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Sterling by Musicmans on GC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter rapturebass
- Start date
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I guess calling them "Streling by Musicman" will get over some of the confusion that some people are having!
You may wish to do a search, this topic has been discussed a lot recently.
I know there's been discussion, i just wanted ppl to know there online. LOL, let's call them Strelings now
Here we go indeed. I'm going to write this in case anybody at Ernie Ball is reading this. If anybody knows such a person, please forward this on.
My "day job" is in branding and brand marketing. I won't go into detail about what I do, but I will simply say that I do this for a living at a high level. I'm not bragging, I'm just laying my credentials on the table.
Rarely have I seen a decision as poor as this. Beyond confusion, Ernie Ball is going to effectively destroy a marque premium brand (Musicman Sterling Bass).
Now perhaps their plan is to discontinue the USA Sterling Bass. I doubt that's the plan though as its a great, reasonably popular bass that fills a need. My concern is, once the Sterling name gets associated with "budget" - I don't know how on earth they're going to collect $1500 - $1700 for a Sterling USA anymore.
Very very poor branding decision. Stunningly bad. Hard to believe. Ernie Ball - if you are reading this I strongly urge you to adjust this plan by more explicitly separating out the budget line (ie: call it something else for goodness sake).
My "day job" is in branding and brand marketing. I won't go into detail about what I do, but I will simply say that I do this for a living at a high level. I'm not bragging, I'm just laying my credentials on the table.
Rarely have I seen a decision as poor as this. Beyond confusion, Ernie Ball is going to effectively destroy a marque premium brand (Musicman Sterling Bass).
Now perhaps their plan is to discontinue the USA Sterling Bass. I doubt that's the plan though as its a great, reasonably popular bass that fills a need. My concern is, once the Sterling name gets associated with "budget" - I don't know how on earth they're going to collect $1500 - $1700 for a Sterling USA anymore.
Very very poor branding decision. Stunningly bad. Hard to believe. Ernie Ball - if you are reading this I strongly urge you to adjust this plan by more explicitly separating out the budget line (ie: call it something else for goodness sake).
The funny thing, it was the marketing guys at with all the companies involved that wanted to call it that. Sterling Ball didn't like it, but felt he had been outvoted
Bad decision, good decision, or won't matter to most buyers decision...
Either way it's a done decision. So people should just suck it up and live with it. Buy one or don't buy one.
.
Either way it's a done decision. So people should just suck it up and live with it. Buy one or don't buy one.
.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
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Good post ... I saw that and said to myself *** ... are the musicman guys just plain nuts ... the Sterling is their top of the line product ... this move is really confusing ...
The G & L product can be equally confusing and the Warwick and Spector are not far behind ...
I agree 100%... they should have left the OLP line going and just added to it if they wanted to.... IMHO.... but I am no marketing guru... just a computer geek that plays bass...lol
The funny thing, it was the marketing guys at with all the companies involved that wanted to call it that. Sterling Ball didn't like it, but felt he had been outvoted
That's absolutely ridicules. Since when does GC get to vote on EBMM business decisions. I suspect no one is buying this except the the regular EB forumites.
Sterling seems like a nice guy, I know he hangs about at trade shows and stuff (usually in fancy dress IME) and he's done a hell of a lot for EBMM.
If its true that this was over his objections then he needs to pull his finger out and fix this. Its such a ridiculous choice of name. This is like rebranding their strings as 'Bongos'.
Come to think of it, calling a bass a bongo has causey needed some confusion with some people, though nowhere near on the same level.
If its true that this was over his objections then he needs to pull his finger out and fix this. Its such a ridiculous choice of name. This is like rebranding their strings as 'Bongos'.
Come to think of it, calling a bass a bongo has causey needed some confusion with some people, though nowhere near on the same level.
I don't completely agree. Anyone in the market for a "professional" US made quality instrument is going to know the difference between the budget brand and the higher quality one. No one will be thinking "oh, doesn't that $1500 bass have the same name as the $600 bass?". Anyone looking to spend $1500 on a bass knows the difference.
That said, I don't think the Sterling name is all that well known.
The funny thing, it was the marketing guys at with all the companies involved that wanted to call it that. Sterling Ball didn't like it, but felt he had been outvoted
Don't want to be harsh but as a guy who runs marketing departments....
You need new marketing guys.
- Feb 2, 2001
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Basic rule of thumb for consumers... anytime you see "< blank > by < big name brand >" as the brand, translate as: "< blank > is not as good as < big name brand >".
The "by" in a brand name of any product/service basically says, "we want you to think this new product/service is just as good as the original, but really it's not."
If that is not the message Ernie Ball wanted to send about this product line, then they should have chosen a different branding approach. This will hurt them big-time and I'm sorry to say that cause they really have done a lot of things right over the years.
And yes, I do marketing for a living as well.
The "by" in a brand name of any product/service basically says, "we want you to think this new product/service is just as good as the original, but really it's not."
If that is not the message Ernie Ball wanted to send about this product line, then they should have chosen a different branding approach. This will hurt them big-time and I'm sorry to say that cause they really have done a lot of things right over the years.
And yes, I do marketing for a living as well.
I don't think this is going to change anything besides people asking if some bass is american or not, and that will make a difference at the price... That's all...
I totally understand your point since Squier made Fender USA go out of business.
not quite the same thing. but i bet if there was a Precision by Fender budget line there might be a little bit of confusion.
I totally understand your point since Squier made Fender USA go out of business.
you know, I was thinking that too.
I have a feeling they are just realizing a bass at a price point for business purposes, and this is the way they want to market it. who knows, they might make the same margin of better on sales of these bases over the "real" ones.
in a tough economy, hard decisions are made for hard reason.
also, look at Squiers recent efforts of putting out much better quality instruments for a budget price.........Ernie Ball might want a piece of that. there are going to be alot more budget minded people out there with things this bad
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