Maestro Richman on loaned Steinway
On Sunday, I saw the best example of target marketing I’ve seen in a long time.
Was it a fantastic Web site? An impressive e-mail program? An attention-grabbing TV commercial or direct mail campaign?
No. It was three guys in grungy clothes hauling a 700-pound Steinway grand piano down a long steep flight of stairs. And hauling it back up in less than 24 hours.
Brandon Herrenbruck, whose family owns American Piano Gallery in Turkey Creek, loaned the $51,000 instrument to the Knoxville Symphony on Sunday so Maestro Lucas Richman could play five tunes on it during a dinner for the Lucas Richman Society. Those are the folks who donate $5,000 or more to the Knoxville Symphony. Unfortunately for the piano movers, the dinner was on the lower level of The Emporium on Gay Street, where the symphony has its offices.
People these days who deal with so-called new media or social media say that a key benefit of those marketing methods is the ability to “meet your customers where they are.” Brandon Herrenbruck took that approach a little more literally.
“My market is very small,” Herrenbruck said later. “But every person at that dinner was a potential customer for me.”
He’s right. Everyone there had a demonstrated interest in music and the means to contribute $5,000 each year to the symphony. The perfect targets for Steinway.
The dinner itself was an elegant marketing effort by the Knoxville Symphony to thank its major donors. With strolling violinist Sean Claire entertaining during dinner, quartets performing before and afterwards, and Richman accompanying bassist Steve Benne followed by the Sound Company Children’s Choir, the evening was full of music and an apt display of what the funds are raised for. The delicious beef tenderloin repast was donated by Fleming’s steak house and the place settings, tables and chairs were courtesy of All Occasions rentals. The place looked like The Orangery in its heyday.
But back to Brandon Herrenbruck. His family also owns Steinway Piano Gallery in Nashville. Last year, after that store sold 35 pianos to East Tennessee State University making it an “all Steinway school,” Steinway & Sons asked the store to expand into East Tennessee. On Sept. 15, Herrenbruck opened the new store in far west Knox county.
The affable, low-key Herrenbruck is a creative problem solver in his personal life as well as in business. Rather than uprooting his wife and three children from their home in Franklin, he purchased a motor home and parks it in an RV resort in Harriman on days he’s working in East Tennessee.
By the way, his marketing efforts paid off on Sunday. One of the symphony board members in attendance told Herrenbruck she is considering purchasing a Steinway from him, making the heavy lifting worth it!
Photo credit: Brett Blue
