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Ibanez is stupid.

3K views 33 replies 16 participants last post by  fwd0120 
#1 ·
Their business plan I mean. Instead of having "prestige models" and "j-customs" they should be ibanez's. all the higher end models should be badged as such. The lower end models, especially the entry level ones, should have their own company name... Ibanez keeps its dignity, and still makes a profit :D

thoughts? For those not understand me, I am saying some thing like the fender-squier or gibson-epiphone types.
 
#2 ·
I get what your saying, but I don't like the idea of having a lower name for lower guitars. IBZ is IBZ, squire is still fender, and they really don't suck lol. It would make me feel little if if I knew i had a RG470AH and it was called something stupid like "tomagachi: by ibanez" .
I would much rather my guitar say "HEY, I'M AN IBANEZ MUTHAFUGAZ!!!!!"

Just my $0.02 though.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Their business plan I mean. Instead of having "prestige models" and "j-customs" they should be ibanez's. all the higher end models should be badged as such. The lower end models, especially the entry level ones, should have their own company name... Ibanez keeps its dignity, and still makes a profit :D

thoughts? For those not understand me, I am saying some thing like the fender-squier or gibson-epiphone types.
Who cares how it's called?
Guitars are tools to make music so it doesn't matter what name it has IF it sounds good.
If it sounds,plays and have the look I want/need/like,I buy it no matter what name or model it has.

Yeah Ibanez is stupid that's why it's a "POOR" company LOL
 
#13 ·
Your perceived intelligence drops dramatically with each post you put up.

Even though people know its a "gio" it still "tarnishes" the name of the ibanez as a fine quality instrument. Most kids get squiers and tell their friends they have a "stratocaster" which, technically, they do. But no serious musicians would be caught dead with one. Fender keeps up their "high quality" name with only producing "top end" instruments. With the induction of squier, I feel they need to get rid of their MIM models all together.

Its a business strategy. How many older guitarists are quick to judge ibanez as a cheap brand for kids? too many. I didnt buy my first ibanez because I was after the name. Jackson, charvel, peavey... all make similar instruments. I picked it up because I liked it the best.


Exellent point. I'll again sound like a fanboy, but the great thing about Ibanez is that if you want to go top of the line, even at today's prices, you're only going to spend up to $1,800 or so or maybe less. Yeah, a lot of it is my personaly preference, but I'd take an RG3570 for $1,800 before shelling out $2,500+ for a Les Paul.
And I don't see my Indo's as being that much inferior; moreso that they have different character.

Lots of ibanez's cost more then 1800....


Ibanez probably has a commercial development director or an operations director or someone else who's got qualifications and experience and hard sales figures to base his decisions on. They've more than likely looked at the business models, decided where to place the company withinthe market, run projections and after careful consideration decided to emply the strategy they currently employ based on the metrics and parameters they chose to measure the market.

They tried idea of a low end brand, the "EX by Ibanez" in the 90s and phased that idea out quite quickly.


While I agree, they probably know their business better then i do (said in jest!), Im speaking more for reputation and brand image then hard numbers. Look at it like this... How many people have skipped over the hyundais because of "eww, its a hyundai!". It has one of the best made, highest rated cars in the industry (genesis sedan) and is passed over by more expensive, lower quality cars (bmw's) simply for the fact they want that "BMW" badge on their car. I didnt know they tried this already though!

EDIT: how about this for an idea... splitting the submodels up! Instead of "RG 350" vs "RG 570"... split those models. Let the RG's be RG's, and let the cheaper korean models be called something else? Gio is a good example of that. Make "higher end" gio's, instead of "lower end" RG's???
 
#6 ·
Ibanez started out as a copycat company that evolved into making some fine instruments. I don't know how Gibson or Fender started out but I think it was more the opposite. Making a musician's instrument was more a craftsman's job back in the day. Still is to some degree but CNC's weren't around in the 1950's or a lot of the other tools we take for granted now. If you ask me, the Indo's are good instruments compared to what came out in the mid 80's, even from Ibanez themselves. Everyone loves to wax nostalgic for the 1991 catalog, but I'd honestly take a Prestige over any of those guitars quality-wize. Of course, Ibanez could stand to bring back some of the old paint... and it looks like they're at least trying to.
I think Ibanez would only confuse people now if they went the second-tier name route a la Fender/Squire.
 
#8 · (Edited)
it would only be favorable for people who could afford high end Ibanez... The way Ibanez have it now, is that people who cant afford a high end ibanez can still own a real Ibanez brand guitar for less money. So they still get the feeling of owning a real Ibanez..

When a kid buys an epiphone what they really wanted was a Gibson... same with LTD
 
#10 ·
When a kid buys an epiphone what they really wanted was a Gibson... same with LTD
Exellent point. I'll again sound like a fanboy, but the great thing about Ibanez is that if you want to go top of the line, even at today's prices, you're only going to spend up to $1,800 or so or maybe less. Yeah, a lot of it is my personaly preference, but I'd take an RG3570 for $1,800 before shelling out $2,500+ for a Les Paul.
And I don't see my Indo's as being that much inferior; moreso that they have different character.
 
#11 ·
Their business plan I mean. Instead of having "prestige models" and "j-customs" they should be ibanez's. all the higher end models should be badged as such. The lower end models, especially the entry level ones, should have their own company name... Ibanez keeps its dignity, and still makes a profit :D

thoughts? For those not understand me, I am saying some thing like the fender-squier or gibson-epiphone types.
Ibanez probably has a commercial development director or an operations director or someone else who's got qualifications and experience and hard sales figures to base his decisions on. They've more than likely looked at the business models, decided where to place the company withinthe market, run projections and after careful consideration decided to emply the strategy they currently employ based on the metrics and parameters they chose to measure the market.

They tried idea of a low end brand, the "EX by Ibanez" in the 90s and phased that idea out quite quickly.
 
#12 ·
"Brands within brands" is a very widely used strategy. General Motors has Chevy and Cadillac. Ralph Lauren has Chaps, Polo, black label, etc. Ibanez has the J-Custom, Prestige, Premium, and GIO brands to help the buyer choose the guitar that's right for him.

linuxpenguin, I have no problem with the names of those brands Ibanez uses. What puzzles me is how poorly Hoshino communicates the message of those brands to potential buyers.

*CGI pictures of one, frontal view of the instrument. Dearth of real-life photos from multiple angles. No capability to zoom/rotate images.

*Lack of (or poor deployment of) constant contact/social media strategies.

*Lack of a charitable foundation to help people and to generate positive feeling and free publicity about the brand.

These are all things that Gibson, for example, does very well. I get a newsletter every week with articles about products but also about music and pop culture. They hold monthly in-store clinics. Their website has a features section with, again, interesting articles/ tutorials/ whatever. They know how to manipulate the media and the buying public to generate hype and discussion regarding their guitars, something that Ibanez has done as successfully only once in the past few years-- with the JEM20th and RG20th in 2007.

Peace

Mike
 
#23 ·
These are all things that Gibson, for example, does very well. I get a newsletter every week with articles about products but also about music and pop culture. They hold monthly in-store clinics. Their website has a features section with, again, interesting articles/ tutorials/ whatever. They know how to manipulate the media and the buying public to generate hype and discussion regarding their guitars, something that Ibanez has done as successfully only once in the past few years-- with the JEM20th and RG20th in 2007.

Peace

Mike
IMO the RG20th sold itself. Hell, I wasn't thinking of buying one until I played it.

There was a Gibson trailer truck at the local Sam Ash recently. I saw it as I stopped to pick up some strings. It was all "See the great '55 Les Paul. The '63 Flying V. The 72 Explorer, etc...." painted on the side of the trailer. It looked to me like a museum on wheels if you ask me. The marketing left me thinking. "Man! Has Gibson done anything new in the last 30 years?!?"

To each their own.
 
#34 ·
Idk, I have a 85 buck RX60, and I think its fine, Not a jem... duh. but it gets the job done, pretty well too imo.

And my 350$ AFS75t, rob balducci told me had great tone. He was like "are those just the stock pickups, they sound GREAT!" and he has LACSs flying out of his ears!
 
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