For nearly 100 years, the Hanser family has been involved in the musical instrument industry. A furniture maker by trade, my grandfather began building cabinets for the Baldwin piano company during the 1920s. Still having close ties to people in Germany, he had friends constantly asking for his help in getting instrument parts from the old country. That eventually evolved into an import business, then a storefront and, ultimately, a national distribution outfit. More recently, the family business has also come to own multiple brand- name products and, today, it all operates under the Hanser Music Group name.
What impresses me most about my grandfather’s operation is the amount of trust and faith that he had to have in people. Back then, it would take months—if not a whole year—to track down an item somewhere in the world and then deliver it to a customer. Communications alone took weeks via handwritten letters. (The first transcontinental phone calls didn’t even occur until 30 years later!) Those lead times are absolutely unacceptable nowadays. Today, we can instantly contact someone anywhere in the world and receive a shipment the very next day, even gift-wrapped should you wish. But we still do so with a certain amount of trust and faith. It’s that trust and faith in each other that I believe has helped this family business to thrive for so long. Together with all of our industry colleagues, our interrelated abilities to believe in one another, communicate with one another and work together to achieve a common goal have contributed to each other’s success.
Now more than ever, collaboration is becoming more critical to the success of those in our industry. Regardless of whatever today’s social media flavor-of-the-month might be, communications are now instant, crowded and unfiltered. The amount of information available to help a consumer make a purchase decision is overwhelming and unregulated. To try to conquer this territory on one’s own is a daunting task. But what if we were to work side by side? What if we were to align our brands, our dealers and our fans, bringing them all to the same side of the table? We had an idea.
The B.C. Rich and Michael Kelly Guitars brands are synonymous with independent dealers. In conversations with the stores, we realized one of the most powerful tools we have is in our marketing technology. Utilizing all our social-media properties and digital marketing, we saw a way to bring our brand consumers into the stores on a local level by leveraging our national fan base. With some amazing analytics and lots of data- and number-crunching, we can reach a B.C. Rich fan in any given city with an attractive promotion to help bring him or her into a specific authorized store that’s close to him or her, creating a win/win/win for everyone involved—absolutely amazing! Initially, we rolled out campaigns on Facebook and other social-media outlets, and they performed exceptionally well. We have continued to expand our digital efforts and, now, we use state-of-the-art retargeting and hyper-local targeting to increase our general brand-marketing reach. These campaigns are currently running nationwide with geo-targeted incentives and promotions appearing on sites that are far beyond the typical reach of guitar media.
For the store, the program promotes it organically through digital media that’s specifically tailored to the store, its inventory and its demographic. This unique, localized, highly targeted marketing support is now a standard offering to our “Titanium” dealers. “Titanium” dealers, in addition to proactive marketing, will also be privileged to exclusive access to many of the bestsellers in both brands, as well as the massive Hanser Music Group warehouse inventories, through a unique online drop ship program. Other features will include in-store recognition, priority access to inventory, exclusive point-of-sale support and preferred lead generation directly from the B.C. Rich and Michael Kelly Guitars Web sites. The resources are amazing, and implementing these tools has proven worthwhile for everyone. Each brand has its own unique identity, allowing us to create different strategies based on the brand’s specific identity. The history of B.C. Rich allows us to continue its legacy and capitalize on its iconic guitar designs, while the still-youthful Michael Kelly brand gives us an opportunity to dial in our “Boutique Within Reach” philosophy.
A great example of how our new program is benefiting the stores comes from a message we received from Kyle Collins-worth, Owner of Muzic Fuze in Reno NV. He said, “We are huge fans of the Michael Kelly guitars and, now, with the Titanium Dealer program, the results are clearly impacting our business. Our customers have always come in to play them because they look and feel like an expensive guitar. Well, not only do they make great guitars but, in addition, they go the extra mile to support their retailers. Proof of the success is in the results from their new geo-targeted efforts online. Not only are we getting customer comments on what they see online but, in addition, we are selling guitars to current and new customers who have specifically seen the campaign in their news feeds! The program is unique, and it’s working.”
Over the past 90 years of the family business, a large part of our success was in our Davitt and Hanser distribution chain. For years, that was our identity. But, as my grandfather’s business evolved, so too does ours. We recently sold our distribution business to JAM. They are a great company that will continue its legacy into the foreseeable future. It was an emotionally tough transaction, but it was the right thing to do. Now, we get to focus on building some of the greatest brands in the musical instrument and pro audio industries. This is where Hanser Music Group will now focus its efforts.
It is all a collaborative effort between the manufacturers, brands, distributors, dealers and customers. As we turn the corner toward the next 90 years, we know that we will need to both use technology and innovate to assure the success of our brands and our dealer partners. In 2015, we plan to expand our technology support, including by bringing it to our other brands, which include Kustom, Dawn and Powerwerks. I’m really looking forward to it.
Gary Hanser is CEO of Hanser Music Group.