[GTR] 9•10-2017 | Page 78

RETAIL THERAPY
[ WE ' RE ALL CRAZY | Doug Doppler]
BRILLIANTLY MEDIOCRE While I would die a thousand deaths before listing anything there, Craigslist is a great place for buying gear. It is also one of my go-to resources for gauging what people are buying and selling in various marketplaces. Truth be told, it has replaced eBay as my go-to resource for treasure hunting. Case in point, I scoured the Craigslist Nashville before heading out to Summer NAMM, and wow, there are some serious deals to be found there.
Doug Stephens( left) talks with NAMM President Joe Lamond / Summer NAMM 2017
If you were to ask us what we have in common
be told, it was merely an adaptation of what
with our friends in retail we’ d say,“ We’ re all
was working with our other publication.
crazy!” – crazy about music that is. Contrary
to the fear about decreasing market share,
Before the show started each day, NAMM
coupled with the doom and gloom about store
members were treated to a complimentary
closures, people love music just as much as
breakfast and some good old common sense
they ever have, perhaps even more!
from the collection of speakers NAMM brought
in. They talked far more about engaging
A number of us at [ GTR ] spent many a long
customers than the doom and gloom you
hour working at local music stores between
might have read about in the now famous New
gigs. A number of us also provided the musical
York Times article about the imminent death of
instruction that help drive a constant flow of
the electric guitar. While stores do have a lot
traffic through the stores we taught at. While the
more competition, adaptation to the new norm
industry has changed, the reason customers
holds the keys to success.
support your business has largely stayed the
same – they believe in supporting you because
DEATH BY BEAN COUNTER
you believe in supporting your local music
Long before Reverb. com got started, collectors
community. While we don’ t pretend to have all
like myself scoured the globe on eBay in search
the answers, the goal of this column is to take
of holy grail gear. If you’ d told me ten years ago
a good hard look at the state of the music retail
that a startup was going to slay the eBay giant,
space, and come up with some suggestions
I might not have believed you. But the reality
on how you can get more customers into your
is that the greed of the bean counters at eBay
store. So let’ s get to it!
poisoned their own revenue stream by making
selling gear so profitless for Power Sellers
ADAPTATION
that they gave up. While we loudly applaud
Summer NAMM was, in many ways, the
Reverb for their ingenuity, how is what they are
launching pad for this magazine. It was great
doing really that different than eBay auctions
for us to hear manufacturer feedback about
or stores? What is different is that David Kalt
our seemingly innovative approach of creating
and company really care about a great user
a digital marketing collective of partners who
experience for buyers and sellers, and they are
supplied the 800,000 + opt-in email addresses
deservedly reaping the rewards.
that make up our digital distribution. But truth
SWEETWATER Unlike Reverb or Craigslist, Sweetwater Sound just sells new gear, demo items excluded. Although they sell musical instruments, I believe that they are really in the customer service business, which gets us to the point of this article. If the MI industry were truly in shambles, why would people pay MAP at Sweetwater when they could find virtually the same gear used on Reverb( they sell new gear too) or Craigslist? The answer is … they wouldn’ t!
EDUCATION As we were reminded at Summer NAMM, private lessons and instrument rentals remain a surefire way to support music in your community while building your business in the process. It also something that you can do that your online competitors can’ t.
YOUR STORE IS A VENUE While many retailers don’ t realize this, your store is the perfect venue for jam sessions, open mics, and depending on size, recitals. More importantly, your store may be the only place where your customers get a chance to play with other musicians. Opening your doors to making music and not just selling instruments is a surefire way to develop customer loyalty. And if you think about it, isn’ t your love of music what got you doing this in the first place?
See you next issue!
78 Sep � Oct 2017 GearTechRec. com