Hi all,

For the last week or so, I have been having an email conversation with one of our customers about how we can help you spread the word about Aperion. Like most of you, he is a very enthusiastic customer and he likes to show his new system off to all of his friends. In doing so, many of his friends are shocked that he would buy something on the Internet sight unseen. He explains the 30-day, no-risk audition but for many of his friends, that is too big of a leap of faith for such a significant purchase.

He had some great ideas that we tossed back and forth and he suggested that we open this up to the Aperion forum and see what other great ideas are out there. So that is what we are doing.

We would like you to share your great marketing ideas with us. This is pretty much an open forum for brainstorming and letting us know what kinds of things we can do to help you promote the Aperion Brand. We want to know what motivates you and what you think might motivate others to choose Aperion. This is brainstorming so there are no bad ideas. We want to see crazy and practical and everything in between.

So, have at it. Put on your best marketing and sales hats and send the ideas our way. Aperion team members are going to stay out of the conversation because we want you guys to keep the ideas flowing.

Thanks for all your help and we look forward to hearing from you!
 

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Cheers,

John Wanderscheid

What does everyone think about getting a coupon for a future purchase if you refer someone to Aperion? Their could be something in the customer care kit that you'd fill out and send in after your friend bought something.

 

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

Dang, looks like I going to have to make some friends!

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Russ

Joined you!

How about partnering with another company or website.  Like qvc.com. 

After thinking for awhile about this... How about having owners make testimonial videos that you can put on a DVD and send out almost like a catalog...

 You can have customers review or talk about a particular product like just the 4B's, 5B's and so on..  Then also have another segment with testimonials to your customer service.  I know the problem I had when buying these is what will they look like in a home theater setup.. If I had some kind of a DVD that showed existing customers with their setups and how it looked in their rooms I would have had a better gauge on what to expect.  Not that is mattered in my case at all but it might to some...

 I have to go now.. But there is one idea I guess that could be doable and somewhat inexpensive to implement.

 

Rockarruda

rockarruda has a good idea there. Check out amazon.com - they now have video user reviews.  Rather than a DVD the reviewer uploads a video file that anyone can watch. Some of them are so well done that you have to wonder if it isn't really the vendor that's putting it together :-)

 

p.s. We're your friends Russ! But I wouldn't tell too many people that.

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

One possibility is to "formalize" the customer auditions of Aperion speakers.  Aperion could register customers who are willing to audition there setups to potential customers who want to see and listen before taking the plunge.  Aperion could then suggest matches for auditions and connect/introduce the parties.  Auditions resulting in sales could be rewarded with coupons/points good towards future purchases.

Never mind

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Scottiemon

Going back to John's original post, "there are no bad ideas".  I don't think he's asking us to analyze anything, just throw stuff out there.

I can see that some people, properly rewarded, would invite a stranger to come over.

The trick is the reward for that or any idea - "what's in it for me" is going to be asked and the reward has to equal the effort.  If you think about it, Aperion did this recently. We were asked to review our products and get a hat.

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.

You are correct Joe! I will delete my post. My bad.

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Scottiemon

Gee John,

It seems as though marketing is not a problem?!?!?!? Most of your stuff is back ordered for over a month!!!!

Anyway....I discovered you via CNET. Perhaps get your stuff reviewed by other sources other than them. A good review goes a long way. After seeing the review on CNET, I searched AVS Forums and saw what a wonderful following you have. The rest, shall we say, is history!

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Scottiemon

Agree with Ken...set-up auditioning with customers in that area of the country.  Have customers listed in states that are willing for people to come into their homes and if the "potential new customer" buys a speaker you could reward them with rebate check or a BB gift card or something...or if they are buying a Bravus sub later on you could take a percentage off of that.  Something like the sattelite providers do, Dish/DiRectTV they offer so much per new customer signed on...you can put my name on the list.

I did talk to Jason Hicks about possibly opening a branch here on the east coast (New England).  Only problem I see is that people will want to buy the speakers there so they can bring them home and start rockin... 

 

Maybe have "Demo Days" setup at shops or where ever will let you do one, all over the country.  That is what a lot of golf companies do, drive up with a crap load of golf stuff at a nearby country club and you can show up and play with their clubs or just hit balls at the driving range.. 

 That could be possible to set up a mobile home theater trailer and drive it across country.  Plug in somewhere and start showing off. 

 What do you guys think?

Sounds like Ratzenberger's Made In America show. Would that work for speakers made in China?

All jokes aside, that does sound cool indeed. They could do state fairs perhaps? I would go just to meet the guys.

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Scottiemon

Good idea on the roadshow. I visited my favorite AV dealer about a month ago and Panasonic had a semi there. They had the inside of the truck set up with large screen plasmas, comfy seats, blu-ray DVDs running.  Outside they had a pop-up tent with their non-plasma products showcased as well as brochures, etc.  Anyone wanting to buy was directed into the dealer.

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Joe
If you can't have fun doing it, it's probably not worth doing.