By Sarah Falson
 
SYDNEY: Premium audio electronics manufacturer, Bose, has confirmed it will increase the number of direct retail stores and has no future plans to distribute its products through large mass market consumer electronics retailers.

"We don’t deal with the likes of Harvey Norman, Clive Peeters and Clive Anthonys. Their distribution model is not how we target our products,” Bose Asia Pacific business manager – home entertainment division Matt Nielsen, told Current.com.au yesterday at the launch for the company’s 2006 product range in Sydney.

“They’re associated with very competitive pricing. They’re not where we see ourselves going.”

According to Nielsen, Bose’s distribution model spans four tiers: customers may buy direct from Bose stores (there are currently 11 across Australia, and plans are in process to establish another two); Ecommerce purchases are offered via the corporate website at www.bose.com.au; Myer stocks a limited Bose product range; and there is a dealer base of 150 independent specialist stores around the country, which makes up the majority of Bose’s dealer bass.

Apollo Hi Fi in Sydney’s Marrickville is one such specialist store. Manager, John Chillari, today told Current.com.au: “We’re probably one of the oldest Bose dealers in Sydney. We’ve been stocking the brand for 30 years. We have an understanding of Bose products, and we can offer a more personalised service [than major retailers.]

“That’s why Bose refuses to go into larger stores – after all, Ferraris don’t get sold everywhere.”

Chillari speculated that consumers who bought Bose felt they were getting an ‘elitest’ product, since the brand is choosy about its retail presence.

“If you see it in a store that doesn’t have vacuum cleaners, but instead it just has hifi, consumers will see it as a specialist product. It is a specialist product. Like Denon – they stay only with the specialist stores, too… Denon used to retail in Myer, but pulled the plug on that and their sales almost doubled.”

Bose’s 2006 product range includes a line of USB-connected multimedia speaker systems for the computer, a complete single speaker system called the Acoustic Wave Music System II, an updated range of Lifestyle systems called the Series III, and two new headphone models – On-ear Electrostatic and QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling.

Bose also manufacturers a range of OEM in-car entertainment systems, and has supplied a top-of-the-line sound system to be rolled-out this month in Holden’s new sub-$70,000 Caprice.