What's in a Name?

[Mr. Widget]

These were my first step up from the junk speakers that come with
Fisher-type systems. I had no idea before then how much better
good speakers sounded, (compared to department store junk).
I read this line in a thread about how people came to discover JBL and it got me thinking... Fisher used to be a brand that stood for high quality. They made products that while not quite McIntosh or Marantz, they were just behind them along with HH Scott and a few others... then along in the late '70s and early '80s they became simply a label to be put on audio and audio related gear. RCA and Altec Lansing along with dozens of other brands have suffered the same indignity...


Okay, on Casitas, this was the setup:

At the very back of the building, in a room maybe 20' wide, by 8' deep, Howard Wieser would put in the round wire into our flattening machines, and run them thru the enamel (or varnish, or whatever it was) machines and then they'd go thru the drying end. It was really just one big machine, where the round wire went in one end, and the flat, coated wire came out the other end...This post from Harvey shows us just how far JBL has gone from not simply designing and assembling their own drivers, but from manufacturing their own VC wire, winding their own coils etc. to this contemporary junk where they simply stick their name on some imported crap... how long before they too are a forgotten brand?

[speakerdave]

It's hard to fault JBL for wanting to stay in business.

The best way to go out of business in this town is to offer good basic quality at cost plus a reasonable profit. Examples: Acoustic Research, KLH, Advent. One of the things that happened to those companies is that their products became widely discounted, so they were perceived as cheap. JBL tried to protect itself from that with "Fair Trade" agreements. However one might feel about that, the purpose I believe was to enable the continuation of quality development, but one of the effects was that JBL was much more expensive and perceived as "overpriced."

The devaluation of establish brands is one of the oldest games for short-term gain. I think JBL has in the last three decades had an amazing record of successfully selling the brand down the river and at the same time repeatedly reestablishing it with tremendous products. I don't know if there is another example anywhere of a company successfully doing this. The Everest II is only the latest example. It's a question of how much longer they can keep it up.

[4313B]

I think the former CEO of a shampoo company is taking over from Sidney so JBL should do just fine. Rumor has it he loves jingles so maybe we can get some JBL commercials going on TV. :) In fact, I think the best bet would be to have women with long, radiant hair with no split ends peddling iPod docks and Everest II's to snappy tunes.

[speakerdave]

I think the former CEO of a shampoo company is taking over from Sidney so JBL should do just fine. . . .

Like soft drink tycoon John Sculley taking over Apple Computer. That was nearly fatal.

[Fangio]

Like soft drink tycoon John Sculley taking over Apple Computer. That was nearly fatal.
:applaud:

Spot-on!

[Mr. Widget]

It's hard to fault JBL for wanting to stay in business.Yeah, and GM thought they'd be smart and focus on those profitable SUVs... I guess their gray haired management was on some other planet during the '70s when GM got stuck with a fleet of massively over weight cars...

Short term profits are rarely are smartest solution for long term health.


Widget

[Mr. Widget]

The best way to go out of business in this town is to offer good basic quality at cost plus a reasonable profit. Examples: Acoustic Research...How about that Apple computer example...? They have had a tight price control policy and for years people thought they were over priced, but these days with most of the Dells and others selling such me too junk, the Apple brand has done quite well. Obviously it isn't that simple, they have also done some very creative innovative product development, but still they do set their quality standards a bit higher than the industry average.


Widget

[speakerdave]

I don't remember what happened to GM in the seventies. I recall it was Chrysler that needed the federal bailout because they were deeply committed to trucks, vans, van conversions and Power Wagons.

I remember seeing an interview with Lee Iacocca in the mid eighties. Chrysler had closed truck, van, and big car production and had developed the K-car and their Mitsubishi line. Then gas got cheap again and the customers wanted the big cars again. The interviewer summarized this history and asked him how he felt about it. He sighed and said, "Yeah, it does kind of keep you off balance." The retail customers set the direction.

I think there can be moments in corporate history when managers think they need to have a success at lower price points or with other products to support the continuation of the company and its quality products, the ones they really want to make. I think JBL has perceived that at various moments and responded in the way they thought best. In the Apple example, the company was given a tremendous boost by iPod buyers who did not know Macintosh computers existed.

David

[1audiohack]

I guess to some extent it depends on what you really want your company to be.

I have a small company that supplies powertrain for off road racing.We only do top shelf stuff, Trophy Truck class for SCORE Baja racing, and some Paris - Dakar trucks. Yeah I know it ran somewhere else this year.

The engine part aside, we do all the rest from the flywheel to the wheel drive plates including dyno / validation with four guys, and we have the lions share of our target market.

We kind of like the absolute highest quality low volume / high profit business model, but what are my options if I want to grow my business? I don't really want to make $400.00 gearsets for dragracers when I sell $4200.00 gearsets to desert racers, so what does one do?

Sadly besides pro sound and some Asian high end markets, I see the same problem for JBL. How many folks did JBL employ in the big fourway days pro sound aside?

The world has changed without my help. I am all for clean air and clear water, but the industrial iconic America I remember and love is fading from view.

I simply live in denial. My daily driver has a 540 cubic inch 695 HP engine and my livingroom has lost about 36 cubic feet to the four ways and subs. It is my refuge from the world and the reality I choose.

So what is in a name? I hope somehow GM and JBL don't become just a name we remember,,, but if they do, I hope it does not come after being devalued to extinction by the whores for profit only.

[speakerdave]

. . . . My daily driver has a 540 cubic inch 695 HP engine . . . .

No reason to leave the 4-ways at home. :)

[BMWCCA]

I think the former CEO of a shampoo company is taking over from Sidney so JBL should do just fine. Rumor has it he loves jingles so maybe we can get some JBL commercials going on TV. :) In fact, I think the best bet would be to have women with long, radiant hair with no split ends peddling iPod docks and Everest II's to snappy tunes.Well, since they do absolutely no marketing here in the U.S. now and sell all their good products overseas, maybe that would be an improvement?

[1audiohack]

No marketing? I saw a bright orange trailer with JBL all over it at the Formula Drift competition here a week ago. They had a buggy beside it with some of the junk Widget posted in the back.

Damn near everyone there was Asian, but I still coulnd't make the connection.

[No reason to leave the 4-ways at home :) ]

I got around that by setting up an exact duplicate system at the shop. While the home system is tolerated by the wife, the entire family recoils from TEF sweeps, so I now do it all here at the shop. Way more space anyway.

[cooky1257]

I think the former CEO of a shampoo company is taking over from Sidney so JBL should do just fine. Rumor has it he loves jingles so maybe we can get some JBL commercials going on TV. :) In fact, I think the best bet would be to have women with long, radiant hair with no split ends peddling iPod docks and Everest II's to snappy tunes.

"JBL, because they're worth it"

[Mr. Widget]

...but what are my options if I want to grow my business?That is something that absolutely eludes me. Why is it that a company is only considered successful if it has growth? When JP Morgan is profitable but not more so than a year ago they are considered failing...

It is this unending need to grow, to increase, to raise productivity, to extend into new markets etc. that is a huge problem for us. We simply can't have a crappy LCD set and DVD player in every room of every building in every country of the world... but that is the ultimate goal.


Widget

[Audiobeer]

I'm just hoping to hang on long enough to get a job as an CSR for an up and coming company that manufactures in the 3rd world. That's where the actions going to be.

I'm getting on line to apply as soon as I'm out of Anheuser Busch products!

[4313B]

It is this unending need to grow, to increase, to raise productivity, to extend into new markets etc. that is a huge problem for us.Their idocy will come to an end.

[1audiohack]

Originally Posted by 1audiohack http://audioheritage.csdco.com/vbulletin/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://audioheritage.csdco.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=215279#post215279)
...but what are my options if I want to grow my business?


That is something that absolutely eludes me. Why is it that a company is only considered successful if it has growth? When JP Morgan is profitable but not more so than a year ago they are considered failing...

My point exactly. We choose to stay where we are, in the market we love, because we love what we do. The alternatives just don't feel right to me.

How many folks do you know that put in uncompensated time because they love what they do and the company they work for? Remember what Harvey G wrote?

How many companies are deserving of such devotion in this era?

I don't think anyone driving screws into washing machines all day long at some factory has the chance to take real pride in what they do.

What Harvey described during his time with JBL for example is much different, he knows most of the folks around him, what they do, and to some extent how they do it. He knows he's building something of value! He knows the finished product and he knows he's appreciated! He is a real part of all of it.

There is a dissconect of most of those things as a company grows, and each persons job gets smaller and more isolated in the scale of things.

Who ever has the helm must decide what the brand is to be. We can only hope.

I am proud to own the JBL stuff that I have. It continues to bring me the joy that good music gives.

Yeah, I had to work and save for it, and as cooky said, it was worth it!

[Ducatista47]

That is something that absolutely eludes me. Why is it that a company is only considered successful if it has growth? When JP Morgan is profitable but not more so than a year ago they are considered failing...

It is this unending need to grow, to increase, to raise productivity, to extend into new markets etc. that is a huge problem for us.
Widget

The Growth Model = Greed, never a long term strategy. The "public outcry" at missed targets each or any quarter/month/week is - ahem - "the stockholders", but that is pretty deceptive. Look up what percentage of US securities are owned by what percentage of Americans.

Hint: The first number is between ninety and ninety-nine percent. The second number would be from one to three percent, depending on the first pick. A very few own the bulk of almost everything public, and these are the same people who sit on boards, hold executive positions in corporations and make those aforementioned noises when sales or earnings fall short of expectations.

Only in a winner take all society would this obscene warping of distribution of wealth and more importantly POWER be considered normal or even OK.

Like I said elsewhere, Nitto bicycle parts is a better long term model than corporations seeking growth and increased market share. I hope 4313B is correct and these morons fail, but it will be too late for the hundreds of thousands of Mom & Pop businesses already plowed under by the onslaught. Worse yet, the perpetrators usually cry all the way to the bank. Don't even ask how well this "system" serves employees and customers.

Well, the new 12AX7's in my CD player sound heavenly. I'll go sit in front of the speakers I built myself instead of the monitor that I didn't and unwind...

Clark

PS. What can we do? Shop at locally owned shops instead of big box stores and never, ever go to Walmart again. The MDF for my speakers came home from a trip to a local lumber yard owned and run by an old guy who was buying audio gear forty years ago from the local store I bought the 12AX7's from this afternoon. If it matters, the MDF was better quality than what was available from Lowe's.

[1audiohack]

PS. What can we do? Shop at locally owned shops instead of big box stores and never, ever go to Walmart again. The MDF for my speakers came home from a trip to a local lumber yard owned and run by an old guy who was buying audio gear forty years ago from the local store I bought the 12AX7's from this afternoon. If it matters, the MDF was better quality than what was available from Lowe's.


Your my new best friend.:)

[Ian Mackenzie]

I think Mr Widgets 1st post is quite thought provoking.

Of course in its early stages audio and Hifi were innovative businesses that provided technology solutions (not by todays standards) to those that could afford it and to meet solutions required by expanding industries of the time like Motion Picture Film.. The brand was not so important as their capability.

Today branding is a key tool for players like JBL looking to capitalise in emerging and growing consumer markets like the Ipod. Everyone is doing it.

Its a case of being seen and grabing a slice.

If sucessful then that is seen as growth.

The age old saying that you need to replace old customers with new ones is very true.

The problem for the corporation is that strategically it cannot rely on its traditional or core markets that are not necessarily highly profitable to survive in the medium to long term.

The same applies to the small business and is often harder as they don't have the spare capital to invest in opening up new markets when times are tough. Nor do they have cash reserves for brand marketing campaigns like the big players.

[Ducatista47]

Quite true, Ian. Still, it depends on what is meant by small.

Really small businesses I have been familiar with always keep their expenses minimal and are set up to nearly eliminate them in tough times. If your few employees must have their hours cut during a downturn, you do the work yourself. There is not much of it to do when things are slow and if you are smart you have saved during the good times to get through the lean times. Very small businesses (and some not quite so small who are privately owned) and smart families can use a marvelous low cost low expense system called pay as you go. A dirty idea for lenders, but living within your means with teeth for hard times like these.

I have known quite a few folks in my life who would close up their business and walk through the back door or go upstairs to go home, all in the building they owned. Zoning, escalating taxes and other city or county ordinances have made this a lot tougher to do these days.

Owners of small restaurants have an extra cushion. It is a little insider secret, but some independent restaurant owners rarely pay for food at home. Keeping your family fed is number one in bad times or good.

Thanks, 1audiohack, I'm sure it's mutual. Isn't niche marketing a cool high wire act?

Clark

Edit: For readers outside the US, I do not mean to appear to take exception to Ian's great points. I was just talking about the flexibility of very small businesses to work in traditional but under the radar ways that enable survivability in lean times. Small in the USA press is a West and East coast concept. Milwaukee, about a million people I think, is a small town and a corporation with a hundred employees is a small business. This country is a seriously warped Plutocracy when it comes to wealth and information spin. Sole proprietors and family owned businesses with fewer than ten employees don't even matter or exist for these fat cats.

A jerk of memorable proportions was Earl Butz, a 1960's era Secretary of Agriculture. He said, "Get big or get out" to small farmers and had no use for anything but agribusiness level farms. His "wisdom" may eventually doom human life on the planet. Masanobu Fukuoka he was not!