Azione President Calls Out B&W for Adding Abt Electronics to Dealer Roster

A charged debate on specialty AV distribution trends emerged in the social media space last week after high-end loudspeaker manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins revealed it had signed on mass-market Chicago-area retailer Abt Electronics.

Richard Glikes, president of specialty buying group Azione Unlimited, posted a question on his public Facebook page Wednesday asking followers if anyone was “giving B&W grief for adding Abt,” since the company already had dealers in the area including Barrett’s Technology Solutions, The Little Guys, Magnolia Design Center, Integrysis and Audio Consultants Chicago. B&W also sells through InMotion and Apple stores in the area, according to its website.

David Wexler, co-owner of The Little Guys, posted that he was no longer a B&W dealer. His wife and co-owner Edie, pulled the plug on B&W when it began selling through Magnolia in Best Buy stores, he said. “The Abt thing would have put us in a very angry state,” Wexler said, saying it wasn’t “a knock on Abt.”

Joe Walters, an account manager at Harman, said Abt has “the traffic and the customer for a brand like B&W.” A specialty brand doesn’t necessarily translate to exclusivity in a given market, he said. “Strong retail partners will only solidify the brand in the consumer’s mind,” he said, saying Abt “has good sales people that know the products they sell, they have first class demo facilities and great customer service. Sounds like a win."

"Doing lots of business because you discount heavily doesn’t make you a brand builder,” Glikes said. “We've all seen brands go down this path before.” Asked whether he thought brand exclusivity was still important for dealer success, Glikes said, “I think if you sleep with dogs, you get fleas. … Abt is not a dog. … My guess is B&W goes to P.C. Richard next."

Doug Henderson, president of B&W Group North America, wouldn’t respond to our questions about the decision to sell through Abt. But in answer to Glikes’s Facebook post, he said, “I wouldn’t ordinarily dignify this with a comment, but the P.C. Richard comparison is ridiculous, and Richard should be embarrassed for throwing that out there. (I'd unfriend you but then I couldn’t keep an eye on your FB’s posts.)” Henderson called New York-based P.C. Richard a “mid-tier, primarily white goods/TV retailer” with “no real ambition in audio/video.” He said P.C. Richard is “among the very best in their space” but “that is not our space.” Abt, by contrast, “is a single-location retailer,” Henderson said. He said B&W is not participating in Abt’s e-commerce operation. Henderson said Abt is building demo space to suit B&W and has a strong AV sales staff and experienced custom installation organization.

Henderson believes Abt will “sell our products on their merits and that they will help raise further the visibility of the brand.” B&W doesn’t make distribution decisions “casually” or in a way that risks its brand reputation, Henderson said. “In this information age, people want to buy the right products and the old model of selling only ‘exclusive’ brands is over,” he said. He said dealers can still differentiate from others by “managing customer relationships and adding value through service."

Glikes responded: “Let me see if I have this right. People go to Abt because they have great display facilities and super salespeople. Not! It’s price, price, and don’t forget price."

Evie Wexler of The Little Guys noted that UMRP (universal retail manufacturer pricing) “solves many issues. It’s the discounting that really destroys a brand."

Dan Jeancola, senior vice president at Sound Advice, weighed in on the thread with the comment, “The brand is the retailer … not the vendor.” Consumers look at the specialty retailer today as the place to find a solution, “not to find a brand/vendor,” he said. “They just don’t come in today for brands.” Retailers are successful when they have the expertise to create a solution and meet customers’ expectations, he said. Jeancola said the days of exclusive brands are “long gone.” A retailer wins by providing solutions, being “profitable enough to keep your doors open” and having a sales/installation team that can “exploit all of features/benefits of today’s products for the customer. … Is the same brand’s product better in one store than another? My answer is yes!"

One industry observer assumed that the current Chicago dealers are likely “none too pleased” about the added competition, but said the move “supports healthy competition and the great way of market capitalism.” Another said a brand “can be defined by the distribution channels that they select rather than the individual dealers.”