Trade Show Review: Wham, Bam, Thank You NAMM

by Brad Chenowski.

It’s January and once again I think about the growing similarity between the music equipment trade show in Anaheim, California, called NAMM, and the glitzy celeb-oriented media events taking place in Paris known as Fashion Week. Anaheim and Paris. Rock ‘n’ roll and haute couture. Disneyland and Notre Dame. Low brow, high brow, or no brow, the splash and flash in Anaheim and Paris are about the same thing: moving millions of dollars worth of merchandise over the rest of the year.

Eye of the beholder

Eye candy marketing makes sense in the fashion world where visual excitement’s the name of the game, but I’m naïve when it comes to musical instruments. I still haven’t made peace with the fact that visuals sell more guitars than sounds. Of course, the way guitars are sold at retail these days, it makes sense. Imagine how many instruments are bought online or through catalogs sound unheard. Even the instruments sold at retail locations compete on music store walls in a visual way. How much aural test driving can you give a guitar with the 12-year-old blues phenom next to you blasting SRV riffs through a Marshall stack?

Put yourself in the shoes of a guitar manufacturer. NAMM is your shot at both introducing your customers (retailers) to new product and whetting the appetite of their customers (consumers) through media buzz designed to help everyone sell more units. The buzz is visual. Sure, you’re going to issue a spec sheet proudly announcing that the new, ground-breaking Casper the Ghost Signature Model sports techno-named XYZ-12.09 pickups that produce other-worldly tones, but those XYZ-12.09 pickups will remain silent until FedEx delivers Casper to a consumer in Weekie Wachee Springs, Florida, and it's plugged into a POD.

Think about the poor violin. I can’t find a single violin maker willing to plaster a portrait of Itzhak Perlman, Jascha Heifetz, or Isaac Stern on the upper bout. They haven’t even figured out a way to slap their company logo on the peg box. Did Midori Goto jam at NAMM?

Guitar manufacturers don’t want to suffer the fate of violin luthiers. Try naming the top three violin makers without using Google. And notice the language. We’ve gone from guitar luthiers, to makers, to manufacturers. Producing and selling guitars is big business.

But it’s big business with a fundamental marketing problem: How do you continuously re-package the simple “people’s instrument” in order to convince consumers that guitars should be thought of with the same “model year” mentality as automobiles and fashion?

Re-inventing the wheel

It’s how guitar makers overcome that marketing hurdle that tightens the parallel between the guitar industry and the fashion world to those of us who view both as a spectator sport. Last year’s clothes continue to protect our body, keep us warm, and hide our defaults, but Fashion Week convinces us that what was chic 12 months ago is ready for recycling. There’s more to life than function. Viva les visuals.

This makes more sense when you remember something fundamental to both the guitar and fashion industries. They’re not about selling a functional piece of gear or clothing, they’re about selling dreams. Most guitar buyers abandon the instrument in short order. It was the dream of possibility that inspired the purchase (impulse). When the dreamer wakes up, the guitar goes under the bed or on permanent display as strings rust and protective plastic peels.

Imagine the situation if all guitars looked alike, if the only things that distinguished one from another were sound and playability – non-visual qualities of the instrument. Wouldn’t that signal the end of www.pleasebuythelastestcoolguitarhere.com where all you can do is look? Even more disastrous, once you found the guitar that met your tone and playability requirements, would you be inspired to replace it next year with something different?

This is a serious problem for guitar manufacturers, especially for the mega-makers like Gibson and Fender. You establish a name for yourself with a guitar that has a certain look, a certain body shape, and then what? Your market may love the Stratocaster or the Les Paul, but if all you did each year was produce more of the same, at some point saturation sets in and you’re left with selling guitars only to upcoming dreamers, and, since not all dreamers are the same, if all you sell is a sunburst model you’ll miss the dreamers who have a passion for pink. To stay on top, you have to constantly re-invent the wheel.

How do guitar manufacturers keep the consumer fire burning? One popular answer is to take a cue from fashion and raise or lower the hemline – put out old models with a new look, maybe a different finish or add or subtract a pickup. New finishes are a great way to go in the visual marketing world. Focus on the eye candy. Use the old body shape for its name recognition and historic associations, but gussy it up with a flame top, purple paint, or gaudy graphics. Instant marketing magic.

Speaking of magic, another popular way to give an old horse a new name is to introduce exotic “tone woods”. Make that hocus pocus. The issue of tone woods makes sense when talking about violins and acoustic guitars, but the relevance to electric guitars that depend on electro-magnetic pickups for the production of sound is like praising the naked king’s new clothes. Les Paul was trying to make a point when he built The Log.

Celebs sell

The king needs new clothes? Remember this: Nothing sells guitars like a celebrity endorsement. Fender broke that ground in the '50s with the likes of Alvino Ray, Arthur Smith and Mary Kaye, though it would take them 30 years to get behind this marketing weapon in a big way. Today, it's SOP for every major manufacturer (and most minors). If so-and-so uses this guitar, let me touch the flame. You can count on dreamers dreaming.

This January's NAMM introduced more celeb-guitar associations, with a few surprises. Actor Kiefer Sutherland has a namesake "Inspired By" Gibson, Eddie Van Halen's gone Fender, and porn stars Briana Banks and Stefani Morgan ride signature Schecters.

So, I could summarize my take on the 2007 Winter NAMM Show by saying, “More of the same, only different,” but this year’s show strengthened a hint of things to come that we’ve glimpsed at recent NAMMs: some manufacturers want to build a better mousetrap.

Guitars that do more

I end this tirade with a ray of hope, a nod to the future. Manufacturers such as Gibson, Fender, Optek and Line 6, acknowledge that the definition of an electric guitar is not written in stone. Despite the electric guitar’s association with rebellion and experimentation, it’s surprising to realize what slow adopters electric guitar players are. In fact, many are downright reactionary. A digital Les Paul? Heresy. Faced with that consumer mindset, it’s heartwarming to see Gibson, Fender, et al., sink millions of dollars into creating guitars capable of things beyond Buddy Holly’s wildest imagination. Digitizing and sound modeling are here to stay. So are computers. Let’s hope manufacturers remain inspired to look beyond the questions of what a guitar has been, is, or should be, and continue to explore what it can be. Fashion isn't even skin deep.

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