|
|
Home
Research
Teaching
Studio
Message
Board
Workbench
Archive
Contact |
I have heard
many makers (and artists in other disciplines) deplore the marketing efforts
of some successful colleagues, as being commercial. To this I say that if
you are not commercial then you are not a success! The Victorian notion of a
separation of church and state, wherein artists have their heads in the
clouds and businessmen are all soul-less money-grubbers is as passé as the
Victorian era itself. In fact a majority of the most celebrated artists and
artisans, from Stradivari to Beethoven were people of commerce in addition
to being fabulous artistic talents. Commerce is the practical engine that
supports artistic endeavor. Marketing is the avenue to commerce. Without
some form of marketing art never reaches its audience.
Still, many craftsmen overlook the business reality of making a living, and
fail to recognize that effective marketing will be essential in turning
their work into money. Many business owners fail to recognize the power of
marketing toward building a successful and stabile business. In both
of these areas those involved in the fine string instrument industry often
fail to allocate the intellectual, fiscal, and/or time capital to a
marketing plan and so, fail or simply underachieve.
There are several key questions to be answered before beginning a marketing
effort:
Are you a “micro” or a “macro” business?
Are you an instrument or bow maker (or restorer, dealer, appraiser, etc.)
who works alone in a shop, producing individually hand crafted products to
be sold, one at a time, to a limited client list? For our purposes we will
call this category the long-term micro-business.
or
Are you a company that offers services or products that can be handled
ultimately on a high volume basis? This can be called a potential
macro-business.
The goals of these two models are completely different and any meaningful
marketing plan must start with a clear recognition of which basic business
model is being marketed. Even though the present discussion concerns the
micro-business model, it is essential to at least preliminarily understand
both sets of methodologies if one is to launch a meaningful micro-business
marketing effort.
For a micro-business, teacher network and professional word of mouth are
critical avenues to sales. If you are a self-marketed micro-business such as
a violin-maker or bow-maker, you probably won't have much of an advertising
budget. To be successful you must plan to allocate a substantial piece of
your time to marketing. Here are a few possible strategies:
a.) Develop
relationships with performing artists. The endorsement of a touring musician
can be a tremendous path to success. It can be hard to break the ice with a
busy touring musician but be tenacious nonetheless. Send letters, follow-up
letters, e-mails and phone calls until you get them to at least talk with
you and try your product.
b.) Foster
and build teacher relationships. Teachers have the power to lead their
students to you. Listen to the teachers. Find out what they need for their
students and respond to that need with your work.
c.)
Sponsor
teacher's students here and there with loans of violins etc. to reinforce
the relationship with the teachers and their students.
If you are a micro-business and are unwilling or unable to beat the pavement
to get your product noticed and sold, you will have to sell through a
macro-business. This means motivating a sales force through offering
commissions on sales. Either way, there are costs associated with getting
your product to market, whether it be your own sweat-equity or sales
commissions. Even if you can convince retailers to work for you on a
discounted commission margin, they will almost certainly have limited
success at best. Without the incentive of a substantial commission most
sales efforts fall short. If you want your product to get sold, be prepared
to pay one way or the other!
Some general points about marketing:
1.) The most effective sales strategies are highly targeted. Try to
understand who really should want your product or service. Don't let vanity
get in the way; be practical! Even if the greatest soloists in the world
SHOULD be playing your instruments, don't let that slow you down in
marketing to the fledgling student of a teacher that likes your work. Most
likely, the target audience for your product is not touring soloists. Try to
be realistic about what sort of player typically needs what you offer.
2.) Craftsmen and merchants who try to be all things to all people normally
do not succeed. Be honest with yourself about where in the market you can
bring special value. If you are a poor salesperson either partner with a
proven salesperson or get yourself trained to sell! If you are a
micro-business, don't dilute your efforts selling E strings unless it could
realistically lead to a sale of your product in the future. (Conversely, if
you are running a macro-business, don't spend a lot of time reinventing the
wheel with a maker unless it could lead to the development of a product with
substantial sales potential!)
At the wholesale level:
The effective wholesaler motivates a sales force to sell the product by
allowing for a comfortable profit margin. Try to choose wholesale customers who are likely to generate repeat
business, and stick with them. Don’t risk alienating wholesale sources by competing with them on a retail
level. Finally, if you sell to multiple wholesale buyers who are competing for the same
retail business, you risk ultimately losing them, as they will resent being
reduced to cut-throat tactics to compete for the same business with the same
product.
At
the retail level:
To compete as a retailer invest in branding and marketing, sell aggressively
and provide full customer support.
To both retail and wholesale the same product is risky, but it can work if
one establishes two different entities to do the two different jobs, and
when safeguards are in place against competing with one's wholesale buyers
for retail customers.
Components of a successful marketing strategy include some or all of the
following:
1. Identity
Have a clear and recognizable name. For micro-business this is most likely
going to be the name of the owner and what is the nature of their business: i.e. John Doe, Widgets
or Mortimer Snerd, House Painting.
Choose a look that is consistent with who you are and what you sell, and
speaks to the right customers for what you offer. I often see business cards
that fail to direct the audience toward the product or service being sold.
It pays to spend time and a little money on a serious business card. The
card is a tiny, but important representation of you and your product or
service and what sets it apart from all others. It says volumes about the
degree to which you value what you have to offer. It should infer QUALITY.
After all, if you don't value your product why should your customers value
it?
Having settled on an identity, pursue brand awareness for your
micro-business through:
a.) Word of mouth: Do what you must to get people talking about you and your product!
b.) Print Ads that embody a look of quality and a clear message
c.) Internet Ads targeted at the right audience!
d.) Special offers, giveaways, or events, i.e. master classes, workshops,
competition sponsorship, even your local educational TV auction fund raiser!
e.) Accurate pricing, both high and low For the micro-business a common mistake is to price too low! The right price
is the price that makes you only just competitive within your market. If you
price too low your potential customers will be suspicious. After all, like I
said before, if you don't value your product why should the customer
f.) Repeat
your message! Effective marketing requires consistency and continuity. One
or two ads won't do it. You must create a stream of ads to create a presence
over time.
2. Accessibility
Once the branding begins to hit the target audience it must be reinforced
with rapid phone, mail and e-mail response time and reliable
hours of business. A business that overlooks the importance of communication
loses BUSINESS and the POWER OF DOWNSTREAM BUSINESS. Consider that every
customer who buys now is a potential emissary to future customers. Every
sale lost now is potentially 5,10, 20 or more sales lost in the future.
A wider presence means a willingness to go to the customers. For a
micro-business to succeed on
its own, it must reach the significant audience. This may mean travel to
conventions, contests, schools and anywhere potential customers are. This
effort must be sustained for a period of time in order to break through and
become widely known. Until you are back-ordered for at least two years, I
would plan on a highly targeted junket of a week or more at least once a
quarter.
Aim
for product continuity. Being back ordered is all well and good, but before
beginning a marketing effort be sure that you can replicate the product at a
rate that supports a commercially viable stream of sales. If you can't
replicate your product at a commercially viable rate then you cannot compete
professionllally. Be realistic about this.
3.) Service
Last but not least, you must follow up with your customers and support your
product or service in the market place, or face discontent among your past
customers, who in turn disseminate negative information to your potential
new customers. Don’t let a customer leave unhappy. Even though it may not
always seem economically viable to do so, you should be willing to help your
customers when they need to resell. Create a clear and fair policy that
identifies the commission rate you will need when you restock and resell.
Don't ever let your product sell low at auction. Buy it yourself, at a high
price if necessary. Protect your customers from an unfortunate gap in the
market, and from any possible defects, even giving them the benefit of the
doubt in dubious situations. Your after-sale support will cost in the short
run, but will pay big dividends in the long run in terms of customer loyalty
and the protection of the market value of your product. ###
Stefan Hersh is owner of
Hersh Consulting
|
|
|