What with the news of the end of the road for HMV, I found this article on the BBC website
Have a full read of it… but there’s a rather telling paragraph to why I agree how HMV has failed;
For one former HMV employee, it was an anecdote he recently heard from industry contacts that brought home to him where the music retail chain had gone wrong.
It was the tale of a customer who had gone to his local independent record shop in search of a back catalogue CD after trying in vain to find it at the same town’s branch of HMV. “He asked in HMV for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and was asked, ‘Do you know what type of music they are?'” says the ex-staffer, who prefers not to be named. “He replied, ‘Is the manager about?’ and was told, ‘I am the manager.’ That’s when he went elsewhere. “When I worked at HMV, the most important thing when we employed people was their musical knowledge. But now, you get a job if you worked at Burtons before. “It’s just whether you’ve got a bit of personality and you can sell things. They’re looking for a retail background as opposed to a musical background.”
Local record shops, have this knowledge – maybe HMV would’ve succeeded if they’d ever seen Miracle on 34th Street…
Below is the dialogue from the movie… Mr. Macy speaking to his executive team:
Customers first strategy… for films…or can it be used in real life?