Klarinet Archive - Posting 000927.txt from 2000/08

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Marketing issues
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 13:57:35 -0400

At 09:16 AM 8/28/00 -0700, you wrote:
>--- William Wright <Bilwright@-----.net> wrote:
>
> > <><> Ed Lacy wrote:
>
> > I think this move is motivated in part because such names as "Bundy" had
> > become associated in the public view with "low quality."
>
> > I'm ony half-joking when I ask: "Would you want your musical
> > instrument to share its name with Al Bundy, the TV character?"
>
>Or how about Ted Bundy, the serial murderer? "We make a killer clarinet!"

Methinks this would not play in Selmer's advertising department.... Though
I can't look at the name Bundy on an instrument, even the one I own,
without seeing Ed O'Neill looking like a whipped hound and whoever that
woman was who played Peg Bundy sashaying her derriere around the living
room crooning "Aaaaalllll, let's have seeeeex!" It's a good thing the horn
plays better than my worst memories of television.

How long does it take to change buyer perceptions? The older folks among
us will surely remember when the term "Made in Japan" guaranteed snorts and
guffaws: chintzy dangerous toys with unfiled metal edges, postwar
schlock. Now? Infiniti and Acura cars, Nikon cameras, creme de la creme,
the list goes on...and even the Koreans, who inherited the Drek Merchandise
rep from the Japanese (I once cut my finger on an improperly-machined
Korean-made lens mount) are becoming known for increasing quality. Witness
Samsung, GoldStar, Hyundai, Daewoo, etc.

K-Mart's rep for selling junk and nothing but junk was ill-founded to start
with but the perception will not change because of a name-change to "Big
K." Similarly, nobody will be fooled into thinking that Selmer USA is
anything but Bundy after Al and Peg mercifully have gotten
divorced:-). Presumably producing quality instruments on a consistent
basis will help them lose the bum rap...if indeed it is that. I doubt
anything was ever WRONG with a Bundy except it wasn't a Selmer Paris
instrument. But if Selmer ever moves its USA assembly operations to those
Taiwanese cookie cutter factories or even "does a Prestini" (i.e., brings
the parts back here to be reassembled and tested after they're made in
Taiwan), they're going to get hurt because, fair or not, their instruments
will be lumped in the same category with Winstons and those other (ahem)
interesting multicolor things that you can buy off skids in the middle of
Sam Ash for under five hundred bucks and then wonder why you didn't donate
the money to charity.

Ken

--------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth Wolman kwolman@-----.com
11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 212-425-4200, x. 363

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org