<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Jun 1, 2007, at 8:10 AM, Don wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">I've been told that Steinway offered to provide a piano where ever the</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">performer was playing. In return the artist was to demand a Steinway piano</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">and nothing else would be "good enough".</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>I think we've all heard some pretty tall tale-telling over the years from Yamaha and Kawai dealers, too, so marketing is a tool that everyone uses.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>But, like Ric, I can't accept the theory that the "Steinway sound" is the dominant preference thanks to clever marketing. Steinway has always integrated feedback from performers into the piano making process. They continue to do that today. I think they are successful because they build an instrument that is extremely durable, capable of anything any performer is capable of, and is more versatile, that can be voiced in so many different directions to suit so many different musical tastes.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Something that has also helped is that the company has been profitable for 150 years, while others have struggled, and just disappeared. The company, as a company, is dependable. Yes, Piano Disk has had Mason & Hamlin back in production for several years and sales are good. Yes, Gibson is building Baldwin pianos (who knows about sales? I don't know of a Baldwin dealership I can drive to in a day's time). SMC is reintegrating the old Baltimore scales back into the Knabe, and it will be built in the US. Others have just become names owned by the next new buyer, and stuck on the fallboard of another piano shaped product built in China. But Steinway has always been there, right there in the same place, and the American public will reward that dependability.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>European makes? They are wonderful pianos. But you don't see enough of them here to make a statement. As good as they are, what are the artists preferring in Europe? Steinway presence is strong because the company is profitable enough to market the product all over the world. That's just good business. And, after all, in the end, it is business. Survival of the fittest.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>So, perhaps there is some natural selection involved. But I doubt it can all be attributed to the Steinway marketing department.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Even if it were, what's wrong with it? It's a pretty darn good sound, me thinks.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Jeff Tanner, RPT</DIV><DIV>University of South Carolina</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>