ahead of time

it has been almost a year since av xpress' birth. i still receive occasional phone calls from dealers telling me that they want to advertise in av xpress.

but when i start telling them my marketing approaches, the positioning of the magazine, the distribution network, most of the times, it drew a blank on their faces. they simply don't understand (and appreciate) things like "independent" magazine, non-traditional distribution network and online marketing.

traditionally, a magazine needs to please advertisers because they need advertising revenue to survive. the magazine's publisher/editor needs to "spend quality times" with the advertisers to improve PR and to get the sales. and more often than not, the publisher needs to write pretty things about their products. the publisher/editor not only needs to be a good sales and marketing person, he also needs good PR, must be thick-skinned, able to handle the politics of the business and has tons of patience and perseverance. which, sadly, is not my forte. well, i am a pretty good marketer and i have decent PR; it is just that i don't sell out or please anyone, especially people i don't particularly fond of. to know oneself is half the battle won, haha.

call me unorthodox, un-business savvy, anti-establishment - i don't think that's the way i want av xpress to be. maybe i don't need to depend on av xpress for my livelihood, i dare to be bold about my approaches. that's cool.

local dealers, by and large, don't understand online marketing and they don't give two hoods about online audiophile community. true, the buying ones (mainly middle-aged audiophiles who are not internet savvy) are still shunning away from internet. but things are going to change with this blog and others like hifi4sale blog garnering loyal readers.

that's why i think av xpress is ahead of its time, in the malaysian context at least. given time and persistence, it will be a force to reckon with, that's my personal belief.