Klarinet Archive - Posting 000403.txt from 1999/11

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] subject: [kl] Plastic Horns
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 04:00:55 -0500

According to the British distributors, Leblanc are phasing out the Noblet
brand name -- it's claimed to be "confusing" for potential buyers.
Roger S.

On Wed, 10 Nov 1999, Edwin V. Lacy wrote:

> Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 22:50:56 -0600 (CST)
> From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: Re: [kl] subject: [kl] Plastic Horns
>
> On Wed, 10 Nov 1999, Bill Hausmann wrote:
>
> > The major companies are not going to destroy their reputations with
> > inferior products like that (UMI and their Artley clarinets excepted).
>
> I wish I were as confident of this. There are already plenty of examples
> of companies destroying their reputations by trying to save a few pennies
> here and there, doing so by cost-cutting measures of varying degrees of
> intelligence or stupidity, and in the process reducing the quality of the
> product to the extent that they ultimately destroy their former
> reputation.
>
> For example, think of the move by Conn from Elkhart, Indiana to
> Nogales, Mexico. In Elkhart, there was a cadre of experienced and expert
> workers. The move was made in an attempt to have the instruments built by
> workers who they could hire for a fraction of what they paid to American
> workers. The result? The quality of their instruments went so far down
> that they became a laughing stock among musicians, their potential
> purchasers. This move had nothing to do with a desire to provide a better
> quality product. It was clearly an attempt to improve the profit margin.
> In other words, it was driven by the dollar - or some might say, by greed.
>
> Consider also the fact that Selmer no longer markets instruments under the
> Bundy name. They are now called "Selmer model 100" or something similar.
> Bundy had become associated in the minds of so many musicians with
> inferior quality and poor value that they felt it necessary to do away
> with the name. Notice that their response was not to improve the quality.
> The change was purely a marketing ploy.
>
> It can happen in all businesses and industries. Notice in your Sunday
> newspaper that K-Mart is in the process of changing their name to "Big K,"
> a trade name formerly used by one of their competitors. Why would they
> want to do this? Because the K-Mart name had been the punch line of
> thousands of jokes, and was synonymous with cheapness and poor quality.
> Note again that the response was not to improve quality, but to try to
> brainwash the public into forgetting the associations of the K-Mart name.
>
> I realize that this may seem too cynical. I hope I will be proven wrong.
>
> Ed Lacy
> el2@-----.edu
>
>
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