Still all very true.
Now then, before I get us back to Los Angeles, let me rewind to the month beforehand.
Flashback
Although there was slightly more than £40 in the bank, we were still on a budget. Guitarist magazine, and Total Guitar had been great with advertising and we took out ads, which I now cringe at, to test the market in the UK.
We’d spent thousands on a professional website (which I now regret because I could have done it myself) but we had no experience in SEO or marketing. Then, one night, I dragged the laptop out and began searching for guitar forums. There were lots of them, so I gave up, and went back to bed.
The next night, I couldn’t sleep again, so I searched for ‘guitar hangers, forum’ and found there was a manageable amount to join (e.g. Ultimate Guitar, The Fretboard, Guitar Chat). I signed up and dipped my digital toe in the waters of social media.
Woodie: Hi, I’ve invented an invisible guitar hanger. Here are the professional photos and here’s the website: www.woodieshanger.com
3chordWarrior: F*** off. Sale post. Mods delete this dude.
Banned from the Gibson site in five minutes and I was quite upset about it. Nevertheless, I tried again, with a more modest approach.
A new approach
Woodie: Hi I’ve invented this hanger with my dad and my friend. We’re totally clueless and we’d love some advice as we’re off to NAMM soon and don’t know what we’re doing.
String-Tickler69: Hi Woodie, I like it. The images for the photos are a bit sexist though. The blokes will laugh but there are a lot of female guitarists. Also, did you know that a Woodie is an erection over here?
Woodie: Thanks, String-Tickler69. I didn’t, but I suppose the hangers ‘keep them up’ haha. Re. the photos – we were trying to point out that the bloke in the photo was a moron ignoring his wife. I’ll change them and use the less offensive one. Thanks for your help.
PING!
[Congratulations Woodie’s Hanger. You have a sale]
Well, needless to say, I didn’t get a wink of sleep thanks to String-Tickler69 and the many other amazing guitarists who offered advice and guidance on how to market my product.
Call to action!
So, armed with post-event market research (I wouldn’t recommend this), I contacted a guy from Music Inc called Frank Alkyer. Frank was brilliant. He spoke to me on the phone and asked me real ‘business’ questions. Then, he asked me to send samples out and when he received them, he messaged me and called me. I’m not sure, it was a while ago, but I think he even hung a guitar to test it.
Over the following weeks, I took part in conference calls and I spoke to people from Yamaha, Fender and Gibson… big players in the industry – CEOs, designers, legends and, of course, little ole me. I listened to every word. I contributed and gained confidence and by the end of it, a few of the big players knew my name!
This persistence paid off and one afternoon, I received an email from Frank inviting me to NAMM 2010’s ‘One to Watch’ pre-opening event, where selected products were on show to press and other invitees. This was big. We were on our way to success.
Except, we weren’t.
In the halls of NAMM, Anaheim
The ‘One to Watch’ event was incredible. Paul Templeton and I met Gene Simmons and that was cool. We were interviewed by a busty lady, with inflated lips for Brazilian TV and that was cool too.
On the night, full of pride, we chipped in our money, and bought two beers and a pizza slice from the 7-11 to celebrate. Then, a few of Paul’s friends let us introduce them to Jagerbombs (shout out to Cliff, AJ, Al, Stephen, Serge, Koori, Kim and Jeff) and that was really cool…
But, despite all of the excitement, zero-budget marketing and hard work prior to the exhibition, not one single person showed up to our stall on the opening day of NAMM 2010…
We were screwed and I was definitely going to spend some time in a California prison…
More next time.