Canadian Music Trade - December/January 2019 | Page 33

Though Phibbs is hesitant to give
away too many secrets before the seminar,
and he emphasizes it’ll be a collaborative,
“co-creating” event based on the real
needs and problems of the retailers in the
room, he says video will certainly be a key
part of what is discussed in the marketing
component.
“Video is the new email and video
is the new way you’ll be able to not only
market your services better to potential
customers, but also for your instructors to
be able to follow-up with their learners in a
new and exciting way, and it won’t require
you to go out and get a film studio or some-
thing. You can do it on a cell phone or laptop
and that immediacy is one of the trends that
people want to know. Plus, it’s authenticity,
which is one of the trends that people want
to know,” he explains. And when Phibbs talks
about video, it’s a lot more than just using
YouTube videos to supplement lessons. “How
do you delight and inspire somebody? What
happens when they get a video email from
your instructor telling the parents how well
Jamie did on her lesson? Do you think that
would be cool? Absolutely it would be cool.
Do you think it’s going to help them with
practice? You better believe it’s going to help
them with practice. Are they going to be
able to remember your brand better than
the other stores’? Absolutely they are.”
With video and across all market-
ing content, authenticity has become
of the upmost importance. A desire for
authenticity is, in part, behind the appeal
of live video applications on YouTube and
Facebook, for example. “It gives you the
chance to interact with your tribe and
then, ultimately, gives them the feeling
that ‘this is just for me’ versus taking some
generic manufacturer’s video and sticking
it up there. I am sure it is pretty and has
all the bells and whistles, but there is
something that is not that authentic about
it and millennials, in particular, seem to be
avoiding anything that looks staged or too
packaged,” Phibbs says.
He also emphasizes the importance
of monitoring, and enabling, online reviews
because, according to the research, 85 per
cent of shoppers start their search online
and reviews make up a big part of a busi-
ness’s online footprint. “You can control
what your digital footprint looks like using
some of this technology that I’ll be talking
about so that you having 300 reviews,
for example, would be much better than
having that one bad review and a way that
you can use that.”
Often, when he’s discussing some of
these technology-oriented innovations,
even if it’s just video emails from an in-
structor that are quite simple to do, Phibbs
says he is met either by fear or an exasper-
ated reaction, like, “Oh, my daughter does
that and I don’t have time for that.”
BOB PHIBBS
“Would you say that if you were open-
ing your business right now? Probably not.
That’s the other thing. There is a certain
complacency after you’ve had a business
a while and I am always trying to bring
people back. Remember when you bought
a business – because I would say an awful
lot of independent retailers bought their
business from somebody else – you’d do
anything for the customer, wouldn’t you?”
says Phibbs. “Then we kind of get away from
that as we get older and then we settle
into a groove and then I think that edge of
competition goes away and we sort of feel
entitled that we’re the only guy in town, but
right now there’s probably 3,000 or 4,000
other businesses online that can do what
you do.”
For a long time, music store owners
have been mostly baby boomers, but
Phibbs says there is now a third wave of
entrepreneurs coming into the industry
with a fresh perspective on the customer
experience. “They are creating a place that
has couches and chairs to sit in, they are
looking at frictionless checkout where
you can pay with PayPal or Google Pay or
Apple Pay or whatever it is. They’re looking
at ways that they’ve seen restaurants, for
example, taking care of customers and try-
ing to be more proactive in understanding
that millennial consumer,” he explains.
As well, Phibbs says people go online
to buy something but go to a brick-
and-mortar store to shop, and there is
a difference that should inform retailers’
decisions. “It means [customers are] open
to, ‘I am looking for some picks but I
might be able to use a new amplifier and
I wonder what that new digital tuner is
like.’ They’re open to it, so the challenge to
most retailers is, ‘How do I end up being
able to show this in a way that is not just
an iPad or a 50-in. LCD on the wall that
loops product videos? How do I use all
of that to engage that shopper?’ I think
that is kind of interesting because if you’re
thinking about, ‘How do I make the shop-
ping easier?’ then life gets better.”
“The other thing I would say is, if
you’re really going to make people feel like
they matter, then anybody walking into a
music store can buy something that day.
There is something in a music store that
anybody can buy any day. But that has got
to be your goal because that may be your
only shot to get them before they go off
to Craig’s List or Amazon,” says Phibbs in
conclusion. “But if you honour the fact of
what this person did to walk in the door,
then I think what you do is you say, ‘Alright,
I am like a conductor when I’m in the
store and it’s up to me to set the tempo
and it’s up to me to make sure that we’re
ready for this and, ultimately, it’s up to me
to put the performance on,’ and I think
we’ve gotten lazy about that. I think that’s
why so many of the good music retailers
come to NAMM! They’re the ones that are
interested; the ones that stay home with
the excuses like ‘I can’t take two days off
my business,’ well, how is that possible?
Basically, what you’re saying is: ‘There is
nothing new I need to learn,’ and that is
the recipe for becoming the next Sears.”
Michael Raine is the Senior Editor
of Canadian Music Trade
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