Knowledge is power: what role have experience, self-study and the involvement of experts played in the history of Audimania?

About how the “Audiomania” brand was created, how the company's business developed, quite a lot has already been written [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].



We decided to look at what was happening from a different angle and talk about the role that business plays not in instinct and entrepreneurial instincts, but in learning, including self-study and self-development?

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Self-study as the basis of business

Audiomania has grown in the spontaneous market of audio and television equipment, which existed in Russia in the 90s. Then the founder of Audiomania Artem Fairmark was a young entrepreneur and worked on the Riga market.

“At that time, the arrangement was quite funny: a table, a ticket office, a kettle. It was a covered market, but it was not heated. Now it is perceived as something unthinkable at all, but at that moment everyone was sitting, smoking, there was smoke yoke, nothing was wrong about that. ”



- Artem Fairmark

Why, at some point, the future company began to work with hi-fi-class equipment - after all, it would seem that at that time there was actually only one audio brand on the Russian market. Artem decided to listen to the words of one of the lovers of audio equipment, who told him about how much the Western Hi-Fi market differs from what was then sold in Russia.



On the one hand, the future Audiomania had the opportunity to be one of the first to occupy this niche, on the other - there was a problem: not only potential competitors, but also users did not know about this technique, about what it was intended for and how to choose it. The task arose, firstly, to understand what kind of a market it was, and secondly, to tell buyers about it. Start Artem Fairmark decided with self-study:

“In the beginning, I started listening to some new equipment at home, in order to understand what was going on, what we sell.



I began to read specialized magazines, improve my qualifications. ”

"Training" customers

In order not only to talk about the new technology, but also to show customers the difference between their familiar audio systems and those that started selling Audi Amania, they opened a listening room in a new store at the Prague Electronic Fair. Until now, representatives of the company emphasize how important it is to come to the showroom and listen to the system of interest “live” - this clearly shows the client whether it suits his needs or not.



Sound engineers point out that audio system manufacturers deliberately change their characteristics so that they better meet the needs of a certain group of fans of a particular brand (the “ideal” in terms of technical characteristics sound, as a rule, finds little emotional response). That is why it is extremely difficult to choose equipment solely by the indicators in the product passport - you should use the listening room and understand what kind of sound gives the "goosebumps" (visiting the showroom, by the way, does not oblige the customer to purchase).



Showroom and listening rooms - only one of the formats that allow the company to convey to potential buyers the idea of ​​how and due to what you can get a good sound. In general, the need to “educate the market”, to show how good acoustics can improve the quality of life, arose from the company as soon as Audiomania chose this specialization.



With the advent of the online store Audiomania work on training potentially interested audience has moved to the network. In essence, the company began to develop an online store, including as a channel for communicating with customers - according to Artem Fairmark, the content of the Audiomania site with educational content directly affects the average bill and the retention of regular customers.



For some time, the issue of consumer education was partially addressed through various kinds of Hi-Fi and High-End publications, but in Audiomania they understood: there are still a lot of myths in the field of audio systems that can and should be discussed. This is how the podcast “Sound” appeared, in which the staff of Audiomania talk about popular misconceptions and controversial issues from the field of audio technology, sound, home theaters, music formats and answer questions from listeners.



Sometimes consumer education also includes an explanation of product pricing policies: for example, Arslab’s own brand of Audiomania produces acoustics (more on this later), which corresponds to the High-End class, but is cheaper than its counterparts. According to Artem Faermark, sometimes relatively modest prices can put buyers on their guard: so the company decided to talk about exactly how these columns are made, what costs (compared to competitors) can be optimized and why in this case High-End can be affordable.

Save and increase: the continuity of generations in the production of audio

Of course, for a large-scale work with hi-fi and high-end class audio equipment, the company needed experts in this field. In particular, since 2000, Audiomania has been collaborating with the sound engineer and design engineer of acoustic systems, Yuri Fomin, the creator of the Fomin Laboratory, which has patented a number of inventions in the field of sound technology.



When in the mid-2000s, in Audiomania, it was decided to create their own brand of high-end acoustics (Arslab), they also began to involve reputable experts. They were engineers who had previously worked at one of the largest factories for the production of audio goods in the USSR - the Riga plant Radiotehnika.

Riga is the former place of production of all acoustic systems for the Soviet Union, therefore the personnel base for acoustics is the most powerful. After the collapse of the VEF and Radio Engineering, these people remained to live there. And, accordingly, we have collected all the best.



- Artem Fairmark

On the one hand, some of the best specialists in Russia and the CIS connected to the production of acoustics in this way, on the other hand, the company understood that it was necessary to “grow” a worthy replacement for the older generation: young people who were ready to learn from engineering composition of the "old school". Now these employees are about 30 years old, and they are ready to increase their knowledge and conform to the traditions established by the Soviet engineering school.

From sales assistants to experts

Creating a company capable of not only selling high-quality equipment, but also competently advising and educating consumers is impossible without working with staff. Of course, they try to attract people who are passionate about the subject of audio and who understand music to work in the company. For example, Alexey Shubin, one of the leading experts in Audiomania, is well versed in the topic of home theaters and acoustic equipment for them, also because he has been an enthusiast of the “theater” direction for many years, is constantly interested in new products in this area and improves his own home system.



Understanding the nuances of various musical directions is also an important detail in the work of consultants. Director of marketing and business development of Audiomania Timofey Shikolenkov has repeatedly stressed that it is very difficult to advise something to a client, not knowing what kind of music he prefers: different genres have different “requirements” to certain characteristics of the speaker system.



Naturally, there are very few universal experts who are equally well versed in all musical directions, portable acoustics, and acoustic systems. Therefore, employees who advise clients choose the direction of specialization - not least in accordance with their personal preferences and interests. Audiomania, for its part, tries to make it so interesting for employees to work and develop in the chosen topic:

[To us] and foreigners come, tell something, and we ourselves go. Their [employees] self-esteem rises in this case - “I’m not just standing at the counter and getting boxes, I’m involved in the process, I know how it is done, what is happening,” and so on.



- Artem Fairmark

In order to give clients the most detailed and accurate advice, the company at some point even decided to limit the range of brands sold - in order, according to Artem Faermark, to work only with those brands that have been thoroughly studied by Audiology experts:

We always wanted to be experts and to understand what we do. Yes, we deal with five brands, but we know everything about everyone. We understand that this is from where, who are these people who make these columns.