Krystal Clear Audio-Video: Krystal Clear Vision

Marketing can be a fabulous tool that, in some cases, is misleading.

Take for example the National Football League's Oakland Raiders. Despite the fact that this well-known football team owns one of the more famous corporate mission statements ever created -- "Commitment to Excellence" -- the team languishes at the bottom of the league standings.

Unlike the Raiders, however, Don Krasen, president of Krystal Clear Audio-Video and his company's business practices live up to its mission statement:

"We offer cutting-edge technology that empowers our clients to enrich their lives through the enjoyment of music and video arts, as well as [simplifying] their lifestyles through the 'smart-home concept.'"

Krystal Clear accomplishes its mission statement in part by staying above the mainstream-electronics fray. The approach is simple. It focuses on cultivating and delivering on the performance desires of the Dallas area's best-in-class consumers.

A big part of this is backing the company's state-of-the-art product lines and installation services with a single-minded support policy that isn't fulfilled until the client is happy.

Unlike many audio/video companies that began in an era in which stereo was king, Krystal Clear never really had to make a "transition" to custom services, according to Krasen. He says Krystal Clear has always offered custom service because that's what its clients wanted.

"At our inception in 1983 I saw the marriage of audio and video, which would later become home theater as an emerging category," says Krasen.

"We had experimented with putting a television, a hi-fi VCR, an outboard processor and extra speakers into a super high-end two-channel music system.

"Most 'audiophiles' at the time turned their noses up at such an action because they believed the sound from movies was not high-end enough.

"I also actively courted the music-distribution business by placing speakers all over the house. When we started, we saw it as two businesses."

All About the Client

A lot has changed since 1983. Krystal Clear clients are now introduced to the company's capabilities at its 4,500-square foot facility that houses four demo rooms and four display areas.

It's in this environment that Krasen can create the backdrop necessary to support his sales and marketing initiatives.

Krystal Clear's showroom allows it to employ what Krasen calls a consultative sales approach. He explains this technique as a means for him and his staff to query clients to determine their needs, their problems and what they want from an electronics standpoint.

He notes that this approach gives his company the information it needs to formulate a customized solution.

"We do a needs assessment where we get to know [the client's] lifestyle," says Krasen. "For example, we may recommend a particular control system for their den or family room and we will incorporate it into a design. We also focus on the film or music love of the client.

"What we are good at is explaining how much a person's life can be enriched by having a high-performance music and cinema system, and how it can be controlled in a manner that simplifies the system's complexity."

Krystal Clear demonstrates the capabilities of its products and services through its various demo systems that feature components from top manufacturers such as Transparent Audio, Meridian, Stewart Filmscreen and Halcro.

According to Krasen, the demo systems are an important facet of the consultative sales tactics. "Having the equipment here is big; giving people the 'wow' factor is a huge part of it," he says. "

"The demo is very important. I think the mistake that many dealers make is that they dumb it down too much by going with popular product lines. It's smart, but it doesn't expose their clients to higher performance levels.

"They are basically teaching their clients there's nowhere else to go. I think they are doing their clients a disservice by giving them the same ol' treatment without giving their clients new products that provide a higher level of performance that may not even cost that much more."

Its product lines, along with Krystal Clear's long standing within its marketplace, have forced the company to learn how to deal with the growing dichotomy that's developed among consumers.

Krasen says he deals with the audiophile types differently than the best-in-class consumer because their perspectives are so dissimilar.

"I think what I have found is that audiophiles care about sound, but they tend to worship the equipment by which the sound is reproduced," he says.