<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; =
charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#800080>Terry,</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#800080>I dont know whats worst S&S and =
their
marketing techniques or the people who own these "precious"
instruments,............ gee when asked to do some work =
<U>some</U>
owners think you about to operate on their only =
child.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2><STRONG>But you cant =
blame S&S
for trying..............</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>> September 31, 2002, St. Petersburg Times, Section B (local =
section)
Page 3, "Keys to Music Excellence". This is a large story taking up most =
of the
center of the page.<BR>> <BR>> It is a shameless advertisement,
IMHO.<BR>> <BR>> Three pictures - one of a person playing one of =
four
grand pianos (big picture), one of a hand at the keyboard (hey, look at =
that -
you can see the brand name on the fallboard!) and a third picture of the =
Steinway & Sons emblem cast into the piano plate that "supports the
instrument's 35,000 pounds of string tension<FONT color=#800080>".
<STRONG>( Did they have the bit of how many parts there are in =
the
piano, that figure seems to get higher and higher, its like the more =
parts the
better the quality or something?)</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#800080><BR></FONT>> The one paragraph "story" =
tells of how
"When played Tuesday, the nine pianos told a story about the hands that
carefully crafted their parts, giving each instrument a unique sound." =
It goes
on to say that the local college bought 4 pianos for $240,000 for =
recitals, etc.
"They are so precious that they will be locked up after every session =
and
covered with tarps." It closes with "School officials want students to =
work on
the best of the best equipment........We have the finest =
faculty.......The least
we can do is have the finest instruments."<BR>> <BR>> Except for
communicating the fact that someone bought a piano, I don't see what =
other
information that was not of an advertisement nature was there. I hardly =
think
buying a piano is newsworthy. Maybe next week they will have a feature =
on Fred
Magillicutty buying a lawn mower at Home Depot.<STRONG><FONT =
color=#800080>( I'd
like to see that)<BR></FONT></STRONG>> <BR>> It's this darn =
Steinway
thing. It always seems to be presented that there is Steinway at the =
120% level,
and every other piano manufacturer hovering somewhere around 10% (not =
that this
article says anything about any other manufacturer - it is conveyed by =
omission
of any other manufacturer).<BR>> <BR>> I still say that every =
Marketing
101 textbook should have a chapter that covers 150 years of Steinway =
marketing.
Talk about a marketing success story. I think the above is a result of =
this
success - everybody wants to hang with a winner - and so, the "story" - =
or lack
thereof.<BR>> <BR>> Fortunately, there are much worse things in =
this world
- so I'll go dwell on those and not bore anyone that has read this post =
this far
any further!<BR>> <BR>> Terry Farrell<BR>>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2><STRONG>Stuart
Balsillie</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080 size=2><STRONG>Piano
Technican</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080
size=2><STRONG>Victoria</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#800080
size=2><STRONG>Australia</STRONG></FONT></DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></B=
ODY></HTML>