SOUND BITES Words of wisdom from NAMM NeXT speakers. “AI would only take our jobs away if we had nothing to do. AI and other technologies help us get more done and free us up to get the tasks that we want to get done, done.” — Brendan Witcher, VP Principal Analyst, Forrester “I think the next big challenge, and especially what we face in this industry, is the PlayStation effect. Kids nowadays grow up with unlimited possibilities. When I was young, growing up in Germany, you play football, you start to ride a motorbike, you play guitar and that’s it. I had four possibilities. But nowadays, kids have 4 billion possibilities.” — Dominic Wagner, Chief Marketing Officer, Thomann “Today, the most human company wins in this world of AI. How do we show our hearts? How do we show our face? That still matters.” — Mark Schaefer, Global Marketing Expert & Best-Selling Author “Remember: You are the brand. Can you describe what you are in two- to-five words? For TBS, it’s ‘very funny.’ For NAMM, it’s ‘believe in music.’ It’s all about pitching.” — Daymond John, Founder & CEO of FUBU, Star of ABC’s “Shark Tank”
and Thomann [were] inspiring. NAMM NeXT reminded us of the importance of ongoing education and professional devel- opment, and we’re more excited than ever to keep improving and innovating at The Acoustic Shoppe.” Thomas Ripsam, Martin Guitar CEO and member of a NAMM NeXT leader- ship panel, shared a similar view on his company’s attendance at the event. “My team and I from Martin Guitar really enjoyed attending NAMM NeXT,” Ripsam said. “The topics and ideas cov- ered were relevant for any company that is part of our industry and should be on every leadership team’s agenda. The vari- ous speakers and discussions were excel- lent. The event was well organized, and there was sufficient time for networking. Attending was definitely worth the money and time invested. [Also,] shout out to the artists who did a great job performing at the conference.” INDUSTRY INSIGHTS NAMM NeXT kicked off with some “in- dustry insights” from Brendan Witcher, VP and principal analyst of Forrester, the research company behind NAMM’s com- missioned study on customer experience in the age of AI. The results of the study were officially debuted at the event. During Witcher’s hour-long session, he discussed the importance of knowing your customer and understanding your customer’s expectations. “Today, 52% of consumers say the experience they have with [retailers like] Amazon, Walmart and Target influence their expectations highly when they’re do- ing other sorts of engagement with banks, insurance companies and other kinds of industries outside of retail — 52% say they bring those expectations with them,” shared Witcher, who worked at Guitar Center be- fore changing careers and joining Forrester. “One of the things that we never really looked at it when I was at Guitar Center was understanding what other retailers were doing that was causing consumers to have expectations of us in the buying journey. [For example,] let’s say you go to your banking website, and you see there’s a problem with your account and you’re looking around for that little agent, but instead a phone number pops up that says, ‘Give our contact center a call.’ Are you instantly disappointed? Yes. Was it because you compared that bank to another bank? No. You compared it to your last digital
experience. And that’s what consumers are doing today.” INDUSTRY LEADER ROUNDTABLE Also during the first day of sessions, execu- tives from across the MI industry — including Taylor Guitars’ CEO Andy Powers, Martin Guitar’s CEO Thomas Ripsam, Gibson’s Chief Marketing Officer Beth Heidt and Thomann’s Chief Marketing Officer Dominic Wagner — gathered for the “Industry Leader Round- table: The Art of Transformation.” During the panel discussion, which was hosted by NAMM’s John Mlynczak, the leaders of these “legacy” companies discussed how they keep their brands relevant and steer through market disruption. “For us at Gibson, what has helped us, even when we haven’t always had the best leadership or the best vision or direction from the top of the company, was that we have an incredible employee base of luthiers and craftsmen who have always delivered quality,” Heidt said. “One thing that doesn’t change in what a consumer wants or what a musician wants or what a fan wants from our brand is quality and that craftsman- ship. Having a culture of passionate people has been critical for us staying the course even if we went through tough times. For us, we’ve always been able to look back to that core quality, that core passion of the people to stay dedicated.” When asked by Mlynczak what each executive thinks is next for their company — and the industry — each panelist gave a slightly different answer. “What’s next for Martin is harnessing the power of what we are all about,” Thomas Ripsam said. “We’re focused on harness- ing the future, instead of being concerned about the future.” For Gibson, the future is all about mak- ing more music-makers. “Creating more musicians and retain- ing the ones who are engaged are what’s next,” Heidt said. Thomann’s Dominic Wagner said it was all about the fundamentals. “It’s important to make sure you get your basics right — whatever those might be — no matter what,” he said, while Tay- lor’s Andy Powers emphasized not losing sight of the importance of music moving into the future. “The value of playing music is of the utmost importance,” he said. “As guitar makers, we’re looking towards the musicians and asking how we can build instruments to help inspire them.”
42 I MUSIC INC. I SEPTEMBER 2024
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