Our friendly neighbors at Sköna Advertising put together a series of video vignettes focusing on Potrero Hill based businesses. SF Guitarworks was highlighted.
They also posted some kind words on their blog, which we took the liberty of reposting here…
Clapton, customers and culture. Our visit with Geoff.
Have you ever passed that brick wall, garage door, cool building, interesting structure, or guitar with wings on your way to work and thought…”I wonder what’s behind that wall?”. Well we did too, and yes; a guitar with wings is in the window of a building we pass frequently. So one day I just knocked.
Lo and behold it was the home of a world renown of super-guitar craftsman Geoff Luttrell and his rockstar (literally sometimes) shop SF Guitarworks. In our new series of vignettes we will now be featuring his shop as one of the places we love. Unique and local mixed with a little artisanship and definitely some craftsmanship, it sits on Potrero street hidden among the hustle and bustle with a tiny store front. What was interesting to us is we thought going in for the interview and shoot this morning we would grab some pretty good pictures, a nice interview, and some nifty name dropping, but what we found was that there was so much more than meets the eye.
Geoff’s business runs on fixing, crafting, shaping and molding guitars sure, but he is also has a tireless work ethic, a great marketing sensibility, and thrives on a world where his relationships and reputation are more important to him than cranking out inferior work, and quantity of product . It’s interesting that in a small shop, in a micro environment, he has perfected all the service points that the big dog companies that surround him are constantly chasing. In the world of social media he thrives, in the land of word-of-mouth he is king. Company culture? Absolutely. Brand loyalty? He’s got it. Retention and return? No problem. Work / life balance? He’s pretty darn close.
As we savor our challenges as an agency and learn from each meeting in San Francisco, Silicon valley and beyond, these buzz-words and terms are thrown around with regularity. I find it very interesting however, that a small guitar shop on a busy street in San Francisco has almost got “it” figured out. From Clapton to craftsmanship, from patrons to Page and from brand recognition to The Black Keys, we covered alot of ground today.
Knock on that door of that store or shop when curiosity grabs you someday, you never know what surprises await. Thanks for a great morning Geoff, if more large corporations adopted your philosophies, things would rock.
Stay tuned…get it ? Stay tuned.
