either picked up or re-shipped, at additional cost to me, from the reseller. I'll eventually find a set on the used market and avoid the problem. Lost revenue for both the mfgr and reseller.