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TC Electronics RebelHead 450 - Rebel with a Cause

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#542
greenboy said:
Major difference is here we have a company that's trying to enter a market they wern't formerly involved in.
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Not so much IMO. Most had never heard of Markbass in the US, and awareness of Bergantino, Epifani, etc. until very recently would be close to zero in the general bass community.

I will again point out that there is NOTHING wrong with corporate generated hype and awareness building. Their introductory campaign was VERY well done IMO. What can be a big problem is if the product doesn't live up to the hype. That's where it can really turn ugly on you.

Unfortunately, over hyped PR intro's can actually raise the bar so high that otherwise decent products are found to be disappointing (i.e., 'I liked it, but it didn't seem as 'earth shatteringly innovative and different as I was expecting').

I agree, 'manufacturing' awareness of an untried true product is very difficult, and is rarely successful.

Edit: Again, the main reason I'm so interested in this is that the PR and advertising relating to this product introduction is quite unusual in our category. I find it very interesting, and it is closer to what I deal with on the consumer products side of new products in my day job. This was a very slick, low cost, marketing and PR campaign, and IMO well done. Whether the product lives up to the 'hype' (using the technical definition of 'hype') remains to be seen. The initial feedback, again IMO, does not look promising to me, but who knows!
 
#543
KJung said:
Not so much IMO. Most had never heard of Markbass in the US
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But in Europe, had, if the customer was not just uninformed and unaware of smaller specialist brands.

Markbass was at the point where their best move to go west was to get into a super-chain. That's an approach that fit. That's PR if ever there was.
 
#544
greenboy said:
But in Europe, had, if the customer was not just uninformed and unaware of smaller specialist brands.

Markbass was at the point where their best move to go west was to get into a super-chain. That's an approach that fit. That's PR if ever there was.
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+1 MB did an amazing job with their US introduction. Their approach was more to get the product into distribution, and then let the price point and actual performance spread through word of mouth, which it obviously did for at least a few products in their line.
 
#545
KJung said:
... Unfortunately, over hyped PR intro's can actually raise the bar so high that otherwise decent products are found to be disappointing....
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Well said, Ken. Very well said, actually.

I was a marketing major in college, and in my career saw this phenomenon from time to time. Raising expectations too high is an especially troublesome problem in industries that are primarily subjective in nature... like the arts (including movies and music). How many times have we all left cinemas disappointed because the film didn't leave up to its hype?

The only part of the marketing campaign that I've been exposed to are the web delivered videos demoing the amp. Because the videos are of the amp, and not of some salesperson hyping it, they've done a reasonable job of promotion without hyping the amps.

Then again, these videos are severely limited in what they can show us -- especially in terms of loudness and sound quality.
 
#546
FWIW, for me they could have saved the money and effort on the campaign, which I still think was ill considered from many aspects. TC's reputation sells itself and precedes them. I would have been interested to look on that alone. They make stellar electronics and I have used their products over the years and still do. Always quality.

The amp is a venture into a parallel electronic MI area which they have not been into in a big way, many a bassist would and have used the TC 1140 straight in to a power amp. Then they packaged that as a preamp for bass players as the TC 1144. Many players swear by that.

Their cabs, however are a new territory, and it would be like Peavey trying to make an entry into percussion MI with their drums - you know it is commercially driven, trading on how far they name will go, as opposed to drawing on manufacturing and design reputation they already have established. (And yes I know they have a link with Tannoy, but Tannoy has no established MI backline credibility either).

Yamaha, as a marque on outboard motors to harps, on the other other hand, have always made all sorts of things from way back when....
 
#547
Here [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] is an update on the "Test-Pilot" program.
There are profiles on the 24 test-pilots that were selected.
(you can see my profile on there)
The test rigs have been sent.
I'll post here when it arrives. Can't wait!
 
#549
LOL! Can't blame John for the goofy wording, but what the hell does that even mean?

Anyway. I so can't wait to hear how everyone likes their TC rigs. I just wonder if they'll print the bad opinions on their site. And yeah, where are the women?

Nice going once again, TC. They need to fire their marketing department. They're buffoons. Remember the days when TC was considered a classy company? They've blown that image with this silly excuse of a marketing campaign.
 
#553
Could be, it's kinda difficult to tell. No offense meant to the person involved. Andy Brown is also a Talk Bass Opinion Leader. I wonder who that is? Hey Jimmy, maybe we should have said we were Talk Bass members!!

Seems to me most "Hand Picked Dedicated Test Pilots" seem to be session guys or Fringe genre players.

Paul
 
#556
synaesthesia said:
Just when you thought the negative vibe would die down and TC would recover, the enlightened at TC has chosen a description that is sure to alienate others at TB. Opinion leader? Other opinions have no value?
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FYI, as a marketing major I can tell you that "Opinion Leader" is a VERY standardized term, not a derogatory choice of words, that even has its own entry in Wikipedia.

No one should be insulted by this, unless they are looking for a reason to have their feelings hurt.

Cheers,
Tom
 
#558
Just checked through the profiles of the selected Test Pilots...
No offence to any of you Test Pilots - I am somewhat confused which target markets TC wants to explore.
Or maybe they want to achieve that by process of exclusion... hmmm :ninja:

The music from some of the Test Pilots is just awful as far as I am concerned, but hey, somebody must have liked what they saw/heard.... :p :hiding:


Anyways, dear Talkbass Test Pilots, do disclose your status and share your opinion frequently and frankly.

As you will have figured out by now, you may have an uphill battle on your hands to convince some TB'ers of the sincerity of your reports/opinions.

Anyway, good luck. I, for one, am keen to read your reports.

:bassist:
 
#559
Tom7 said:
FYI, as a marketing major I can tell you that "Opinion Leader" is a VERY standardized term, not a derogatory choice of words, that even has its own entry in Wikipedia.

No one should be insulted by this, unless they are looking for a reason to have their feelings hurt.
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I read that Wiki page, and again, no offense to those who got chosen, but if anyone ever referred to me as an "opinion leader" as defined by that page, I'd be mortified. Not only did TC offend many people on here by telling them they weren't good enough to get an amp, but now they're going to tell us that the ones who got chosen from here are our opinion leaders? Who elected them? Because they're getting a free amp, all of a sudden their opinions count more than the rest of us?

I am offended by this entire test pilot program and I think it's been a disaster PR-wise. "Hey Jim, you don't get a free amp, but if you buy one of our amps, we'll give you this $20 footswitch we sell for $150 for free, even though we really should include it. Oh, and BTW, the people from Talkbass who got chosen have more important opinions than yours."

I don't tell you what you should be offended by and what you shouldn't, so please don't tell me what -I- should be offended by and what I shouldn't. If I want to be offended, I will. And I am. Just when you think they can't get any more offensive, they get more offensive.
 
#560
Jimmy

It's not that the term of reference itself is derogatory, the young marketing major has it mixed up.. terms such a 'market leader' etc are if anything, elitist. Nothing wrong if they actually are market leaders or opinion leaders, ... you could say Billfitzmaurice or KJung are TB opinion leaders as many look to their views, and like you could say Fender is a market leader in electric guitars, and Coca Cola is a market leader in soft drinks... but who are these opinion leaders at TB? Are they really pied pipers? Do they really have such influence? Are they the elite here at TB?
 
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