Breaking The " Herd " Mentality.

Today I'd like to discuss the "herd" mentality that exsist in the percussion world. We all know drummers who are subject to such thinking. I have a freind who is stricken with that mentality. He is a fanatical devotee to certain brands. For instance he will not consider playing any cymbal That is not a ( No free promotion for anyone )let's just say brand X. Now the big Cymbal and Drum companies spend millions of dollars a year for advertizing. They also go to great legnth's to have an impressive roster of endorcers. So the herd mentality is created and maintained by them. They love guy's like my freind, who will purchase brand X cymbal's at any price. Maybe that's why they can charge what they do for cymbal's. The same goes for the big drum companies. It's essentially the same story. If more people would at least look at the alternatives and give them a chance maybe the big guys would lower their prices. Believe me as a Percussion retailor there's room for movement by the big drum & cymbal companies. They just don't do it because they don't have to.
When your a company like us ( Cymbals & Snares ) and you intentionally specialize in Alternative brands, and not carry any of the major brands. We automatically lose drummers who are like my freind. An entire segment of the drumming world is eliminated as potential customers. This means we need to work harder to attract those of you who are willing to think out of the box about brands. It takes time to get your company name out there and takes time to develope a reputation amongst drummers as the place to go for the " Other Name Brands". Slowly but surely we are getting there. We have been in business for 18 months name recognition and the products associated with it will take some time to accomplish. It's time we are willing to put in. We have recieved so many emails praising our approach to the percussion scene I know were onto something, I know were on the right track.
Still, I wish there were a way, an approach I could use on the brand loyal drummers to at least look at different brands. I believe the only way for them to even look at a different brand would be if there were some financial constraits put on them. Like a baby, buy a new house or a job loss. Even at that I know guys who would either just wait until the situations changes or look into purchasing used Cymbals. God forbid you consider something less expensive, or a different brand. Who ever said or where is it written that a good pair of Hi-hat's must cost around $300 and up ? It kinda makes you wonder about some drummer's you know. How easily they dismiss anything that isn't brand X.
There is hope on the horizon. With the proliferation of Cymbal and drum companies today and the ease these other companies can be accessed, I think the super brand loyal drummer is a declining group. Our email and the various drum forums are full of stories and posts that refrence the fact at one time they were strickly X brand drum's or Cymbal's until I found brand Z. As the major Drum and Cymbal companies face a slew of competitor's which will inevitably begin to nibble at there market share. The big guys have a few options in which to fight back. One is the most obvious a price cut. Make your Cymbal's more affordable again, make a smaller profit per unit which will probably be offset by larger sales. They also can buy their competitors and shut them down. I see the second option as not being very popular with the drumming community as a whole. This may back fire and cause many drummers to harbor Ill will towards the offending company. Drummers can be a funny lot sometimes. You never know exactly how the drumming community will act as a whole in any given situation.
Since Cymbals & Snares opened it's cyber door weve sold our "Other Name Brands" products to well over 1,000 customers. We have a perfect feedback of 100%. So there is obviously a good size market already in place for what we are doing. That's not to take away from our efforts to help develope this niche also. We have put a ton of man hours into everything from getting our business liscence and tax ID # to listing our product's. writing description's taking Video's working on our Store and our ancillary supporting sites such as You Tube and Blogger. The list goes on and on. Those of you who are willing to give the smaller guys a shot and have done business with us, already know how good and affordable some products can be. Those of you who are brand loyal we just ask you just take a look at we have to offer. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you see and hear. Until next time everyone....... T