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This week the Steel Cod Retail Council played a brand ranking game — three luxury heavyweights, three choices: Floor, Outlet, or Dumpster. Miele, Thermador, and Monogram all got some votes in every category, and the results were not what you'd expect.
Miele split almost straight down the middle between floor (48%) and dumpster (38%), with a pocket of outlet votes in between. What's wild is that the floor voters were all talking about the product, and the dumpster voters were all talking about the business side — rep support, service, confusing SKUs, a website nobody can navigate. Two completely different brands depending on who you ask.
Thermador came out ahead overall, but Jon doesn't love why — it's a revenue vote. Packaged deals and parade home discounts are doing a lot of heavy lifting. The 24% who went dumpster on Thermador said support and templated service responses. When the incentives are carrying more weight than the brand, that's not stable.
Monogram is the outlet brand — liked by most, but not usually the hero on the floor. Dealers bring them in as a fallback, not a showcase. The installation difficulty on built-ins comes up a lot. And the biggest paradox of the episode: the dealers who voted in this survey sell the most Monogram and the least Miele. The brand they like most sells the least. Jon and Shannon break down what that actually means for the channel.
