Atlas Sound & Vision is company that is synonymous with the Bose brand of high fidelity audio products in Singapore. Even after 42 years of success, this family-run concern continues to re-invent itself through a brand revamp and an ambitious expansion plan.

THINK BOSE audio products in Singapore and Atlas Hi-Fi comes to mind. The company recently celebrated its 42nd anniversary with a brand revamp and the launch of a new flagship store. Now called Atlas Sound & Vision, Michael Tien, whose parents started the business in 1962 at Market Street, helms the firm. Originally called "The Record Library", the company rented out records but eventually turned to audio equipment and has since grown from strength to strength.    

The Atlas Sound & Vision rebranding exercise coincided with the opening of the Millenia Walk Atlas Experience showroom and the Atlas Professional branding for its consumer and corporate services in February 2006. There are six Atlas stores in Singapore and three in Malaysia.       Explaining the rebranding move, Michael says that it all boils down to what the company has always believed in—its service excellence. "Back when my father started the record renting business, he would offer practical advice on proper audio equipment and record care. From advice on how to get the best sound out of a system and what equipment worked well, he made sure that the customer knew enough to enjoy the listening experience. That is still our main focus, maximising the listening experience for our customers," says Michael.

Photos: Atlas Sound & Vision                                                                The flagship Millenia Walk showroom upon which     future Atlas stores will be modelled.

      As time passed, acceding to customers' requests, Michael's father, AB Tien, launched Atlas Hi-Fi to retail audio equipment that he felt best encapsulated the listening experience. He gradually built a reputation for selling quality audio products and the business grew.
      "Sometimes he would pre-sell stock before we could re-order as customers trusted his judgement and the business even had a reputation as the best stockist for Philips audiophile equipment in Malaya in 1964," says Michael of his father.
       In many ways, the business has grown parallel to Singapore's growth as a nation. Just as Singapore's fledgling factory industries took off in the late 1960s, Atlas started to produce its own housebrand speakers using Elac drivers and mounted in custom speaker cabinets. In the 1970s and early 1980s, in an effort to give consumers a wide choice, Atlas carried almost 30 different brands of audio equipment. Everything came to a rude halt in 1985, when Singapore suffered its first recession.
       It was a wake up call for the company. AB Tien decided that rather than stock so many brands, it would be more prudent to stick to those few that offered greatest potential. He also gambled on the digital format. As compact discs were making inroads around the same time, he felt that analogue-based audio equipment would go the way of the dodo. Thus, he turned to digital systems.
      AB heard of American audio company Bose, which had tremendous success with its revolutionary 901 speaker system, and made a bid to be the agent for the region in the late 1960s. It took three years, but Bose eventually gave Atlas the dealership. From initially matching Bose speakers to other premium audio products, Atlas changed tack again when Bose began making complete systems with integrated amplifiers, disc players, and speakers.
      "In 1989, suddenly we had a manufacturer whose amplification systems and disc players performed just as well as some of our most expensive models. The Bose system sounded as good as standalone Bose speakers run on amplifiers costing twice as much. So we made the decision to concentrate only on a handful of brands that would suit the needs of our clients and also meet our growth expectations," says Michael.
      The system that cemented Atlas's reputation as a quality dealer of affordable sound systems was the Bose Lifestyle 10. Instead of selling between 200 to 300 high-end CD players or amplifiers and 1,000 speakers a year, Atlas was selling 3,000 units of all-in-one Bose systems.
      Despite having no wholesale dealings, Atlas is recognised by Bose as the distributor with the biggest sales volume worldwide. For instance, Spain has a network of 150 Bose dealers but Atlas accounts for five times greater sales volume. Michael eschews wholesale operations: "It was a bitter experience in the 1980s. We did have some wholesale business but we realised the hard way that in hard times, many of those we dealt with had little or no loyalty to us or the brand. So we decided not to dabble in wholesale activities again."
      The Atlas Plaza Singapore showroom concept was so innovative and effective that Bose has adopted the concept for its latest flagship stores in America. That is some indication of the extent of how a small company, with the right attitude and the willingness to experiment can come up with an innovative concept that even its larger partners consider world class.
      So impressed was Bose with Atlas' good performance that it has instituted a new retail award, the AB Tien Award for Excellence, to be given to the best retailer of its products in the world.

Service Edge
      But having a good product alone does not guarantee success. Service still remains the factor that makes Atlas tick. Just as AB Tien treated each person who came to the shop as a potential customer, taking pains to explain the benefits of each model of audio systems on sale, the sales staff today still carry on this tradition.
      Sherwin Tien Siregar, marketing manager at Atlas says: "The idea is not to sell someone a system. Often people come to the showroom and say they are moving to a new home and want to know what they need. Our job is to tell them the benefits of each of our offerings and then let them make an informed decision. It is not so simple as to say a $10,000 system is better than a $7,000 system. The value is in the benefits and how they meet the customer's needs. So we won't sell them a $10,000 system simply because that is their budget."
      This is the essence of the Atlas experience, where customers experience the different systems in a scripted presentation. Rather than demonstrate the equipment, Atlas staff would lead the customer through a series of interactive presentations that would help the customer understand the benefits of each product.
      Atlas has 70 employees who are given thorough training to ensure that they conform to the standards expected. Though not all are front-line staff, each new hire is screened by a three-member panel as Michael feels that the person chosen must exhibit the passion for the work involved. Not surprisingly, Atlas does not believe in commission-based salaries. Staff are nonetheless well-paid according to their market worth. They enjoy nine-hour workdays and work four days with the fifth day off.
      Michael says: "The motivation of working at Atlas is not about making sales commissions but rather a passion to give the customer the best. We have other ways of rewarding staff including profit-sharing. What we want are the best people for the job. They are well-rewarded but they must be motivated by the right stuff."
      Although staff turnover is low, with most staff having been with the company for more than five years, with expansion, getting the right fit is important to keep service levels high. Michael believes in professionalism: "Being a member of the family doesn't guarantee anyone a job, let alone an executive position. I'd rather hire the best person for the position than give it to a family member who may not be the right fit. Most of my top people grew with the company. Family members had to prove themselves by learning the business from the bottom-up before progressing, on merit, to prominent roles."

Help for Expansion
      When he decided to expand the business, he ran into the familiar problems faced by other SMEs (small-medium enterprises). The resources and expertise they could draw on their own are very limited. However, help was at hand from two schemes administered by Spring Singapore. Atlas made use of the ECADS and BrandPact schemes to successfully rebrand their enterprise and prime themselves for further growth.
      Sherwin explains that they submitted a proposal on what they intended to do, including the ideas to rebrand the business and their expansion plans. After studying the proposal, Spring paired them with consultants who identified the brand values, customer segments, and brand promise to launch their new phase of development.
      Michael is grateful that there are schemes such as these to which SMEs like his can turn to. He believes that with greater publicity on such help, more SMEs will be able leverage on such schemes to market their brands internationally.
      With changing times, Atlas has had to change to suit the market. From strictly audio products, it has started selling audio-visual products and high-end visual products as well. Sherwin says that from stereo systems in the late 1980s, Bose moved to home theatre systems in the 1990s. He says: "Customers often asked why we did not sell televisions or screens that matched our audio-visual systems. To address this, Atlas now distributes Loewe, a television maker that not only produces cutting edge video screens but also world renown designs."
      With the launch of its Millenia Walk showroom with its four demonstration rooms equipped with the latest Bose and Loewe audio-visual offerings, Atlas is ready to develop its audio visual experience further. Each room simulates the interior and exterior of a modern home, designed for recreating an accurate acoustic and lighting environment ideal for an authentic rendition of the Atlas listening experience.
      Targeted at individuals and corporate customers with a discerning quest for premium entertainment, its team of audiovisual sales consultants offer tailored and optimal advice on solutions for every environment.
      Michael says that even third generation customers come to buy their systems from Atlas, having grown up with the Atlas sound and experience in their grandparents' and parents' homes. Anyone who comes to the showroom is given the same standard of service, regardless if he or she is a teenager, bona fide customer, or someone who is just browsing. The company has always believed that when these people are finally in the market for a sound system, they would return to Atlas.
      Atlas is taking this audio-visual experience abroad. Its expansion plans call for showrooms in Thailand and in Sydney and the Gold Coast in Australia in about a year's time. Still, Michael has no plans of a stock exchange listing: "We have a healthy turnover of about $23 million. I guess the lure of a cash injection through market listing is dampened by the thought of dissolution of control and the need to satisfy the investors in terms of maximising the bottom line. I would rather be in a position to make enough to grow and be comfortable without needing to be mercenary and yet be able to contribute back to society."
      In this respect, Atlas sponsors the In Harmony with Education programme, an interdisciplinary and interactive curriculum that teaches kids between 10 and 12, the beauty and science of music. It aims to help them draw essential connections between music, science, and mathematics. The programme was launched in Peiying Primary School at the start of 2005.
      It has two components—an in-class curriculum lasting eight sessions, culminating in a field trip experience to the company's main showroom. Both components are designed to provide students with an inquiry-based and cooperative learning experience. Students will explore the dimensions of sound and music, engage in hands-on activities, and learn to work collaboratively in mini-performances.
      At the same time, the programme concurs with one of the Education Ministry's key focus of nurturing a spirit of innovation and enterprise among students. Atlas plans to carry out the sessions involving its staff, to first internalise the attitude of community contribution. Subsequently, it will play the role of facilitator and trainer, to involve other volunteers from the community, as well as to help schools in the curriculum.
      With competition from electronics megastores and other specialist audio-visual stores, Atlas faces some interesting choices to stay ahead. Michael is confident that the new brand and vision will keep the company ahead: "What all customers want is added-value and there are only two ways to give added-value. One, give the customer more than they think they are paying for or, two, do not charge them as much for what they are getting. Continued good service goes hand-in-hand with continued good business."