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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Beth Ewen
May 2004

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Change Management

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Marketing

Don’t overreact
when ads draw complaints,
Pagoda owner says

When a new ad campaign for Pagoda in Minneapolis drew complaints, co-owner Tom Schmidt didn’t panic.

The print materials said going to the spa and hair salon, which opened late last year, is like “going to church, only more fun.” One line: “Not going to heaven? Well, go to Pagoda.”

“I love edgy. I like things that make people think,” says Schmidt. But calls started coming in from plenty of people who took offense. “Boy, did we hear about it.” Schmidt asked his public relations agency, Fast Horse Inc. of Minneapolis, to handle the complaints, assuring callers that Pagoda didn’t intend to offend. But Schmidt didn’t change the campaign.

“You’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself, and if you can’t there’s something wrong with you,” he says. He did learn to be aware when reaching out to new customers. Schmidt also owns Urban Retreat and Schmidty’s, and mailings to those customers didn’t stir up any controversy. It was the mailing to Mpls.St.Paul magazine’s list, “strangers to our business,” that caused the problem.

Tom Schmidt, Pagoda: 612.825.5222; www.pagodaspa.com