Re: Re:N.A.M.M show

["Michael P. Hughes, Ph.D." <pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk>]

Kim:
>>>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... ;)
>
>well, Musician's Friend is a middle man, right? Besides, I never thought
>their prices were that great, so their profit margin must be larger? or 
>did
>you mean Carvin? 

No, I mean that if Obie sold direct (OK, say if Gibson sold direct) the
markup Musician's Friend need to add would no longer be necessary, and we
could all play or Tal Farlows through our EDPs and Orange stacks, rather
than our Epiphones through our Peaveys.  (no disprespect to Epi and Peavey,
of course...)    ;)

>You don't have Guitar Center there, yet? You poor guy. ;-)  

No, we don't...  :(
What we do have is just about every guitar shop in the country doing Mail
Order, though.
You'll find in  the UK's Guitarist magazine a _huge_ number of ads.

>>> That's what marketing campaigns in magazines and in store clinics and
>>> displays are for. 
> What? you can't get Oasis to stop by?

Oh, yeah... "My name's Noel Gallagher, and I'm going to use Epiphone
guitars to show you some neat tricks I've learned.  OK, number one, this is
an E chord..." (thrang thrang thrang....)

Now the Spice Girls, that would be different....  :)

>>> 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?
> It's the free liquor and big parties with famous people. You get a lot 
>more
> sales that way, and its not the same over the phone.

Let's put it this way.  You say this and expect me not to be jealous???

Michael