A WTF Moment

[LittleLeroy]

BandLab isn't Kuok’s only musical endeavor. He's also turning Swee Lee, a sleepy 70-year-old distributor of guitar and audio equipment in Singapore, into a modern enterprise, selling merchandise online and offering music lessons. It's now the biggest distributor of instruments and audio equipment in Southeast Asia, with shops in Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam. Sales have doubled since he bought the company in 2012. Swee Lee is also where Kuok bought his first guitar. Kuok declined to say how much it cost to buy Swee Lee.

[FredZepp]

From what I've seen of the newer made Heritage's , the guitars remain top shelf.  They may exhibit some enhanced consistency now, and were in need of a more efficient operation.. which they seem to be achieving.  The production levels with the old guard were way too low, I'd love to see more of these guitars showing up around the country and the globe.  

 I'm sure they looked at numbers sold of each model and most desired features to incorporate into a more efficient production line.  As they keep old school techniques and maintain quality control, there doesn't seem to be a big down side when it comes to the instruments themselves.  That Heritage Guitar survives at all is a miracle and these changes will hopefully allow us to enjoy them for many years to come.... while visiting the rooftop bier garden and admiring the rebuilt stack and restored building.  

 Many of us know that Heritage was shipping a lot of product overseas, as there seems an appreciation for Heritage in Asia and Europe.  We'd like to see more appreciation for them here in the States also.  A lot of thought is going into achieving success on all fronts.  (Can't comment on whatever is currently happening with sales division, not enough info on what the situation is) 

  Who knows .. maybe they'll do a limited run of Centurions eventually... .. nah, not that one. 

[DavesNotHere]

1 minute ago, FredZepp said:

From what I've seen of the newer made Heritage's , the guitars remain top shelf.  They may exhibit some enhanced consistency now, and were in need of a more efficient operation.. which they seem to be achieving.  The production levels with the old guard were way too low, I'd love to see more of these guitars showing up around the country and the globe.  

 I'm sure they looked at numbers sold of each model and most desired features to incorporate into a more efficient production line.  As they keep old school techniques and maintain quality control, there doesn't seem to be a big down side when it comes to the instruments themselves.  That Heritage Guitar survives at all is a miracle and these changes will hopefully allow us to enjoy them for many years to come.... while visiting the rooftop bier garden and admiring the rebuilt stack and restored building.  

 Many of us know that Heritage was shipping a lot of product overseas, as there seems an appreciation for Heritage in Asia and Europe.  We'd like to see more appreciation for them here in the States also.  A lot of thought is going into achieving success on all fronts.  (Can't comment on whatever is currently happening with sales division, not enough info on what the situation is) 

  Who knows .. maybe they'll do a limited run of Centurions eventually... .. nah, not that one. 

Hear! Hear! 

[TalismanRich]

I think Fred has a really valid point on looking at the numbers sold.    How many of us started with a 150 or 535 type, and then moved to a Mille or even an archtop.    I would guess around 75%.  Look at the Gibson inventory at someplace like Chicago Music Exchange.    They have more 335s than all the 175s, 225, L5s, and Birdlands combined.  Almost half are Les Paul and SGs.  

I remember people posting that Heritage should really push the 150s and 535 because that's what people want.   You got your wish.   

For better or worse,  Heritage has been lacking a marketing presence since the days of Lane Zastrow and Lasar.  Now Bandlab is building a music business with a marketing effort behind it.  Give the folks time to sort things out and get the supply chain filled up.   

Better days are ahead.

 

[kidsmoke]

14 hours ago, ElNumero said:

So customers just flocked to the door to buy without any outside sales presence? Amazing business model. Maybe more companies should duplicate that (including me for my business)

fully discussing this would take us WAY off topic, but briefly....

This was manufacturing of specialized components. Not anything retail related, or with an emotional component to purchase...requiring "marketing" to make it look or feel sexy in any way. As such the people who made the purchasing decisions were typically engineers looking for technically competent partners. The sales people seldom/never would get time with these people when calling, and if they did, would rarely be able to get past the pleasantries fast enough to convey technical competence of our process. What worked was technically informed inside sales people responding to RFQ's (requests for quote) rapidly, and with clear understanding of the engineers needs. The fact that these RFQ's never resulted in a call from a "sales guy", but simply requests for more data and/or pricing, was a major advantage of ours.

Recognizing it's vastly different than selling guitars...but it's conceivable to me that the old guard sales network does not portray the attitude the new ownership is willing to own. Consider the difference between the classic car sales approach and the carmax approach. They're both selling auto's, but completely different experience to the customer. If what Brent heard was true, then MAYBE this sort of paradigm shift is behind it.

or, maybe not.