Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler So I stopped into a Bose store today....

Wow, they have quite the thing going there. Good amount of staff, lots of demos, and the 10 minute "home theater room" demo was quite impressive....

Now, I know better, but holy crap, no wonder the Bose "stuff" (was going to say junk, but whatever) is so expensive. They had a fully sound treated room with theater seats and such set up. Part way through the demo (that would have worked great for ANY decent speaker brand) they "uncover" the speakers (they had fake speaker "shells" on stands to cover up the little cubes) and some of the people in the room were all amazed. Then they monkeyed around with putting the center channel in a box and how the system could calibrate itself to fix the sound (the demo just faked bad sound as it was an "instant" calibration). Again, people were amazed by this magic... Thinking that the system will sound outstanding in any room of their home, and it will some how cancel out echos and other room acoustic issues.

Again, like I said, I was impressed. Not with the products, but just the length that they go to make you think that you are getting the best speaker package out there. The demo used works like "...only with a Bose system..." and so forth.

Lies and garbage... Made me feel like it was election time again, but again, I was impressed with the (sneaky and dirty, I know) presentation.

Even the 2 guys I was with were about ready to drop $4,000 on a bose cube setup. It was like I was talking to two brick walls...

At least they didn't buy anything today. Maybe in the future I'll be able to help them to "see the light"... Then again, they live here in New York, and I won't be back for probably 6 months...

They'll have a Bose setup by then. You must stop them now!

Nick, you have journeyed to the Dark Side and returned, are YOU ok?

$4000?!? They could get a serious package here for that kind of cash? Somebody DO something.

I told my sister in law that those little Bose cubes were made and marketed for the not so well informed woman who wears the damn pants in the family type ... of course this was after she was very critical of our system and boasted to me how much better their Acoustimess system was.

Whoopee, somebody pop the top on the friggin' champagne bottle.

That is a perfect analogy.

The Dark Side is temping and sure seems great at first, and it is easy to get sucked in to the sneaky gibberish, but to be able to experience it and come back has made me even better understand why people are tempted by Bose for their homes, and I am now more informed to help guide people towards the right path...

Your experience echoes mine. I've been into a couple of Bose stores. For no other reason than when I've been stuck at a Mall with family as wives shopped. Exactly the kind of customer that Bose tries to lure.

Bose's genius has always been in their marketing. We all love to bash Bose (for good reason), but they are a shrewdly run business. Commercials, sponsorships, & partnerships with car manufacturers; it's all about exposure. They've dumped tons of money into those Bose stores too, and they put them in high-traffic areas like shopping & outlet malls. And in my experience, often in "man-store-deficient" malls. Typical guys flock to them because there's nothing else to do. And if they haven't taken the time or energy to research what other brands sound like, they end up buying $4,000 cube systems that are sonically annihilated by $1,000 systems from a multitude of other manufacturers.

I've known a lot of people who are very proud of their Bose systems. You know, showing it off at a dinner/superbowl party or talking about it at work, etc. I'm polite, and so I try not to be a jerk about it, but I always ask about what other brands they listened to before deciding on Bose. In every case I can remember, the answer basically is, "None. I didn't need to. I just heard that Bose was the best." Ignorance is bliss.

People are, in general, naive. We believe what we're told. We like shiny things and flashing lights. We like to be sold on a product. Nicely-dressed & groomed salespeople in a clean, modern, "chic" store alter people's perceptions of the product. There's a reason Dolce & Gabbana can sell $1,000 shoes, and Louis Vuitton can sell $10,000 luggage. Some of that value is quality (sometimes more, sometimes less), but some of that price is simply marketing & image hype. Bose stores work on the same principle, with even less quality & even more hype.

Now personally, I don't care if people buy products based solely on marketing hype and image. It's their life & their money. Bose is there for that. But I think a lot of people buy Bose because it's convenient. Their massive marketing has put their name in the minds of millions of people. Bose springs to mind when un-sonically-experienced people want "good" audio gear, because that's how it's marketed. But every time I see a Bose store, I just wish there was an Axiom, Energy, Paradigm, B&W, Dynaudio, etc store next to it so that people would have an equal opportunity to hear what *real* speakers sound like in comparison.

Oh, and the best way to screw around with a Bose salesman? Start asking about power outputs and frequency response. That's always fun.

While I read that, visions of an Apple Store ran through my head.

Maybe not totally fair to Apple, since their products are better-regarded than BOSE, but there is that element there, and they work it hard. Those "I'm a Mac" ads - which I love - pound away at that part of our brains.

I just went to an Apple store for the first time 3 weeks ago. Exactly the same image went through my mind when I read that paragraph. It was hard not to be impressed. We were there because my daughter's Touch on/off was not functioning. They replaced the Touch on the spot. She came home from college a week later and called us that week to say that the new Touch was not functioning correctly either. She is back in town this week and Apple replaced it yet again - no questions asked. I have never been an Apple fan boy but must admit I have been impressed. My wife is wanting a laptop and I am now seriously considering a Macbook Pro.......Rob

There are a few companies out there that do understand customer service.