"Now the exception to that is metal, which is why we're investing in Jackson at this point in time, I think there's a higher percentage of virtuoso guitar players in metal than any other genre. But it's not necessarily about being the world’s fastest soloist. And I think it fundamentally changed the way that musicians approach guitar and now see guitar as an instrument to compose and provide textural overlay. If you could play three chords, and you had enthusiasm and energy, you were in the music business. Those guys were unbelievably influential, but close to impossible to emulate. "I grew up in an era of the guitar virtuoso Richie Blackmore, Hendrix, etc. And it took me about two years really, to dispel that myth. They just liked that headline so wanted to get it out there. Despite the fact that we gave them data that showed that the industry was in fact growing. Electric guitar was dead, the Guitar Hero was gone. It's funny, and taking a little walk down memory lane, I can't remember exactly what year it was but 2017 /2018, The Washington Post broke the headline, basically 'the guitar was dead'. Those guys were unbelievably influential, but close to impossible to emulateĬould that kind of insight inform future plans? I grew up in an era of the guitar virtuoso Richie Blackmore, Hendrix, etc. I can just imagine parents listening to their son or daughter playing guitar for the first time, cranked up loud on the 34 amp setting and going, 'Get your headphones!' This solves that problem." Which is the heaviest distortion preset we have. "One of the interesting things that we learned – because the great thing about digital amps is the data that it provides you about what the consumer actually does – is the most used preset on our Mustang Series is 34. I think even more so if you're a beginner, because I went through this in my early years, you don't want to be cranking up your amp in your bedroom or your living room with your parents yelling at you to turn it off. "I travel with it on the road all the time. Reverb's top selling amp list of 2021 placed the Fender Mustang Micro at number one, that seems like it was the right product at the perfect time. So we're trying to connect the dots across the supply chain to make it beneficial for the retailer, make it more predictable for us to plan." In exchange, we're offer retailers a significant increased margin opportunity. "We'd like to offer guaranteed delivery as well but there's too many supply chain challenges to honestly commit to that, but certainly prioritised delivery. During a period of rampant inflation, currency volatility and on-going supply chain challenges, we felt this would be a real benefit to dealers. If you as a dealer commit your order to us six months in advance you get guaranteed price no matter what happens due to currency or cost pressures, and you get prioritised delivery. "It has, and a new programme we recently communicated to our dealers is a six-month futures programme. Did it change the way you now plan ahead as a company? The huge demand for guitar gear and the challenges to meet that demand over the last couple of years must have put incredible pressure on Fender. We want to grow the entire industry and belief is that new product launches, supported by increasing levels of marketing, will drive industry growth and are spending the money we used to spend on NAMM participation on marketing to drive increased physical and virtual traffic to our dealers." Stealing market share doesn't do anything for the retailer. Our motivation has always been to grow the industry and not just stealing market share. "Never say never, but I don't see a lot of compelling reasons to return to NAMM in its current format. With our online presentations, we can go right down to the sales associate level of retailers, at a fraction of the cost of participating at NAMM. At NAMM we able to talk to the senior leaders of key retail partners, but unable to go deep in their organisation or make elongated presentation of our new product features. "We moved to virtual presentations out of necessity during COVID and we're not moving away from them.
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