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Why is DCI so unknown by almost everyone?


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It is not just the legacy fan that should be targeted. To target one exclusive group would be assinine if you want to grow the activity.

Oh wait, they want to target band students only...sorry, I forgot.

The ones who need marketing classes are the ones who think that aiming the activity at the ever shrinking population of 'legacy fans' is the way to go.
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It is not just the legacy fan that should be targeted. To target one exclusive group would be assinine if you want to grow the activity.

Oh wait, they want to target band students only...sorry, I forgot.

That is where a large portion of what they do is, but it's not ALL of the things they do, so yes, DCI should and does include legacy fans in their targets, but the primary group should be and is the scholastic musicians.

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That is where a large portion of what they do is, but it's not ALL of the things they do, so yes, DCI should and does include legacy fans in their targets, but the primary group should be and is the scholastic musicians.

I'm not a legacy fan. I like drum corps and tell people about it. I went to finals in 2010. I'm older than you and always think outside the box. You promote scholastic musicians but there's collegiate too http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=b...43-e755dd3d1a78 There's more out there to promote; I'll sleep on it and figure out something one of these days:-)

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It is not just the legacy fan that should be targeted. To target one exclusive group would be assinine if you want to grow the activity.

Oh wait, they want to target band students only...sorry, I forgot.

Why not target all fans? Create something that every audience member will enjoy.

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I'm not a legacy fan. I like drum corps and tell people about it. I went to finals in 2010. I'm older than you and always think outside the box. You promote scholastic musicians but there's collegiate too http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=b...43-e755dd3d1a78 There's more out there to promote; I'll sleep on it and figure out something one of these days:-)

'Scholastic' includes both HS and College. I've always said that.

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Create something that every audience member will enjoy.

When you try to please everybody some of the time, you always end up pleasing nobody all of the time. Produce a quality product; market that product through quality means using various outlets; and most, if not all, of the people which like the product will buy in. Over the years the folks at DCI 'have' done that very well. The catch is that once the numbers of people buying in has leveled off, you can either be happy with that level, or change the product in hopes of to gaining more people to buy in without loosing the interest of those who already like the existing product.

At some point, DCI decided that they wanted more people to buy into the product. They first grounded the pit; that seemed to draw in more people. Then they switched from a Tic judging system to a merit judging system; that seemed to work; then they allowed for the use of Bb horns; not much impact. Then they attempted to bolster the existing product with a catchy title like Major League moving to an all summer national tour; that backfired because the increasing costs eliminated many lower corps, and fewer corps means fewer fans buying tickets. DCI then tried to get in touch with the younger people through technology like amplification and synthesizers; that did not work for the same reasons as going Major league also yielding fewer attendees. DCI is now throwing out a trial balloon by attempting to change the entire product itself for a few special events to see if that raises or lowers the aggregate attendance, hoping that they will gain 2 newbies for every 1 older fan they would loose. We will have to wait and see the results of that experiment.

Here is the deal though; I am positive that Hop/Gibbs cohort (aka G7) would be happy as a lark with the current attendance numbers and current ticket sales as long as all of the capital raised at those events went exclusively to them. DCI going national all summer, calling themselves the major league, pushing the activity into higher costs and fewer corps (thus fewer fans) is what created this monster. And changing the product into a bigger monster (ie these new special extravaganza events) is only going to feed that dragon even further.

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When you try to please everybody some of the time, you always end up pleasing nobody all of the time.

Counterexample: DCI from the '80s to early '90s. Aside from the economic difficulty of fielding full hornlines of G bugles, there's absolutely no reason why shows can't still be like that today.

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Counterexample: DCI from the '80s to early '90s. Aside from the economic difficulty of fielding full hornlines of G bugles, there's absolutely no reason why shows can't still be like that today.

One of the best print ads I have ever seen for DCI had Dennis Delucia (Bridgemen) and Ralph Hardiman (SCV) standing side by side; Dennis had a hot dog and a beer while Ralph had wine and cheese. That ad reflected why many adults came to watch drum corps' shows during that time period. The Bridgemen brought in the hot dog an beer crowd while SCV brought in the wine and cheese crowd. The funny thing is that in today's world that ad would not fly because it would be perceived as promoting alcohol to minors. And therein lies the conundrum DCI has now found themselves in: The target audience for ticket sales has changed. DCI now wants to appeal to a younger paying audience instead of appealing to the older paying audience. Developing musical units as diverse as the Bridgemen vs. SCV to bring in multiple demographics hoping to see their way of life winning out at finals has turned into developing units to appeal to the immediate techno-pop culture where every tune is pounding out the same beat with the same techno-pop vibe.

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Counterexample: DCI from the '80s to early '90s. Aside from the economic difficulty of fielding full hornlines of G bugles, there's absolutely no reason why shows can't still be like that today.

Wasn't 1992 called the "Summer of discontent" or something???

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The target audience for ticket sales has changed. DCI now wants to appeal to a younger paying audience instead of appealing to the older paying audience.

So who created the false notion that what the younger crowd likes is mutually exclusive from what the older crowd likes? The entertainment and quality of a performance has nothing to do with age.

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