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

[Tom Spaulding <tspauldi@gibson.com>]

>They aren't you're paying public, they just tell you they are!!
>Go direct like Carvin, you know it makes sense! (to us)
>Incidentally, do Carvin bother attending NAMM?

Yes, although I don't know why...probably for the benefit of their international distributors.

>>The presence of the general public is often a distraction and a
>>hindrance to doing business...

>
>This just seems a strange mentality. If Lexicon had taken the Vortex to
>the public themselves, it might have sold better than by trying to
>encourage Guitar Center to do it for them. And if the message doesn't get
>through to the PAYING CUSTOMER, the product's shafted anyway. To put it
>one way, how many distributors are on this list (LD)? Err... none. But
>they go, and we don't.

Michael, where are you ever going to hear a Vortex if there are no Dealers? 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?

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.

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.

>
>> Maybe you can lobby your favorite retailer to do the same...?
>
>My local retailer would love to fly from Scotland to Anaheim, but it ain't
>gonna happen....

Maybe he/she needs to charge more for their product!!:)
>
>Andre:
>> I understand that one reason NAMM has never had a public day is that a
>> lot of manufacturers don't want the general public to know what price
>> they're selling their products to retailers for, as that would
>> conceivably undermine the position of said retailers in a real-life
>> sales situation.
>
>Having seen a producer's price list once, I can understand this. To put it
>another way, I've seen the US (direct) and UK (dealer) prices for the
>Cafvin Holdsworth... try $750 vs $2000....
>
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. Suffice it to say that our margins are fair, as are most dealers prices to you. Remember, until "discouraged rock-n-rollers" who were tired of being charged full Retail Price entered the business in the late '60's and early '70's, everything in a music store was sold at full pop. Very few dealers could exist without discounting these days. I think we are all a bit spoiled at the treasues we are exposed to every day and the incredible prices at which we can obtain them...not so long ago, Oberheim keyboards had a SRP of over $5,000.00! That the future-pointing Vortex was even developed, manufactured, marketed and distributed is a miracle. I don't want to sound like a Pollyanna, and I have digressed a bit, but NAMM is good for what it is intended...If end-users all over the world demanded a Consumer Day, I suspect they would get one...

(The opinions expressed by Mr. Spaulding do not necessarily reflect the glare from the top of his head, and are not shared by just anyone)

Tom

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