Klarinet Archive - Posting 000044.txt from 1998/06
From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Educator Discounts Was: [kl] Contrabass Price Question,
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 11:56:50 -0400
I do the educator discount thing for a different software company--Sheryl is
right on, in that these deals are done for what we refer to as "mind share."
I think that the situation described by the list is a little simpler--when a
music teacher trundles into the store w/ a school purchase order to buy an
instrument for an individual. Another reason that music stores give
education discounts is that schools tend to be repeat customers--especially
in the repair end of the business--so you give them a good price in the hope
that they will come back. Individuals may not have the same motivation, and
therefore don't "deserve" the price break.
The essence of the discount is whatever the store agrees to. If they want
to give teachers a personal discount--and a lot of stores do--fine. But if
a teacher buys an instrument by "hiding the ball" and basically lying, this
is not OK.
kjf
-----Original Message-----
From: Sheryl L. Katz [mailto:slkatz@-----.com]
Subject: [kl] Educator Discounts Was: [kl] Contrabass Price Question,
etc...
>There is a reason that these companies have these "educator" and "military"
>discounts. And it's not because they have nothing better to do but
>overcharge folks. Ever think they may be doing it to help people out who've
>helped our country and our world. Educators help shape the future of our
>world. Military help keep our world safe. In my mind, they deserve the
>discounts and handouts and all the help they can get, because they are
doing
>the job that can never be repaid.
>
>I'm sure many people may not feel it is fraud to do this. But it's
>definately not fair to the teachers who taught us, the soldiers who died
for
>us, and the companies trying to help out those who did that already.
>
----
I work as a Product Manager for a software company, and I am the person in
my company who decides for my products whether there will be an educator
discount, how much it will be, and what we are doing it for. I can't speak
for music companies, but my guess is that their reasoning is pretty similar.
In my business we sell things that we call NFR - not for resale - to
educational institutions, teachers, students and retail store personnel.
The typical cost of an NFR is enough to cover the cost of the materials used
but in fact results in a loss per item on the books. We don't give it free
to these people or instutions in part because it would hurt us too much
financially but even more so because it doesn't serve its purpose if they
don't make some level of commitment to using it to. Why do we do these
deals? Well store personnel obviously influence what people buy - we want
them using our products and telling people about how great they are. If
they don't use them they can't. And, teachers obviously influence many many
students. Students - well, if someone starts out using something, or they
learn on it, or they use it while they are young they are likely to want the
same brand later on. Similarly, if you sell something to a school - you are
getting the students to like it and you are also getting a tacit endorsement
that your product is "recommended".
With computers, and my guess is this is true with music too, there are about
100 users for every "recommender". If the recommenders like and use
products then the products will do well. Personally, I'd happily give a
deal to every recommender if there was some way to distinguish who they
were.
That said, I think that any school that is messing with its books to provide
instruments, or software, or anything else it gets a deal on, and turning
that into a profit would obviously be committing fraud. But, if someone
knows people in the university department, has strong ties to that
department, is strongly involved in the field, and is in fact a recommender,
and that person can get the rules bent a bit to get the benefit him or
herself. I am not personally disturbed by that because I think someone like
that is in the "zone" of people intended to be reached by the NFR deals even
if they are technically not within the letter. Of course this is just my
personal opinion as a product manager and it might not be shared by other
product managers or by the music companies or by my company.
I certainly think though that it is overreaching to say that what someone is
doing is a "fraud" unless you really have all the facts, and none of us do
in a forum like this one.
Sherry Katz
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