Distinct Branding to Remain… For Now
Having seen the new Starmate 5 A-La-Carte radio and packaging, as well as the new XMP3 radio and packaging, it is quite apparent that the look to consumers will be two separate brands. The Sirius and XM packaging indicate little to a consumer that the companies have merged, and this could cause a bit of confusion at the retail level. Hopefully the company will work closely with retailers to avoid consumer confusion on exactly which base service each radio comes with.
The issue seems to be the strategy in the OEM channel as well, with branding still prevalent in car dealerships. Having visited many dealerships in the past couple of weeks in my quest to buy a new car, I saw no indication from a consumer perspective that there was a merger. One has to hope that because the OEM channel is the driving force that the company will make efforts to let customers know at the dealership level as well as during the activation process that BEST OF is an available option for consumers.
Whether the two distinct brand strategy is long term is not yet known, but given the timing of the merger, it likely makes sense at least in the near term to avoid confusion. The key is letting consumers know there are additional services and choices available.
Position – Long SIRI
IMO consumer confusion will be even worse than before the merger–there are more options.
This is not making progress.
Yesterday, I went to my local Radio Shack to see what Radios they had and what knew about programming. They still had the same old radios however, slightly discounted. When I asked the salesman about the new radios and programming with the Sirious XM merger, he stated that all of their radios would pick up all channels (with firmware upgrades) ONCE THE MERGER IS APPROVED. When I mentioned that I THOUGHT it was already approved, he said he didn’t know. When I told him I was interested in waiting for the new radios, he assured me again (trying to make the sale) that I’d be able to get all of Sirius and XM programming. I’ve never had much faith or credibility in Radio Shack in the past and this visit further deepened that viewpoint!
Sirius: Long
Radio Shack: No opinion
We are not getting much mileage out of the merger.
Still a lot of confusion and the Sirius XM marketing dept. is not promoting Sirius or taking advantage of the merger.
Don’t know if they are pinching pennies, but sometimes you have to spend a little to get a larger return. No ads to speak of.
Maybe they are waiting for the new radios and plan a major advertising promotion then.
Who knows?? I hope someone does at Sirius XM
Look How many months did the merger take. I’m was at Radio Shack today. Same ol displays. No mention of anything coming up. October 6th. You should see displays announcing it. C’mon. Theres a setup going on somewhere. Are you telling me that they had no strategy for if the merger was allowed?
Position: Sirius………..Bent Over…………
Sirius just filed an 8k on switching from Ernst & Young to KPMG for their accounting auditors, so they can’t even get their own internal house in order right now and you want training of retail store employees.
SiriXMInvestor… FWIW, Sirius used Ernst & Young – while XM used KPMG. There was no need for two independent auditors, so one had to go. But which one?
I believe it was combination of things – but the most obvious is that KPMG is the cheaper of the two. Plus, as I pointed out on Yahoo, it was XM’s auditor. And with former XM board members having the majority of the seats on the new board, they may have elected to go with the company that they had worked with for many years… but granted, that is speculation on my part. It could very well have just come down to money… KPMG bidded lower than E&Y.
The 8-K outlined that there was nothing wrong with the relationship with E&Y… just that there was no need to have two auditors.
I would see too much into this filing.
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Obviously, I meant to say — “wouldn’t see too much into the filing”.
Thanks for clarifying why they switched auditors. I did not realize they each had seperate auditors & thought something went bad, but they ended it calmly. Silly me.