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Tom Blackshear -> RE: MANUEL REYES GUITAR / BY LUTHIER VAHE (Jul. 27 2016 14:34:52)
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quote:
yes i would like expand and make it my priority . i thing i need some one to handle my marketing.
There are several ways in which to market guitars. I have tried practically all of them and wound up with selling most of my instruments to music companies and to have them spread my name base world wide.
This is certainly a good way to market but you have to be careful not to let any company ask for an exclusive, simply because it could wind up with them thinking that they own your name and this could be disastrous in your ability to move merchandise when needed.
My idea for that is to locate music stores based in three parts of the country like California, Midwest and East Coast areas to secure your sales but not over populate the competition, by allowing the companies to have some sales area protection, even though the market should be open nationwide.
Another way is to see if a well known player would endorse your guitars. This is somewhat risky as there are not too many well known players who would be agreeable to do long term endorsements.
And the third way would be for you to set up your own sales through a website.
Perhaps this is to say you could do all three and manage to sell enough guitars to earn a living. And if you have the room for teaching this art, then incorporate it into the whole of business to accumulate enough help from your students to help with the out put.
I have the distinct advantage with Manuel helping me with my neck and bridge production. Everything seems to go faster this way; a whole lot less hassle.
However, there is no way everything comes together very fast, as it takes time to make things work. One thing I see very clearly is to make a guitar that most players love to play, with its sound and motif. This is the reason I chose to develop the Miguel Rodriguez and the Manuel Reyes styles.
They have been a good seller for me, and although there are other popular styles, the key to sales is to capture the market's attention with the best you can supply, at a reasonable price. So, it's important to figure out what price range you want to be in.
My talks with Manuel centered around him building a quality guitar to compete with the $10,000 level and sell it for $5,000 to $6,000 or a basic mid level price range to get into the market with a new brand/model.
He understood that this is pretty much getting into the market with a new model but that the prices will come to an accepted level of what the market will bear for future sales. This is an accepted marketing idea to see what the market will bear, as far as prices go. So, it doesn't take long to find out where your price should be.
Most competent music companies can help you with this. Just be careful what their motives are, and their level of expertise for marketing your specific product.
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