Of the population that reads Stereophile, the best demographic, us, is reachable without paying their preposterous price by simply reaching out to the Audiogoners.
As successfull as Audiogon is (it's also a partner with Stereophile now, by the way), I think "we" are only a very small part of the demographic that Larry may wish to reach. There's a whole other world out there who use and appreciate this kind of gear and do not visit Audiogon and do not read Stereophile. Best strategy is to pepper all the venues, as the previous owner was doing very effectively, and keep that buzz going (though I do think the original owner went a bit far in his efforts as all the deleted threads may have attested to). Regardless, I think his campaign was very effective. Larry, I truly mean no offense by this, but the current full-page ad you've been running with the Photoshop-obscured view of one of your amps....well, from both a consumers point of view, and from someone been in the advertising business for over twenty years, that really needs some reconsideration. I have no idea what you are trying to do there, but it almost looks like someone accidently ran the comp for the ad. Those full pages have to cost you a goodly amount of coin...I'd invest in some better photography and graphic design to make that investment work for you more effectively. Just one man's unsolicited opinion mind you. The previous owner was running some very slick ads, well designed, with excellent photography, that made the product appear to be worth much more than he was charging for it. The current ads I'm seeing do not draw me in to read more about the product, and do not speak at all visually of the product itself. If your ad doesn't make the reader stop and read about the product, it's a wasted investment. Anyone else finding that with the current run of Larry's ads? Maybe it's just me as I am a very visual person and put a strong emphasis on the visual, especially in this 5-second attention span culture we live in.
Marco
