I have always wondered about this. If I spend say $1000 on an item, where is my money going, in terms of:
Cost of components (HW etc),
Cost of manufacturing,
Engineering Design and testing (mainly staff time and expertise),
Marketing,
Retailers markup.
I know that for Bose the bulk of the money goes towards Marketing and Legal costs and a relatively small amount towards the cost of quality components and paying design engineers. Of course there is no one size fits all and there is going to be a range of numbers depending upon how the businesses are structured and set up. I just wonder about ball park figures.
One of the reasons for asking is how much do we save by going down the DIY route. Sure we take out the retailers margin and marketing, but then we need to have the right Engineering expertise and knowledge.
For somethings I am more than happy to pay all of these. My first hi end system I was more than happy with the retail dealer. He provided such a good service that every time I wanted to upgrade I always went to him. I am sure I could got better deals else where if was prepared to shop around but I did not want to shop around. I trusted his judgment and the got great service from him that I kept going to him and only him. No other dealers could even get a look in.
Cost of components (HW etc),
Cost of manufacturing,
Engineering Design and testing (mainly staff time and expertise),
Marketing,
Retailers markup.
I know that for Bose the bulk of the money goes towards Marketing and Legal costs and a relatively small amount towards the cost of quality components and paying design engineers. Of course there is no one size fits all and there is going to be a range of numbers depending upon how the businesses are structured and set up. I just wonder about ball park figures.
One of the reasons for asking is how much do we save by going down the DIY route. Sure we take out the retailers margin and marketing, but then we need to have the right Engineering expertise and knowledge.
For somethings I am more than happy to pay all of these. My first hi end system I was more than happy with the retail dealer. He provided such a good service that every time I wanted to upgrade I always went to him. I am sure I could got better deals else where if was prepared to shop around but I did not want to shop around. I trusted his judgment and the got great service from him that I kept going to him and only him. No other dealers could even get a look in.
