hi-fi+ Global Network Magazine

Audio companies keep spouting the same mantra; ‘how do we attract a younger audience?’ Every company is looking for that magic combination of interface, performance and design that will unlock an audience of Generation Alpha buyers. As always, the car, camera
and watch analogies are rolled out... often forgetting that many companies in those sectors are asking the same question.
Part of this need to attract a younger market is a worry about hitting the
demographic cliff; if your target audience is more ‘hip-op’ than ‘hip-hop’, with no one new coming on board, the sector’s future looks bleak. But it’s also in part nostalgia; we were the kids with our noses pressed up
against the store window, and we want to get a new generation to do the same.
However, it’s 2026, not 1956 or 1976. People don’t think that way anymore. Good audio is a ‘two-fridge’ concept; no one buys a good audio system today until they have bought at least two refridgerators in
their lives. Hear me out on this... when you are at college or in those first jobs, a fridge is something that comes with the rental agreement. You buy your first refridgerator when you get that first ‘real’ home, and
buy a second one when you move to that bigger house and domestic life is a little more settled; that’s the person we should be learning to speak to.