Okay, so a woman walks into a Guitar Center...
Mike Gorman
Courtesy of Laura Taylor
Laura Taylor, the Los Angeles-based vice president of operations for Guitar Center.
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Sound like the perfect setup for a sexist punchline? It's not, but it very well could be. As long as there's been a music industry, women have been treated as lesser-thans often viewed as supporters and sideline cheerleaders, not key players.
The attitude was pervasive on stages, behind stages and in stores, such as Guitar Center, a national retailer with more than 200 outlets across the country, including six in Colorado. "I've heard pretty much verbatim from customers that the experience is just awful," says Laura Taylor, the Los Angeles-based vice president of operations. But now, based on such feedback, Guitar Center is actively looking to improve that experience. And the 42-year-old Taylor, a musician herself, has a vested interested in seeing things change.
"I purchased my first guitar from Guitar Center in Chicago, and was treated so poorly," she recalls. "I mean, it was awful. If you can imagine, it was the late '80s, and there were very few female players." The salesman she dealt with made sure to point out the return policy: There wasn't one. "It was a different industry," she adds, "and a different time."
Taylor had moved to Hollywood from Chicago to attend the Guitar Institute of Technology (known now as Musicians Institute). She was living across the street from the Hollywood Guitar Center — a store she made a concerted effort to avoid for as long as she could, until one day when she needed to purchase some equipment and finally walked through the doors. The visit ended with Taylor applying for a job and later working for the company part-time. Eventually she worked her way up, and she's been with Guitar Center ever since.
Taylor's personal experiences let her look at the situation from various perspectives, and she's seen that sexism can cut both ways.
"We have a phenomenal drum-department manager in one of our stores," Taylor notes. "A male customer came in and wanted to talk to the drum-department manager. When she said, 'Well, I am the drum-department manager,' the customer said, 'No, I want to talk to a guy.' So when you look at it, it's also coming from the other side. We know it's an area where we need to help drive a change through the whole industry. That's what we're focusing on."
What triggered this seemingly sudden change in a company that appears to be doing just fine without having to upset the sexist-culture apple cart? According to Taylor, it was just a matter of taking advantage of the present moment. "The big initiative for Guitar Center came to us, really, through me," she explains. "Being a female, being a player, being in a male-dominated industry for so many years, I was the one who approached my boss." That was Gene Joly, executive vice president of Guitar Center stores. "I said, 'Look, this is something that we really need to focus on,'" Taylor recalls, adding, "It has been off everyone's radar, and it's just how it has always been."
Over the past year, Guitar Center has invested in surveying patrons on several levels. Beyond traditional customer surveys, the company has put together several customer-based panels, polling female shoppers and asking for specific examples of mistreatment. The retailer has also hosted three discussion dinners across the country, inviting female musicians to talk about what they experienced when walking into a Guitar Center.
The results of the surveys were not far from what Taylor expected. Across the board, women talked about being treated as though they were in the store "with" someone — especially if they happened to be shopping with a male — rather than being there of their own accord to buy gear. The panels also not so subtly revealed the obvious: When a woman enters a Guitar Center, she just wants to be treated like anyone else.
"When a male customer comes in, we don't assume that he's a beginner or that he doesn't know what he's talking about," Taylor points out. "So why would we want to do anything differently with a female customer? And that's the message that we're driving: respect. Respect your customers, not just the guy who wants to buy a pick or the guy who spends a lot of money."
After collecting that data, Guitar Center went to work. The company's first step was to reach out to the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an umbrella group that serves to connect all 33 individually run Girls Rock Camps around the world. Led by volunteer musicians, these week-long camps invite young women ages eight to seventeen to be a part of a band. Girls are often introduced to an instrument for the first time at the camps, which serve as a place to learn and sharpen playing skills, build self-confidence, and connect with a community of musical peers and mentors.
Guitar Center's specific point of entry was the Girls Rock Camp in Los Angeles. The company approached the camp with a "package" that included the donation of musical equipment, camp scholarships, instrument care and tune-up sessions, and Guitar Center gift cards for campers, staff and volunteers. From there, the company approached individual camps.
