Klarinet Archive - Posting 001050.txt from 2004/07

From: "John P. Varineau" <jvarineau@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Feeling like Yamaha is one stupidly run company!
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 14:38:35 -0400

This MAP thing has been around for a long time, even before Yamaha
"started" it. As I understand it, they used it to level the field
between the massive retailers such as Woodwind/Brasswind (where you
always have to call to get the "real" price, regardless of the brand) and
the smaller local retailers. It might actually be working. When I
helped one of my students buy a new clarinet we looked at the MAP in the
WW/BW catalog and then went to the local retailer, whose price was
substantially lower than the MAP. Then when we called WW/BW for their
real price it was only about $100 less expensive than the local retailer.
When we factored in a two hour drive each way to WW/BW and the service
guarantee offered by the local retailer, the choice to buy locally was
much easier.

The only difficult part was the limited selection at the local store up
against the much larger selection at WW/BW. The local had only one R-13
and one Yamaha CSV and no LeBlancs. Of course, since the Yamaha plant is
local, we went there to select our favorite Yamaha, but it was very
difficult to really compare them to a good R-13. Yamaha won out, but if
there were more R-13's to try locally, I'm not sure that would have been
the case.

If anyone wants an example of a much larger industry using this sort of
pricing scheme, the entire auto industry comes to mind.

John Varineau

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