The piano selling market, as most markets, has decreased since the beginning of the recession. People don't have a couple extra thousand dollars to spend on a piano. Even in the peak of piano sales, around 1979, uprights were much more popular chiefly because they are less expensive. As a reaction to this, piano marketers advertise their instruments to parents. Focusing on the theory that playing a classical instrument will improve mathematics etc., the business gets parents to buy pianos for their children. "Now, they say that parents wanting their kids to excel in school have turned back to the piano as a way of encouraging music and learning," says Fred Riley co-manager of Classic Pianos in downtown Bellevue. Marketing is crucial to the business. Piano sellers must find their target market and advertise to it as much as possible. Knowing who is going to buy and who is not is also crucial, for the process of selling a piano can be a long one so to extensively advertise to someone who isn't going to buy in the end would be a waste of time. Another reason the piano business is ongoing is because of the demand for digital pianos. Similar to the way Barnes & Noble is thriving of electronic books, electronic pianos are essential to piano marketers. With the fairly recent increase in demand for all things technological, piano marketers have "joined the band wagon" in their own way by selling electric pianos. For Classic Pianos, electronic pianos make up 40% of total sales and about 20% of total revenue, according to Riley. People are willing to pay more if technology is involved. Digital pianos can be grand or upright, and can achieve any feat from recording a CD, to displaying a screen that shows the musical notes being played and permits users to Skype. There are also keyboards where the keys light up showing players which keys to press when the sheet music is connected through a chip. The kids want electronics and the parents want the intellectual advantage that comes with learning how to play the piano, so digital pianos are a happy medium.
Another way piano companies make cash is by lending pianos to colleges, dance studios, and theaters for periods of a year or more. After this phase ends, the company resells the instrument receiving a lending fee from the colleges and the cash of the sale. Casinos are also a great way to make sales. They are willing to pay more and they usually want grand pianos. Riley recalls a $93,000 Bosendorfer grand sold to a man in Las Vegas.
Perhaps the most important aspect of keeping business active for piano sellers is diversifying the services each individual store provides. For Classic Pianos, this means offering pianos for sale, having tuners on hand, agreeing to ship pianos when needed, and possessing technicians ready to work on pianos as seen fit. The company also offers trade-ins. One customer traded in a 1920 Steinway grand. Classic Pianos provides all services for the instruments, which is why the company has been doing well.
Classic Pianos is aware that many music companies have gone out of business in the last few years and they have no intention of joining them. Along with variety in their services, Classic Pianos genuinely cares about their customers. “Our goal is to help people and families have music in their lives,” Riley explains. “And we mean it-we grew up with it, we love it.” Assiduousness towards customers is another reason Classic Pianos believes they are successful.
An advantage to being in the piano market is that many customers are willing to buy a more expensive brand. After many years of experience playing the piano, some musicians want the best type of piano that money can buy. Steinway & Sons and Bosendorfer are just a couple of the very nice, very expensive brands of pianos that are often sold to people looking for quality. A sale of one of these brands will bring a lot of cash for piano sellers. Even with the economy declining, music companies can work around the problem. Clearly not everybody is going to choose the piano as their instrument of choice, but there are still people that need pianos regardless of their price. It’s all about target marketing. Theaters, universities, ballet studios, and piano enthusiasts will be looking, and it is the piano company’s job to seek them out and sell to them. Recession or not, there is a group that will always be pursuing pianos and it is up to the sellers to find them.
Original Article: http://display.pnwmarketplace.com/images/display/98040-Mar.pdf
Information also taken from: http://faculty.bschool.washington.edu/skotha/website/cases%20pdf/STEINWAY.PDF
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