Tuesday, April 8. 2008
Up there!
It’s a bird!
It’s a plane!
No, it’s … it’s SUPERPIANO!!!
• faster than a feeding pullet
• more powerful than a leitmotiv
• able to leap eight octaves in a single bound
< sigh>...
As a practicing Business Consultant, I recognise that the ugly aura of marketing is everywhere. My own (somewhat jaundiced) view is that marketing is an activity that should be performed between consenting adults in private…
“The world famous pianist XXXX plays a YYYY piano exclusively”, where XXXX and YYYY may be substituted with any pianist and piano manufacturer you care to mention.
Trans: XXXX is being paid by YYYY.
Pianist XXXX says “A YYYY piano is the most expressive piano I have ever played!”
Trans: XXXX is being paid by YYYY.
And so on, ad nauseum. All utterly meaningless.
The cost of a product, no matter what that product is, is a combination of development, manufacture, servicing and marketing/sales. In this modern age, where communication is king, the cost of the latter may even exceed the cost of the three former. Given the current competitive state of the industry world-wide and the emergence of Asian and Eastern European countries as major piano manufacturers, brand recognition and maintaining that recognition is everything. Hence the large names on the sides of pianos, as mentioned previously.
But now things are changing. The internet now affords the opportunity of effective, sophisticated and cheap advertising via a web site. People such as myself who are interested in a product of this quality will be proactive in seeking it out. I didn’t need glossy brochures, showrooms and exhibitions to find what I wanted. I didn’t need worthless (and paid) recommendations by (otherwise very able) pianists about a particular product or brand name. I had a look at the web site, picked up the telephone number, made a telephone call, and then got in my car. My GPS did the rest…
It was that simple.
I’ve had many discussions with Wayne about business strategies and product positioning in the global market. With regards to his product, my view always has been to make the information available and the product will sell itself, and to a large extent this is the way the business works in practice. The web site has been improved significantly over time, and I know that more than one piano has been sold simply because of the quality and value of the information there.
The product doesn’t need brand recognition. Amongst the intended target audience, it already has it. As a result, the price of the piano represents the development and manufacturing costs rather than the marketing costs, and that’s the way it really should be. This is why the piano is, despite other people’s more so-called business-like approach, very good value for the price.
The piano is not only a 21st century piano, so is the business structure behind it.
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