Every once in a while I get an invite to talk to a company I wouldn’t otherwise have visited. Everytime I do this I learn a ton. Today was no exception. The company I visited today? Monster Cable.
See, they have a problem.
If you search Google or MSN for “Home Theater” you don’t find any manufacturers. Here’s that query on MSN. On Google. On Yahoo.
What do you see instead? Magazines, forums and blogs. They are realizing they better learn about the blogging world.
Even worse. Go to Technorati. Search on “Monster Cable.” There are more than 2,000 posts. You should have seen their eyes when they realized the world was talking about them and their products and they weren’t even watching. They are now. 
Does this matter? They have 1,000 employees working away in Brisbane, CA, near Silicon Valley. What would happen if their sales went up or down by 10%?
And they do have a big opportunity staring them in the face: HDTV. Everyone who buys a new HDTV is going to need new cables.
Now, who are the most authoritative people about the home theater market? Well, let’s talk about Chris Greene. He’s an associate product category manager there. But he has owned his own laser disk store, and worked at Silicon Valley’s top home theater store (Century Stereo). He knows more about the home theater market than anyone else I know.
I’d love to read a blog by him, or other Monster employees. These guys live and breathe home theaters. They know all the big players in the industry. The latest trends (Chris was telling me about new remote controls coming soon that’ll let you control not just your AV system, but your entire house).
And they certainly know about cables and other audio/video accessories.
Share that expertise with us, and we’ll link and link often. Imagine what a link on Engadget is worth? It’s those links that’ll get them on the search result pages for “home theater.” And what’s that worth? Well, look at all the ads on that page and you’ll get your answer.
