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January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | Was just wondering how they set those allocations, and the only thing I can logically come up with is that the manufacturers/importers/distributors must buy the space. I'm not talking about co-op. I'm suggesting that they directly buy the space.
Anybody got the inside on this? |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I don't have the answer but the way things are going I wouldn't be suprised if they did. |
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May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | When you say, '...those catalogs we get...' do you mean catalogs like 'Vintage Guitar,' 'Guitar World Acoustic,' and 'Guitar One?' Or do you mean that magazine called 'Musician's Friend?'
(sorry, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes)
:) |
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June 2004
Posts: 365
Location: NC | I would say so............if your a NASCAR fan you know that the size of the decal on the car equates to how much you pay as a sponsor and time seen on t.v. Also, at my local cigar store the shelf space is allocated to vendors and which vendor produces the most. It is economics in motion! :D |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | I mean the MF, GC, SA, etc etc thick catalogs.
The curiosity factor sometimes takes over my thoughts...
I was talking to a friend of mine, a store manager for a large grocery chain here in the south: Winn-Dixie. He commented to me that the various larger companies buy shelf space in the stores, and are gauranteed certain merchandising considereations such as priority restocking and rearrangeing, that sort of thing, also the suppliers staff will set up initial displays and initially arrange the shelves, works with store employees on how to maintain it. You get the idea.
I have another good aquaintance, who runs the Palm Beach Photo Workshop. They put out a catalog a few times a year, and his costs on that from production to color seperations run about $125,000-$175,000 per issue. He defrays that cost with full page ads sold to Canon, Nikon, etc etc.
So, I see a nice color catalog...and I know they are reusing the copy (ie, last two MF catalogs were identical from 2nd page to 2nd to last page), but its still a huge expense. Then I see the layout of items, how Martin gets three pages, how Ovation gets two, how Gibson gets... and how Gibsons ads are a lot denser than say... the Ovation ads. Gets me thinking how Ovation suddenly "appears", across the gamut of catalogs, while Tacoma suddenly "disappears" from the same catalogs. How Gibson and Fender look pretty much the same in all the catalogs. How the prices are all set to the same price point... without exception.
It just occurred to me that this has got to be a negotiated thing. I know the sales volume cannot support the usual co-op allowances...
Revisiting that price point issue... Its interesting to see how three companies can manipulate teh market. Case in point: Three online retailers force a change in Gibson's sales policy recently. They have the volume to do it I guess. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | charles
I don't think actually money passes hands but I bet the benefit is bought by guitars sold and ultimately the price point of the instrument. Give the company a good deal and they will push your product, don't give them a good deal and you are relegated to the back pages of the catalog or a smaller representation of your company. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Years ago, I worked as a production artist for an agency that did ads, flyers, catalogs for various vendors (furniture, appliances, car dealers, electronics, etc.), and I believe that Strummin'12 does something similar now . .
When we did it, the "pecking order" was pretty much mandated by the client who based it on:
a.) What was "New/Hot", and:
3.) What they had a hefty inventory of (and needed to "move") . . .
Whether or not (now, that is) vendors may be offering some type of "incentive" towards advertising space, I don't know . . . but that's how we did things "back THEN" . . . (but then again, "back THEN" was when we used X-acto knives & rubber cement to create ads, and the only computer was in the accounting office . . . ) :rolleyes: |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | ummmmmmmmm.......rubber cement |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | . . . s'not the "rubber cement" that you fondly remember Al, . . . it's the "rubber cement THINNER" . . . which is pretty much benzine . . . |
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January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | mmmmmm.....benzine!~ |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | Al,
I dunno... money might change hands on paper at least. The resoning goes like this:
The law says that suppliers have to offer the same pricing to everone in the same sales market. There is some grey area there as in trade, we see distributor pricing, OEM pricing, etc. But pretty much... musical intruments are sold at retail level. That means if they have a 100 up price on whatever, then it gets offered to everyone. Same law says that show specials must be offered to everyone, regarless of show attendance. This was brought into law by my old trade - the camera biz, where the unit pricing was fantastically different on 1 item versus large quanitity. The law didn't even the playing field, but at least let everyone know what the large volume pricing was, in case they wanted to partake. That happened in about 1970 I think.
Ok, so the law says that everyone gets offered the same deals. I dont think the co-op money (effectively lower unit pricing) would be there to cover the huge expense (like well over a million $$$ per catalog). They cant offer different co-op allowances... so the way around the law would be to actually "buy" catalog space. Just my thought at least.
I was kinda hoping CWK2 would offer more insight, but... s'ok.
Back to guitar talk... PLEASE!~~ |
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Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | I get to be pedantic! On the OFC! YAY!
Benzene...not benzine. :) Don't ask how I know... |
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Do manufacturers buy space in those catalogs we get?
