Don't that sponsor or supply to pro teams?
All Pro teams have fat contracts with wheel manufacturers, not spoke manufacturers. AFAIK neither DT Swiss or Sapim sponsor any Pro Tour teams (DT Swiss sponsor some Continental Race Teams though).
They have adverts in magazines. DT even has a whole book advertising their products disguised as a book on wheel building.
I have never seen an Sapim advert, nor a DT Swiss advert that was about spokes. Not saying that they don't exist, but they really seem rare.
Schraners wheel book is published by DT Swiss, and like Park Tools "Blue Book" it is meant to sell DT Swiss stuff. But it can hardly be considered a media storm, I mean, most people that build wheels doesn't even own a book about it.
End users that build their own wheels are just a small part of their sales; most spokes goes to wheel manufacturers or professional wheel builders. And they are the ones that choose to pay more simply because of the consistent high quality of their spokes. As I said, most of their quality (and higher cost) is owed to the fact that they buy good stuff from Sandvik SMT.
To quote a manager from a new spoke company in Taiwan:
“Everyone wants the quality of European spokes but they do not want to pay for it. Making the spokes in Taiwan is slightly cheaper than making them in Europe, but there is no getting around the fact that if you want Sandvik quality wire, you are going to have to pay for it,”
Kore Launches Taiwanese Spokes With Sandvik Wire | Europe from AllBusiness.comSandvik spoke wire is just recognized as the best quality one can make spokes of, so a lot of Sapims and DT Swiss' reputation rest on that quality.
Sapim seems to be fairly recent, I don't recall seeing much mention of the them in the UK until a few years ago.
Sapim was founded in 1918 and has long been regarding as a high quality spoke manufacturer.
--
Regards