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Tom: >Michael, where are you ever going to hear a Vortex if there are no >Dealers? Recording made by endorsers. Demo CDs, or demo tracks on the covers of magazines. I have never played a Vortex, never seen one, but I have come very close to buying one on a number of occasions. Like most people in the UK (well, lots certainly) I buy by mailorder. However, if there was somewhere I could go to try all the latest gear I might find it easier to make that decision. >Who is going to check the credit status and invoice and collect from every >single consumer that calls up to order direct? What will shipping costs be if >every unit is sold and shipped to an individual? Who will repair/service the >units? Well, Musician's Friend manage it, and make a profit into the bargain... ...remove the middleman, take out that profit margin, help starving musicians... ;) >Guitar Center and their fellow retail establishments are exactly the right >places to mass market the Vortex (or Boomerang, or Echoplex, or whatever...) >because that's where guitar players go to buy gear. OK, in the US I guess. Fair enough, point taken. >Limiting access to only those who can fly to LA or Nashville or Frankfurt to >actually hear the unit, or selling it direct over the Internet (25 million >users, but how many of them are musicians?) is not the way to launch a product, >and would not have saved the Vortex. I suppose I feel it's strange because the European fairs, principally Frankfurt but with smaller ones in the UK and I presume other countries, have public days. One thing this allows is for the public to try kit which is pretty obscure, and unlikely to appear in your next-door store. Like custom manufacturers - f.e. allowing people to try a Klein without spending $2000!!! >Maybe he/she needs to charge more for their product!!:) Don't EVER tell them that! The thing is, because the UK is smaller there isn't the need for a trade show like that - a rep. can drive from one end of the country to the other in 10 hours, so company reps get to deal directly with dealers at their stores. >I can't speak for Carvin, since my background is in retail sales and (now) >manufacturing. When talking about US product for sale in the EU, you must >include VAT, shipping, tariffs, etc. to the price. I know. This is probably all sour grapes on my behalf, from someone left out when you guys get into big gear discussions... sniff... Kim: >That's what marketing campaigns in magazines and in store clinics and >displays are for. Sigh... store clinics with famous people. I've heard about them... Here it's The Marshall Roadshow - with Phil Hilbourne! Who? Exactly. >At a tradeshow it's like this: An important dealer comes >up. He's busy, got a lot to do that day, you spend 5-10 minutes discussing >the products in the booth with him. He knods, says, "I'll buy 50 of those, >100 of those, let's do the order now." Papers signed, he's gone. Is this really not possible over the phone? If they spend so little time with the gear and can't touch it anyway, why bother getting them together? >Then along >comes some 22 year old who probably works in a shoe store. He asks >detailed >questions for an hour and a half, plays all the gear badly while others >are >waiting, and eventually wanders away and probably never buys anything at >all. Ok. I admit it. That's me. ;) Michael