Home 2019 July The Gibson Marketing Disaster

The Gibson Marketing Disaster

Gibson LogoI’ve been quietly rooting for Gibson for a while now. When I first started playing guitar, I was all about the Gibson Les Paul. It was the late 80s and early 90s, and by far Gibson was king. I would Gibsons at shows all the time. I remember finally getting an ‘authentic’ Gibson Les Paul Studio in the late 90s and I was super stoked.

But then, things were changing. Bad business decisions and being out of touch with current trends and a variety of legal battles and natural disasters have plagued the biz. Finally, with a new CEO, I was excited to see the come back. The last few months, I’ve been seeing more shops with sweet Gibsons and the quality appeared to be coming back. I was expecting a strong upswing over the next few years.

Then.. the video. I guess, if you’ve been under a rock, you might not know what I’m talking about, so might want to watch this first:

This video, was creepy, oddly stressful to watch and frankly – aggressive. As someone who enjoys marketing I was fascinated about how bad this direction was/is. There were people throughout the chain that said “yes, this is great”, and what it did was isolate the guitar community, target builders and disrupting market. It was a bully move.

But it didn’t end there. A few days after they pulled this video, it was followed up with a lawsuit – where Gibson is suing Dean/Luna Guitars. You can read more about this here.

Now, instead of a creep presence, the gear community went on the attack. Memes started flooding the interwebs. Basically, punching the bully in the nose.

Now, I understand the importance of trademark infringement and the anger resulting in Chibson (Gibson counterfeit guitars). I get that. But going after builders with similar body shaps, is ridiculous. There is no confusing a Dean flying V and a Gibson flying V. It’s not a straight rip off – and as I understand it, the body is not trademarkable – only the headstock. But it’s the aggressive move that angered people.

Gibson should be working on their community, creating excitement and creating a ‘vibe’ with their brand. Not threaten other business. Dumb play.

Today, Gibson released a press release.

Gibson Pivots From Confrontation To Collaboration
In The Process Of Re-building Over The Past Eight Months, Gibson Has Made Significant Progress And Now Takes On The Challenge Of Balancing Brand Protection With Music Industry Collaboration
(NASHVILLE, TN, Monday, July 1, 2019) Since emerging from bankruptcy less than a year ago, Gibson has made significant progress in the key areas that matter most to guitarists around the world. With a clear focus on quality, a new collection of Original and Modern guitars, and a more confident Dealer and Artist base, the new team at Gibson have proven they can listen to the market to create new solutions. But there is still more work to be done and the new team at Gibson remain on a mission.
While new management is building on the legacy, quality and craftsmanship that guitarists have come to love and expect from Gibson, they will also continue to manage and attempt to resolve the conflicts of the past.
Apart from inheriting an iconic brand, the team have also inherited a host of challenges that they realized would take time to achieve proper resolution. A clear challenge has been in the area of brand protection, where a legacy of legal issues exist with both legitimate companies in the industry infringing on iconic trademarks and with illegitimate entities attempting to counterfeit, ‘knock-off’ and pretend to be Gibson in the market.
Over the past eight months, the team have successfully dealt with over 4,500 counterfeit and ‘knock-off’ guitars coming from overseas that were clearly designed to confuse the consumer into thinking they were buying a real Gibson. Since November (2018), there have been dozens of counterfeit website ‘take-downs,’ also designed to confuse the guitarist into thinking they were entering a legitimate, official website. On a weekly basis, Gibson receives multiple queries and concerns from guitarists mislead into purchasing what they thought was a genuine Gibson that turned out to be counterfeit. Unfortunately, this is a very real dynamic that brands, like Gibson and other iconic brands, need to deal with on a regular basis. The main area of brand protection on these types of issues is with trademark ownership, understanding, and assertion. Hence our recent attempts to communicate our position, which was predominantly focused on these rogue overseas players in the market. If left unchecked, these situations can lead to continued consumer confusion and can ultimately affect the integrity of an entire industry.
Recently, there has been a wide spectrum of both support and criticism with the approach that has been taken by Gibson in the market regarding brand protection. While there are clear lessons to be learned around tone and legal explanations, the past few weeks have provided a ‘real time’ opportunity for Gibson to start making the pivot from less legal leverage to more industry collaboration, with appropriate levels of awareness.
With regards to other guitar brands and companies in the marketplace, Gibson has filed specific lawsuits over the past several years with the intention of protecting its originaltrademark(s) rights and to avoid consumer confusion in the market. All of the recent attention on the few lawsuits in process stem from several years of legal action initiated well before the new leadership arrived in November of 2018. With specific regards to the inherited and ongoing legal dynamic with Dean Guitars, the new Gibsonteam have made several attempts to communicate with them directly to avoid a prolonged legal battle. Gibson has genuine intentions of constructive resolution that could be beneficial to both sides.
This recent situation has led the team to re-evaluate their approach going forward with the intention of finding more constructive solutions to managing brand protection in the industry. Over the past few weeks Gibson has made significant progress inreducing counterfeit ‘attacks’ and they have entered into creative collaboration agreements with key boutique guitar makers and other related industry parties. A clear indication of their intentions going forward.
“I am proud of the progress we have made with our attention to quality, with the launch of the new collections, and with our renewed engagement to our Gibson authorized dealer base. At the same time, we acknowledge there are still legacy challenges to solve going forward, especially around brand protection and market solutions,” says James ‘JC’ Curleigh, the new President and CEO of Gibson. “It is time to make the modern-day shift from confrontation towards collaboration, whilst still protecting our brands, and we are committed to making this happen starting now”.
For Gibson, contact:
Libby Coffey
PRIME PR GROUP, INC.
###

So does this press release fix things? Not sure. But it’s a start. It’s important to acknowledge that they screwed up. But I feel like this company is losing market share.. by the minute, and they can afford mistakes like this.

Their marketing should be about community first. And I’m talking about the gear community first. Analyze the trends and take charge with positive action – and not by strong arming. Honestly.. they should see what Fender does as a start.

Let me know what you think!

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Comments: 5
  1. Matt J VanMantgem
    5 years ago

    It’s the bully after they lose the fight. They got denied a few days ago on the premise: they lost the suit against Warwick and Framus. They haven’t dropped the suit against Dean. They know they are very likely to lose 90% of that suit, and are keeping it open just on the off chance that they’ll win some tiny part of it, and defray the legal costs. So, like a bully when the bully finds out their target has friends it’s “Guys, Guys Let’s talk about this”. I don’t even mean this as a metaphor- they’re saying it, just in legalese. As far as I’m concerned, they have shown their hand- it’s going to be litigate, publicly position, pivot, and repeat.

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  2. James Baydarian
    5 years ago

    Hey – Another knock off market is in Gibson PUP’s. I’ve personally contacted Gibson about this – $200/$300 PUP’s for $20. They take them down & put ’em back up the next week under a different heading. I enjoy rig rundowns. Great ideas from innovative local musicians. Keep it up & Thanks – JB

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  3. David Gordon
    5 years ago

    Started playing metal and thrash back in 82 as a teen. Gibson LP and SG. Great guitars but way overpriced and not affordable to most. Pissed me off is when you pay $1500-$2500 for a gibson when it arrives from factory they are unplayable. Need to spend another $200 for a set up and file down frets, so sharp they rip your fingers. Problem with gibson is they got so big and forgot about their customers and only cared about the bucks. Now I understand it’s a buisness but it’s the reg players that keep you in buisness. How many guitars do slash, zakk, page actually buy from you, you give them to them for the advertising gibson reminds me of blockbuster video, they were the biggest once, where are they now. When my kids started playing bought them LP and sg replicas dean, stagg, Brownsville which play awesome. I would never buy another guitar from gibson again. Overpriced if your not a Rockstar. Their so called affordable epiphone models all suck. Input Jack’s and electronics always break and go out. Start thinking about your blue collar players and put out an affordable model great guitar, we are the ones who buy most of your products anyway. Say what you want about dean but their cheapest model the vendetta blows away your so called affordable eppi models. Never had to have a pro set up with a dean, awesome playing out of the box. That’s my two cents anyway.

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  4. John R
    5 years ago

    Good review.
    With Gibby it’s two steps forward, three steps back. Their tasks: establish the benchmark for quality, in all lines including entry level, “be Gibson” and assume the role of leader. Again. And execute. Deliver. Prove by delivering.
    NAMM in Anaheim was a statement, I thought. A room of table after table of Gibson guitars. Reps and Techs talking, showing, making the case. More of that, please. Take the Gibson’s off the high spots on the walls where they gather dust and no one can reach, and put them in the hands of the people who will play them.

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  5. Glen
    5 years ago

    first off, if that dude in the video showed up to date my daughter, I’d smash a Les Paul over his head and be done with both him and the guitar. But alas, she knows better. And by the way, Gibson rips their own stuff off with Epiphone. Wanna play a sketchy guitar, an Epiphone will usually disappoint

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