I don't know, Dave ...
... "Given the market these high end vac companies seek to sell to, being absent from mass market retail settings isn't so much of an issue. The high end customer, in part, seeks a bit of exclusivity, and likes that they own something not seen in mass retail."
I disagree. As a "high-end" customer myself, I can tell you that we all shop in the same stores, by and large, as everyone else. The average consumer -- even the "high-end" one -- is in no way as informed as people on this board about vacuums. I live in a city, for example, that has the highest concentration of "high-end" consumers in the country. Most of us don't give much thought to vacuums until we need one. Because, like most New Yorkers, we tend to be over-the-top busy, we'll go through the usual channels to procure a new vacuum: retail stores. Off the top of my head, the only places here in Manhattan that sell vacuums are the handful of dedicated vacuum stores (which you'd never know existed unless they were right in your own neighborhood), Gracious Home, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. So we go into BB&B and what do we see? Plastivac nightmares, and one or two Miele models. So the "high-end" customer buys the Miele. Why? Because it's all he knows is out there.
Until I started my own search, I didn't even know, for example, that Riccar, Sebo, Rainbow, Filter Queen, and Royal even existed. I knew about Hoover, obviously, and Kirby -- but only because my Grandma had a Kirby, and I personally used the church's Kirby when I helped to clean on Saturdays as a child.
I knew that Aerus existed, but only because I walked past the storefront on 23rd Street probably a million times over the course of 18 years. And yet, never once did I step inside because I never saw anyone else in there, and it looked more like a drop-off repair place more than a retail showroom. So, like millions of others, I just walked on by.
And while it may be true that the "high-end" customer may seek a degree of exclusivity, let's face it, for most people -- even rich people -- a sweeper is just a sweeper. It's an appliance like a toaster; as long as it toasts the bread, who cares what brand it is, or how it was made?
Rich people in Manhattan buy Dysons and Mieles because by and large, they don't know that anything else is out there -- and even more importantly, it's what's right there in front of them.
And by the way, when I bought my Fantom 16 years ago, what I really wanted was a Kirby, but guess what? Like most New Yorkers, I never had the time to schedule a home demonstration; I tried three times with my local distributor that the company put me in touch with, but they only wanted to come during the day -- when I was at work. And no way in hell was I going to blow a vacation day for a vacuum demo.
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"I do however think that some of these companies can benefit from a bit more visibility - more "storefronts" so more people know who Aerus is, for example."
BINGO.
I just had dinner with my best friend's brother and sister-in-law for the first time a few weeks ago. They told me they lived on the Upper East Side, off 71st Street. I told them I was just up there, test-driving an Aerus. She told me that name sounded familiar. I told her about the dealership right there on First Avenue. Both she and he said they'd been walking past that store for years and had no idea what it was all about.
Aerus, Kirby, Rainbow, Filter Queen ... these "high-end" brands suffer terribly from poor branding. They've been around for decades, and yet no one seems to know about them.
This is why God invented advertising.
