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Vic Firth/Zildjian no longer DCI partner


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17 hours ago, Stu said:

 

That quote of yours looks rather insulting; especially to Michael Iaconelli, Rick Clunn, Johnny Morris, etc... This also shows you think of the art of fishing in the same unserious making-fun of way others make fun of marching band kids.

Know a fellow who competed professionally and now builds boats for competitors. There's big money in that. Also college courses on Fly Fishing, Dad took one many years ago at Penn State. So yes, it's a pretty serious activity, but also a much bigger one for companies to be attracted to. DCI is pretty small with a small fan base. When the whole thing with PBS went under, really the awareness dropped and the impression it was a bigger deal than it really is.

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6 minutes ago, BigW said:

. DCI is pretty small with a small fan base. When the whole thing with PBS went under, really the awareness dropped and the impression it was a bigger deal than it really is.

Yeah something about good percentage of fan base is friends and family members. Then there is the "So how long do members stick around when they quit marching....". Hard to come up with a marketing strategy when the audience constantly rotates.

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37 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Yeah something about good percentage of fan base is friends and family members. Then there is the "So how long do members stick around when they quit marching....". Hard to come up with a marketing strategy when the audience constantly rotates.

Well as in both of our cases, we wander in and out depending on our situations in life, and when we can just get in the car and have the time to GET to a show, OR, in the case of A-Town, grab the tickets on time so you're not sitting on the 10 and straining your neck. :satisfied:

 

Weeknight shows are difficult for me because of work schedule... would I go to a Saturday DCI show in Hershey if one existed? YOU. BET.

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46 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Then there is the "So how long do members stick around when they quit marching....". Hard to come up with a marketing strategy when the audience constantly rotates.

Another way to look at that is it means more different people are exposed to it over the years than with an audience that remains the same.

So maybe focus on products that benefit well from exposure within a short period of time rather than requiring long many years of repeated reference.

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3 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Yeah something about good percentage of fan base is friends and family members. Then there is the "So how long do members stick around when they quit marching....". Hard to come up with a marketing strategy when the audience constantly rotates.

 

2 hours ago, BigW said:

Well as in both of our cases, we wander in and out depending on our situations in life, and when we can just get in the car and have the time to GET to a show, OR, in the case of A-Town, grab the tickets on time so you're not sitting on the 10 and straining your neck. :satisfied:

 

Weeknight shows are difficult for me because of work schedule... would I go to a Saturday DCI show in Hershey if one existed? YOU. BET.

Something about this math didn't add up in my head.  44 corps times 150 MM's each equals 6600 MM's per year.  Even if we figure eight people per MM as "the fan base" (Mom, Dad, 3 siblings and 3 grandparents or band friends [don't ask me why, I don't know]), that still adds up to only 53,000 "Friends and Family Fans".  I'm not sure if DCI's annual "eyeballs" has changed much recently, but I remember when they had a public video on their website (from a decade ago) claiming that more than 400,000 (IIRC) fans saw shows in that year.

Something like 13% of the audience seems to be friends and family.  Sure, that's substantial compared to other measures, but I think band kids in general are the biggest audience segment.

Vaticinate (still my FAVORITE corporate name, evah) did a study some years ago that showed the "average life" of a fan is about 3 1/2 years.  That tied in with average MM tenure and with average-age progression from HS into college.  Three-and-one-half years, on average.  Compared to some of us here, that number is insignificant.

Obviously, if a MM's entire band comes to a show to see him/her, that skews the "friends" part of the equation a little although, again, band kids.

I think DCI made the right decision to change to band instruments and market to MM's through equipment brands and exogenous activities like Indoor, instead of PRIMARILY marketing to fans; usually, marketing to fans is little more than public show announcements and "image" is created by the corps themselves.  

What they did wrong, IMO, was to cede the role of innovator to the "...line" shows.  They once led the entire marching activity.  Now it feels like they play clean up and are expected to produce each August a homogenized version of what kids see in the "line" shows from November until April. 

 

Edited by garfield
correct word use
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25 minutes ago, skevinp said:

Another way to look at that is it means more different people are exposed to it over the years than with an audience that remains the same.

So maybe focus on products that benefit well from exposure within a short period of time rather than requiring long many years of repeated reference.

I know you're up to the challenge:  ...such as...?

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3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

see above long post

And I counter with see posts looking outside the box. Sure securing sponsors takes time, skill, and investment. But if the non profit music minded would get busy and seek out non music sponsors, they would find many who would want to market their products/services to DCI folks in exchange for sponsorship. It just takes eliminating the artistic snobbery and being fine with a sponsor like Boudreaux's Butt Paste!!!! https://www.buttpaste.com/

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15 minutes ago, Stu said:

And I counter with see posts looking outside the box. Sure securing sponsors takes time, skill, and investment. But if the non profit music minded would get busy and seek out non music sponsors, they would find many who would want to market their products/services to DCI folks in exchange for sponsorship. It just takes eliminating the artistic snobbery and being fine with a sponsor like Boudreaux's Butt Paste!!!! https://www.buttpaste.com/

Of course you're right, Stu.  It takes a long time to develop good and sticky clients.

It's also true that clients/vendors are sticky until they're not.  Clients/Sponsors come and Clients/Sponsors go.  I'm not making excuses for DCI's seeming inability to keep a client/sponsor.

But, in this case, the client/sponsor didn't go.  It just went from DCI to the corps - decentralized.  As it was intended, IMO.

Maybe a better M.O. is if DCI hooks 'em and lands 'em and the corps filet and fry 'em.

Or maybe sponsors are the realm of the corps themselves.

 

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5 hours ago, Stu said:

And I counter with see posts looking outside the box. Sure securing sponsors takes time, skill, and investment. But if the non profit music minded would get busy and seek out non music sponsors, they would find many who would want to market their products/services to DCI folks in exchange for sponsorship. It just takes eliminating the artistic snobbery and being fine with a sponsor like Boudreaux's Butt Paste!!!! https://www.buttpaste.com/

Back in my era, with all of the parades we did wearing wool pants, some Buttpaste would have been just the thing to have!   :dancin:

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