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Thiel Audio Webinars Provide Non-Traditional Way to Communicate
Thiel Audio is using new media to educate its dealers and end-users on topics that don’t always receive attention.
Thiel Audio has covered a range of topics with its ongoing series of webinars, including its state-of-the-art CS3.7 loudspeaker, which incorporates its time and phase coherent engineering concepts.
Over the past decade, the audio manufacturing community has had an increasingly difficult time communicating its message in the ever-diverging world of home entertainment. The ongoing shift away from traditional home audio and new focus on personal audio, gaming and Internet-based products has affected the way consumers purchase electronics.
Adding to the current dilemma that many of these companies find themselves in is the fact that a lot of them don’t have the marketing budget to embrace new media to help to remain relevant in the public eye. Thiel Audio, a decades-old, Kentucky-based speaker manufacturer, isn’t waiting in the hope that new consumers find its products - it's doing the outreach by developing a growing library of content that it uses to drive an ongoing series of educational webinars.
Webinars Grow in Acceptance
Kathy Gornik, Thiel Audio founder and president, suggested the webinars idea several years ago. Dawn Cloyd, director of international sales, jumped on it in 2010 when she realized Thiel’s Indian distributor had never attended one of the company’s factory training sessions. So Cloyd worked with Gary Dayton, customer support/technical service manager for Thiel, to develop a series of webinars that would allow the company to certify this distributor and its dealers as authorized Thiel representatives.
“We agreed we would first do a webinar for the owners and sales people of the distributorship, and then we would do the same webinar for their dealers,” Cloyd recalls. “We did our first webinar for the principals of our Indian distributor in early November 2010, and then for their dealers two weeks later. After the first test run, they were comfortable doing combination trainings that included both distributor staff and multiple dealers.”
From there, she says, Thiel started to conduct that webinar, now called "Foundation," for other distributors, U.S. dealers and end-users.
Cloyd notes that over the first year Thiel conducted its webinars, consumers were the first group to enthusiastically embrace the platform, but that recently dealers and distributors have been more receptive as they've grown more comfortable with the technology. Thiel eventually decided to combine the consumer and dealer webinars in an attempt to coax dealers into a greater level of participation.
“As we gained experience, we learned that the consumers were generally more engaged and forthcoming with questions than dealers, which made the consumer webinars more dynamic, entertaining and informative for all involved,” she says. “Also, because the consumer base is inherently larger than the dealer base, we had larger audiences with consumer webinars, which also meant more Q&As. We eventually decided to combine the groups and speak to the consumer because we knew the dealers could interpret the consumer advice. We also thought it might be interesting and helpful for dealers to hear what kinds of questions their potential customers were asking - and the answers we as the manufacturer were giving.
"We've been very happy with the results, and now some of the dealers are inviting and joining their own customers on our webinars to help them close a sale.”
Participant Feedback Shapes Curriculum
In addition to accessibility, another advantage of the educational webinar is the instant feedback Thiel receives about what people would like to see in future events. Dayton says he and the Thiel staff have worked to tailor the content to fit some of the participants' requests.
“[The webinars] have evolved a lot. The first webinars, we tried to jam a lot into them. The first one was composed of general information about the company and our technologies, custom drivers, sloped baffles. We had another part that was all about getting the most out of your Thiel speakers,” Dayton says. “Since then, we’ve trimmed that down. We’ve ended up splitting the time up with the history of Thiel and technology, and how to implement Thiel in your home. Now the webinars are about specific products.”
He notes that recent webinars covered information that wasn't available on its website or print literature yet, to make participation more attractive. Thiel plans to cover education to support its new Smart Subwoofers and upcoming 1.7 loudspeakers in its webinar series.
Education Is Basis of Strong Sales
Cloyd and Dayton agree that conducting these events on a regular basis has strengthened Thiel’s sales efforts, even if the results aren’t tangible.
Adding to the current dilemma that many of these companies find themselves in is the fact that a lot of them don’t have the marketing budget to embrace new media to help to remain relevant in the public eye. Thiel Audio, a decades-old, Kentucky-based speaker manufacturer, isn’t waiting in the hope that new consumers find its products - it's doing the outreach by developing a growing library of content that it uses to drive an ongoing series of educational webinars.
Webinars Grow in Acceptance
Kathy Gornik, Thiel Audio founder and president, suggested the webinars idea several years ago. Dawn Cloyd, director of international sales, jumped on it in 2010 when she realized Thiel’s Indian distributor had never attended one of the company’s factory training sessions. So Cloyd worked with Gary Dayton, customer support/technical service manager for Thiel, to develop a series of webinars that would allow the company to certify this distributor and its dealers as authorized Thiel representatives.
“We agreed we would first do a webinar for the owners and sales people of the distributorship, and then we would do the same webinar for their dealers,” Cloyd recalls. “We did our first webinar for the principals of our Indian distributor in early November 2010, and then for their dealers two weeks later. After the first test run, they were comfortable doing combination trainings that included both distributor staff and multiple dealers.”
From there, she says, Thiel started to conduct that webinar, now called "Foundation," for other distributors, U.S. dealers and end-users.
Cloyd notes that over the first year Thiel conducted its webinars, consumers were the first group to enthusiastically embrace the platform, but that recently dealers and distributors have been more receptive as they've grown more comfortable with the technology. Thiel eventually decided to combine the consumer and dealer webinars in an attempt to coax dealers into a greater level of participation.
“As we gained experience, we learned that the consumers were generally more engaged and forthcoming with questions than dealers, which made the consumer webinars more dynamic, entertaining and informative for all involved,” she says. “Also, because the consumer base is inherently larger than the dealer base, we had larger audiences with consumer webinars, which also meant more Q&As. We eventually decided to combine the groups and speak to the consumer because we knew the dealers could interpret the consumer advice. We also thought it might be interesting and helpful for dealers to hear what kinds of questions their potential customers were asking - and the answers we as the manufacturer were giving.
"We've been very happy with the results, and now some of the dealers are inviting and joining their own customers on our webinars to help them close a sale.”
Participant Feedback Shapes Curriculum
In addition to accessibility, another advantage of the educational webinar is the instant feedback Thiel receives about what people would like to see in future events. Dayton says he and the Thiel staff have worked to tailor the content to fit some of the participants' requests.
“[The webinars] have evolved a lot. The first webinars, we tried to jam a lot into them. The first one was composed of general information about the company and our technologies, custom drivers, sloped baffles. We had another part that was all about getting the most out of your Thiel speakers,” Dayton says. “Since then, we’ve trimmed that down. We’ve ended up splitting the time up with the history of Thiel and technology, and how to implement Thiel in your home. Now the webinars are about specific products.”
He notes that recent webinars covered information that wasn't available on its website or print literature yet, to make participation more attractive. Thiel plans to cover education to support its new Smart Subwoofers and upcoming 1.7 loudspeakers in its webinar series.
Education Is Basis of Strong Sales
Cloyd and Dayton agree that conducting these events on a regular basis has strengthened Thiel’s sales efforts, even if the results aren’t tangible.
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About the Author
Robert Archer, Senior Editor, CE Pro
Bob is an audio enthusiast who has written about consumer electronics for various publications within Massachusetts before joining the staff of CE Pro in 2000. Bob is THX Level I certified, and he's also taken classes from the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) and Home Acoustics Alliance (HAA). In addition, he's studied guitar and music theory at Sarrin Music Studios in Wakefield, Mass.
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