Why do some companies consistently outperform everyone else—and stay at the forefront as the competition struggles to keep up? At The 2017 NAMM Show, marketing legend Guy Kawasaki revealed the answer in "The Art of Innovation," a NAMM U Breakfast Session. Kawasaki offered practical, surprising and even counterintuitive ideas to trigger innovation in your own music business.

Is your website getting stale? Are you looking for new ideas for website content that impact your bottom line? In this session, Will Mason and Nicole Patton of Mason Music explore how to craft compelling content that will drive new and returning traffic to your site and store. Get ideas that will help you build awareness, familiarity and likability with your retail business—and, ultimately, generate more sales.

Discover how some of the best-looking and most successful music stores in Nashville merchandise and design their showrooms—and what you can take away from their examples. Tim Spicer of Spicer’s Music moderated this panel discussion at 2017 Summer NAMM with the best of the best in Music City. They shared their most innovative and effective store design concepts and discussed how they made these ideas a reality.

Video storytelling establishes credibility and tells your story like no static picture or text can. How can you take advantage of this powerful tool at your music retail business? In this NAMM U session, Grant Billings of Steinway Piano Gallery Naples, John Fowler of Shoreline Music and Will Mason of Mason Music reveal their top promotional videos and best practices.

At the 2017 NAMM Show, Cris Behrens of Summerhays Music revealed his favorite social media campaigns from fellow music retailers. He chose Instagram and Facebook promotions that highlighted different approaches, from product to humor to advocacy. Discover what you can take away from these examples and best practices.

How the customers of tomorrow interact, engage and buy may look very different from what you see today. At The 2017 NAMM Show, award-winning marketing executive and author Larry Bailin hosted this NAMM U Breakfast Session to help NAMM members future-proof their businesses. Prepare for the customers of tomorrow by building better connections with the customers of today.

In just four years, Spicer’s Music has gone from startup to go-to store. Its secret? Hosting powerful events that engage the community and lead to a surge in sales, traffic and customer loyalty. Here, co-owner Tim Spicer walks you through these events, along with how he’s used them to compete with larger online retailers, get free advertising and become the local music retail hub.

Video marketing can be the most engaging way to reach an audience, but how do you get your videos noticed in the fast-paced world of YouTube and Facebook? During this NAMM U session, a team of music retail video experts weigh in. Get ideas from Mitch Gallagher of Sweetwater, Shane Kinney of Drum Center of Portsmouth and moderator John Mlynczak of Noteflight.

Imagine running a music lesson program that not only turns a profit but also increases your retail sales. In this NAMM U session, Paul Myatt, director of Forte School of Music in Australia, discusses the proven, low-cost guerilla marketing tactics that he’s used to build Forte into a program with more than 4,000 students across 12 locations.

At The 2017 NAMM Show, Tim Spicer of Spicer’s Music led NAMM Top 100 retailers in a session chock-full of innovative store-design ideas. These music retailers operate in vastly different locations­ and markets, and each one shared his unique vision to inspire fellow music retailers to get creative with store design.