The point of this post is to suggest that a vastly simpler product line would be beneficial to Fender during tough economic times.

Most people are aware of the recent increase in Fender prices. This post is not a criticism, or a defense of the price changes, but rather an observation about Fender's product line and how it might be contributing to the need to increase prices across the board.

I don't know if there's as many computer geeks here as there is guitar players, but it is a widely accepted fact that without Steve Jobs returning to Apple Computer in 1997, the company was on it's way down.

Leading up to his return, Apple's product line had become bloated and confusing and one of the first things he did was to trim the fat, and drastically simplify their product offerings. This strategy has allowed them to remain quite profitable while other PC makers are laying off employees.

For the most part, there is very little overlap in their products. Laptops and iPods are an exception, but for a given price point, there's usually only one, and sometimes two things to choose from.

Looking at Fender's product pages reveals no less than 13 different categories of Stratocasters. Some categories have one, some categories have several models. And unless I'm missing something, those categories don't even include the Squire models.

There are three possible negative consequences of such a huge lineup of guitars that I can think of.

The first is that offering too many guitars within the same price range could encourage people to buy down instead of up because of the small changes along the way. With no clear dividing lines between budget and higher-end guitars, it's not clear to me why I should spend an extra $100 on something that appears just like the one that's cheaper.

The second consequence is a potentially unsatisfied customer because they will always be wondering if they got 'the one'. If you only have one or two in your price range, that's not a problem because you know that to get anything else, you'd have to spend more money. But when there are 4 other guitars all priced similarly to the one you just bought, there's a nagging suspicion that you might have been happier with the other one.

The last one, and possibly the most potentially damaging is the dilution of the selling points of each guitar. If I come to Fender's website and see 13 categories of guitars, and multiple guitars within each category, you might as well show me a blank page filled to each margin with text and no line breaks because my eyes start to glaze over before I even start reading. "Where do I even start looking?".

The categories are sorted alphabetically which means nothing to a customer. There is no indication in the list of categories of approximate price range so I don't even know where to begin looking.

So I just start at the top. I may read about 8 or 10 different guitars before I subconsciously make up in my mind that this is too confusing, and I stop even reading, and just start looking at pictures.

This dilutes whatever the marketing team can effectively communicate about each guitar. I know each guitar in those 13 categories has it's own selling points, but none of them really stand out because there's so much noise to wade through due to the sheer number of guitars offered.

If you have a kick A%* tagline for each of those 20+ guitars, each one of those taglines has it's effectiveness now competing against 20 other taglines for attention.

Back to the original point of dilution, what this means is that when you say something that really matters about a guitar that has more profit built in, there's a chance it's too late because the potential that it once had has been diluted by the fact that I've had to wade through descriptions for 20 other guitars that look pretty much just like it in order to get to your really impressive marketing text.

I am fully aware that Fender has very smart people that make all these decisions, and that somewhere, somebody has probably done statistical analysis that suggests that flooding the market with barely different, cheap guitars is a better way to make a profit.

That may be true for a time. But I strongly suspect that eventually this glut of similar products is a bad strategy going forward in a bad economy.

For what it's worth, I think the a successful, profitable future for a company like Fender will involve a lot less of the same product, with a lot more customizable options within the same model to avoid creating 15 different Strat models.

I've sufficiently bored myself to tears with this post so I'll stop talking.

Hi Anthony. I think your point is well made. General Motors suffers from the same problem: so many overlapping models and brand names, yet they command only about 20% of the entire US market. I also find the overall Fender line-up to be confusing. Simplification might help consumers and Fender alike.

BTW, I've purchased a few of your lessons from your Stevie Snacks site, and I'm really impressed with your talent and your abilities as an instructor. I still suck, but not as much as I might without your tutelage!

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

Interesting, I just had exactly this same experience on the Ray-Ban web site. I had lost a pair of sunglasses that I really liked and wanted to replace them, they were no longer in stock at the store where I got the first pair, so I went to Amazon to see if I could buy online and got confused about which type of Wayfarer is the "real" one, and went to RayBan.com and got even more confused. Even if you work out the difference between the 2132 and 2140's (the 2140's are of course the original 1950's model - makes total sense based on the numbering, doesn't it ), there's still the lens height and finish to pick out, and polarized or not, and etc. etc.

In the end I found another store that had them in stock where I could try the stuff on and now I know almost as much about types of Wayfarers as I do about the different types of Stratocaster. But, on the positive side, the sunglasses I got were a better fit and style for me than any of the other ones, which gives us a hint why there's so many different Fenders - it's a very personal choice, and people have widely varying preferences, so to get the right "fit" in a guitar they need to present lots of options.

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2008 MIM Strat w 3-tone sunburst
2002 LP Special Ebony Faded
2008 G-Dec
'59 Reissue Bassman 4x10 combo
TS 808
DS 1
Gretsch 6120DS (on loan)

I agree that some level of personalization can lead to a better 'fit' but I think that the level of choice may have less of an effect on satisfaction than some marketers think.

I have a MacBook Pro that I use almost constantly for my lessons, email, websites etc... There is nothing personal about it, but I love it. I bought it off the shelf at Best Buy and have been absolutely thrilled with it since I got it.

It is by all appearances the same exact laptop that all the people in the Starbucks window downtown are using. Anyone with that apple logo on the backside of the monitor is either using a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro.

There's no MacBook Pro Special, MacBook Classic, MacBook Air Extreme, MacBook Rough Look, MacBook Deluxe, MacBook Aero Plus. Just 3 simple models to choose from.

I suspect that a huge array of choices makes people actually less satisfied because no matter what they buy, there's more things they had to choose not to buy and the allure of the one 'that got away' results in less personal attachment to the thing they bought.

I'm just guessing on any of this stuff, but sometimes I wonder if I shopped in the bizarro Fender world where I only had 4 strats to choose from, if I'd be any less happy than I would be in this world where I can get a Strat with it's own model name simply because it has a humbucker.....

AS , great point and rr's gen moto rif very , gotta agree with EW on the buyer thing , thanks bro .

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

It appears to me the already have, the showmaster is no longer available and the cataloge in general for 09 looks thinner ,What Ihave noticed is some really nice accessories .I just ordered a tweed fender briefcase as well as a hand tooled leather guit case and some other stuff like jackson 1.14 bomb picks, an EVH humbucker pickup that im putting in a MIK tele deluxe,and a couple of new amps.
I think that fender has it covered concentrating on only the high end products in corona and having other countries make product for the other market segments

Mmmhh, well maybe someone at Fender found a way to calculate the right amount of each variation of each model of guitar they make, and where to send them for immediate sale. I could go on myself with a few suggestions but I think that someone have already figured out most of the scenarios at the big F. Personnaly I don't have a clue on how to run a multi million dollars company, but I do believe that they what we see today is just a part of a plan spanning many years in the future. I'm not saying that Fender has all the answers, but they also have a lot of different models to sell from Gretsch, Guild, Jackson, Charvel and so on. How could they not have a plan? A forum member mentioned on another thread that if Fender made bad business decisions, they'll pay the price and readjust. I prefer to think that they are adjusting right now and because we don't see the whole picture, we are lost. Fender survived the CBS era because inspired people took command of the ship. They learned from past experiences and moved on with a vision for the company. I support this vision and buy gear from them. I also try to inform people around about Fender products. I do my small part for the company. If people are confused about what guitar model they should buy, lets hope that they have at least chosen which brand to buy from. Choices are always difficult but at least we can choose.
Claude.

I don't see that as a bad idea.

Now to contribute ideas, I think this would be pretty cool: A model of strat with 1 inexpensive humbucker, 1 tone and 1 volume knob, standard syn. trem., black (?) pickguards, inexpensive neon finishes, black (?) hardware. Less parts, cool look, I beleive scene/ emo/ metal kids would love them. Heck, I'm sure I would to.

Then again, that doesn't take all that much away from a standard strat. I dunno. In any case, it sounds cool to me.

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"Speak the truth, and speak it ever,
cost it what it will
for he who hides the wrong he did
did the wrong thing still."
-Miss Uel

warmoth that puppie rite now bro , i wanna see that pic .

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Word!

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http://www.bluesrepublic.org/

2008 Fender American Stratocaster
2008 Fender Deluxe Telecaster
Fender Power Jazz Bass Special 1987 (MIJ)
Egnater Renegade Head
Egnater Tourmaster 2x12 cab

From a marketing standpoint i think it makes sense. Lets face it we guitarists are largely a emotional and irrational lot. You buy a strat or tele because you want one. You buy what you can afford based usually on what you see in a local guitar store. So you make your pick and purchase. Then you see the 1000 other strats with your new found interest and start wondering 'what if' till eventually you spring for another. If that scenario causes more sales then fenders product range is a success. I always look to internet shops for prospective purchases, but never buy from them. You get an idea of price and availability.

Personaly i'd like to see one strat, tele, jbass and pbass released a year with minor differences to previous years. It would make for great collector pieces in years to come. It wont happen though, it doesnt appeal to a wide enough consumer base for todays tastes.

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No no and no

Very interesting topic and conversation in this thread. I think I sort of agree with the OP. There are several ways to look at this marketing plan though...oh well, it's Fenders decision to figure out as they never send me a paycheck!

I think amps should be simpler...As its getting hard to find amps, solid state or tube for that matter, without some sort of computer and digital effects in them. I don't want an amp with 50 presets, 50 effects, tuner, GPS, Fish Finder, BlackBerry, and more RAM than my PC built into it. I want something what will turn air into cottage cheese, like Blue Cheer, and thats it!

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA

Then I would suggest one of the CS Tweeds. Very basic,PTP, minimal controls. Back to basic sounds that made Fender amps desired in the first place!
I've got a CS 57 Twin Tweed now but I'm going in the morning to test drive the CS Deluxe. I will also get my free soul of tone shirt for the pleasure of testing!

Hi fhop, the 57 tweed is a very cool amp. Ijust order the custom vibrolux ,even though I didnt test drive one maybe Fender will throw in a Tee anyway .
Ialso think the line of extension cabs is doing well.