The survival of the fittest.


I am constantly surprised at the vast number of speaker manufacturers. But many fall by the wayside. Plenty of reasons why they fail, but more interested in why certain makers continue to succeed.

Sound
Marketing
Fit and Finish
Price
Product availability
New technology
Manufacture association
Profit margin
Luck

I realize most of these in combination contribute but if you had to rank them my money is on the marketing and fit/finish, in that order with sound holding up the rear. Thoughts?
jpwarren58
This forum was once a technical and engineeringly group of audio enthusiasts that got called audiophiles. Those that thought about little but HiFi.

Now we have amateurs pretending to be audiophiles because the have
the “cables, burnt the right direction”, which is said to benefit by being lifted off the floor”, cups of metal on the wall, fuses costing as much as some components and so arguments continue. Without some sort
of qualification, these differences seem moot.
Having been on this site for nearly 20 years, I find that the content of this forum hasn't changed all that much. What has changed is the desire for people on either side of a discussion (or argument if you prefer) to shout the other side down and the amount of vitriol displayed to do so. People see no need to consider the other side of the coin when they are certain that they are right. That is not confined to this site. It is prevalent in society everywhere these days. 
Come on this thread is worthy of speculation. He's not asking for a recommendation only how to succeed in a flooded market that quickly losing mainstream interest.