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At 2017 Summer NAMM, Tim Spicer of Spicer’s Music hosted an all-star panel of Nashville retailers to talk about store design. They included Christie and Walter Carter of Carter Vintage Guitars, Pamela Cole and Leigh Maples of Fanny’s House of Music, and Fred Carpenter of The Violin Shop. During the session, these Music City retailers laid out their creative ideas for effective displays, store layouts and building curb appeal. Here are highlights from the session. (Watch the full video for design examples that reflect each store’s unique personality.) Convey Your Store’s Theme Acco

At 2017 Summer NAMM, Tim Spicer of Spicer’s Music hosted an all-star panel of Nashville retailers to talk about store design. They included Christie and Walter Carter of Carter Vintage Guitars, Pamela Cole and Leigh Maples of Fanny’s House of Music, and Fred Carpenter of The Violin Shop. During the session, these Music City retailers laid out their creative ideas for effective displays, store layouts and building curb appeal. Here are highlights from the session. (Watch the full video for design examples that reflect each store’s unique personality.) Convey Your Store’s Theme Acco

Why is video storytelling so important to music retailers? At The 2017 NAMM Show, Grant Billings of Steinway Piano Gallery of Naples stated that 80 percent of video viewers retain an astounding 95 percent of the information they see—presenting a powerful opportunity for music businesses. He covered this and much more during a NAMM U panel discussion on video storytelling with John Fowler of Shoreline Music and Will Mason of Mason Music. The common themes: Personal stories rule, and a good videographer is critical. Watch the video to see each store’s examples, along with the full s

During The 2017 NAMM Show, Kevin Cranley of Willis Music hosted a who’s who panel of music retailers at a special NAMM Idea Center session. Panelists included Sammy Ash of Sam Ash Music, Cindy Cook of The Candyman Strings & Things, Pat Averwater of Amro Music, Whitney Brown Grisaffi of Ted Brown Music and George Quinlan Jr. of Quinlan & Fabish. The powerhouse lineup featured the largest family owned music retailer, NAMM’s 2014 Dealer of the Year, a successful family business dating back to 1921, a leading retailer with six stores in the Pacific Northwest and a top school m

During The 2017 NAMM Show, Kevin Cranley of Willis Music hosted a who’s who panel of music retailers at a special NAMM Idea Center session. Panelists included Sammy Ash of Sam Ash Music, Cindy Cook of The Candyman Strings & Things, Pat Averwater of Amro Music, Whitney Brown Grisaffi of Ted Brown Music and George Quinlan Jr. of Quinlan & Fabish. The powerhouse lineup featured the largest family owned music retailer, NAMM’s 2014 Dealer of the Year, a successful family business dating back to 1921, a leading retailer with six stores in the Pacific Northwest and a top school m

In 2015, we had a traditionally minded retail manager who suggested we host a Black Friday promotion. Following the pattern of other boutique stores (a category in which most music stores fall into), we had been closed the entire Thanksgiving weekend. We didn’t want to look like a big-box store, commercializing the holidays and infringing on family time! (Of course, we were participating in those same sales ourselves as consumers.) So we posted fliers, distributed them along our school route and waited to see what would happen. To our surprise, we had above-average store traffic,

Music lesson programs can seem like a no-brainer—get new students, keep them. But at The 2017 NAMM Show, music lessons expert Pete Gamber showed that it takes more than wishful thinking to build a successful lesson program. During this NAMM U session, Gamber, a teacher and former retailer, shared his lessons learned and how to avoid mistakes with a program. Here are highlights from the presentation. (Watch the video for the full session.) Know your lesson room potential. It’s not enough to say you want to have 500 students. You’ll need a formula to figure out the potential of your

Tim Pratt of Dietze Music recently expanded to a fourth location. And at The 2017 NAMM Show, he shared what he learned in designing the new store from scratch, covering effective store design and merchandising ideas on a budget. (Watch the video to view the full session and for visual examples.) Pratt based his presentation around what he called the six R’s of store design. Rethink Pratt stressed the importance of looking at your store with fresh eyes. Ask yourself what your customers might think or see. Don’t forget to use color, including products that can sell themselves on c

At the 2017 NAMM Show, Cris Behrens, general manager of Summerhays Music, revealed his favorite social media campaigns from fellow music retailers. Watch the full video to view the winning Instagram and Facebook promotions and to hear several audience members share their own successful promo ideas. Behrens chose promotions that highlighted different approaches—from product focus, sales, humor and music advocacy to customer reviews, articles and store brags. According to Behrens, no idea is too big or too small to be effective on social media. Springfield Music, Customer Gift Card

How the customers of tomorrow interact, engage and buy may look very different from what you see today. At The 2017 NAMM Show, award-winning marketing executive and author Larry Bailin hosted this NAMM U Breakfast Session to help NAMM members future-proof their businesses. Check out this session, and prepare for the customers of tomorrow by building better connections with the customers of today.

How the customers of tomorrow interact, engage and buy may look very different from what you see today. At The 2017 NAMM Show, award-winning marketing executive and author Larry Bailin hosted this NAMM U Breakfast Session to help NAMM members future-proof their businesses. Check out this session, and prepare for the customers of tomorrow by building better connections with the customers of today.

At the 2017 NAMM Show, Robert Christie of A&G Central Music shared changes he’s made to his repair business that have improved the customer experience—and the bottom line. Consider the following ideas for your own repair operation, no matter the scale and size of your store. (Watch the video to see the full session.) Computerize Your Inventory Get your parts inventory on a computerized system, even if it’s expensive and time-consuming. • Decide how deep to go. Decide what data you want to track. Use bulk categories for inputting single items. • Minimum/maximum. Keep an eye on