Originally Posted By: medic8r
Some thoughts: with the advance in technology in these speakers - it's such a leap – I wonder if we have a Toyota/Lexus moment. You know the story: Toyota had been making quality cars for decades, but wanted to go upscale as well. So they designed a luxury car that they knew would rock the automotive world. Problem is, the people who were shopping BMWs, Mercedes, and Cadillacs would balk at paying $40,000 (this was 1989) for any Toyota sedan, no matter how good it was. New Camrys were selling for about $15,000, so, by comparison, the new flagship model was two to three times as expensive. Hence the new name, Lexus, and a new car division of the Toyota Motor Corporation. The rest, as they say, is history.

So, now there’s a new Axiom flagship speaker/DSP board combo that’s about two to three times as expensive as the previous flagship, the M80. Will people pay that much for an Axiom product? Undoubtedly, as the EP800 and A1400 demonstrate. However, there will be some who balk at the idea. How do we capture those people? Well, by having them hear a pair, of course. But until that point, how do we let them know just what a leap this is?

That said, I’m sure that with the decades of work you’ve put into the good name of Axiom, you don’t want that to disappear in the launch of this speaker line. This will be Axiom’s flagship speaker, and it’s right to put the Axiom name on it. And you probably don't want to spawn a new division of Axiom, with the paperwork and legal wrangling, yada yada.

As a compromise, I’d consider making this more than just another speaker line, as far as naming goes. LFR is good as far as suggesting what the speaker does, functionally, but it’s not a sexy name. And I just don’t see lumping this new speaker in with the other floorstanders on the web site, with a little box containing the pricing for the M50, M60, M80 – even the M100 – and then this guy. This guy is special and needs his own prominent space on the web page and in the company.

I was kicking around names:

Signature Series (Paradigm did that),

Reference Series (a lot of companies have used this, with Klipsch, Infinity, and Energy on the first page of a Google search. Might get lost in the noise, but, then again, people will know what you mean when you say “Reference Series”. Possible ad campaign: “Sure, you’ve tried the rest. Now try OUR Reference Series…”)

Ultimate Series (could work – signifies the degree of difference between the new speaker and the M series)

But my favorite is:

Masterworks Series: The “M” series taken to a new level!

This distinguishes the speaker as a level above the rest of the offerings and gives it the panache it deserves. Now, the individual speakers in the Series still have to have names, and I see two options:

1. Use “Masterworks” as the name (instead of LFR) and finish with a numerical value, in this case, 100 since the front is the same as the M100, giving us the Masterworks 100. However, this would likely get confused with the upcoming M100, given peoples’ tendency to abbreviate things. So, I'd:

2. Keep LFR in there and call it the Masterworks Series LFR-100. Or Masterworks Series LFR-200 if you're presenting it, as Ian said, as essentially two M towers in one. As others have mentioned, you could go with a dashed name with the number of drivers up front and in the back, e.g. Masterworks Series LTR 7-4. That'd give a quick mental impression for future models - e.g. people would know just what a 5-3 or a 4-2 would consist of.

Thanks for reading my mini-essay and providing the opportunity for me to kick some ideas around. Hope it's helpful.



i think you are on to something. LFR- MASTER REFERENCE
by Axiom

or

Exclusively from Axiom

Last edited by Socketman; 03/19/12 07:39 PM.

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