RETAIL DOLPHIN MUSIC
Bang up to date
In the second of our articles on the Dolphin Music business model, Andy Barrett discovers that while Dolphin is forging a path for MI, the retailer recognises that it is simply staying in step with the rest of the retailing world…
DURING MY visit to the Dolphin Music a few weeks ago to discuss the company’s restructuring (see MI Pro, September 2010), the conversation veered at various points – as it tends to with the passionate folk that inhabit the MI world, of which Jason Tavaria (CEO) and Katy Watson- Cave (chief of staff) are undoubtedly two. I knew that there was going to be a
need for a second article, particularly when Watson-Cave suggested that MI was probably about 20 years behind as an industry. Halfords, part of the Boots Group, which is one of the companies that makes up her impressive CV, she pointed out, had said less than 20 years ago that they couldn’t sell bikes online. Today, it’s a significant part of its business. Between them, Tavaria, Watson-Cave and their team are among the pioneers bringing MI (kicking and screaming, admittedly) into the 21st century, so it’s interesting to see how they view the development of musical instrument sales online and on the High Street – and the relationship between the two – and where the manufacturers and suppliers fit in, too. As far as Dolphin is concerned, it’s not
just bricks and mortar stores that are behind the times, either. The other online purveyors of musical instruments are also, according to Dolphin, languishing in relative antiquity.
68 miPRO OCTOBER 2010
The Dolphin team: Jason Tavaria, Katy Watson-Cave, Sam Davey, Andy Ball, Carly Crowder, Stephen Hartley, Peter Moss “It’s about good customer experiences,”
says Tavaria. “Whether in-store or online, you put the customer first. You ask ‘how can you have a good experience online?’ but you can have a bad experience in a shop and online – and vice versa. “If you go into a shop and the atmosphere and service are bad, you’ll leave pretty quickly. We want to keep people on our website as long as possible, so your appearance, branding and positioning are all really important.” And this is where manufacturers and suppliers can learn a lesson or two. “From our tracking, we have discovered nearly 40 per cent of percussion buyers
are women,” points out Watson-Cave. “Why isn’t that reflected in the marketing percussion companies create?” “If you’re a customer and you know
what you want, you can go on to a website or into a store and buy that product,” adds Tavaria. “It’s actually very difficult to switch sell – even in a store. But there are others that don’t really know what they want and these people need information and they need to be sold to. This means, online, you need something that gives the information, but in a pleasant, enjoyable way. If the customers are enjoying themselves, they are going to stay on the page longer – this is key.”
Which makes sense, but isn’t Dolphin (and the other e-tailers) turning bricks and mortar into an expensive showroom? And one that will fade and die if it continues to lose sales to the online world. “Yes, you hear this a lot,” explains
Tavaria. “It’s a bit misleading. I know a lot of customers do their research online and then go to a store to buy.” Well, yes, but I don’t hear too many online retailers complaining about losing sales as result. “It’s the time we live in,” rejoins Tavaria. “Online retailing is still so new, of course its growth is going to look impressive. Over time, the whole market will settle down and achieve an equilibrium.”
WWW.MI-PRO.CO.UK
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