[Harp-L] Endorsements fun

["Bill Kumpe" <bkumpe@xxxxxxx>]

I have been following the endorsements threat with some amusement.  But,
since I am not really much of a musician and certainly not a professional
one, I tend to see the conversation in a different light.  This is my
personal take on the subject.

 

For approximately fifteen years before my "lost years" as a truck driver,
furniture mover, freelance writer, small town reporter, etc. and long before
my midlife descent into the legal profession, I was a peddler.  Granted, I
was a blue suit, white shirt, wingtip, expense account type peddler, but a
peddler nevertheless.  I started out selling adding machines and ended up
selling major systems.

 

In the lower end of the market, we took endorsements very seriously.  On a
national level with high end products there wasn't much of a parallel to the
music business but there definitely was on the local level with smaller
products.  I would darn near give equipment away to CPA's, not because I
wanted to make money on that sale but because I wanted him to refer me and
my product to his client base.  When a local professional group of
accountants, tax types, etc. would meet or hold a public service function
like free tax service, I would have given them the entire store on temporary
loan if my boss would have let me because not only did those guys buy
equipment all of the time, they told their clients what to buy.  A solid CPA
or financial consultant sale was worth weeks or even months of standard
marketing effort.

 

I think it is probably the same in the music business.  I will listen a
little bit if a nationally known star performer endorses a product.  But, in
the back of my mind I am also thinking that (1) This guy could take a comb
and a piece of tissue paper and smoke me, (2) he may be getting money for
his endorsement and (3) the product he gets is probably not off the shelf.
I know it wouldn't be if I were handling his account.

 

But, the endorsements I really pay attention to are the ones like I hear
right here on Harp-L and especially the ones I hear from the players in my
own community.  If an instructor I respect recommends the same harp to all
of his students, I listen to that.  And, if I a guy I know personally who
plays a mean harp three or four nights a week on the local circuit tells me
a harp is solid or an amp is sweet, I really listen to that.  The fact that
Charlie M. may play XYZ brand is good info but the fact that my local friend
swears by ABC brand will cause me to try the product.

 

Just my personal take on the subject.

 

Bill Kumpe