Klarinet Archive - Posting 000150.txt from 1994/12

From: Jay Heiser <pp001887@-----.COM>
Subj: Radical new horns are risky
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 1994 12:46:02 -0500

>Nothing wrong with that. It's good business, but don't pat me on
>the back for getting you to do that. Pat whoever is/was your
>marketing director for getting the company to do what will sell best.
>A smart company will NEVER do what the marketplace says. Instead,
>they get ahead of the markeplace, dress like a drum major and lead
>the parade.
>====================================
>Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
>(leeson@-----.edu)
>====================================

I agree that being a leader is good work if you can get it, but working
for product companies for the last 6 yrs, I gotta say that its a pretty
risk strategy.

When I bought my Mark VII alto, I was too inexperienced to know the
difference, but I could have spent half the money to buy a used Mark VI
and it'd be worth almost twice as much today. Selmer got burned in a
big way with the Mark VII and has probably never recovered the market
share they had through the 70s. Anticipating the future demands of
the market is much more difficult than trying to accomodate history.

(I still like VIIs better than the VIs, but that's another story)