2. misc-audio
  3. 192366-20253

Is the microwave the perfect model for audio marketting?

I remember the first time my mother got interested in a microwave oven. They were brand new, full of promises of fast, convenient cooking and baking. She ended up with a Toshiba with a built in magnetic card reader. You could put in a recipe card and automatically program it, or you could get additional cards and program your own "recipes." This was decades before the Internet, home routers or anything like Wifi.

Last week installers took away my 19 year old Maytag and replaced it with a brand new LG. Full of "features" where it automatically guesses the power and time based on buttons such as "potato" or "popcorn." These are not even very smart features. They don’t weigh the potato or take the temperature of the item you are heating or listen for the popcorn to stop popping. They just look up settings from a table and away you go.

Honestly of the hundreds of features in this microwave I need the light and fan the most. Then the power and time. The first two features are never very good in any microwave. The latter two are the only one’s most of us end up using out of sheer frustration with the automated features.

Is this a model or metaphor for modern audio marketting? Are we constantly being sold a list of features which in the end don’t really matter so long as the light turns on and the frozen Tandori chicken meal is safe to eat?

erik_squires

Showing 1 response by ddgtt

ddgtt's avatar
ddgtt
76 posts
 

I love the concept of a "defrost" cycle on your preamp.  But I would like it for burning in the preamp or warming it up quickly before a listening session.  

In our industry/hobby we can either advertise features or sound quality.  Advertising bells and whistles seems more like the approach for the masses.  For those of us participating in this forum "microwave marketing" likely doesn't have much appeal.  Microwave marketing espouses the objective qualities of an item.  Advertising subjective qualities (such as sound quality and its many aspects) is a different marketing approach entirely.  Having been in a position over many years to find effective ways to advertise subjective qualities, I must say it's not easy.  Most manufacturers in this industry fall on platitudes to present the sonic aspects of their products. Platitudinal descriptions are something that every brand could use in equal measure.  How then do you describe a unique subjective sonic quality of one product that doesn't apply to another brand as well?  Marketing in the high end of this industry/hobby is a challenge.   

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