SVS and Their Marketing Practices

[furball]

I am just giving a hypothetical example of how such an operation is run.

Do a search on google on internet marketing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreatDane /img/forum/go_quote.gif How is that even possible?

 

[gritzcolin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreatDane /img/forum/go_quote.gif How is that even possible?

OverlordZenu went from like 58 posts to 1000 in like three days so yeah its possible.

Seriously furball I think you are getting upset at nothing. They truly do have an amazing reputation from people who aren't shills for them and if you don't like shifty marketing practices you should stop being a consumer and become self sufficient making your own clothes and food. It is everywhere you go, they call it capitalism I believe.

 

[richsto]

I've got one of the original production (#thirty something) SVS subs and it flat out "hauls the mail". I bought it used from a local here in Reno. If and when I buy another sub I'll look to SVS first. I'd be surprised if they were engaged in any serious non-ethical advertising. Even if they are, their subs speak for themselves. Of course I'm not working for SVS either.....

Rich

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gritzcolin /img/forum/go_quote.gif OverlordZenu went from like 58 posts to 1000 in like three days so yeah its possible. Seriously furball I think you are getting upset at nothing. They truly do have an amazing reputation from people who aren't shills for them and if you don't like shifty marketing practices you should stop being a consumer and become self sufficient making your own clothes and food. It is everywhere you go, they call it capitalism I believe.

Here, you call it DIY. And I highly recommend it. Lots of companies employ shills, so you never really know who is on the payroll and who isn't. I can think of one company that (I think) makes shoddy and very expensive products, yet never seems to be called out for it. The only way to know for sure is to get your own soldering iron and DIY. It's easier than you expect and once you build a few, you can make anything you want. No hype, no shills, just exactly what you want at the best possible price.

 

[gotchaforce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by furball /img/forum/go_quote.gif SVS was caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and they knew it. SVS had to come up with something to save face. And the above statement is what they came up with. Over the years, on many audio forums, such as avsforum, audioasylum, audioholics, etc., people have pointed out that SVS has engaged in systematic shill advertising on those forums. In recent memory, Audioholics has been the only site brave enough to stand up to this kind of unethical behavior.

Ive never seen any of those websites pointing out SVS shill advertisers... members accusing other members of being shills? yes... but audioholics is the only one i know of thats had an administrator make an announcement about it (and an unprofessional one at that)

again, think about what youre saying

SVS- a company which is arguably the most popular and widely known internet direct sub manufacturer in the WORLD, and has thousands (if not tens of thousands) of subs sold to people on forums- is hiring shills to promote their product on those very same forums? SVS has a hugely positive reputation, they have almost universal praise from reviewers, and have supposedly very good customer service, yet they are willing to flush this all down the toilet to influence subwoofer decisions on audio forums?

audioholics is a website that relies entirely on advertisers, and SVS just left them, so what do they do? they say it is not SVS who removed them, but they who removed SVS.

I myself dont buy into SVS sub hype at all, and think that there are many more musical sub woofers with a lot of the same home theater punch that SVS delivers. However this certainly doesnt mean theyre a bad company, and that im going to try and badmouth them across forums.

 

[furball]

How do you think companies such as SVS and av123 became so popular so quickly in such a short period of time?

SVS's shill marketing practices raised quite a stir on the avsforum a couple of years ago, and generated a LOT of backlash against their underhanded tactics. The owner of the avsforum, David Bott publicly chastised SVS for flooding his forums with SVS threads, although because SVS is an advertiser, he never directly accused SVS of shill advertising.

SVS and the likes of them put a lot of ad dollars into online audio forums, and as a rule, owners of these online audio forums do not speak against out against SVS's shill marketing for fear of losing their ad dollars. But SVS did go too far with Audioholics, literally flooding their sub forums with nothing but these so called "SVS recommendations."

I applaud Audioholics for taking an ethical against SVS's unethical shill marketing.

 

[warpdriver]

I still don't know who to believe, SVS or Audioholics. I certainly don't see any evidence of it now in the various forums I visit.

I do know that Shill-Like behavior is not new nor exclusive to SVS. I think Axiom was doing this way before SVS became popular.

 

[gotchaforce]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver /img/forum/go_quote.gif I still don't know who to believe, SVS or Audioholics. I certainly don't see any evidence of it now in the various forums I visit. I do know that Shill-Like behavior is not new nor exclusive to SVS. I think Axiom was doing this way before SVS became popular.

Theres no 100% evidence on either side and its hard to know who to trust.

Although i must admit it seems like audioholics does positive reviews of a lot of their sponsors. Seriously who has reviewed as many RBH products as audioholics? no one, and rbh has been advertising on audioholics for a while.

 

[OverlordXenu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gritzcolin /img/forum/go_quote.gif OverlordZenu went from like 58 posts to 1000 in like three days so yeah its possible. Seriously furball I think you are getting upset at nothing. They truly do have an amazing reputation from people who aren't shills for them and if you don't like shifty marketing practices you should stop being a consumer and become self sufficient making your own clothes and food. It is everywhere you go, they call it capitalism I believe.

(Sometimes I mistype my name as that.

)
Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Here, you call it DIY. And I highly recommend it. Lots of companies employ shills, so you never really know who is on the payroll and who isn't. I can think of one company that (I think) makes shoddy and very expensive products, yet never seems to be called out for it. The only way to know for sure is to get your own soldering iron and DIY. It's easier than you expect and once you build a few, you can make anything you want. No hype, no shills, just exactly what you want at the best possible price.

Is it sad that I can think of at least two "boutique" companies when you say that?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OverlordXenu /img/forum/go_quote.gif ... Is it sad that I can think of at least two "boutique" companies when you say that?

I can think of more.

What's sad are the enthusiastic people who disappear after realizing they were sold a bill of goods.

 

[furball]

SVS's shill advertising never took a strong hold on audioasylum, because people there are very knowledgeable about audio stuff, and can see through SVS's shill marketing.

SVS's shill advertising also never took a strong hold on audiogon, because audiogon's administrators scrutinize their own forums very closely (for better or for worse). And their philosophy is, if you want to advertise, even to do shill advertising, you have to pay. I guess SVS was never comfortable with admitting their shill marketing practices, or the idea of paying audiogon's owner for being allowed to engage in shill advertising.


As to the rest of the audio forums on the net, such as the avsforum, audioholics, the hometheaterforum, etc. Most are home theater oriented. And most of the users who frequent those audio are newbies who do not have much knowledge, and are all too eager to swallow what other people overly enthusiastically "recommend" to them. These people are the perfect targets for SVS's shill marketers. And these general purpose HT forums are exactly where these SVS shills are flourishing.





Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver /img/forum/go_quote.gif I still don't know who to believe, SVS or Audioholics. I certainly don't see any evidence of it now in the various forums I visit.

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gotchaforce /img/forum/go_quote.gif Theres no 100% evidence on either side and its hard to know who to trust.

In the end, I guess it only really matters if SVS subs were actually mediocre, but it turns out they have solid product offerings (yes, I've heard them in action). Certainly if I were buying a HT sub, I'd still seriously consider their products regardless of their past marketing policies (whether true or not).

Personally, I don't place much faith on any online review anyways. It seems every speaker or sub "should be on my shortlist", or "can compare with those costing twice as much".