Pioneer builds Hollywood loft for high-end products
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FEB. 22 | Pioneer is stylishly designing a Hollywood loft with its products in an effort to draw entertainment industry professionals to the high-end brand.
The loft will display Pioneer’s TVs and Blu-ray players next to the company’s competitors’.
Rather than just employ the usual TV or print messaging, Pioneer wanted to sell its high-end TVs and Blu-ray Disc players through hands-on experiences. Starting March 1, the loft will be open to creative professionals on an invite-only basis. It is located inside an historic building at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine and will remain accessible at least through early fall.
The loft’s centerpiece is a section dubbed “TV Taste Test,” where people can compare Pioneer’s Kuro line of TVs with models from such competitors as Sony, Panasonic, LG and Samsung. Pioneer will run the same video content, including Blu-ray discs, for view on its TVs to hopefully convince loft visitors of its products’ superiority. Loft-goers also will be asked to bring in their own content to test on the various models.
Pioneer touts Kuro as being the best at delivering black in its purest form, as well as eliminating unnecessary luminants within image displays. Additionally, Pioneer bills its BD players as being equipped with some of the most advanced available technology.
However, Pioneer realizes its products still may prove a difficult sell because they are premium priced, at more than $7,000 for certain Kuro models and near $1,000 for its current BD player.
“We started showing people on paper or through Power Point presentations how this worked, but they needed to really see it to believe it,” said Paul Meyhoefer, Pioneer VP of display marketing and product planning. “We needed to create a facility to educate people.”
Also carved into the loft is the “Ultimate Home Theater Experience,” meant to showcase Pioneer’s most elite products, including its 60-inch Kuro plasma TV, high-end speakers and BD set-tops.
“We want producers, filmmakers, broadcast people, post-production, editors to come,” said Meyhoefer. “We want to build a better relationship with that community. And we want to get their feedback so we can better our technology.”
To score an invite, visit www.kuroloft.com/rsvp