Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

[zionstrat]

Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Gibson has named a new CFO and the court is scheduled to review Gibson’s plan on 10-2-18.
https://www.strata-gee.com/gibson-brands-leadership-makeover-new-cfo/

Seems like a good time to dig into qualities of a good CEO- check out Saving Gibson PART V- Good leaders create good plans based on good information

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saving-gibson-part-v-good-leaders-create-plans-based-stierhoff/

This edition digs into the opportunities and challenges that we’ve discussed in depth (thanks for input!) and we’ve included the SWOT table (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) that underlies the entire Saving Gibson series.

We make the case that data (about the customer) is ultimately king (not the CEO) and it will be interesting to see if Gibson reemerges with customer centric thinking.

Have enjoyed our conversations and looking forward to your thoughts!

 

[Adieu]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Wow, good chart

Only thing it is missing is "lack of productive, popular innovations" and "competition from own used/vintage market"... all the gibson models and features people actually LIKE are 1-2 generations old.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Wow, good chart

Only thing it is missing is "lack of productive, popular innovations" and "competition from own used/vintage market"... all the gibson models and features people actually LIKE are 1-2 generations old.

Thanks Adieu,
A rough form of the table has been behind the series the whole time, but its been regularly edited based on feedback.

And you are absolutely right, competition with self (used market) is important and needs to be added.

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[DKSEARS]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Nice start on a SWOT analysis, but my boss would crucify me for the misspellings.

I like the detail you have presented here.


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[zionstrat]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Thanks!
And you nailed it, didnt get this one proofed...
Misspellings in article, table, or both?

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[JMP/HBE]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

You forgot the flop of the Firebird X & 13 Million on robotuners.

 

[justFred]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

don't know...but think the objective is to provide suggestions regarding path/challenges going forward....not a documentary of every individual mistake...

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

don't know...but think the objective is to provide suggestions regarding path/challenges going forward....not a documentary of every individual mistake...

Fred is exactly right regarding purpose-

But we did list the Firebird X in the product design article- Gibson should have a 'persona', a summary of attributes for a buyer type for every product, and we wondered how many prospects could possibly match Firebird X. I may know 1 and he would build it himself and never spend the $.

And I love the quote in this article...

Firebird X: "This is different. This is revolution. Nobody looks and spends the time to reinvent the guitar. This is a new guitar."

What was Henry trying to say? That other manufactures haven't spent the time to reinvent the guitar?

 

[RorySquier]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

You forgot the flop of the Firebird X & 13 Million on robotuners.

That guitar (Firebird X) was a big flop in my opinion. Way too many controls on it which I find a distraction from really playing the instrument. Might as well glue a pedal board to your guitar. And how come they only went up to 23 frets instead of 24? The Firebird X was a revolution in futility.



;>)/

 

[JMP/HBE]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Fred is exactly right regarding purpose-

But we did list the Firebird X in the product design article- Gibson should have a 'persona', a summary of attributes for a buyer type for every product, and we wondered how many prospects could possibly match Firebird X. I may know 1 and he would build it himself and never spend the $.

And I love the quote in this article...

Firebird X: "This is different. This is revolution. Nobody looks and spends the time to reinvent the guitar. This is a new guitar."

What was Henry trying to say? That other manufactures haven't spent the time to reinvent the guitar?

Either Henry drank alot or was just stupid.

 

[justFred]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Henry is history...let's see what the new guy does...should be interesting to see...energize Gibson or hunker down and live off the nostalgic...

running a business can be kinda like sailing a ship...in today's light market winds the good capt knows what sails to use and how to trim them...and so on...read Moby Dick for a comprehensive look...

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

DKSEARS, thanks again for proof-
Hope we got everything!

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Yep, as much as we like to emphasize best practices, when you are in this small an industry, there is a lot of luck involved-

On the other hand "luck favors the prepared" is one of my favorite quotes.

I like the pedigree for the CFO, and bringing in a woman could help on multiple fronts- Fender and Yamaha are targeting women, and there was probably too much 'I'm the King' in the previous administration.

 

[Darg1911]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Yep, as much as we like to emphasize best practices, when you are in this small an industry, there is a lot of luck involved-

On the other hand "luck favors the prepared" is one of my favorite quotes.

I like the pedigree for the CFO, and bringing in a woman could help on multiple fronts- Fender and Yamaha are targeting women, and there was probably too much 'I'm the King' in the previous administration.

I'm seeing pinkburst in Gibson's future ...

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

I'm seeing pinkburst in Gibson's future ...

It really would be interesting to do the market research. I wonder if color is major driver for female guitarists?

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[ibanezrocks]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

It really would be interesting to do the market research. I wonder if color is major driver for female guitarists?

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You mean if they're under the age of 10, right? I doubt many grown women who are serious enough about the guitar to buy something as expensive as a Gibson want it to be pastel pink and glittery. Do all men only want to buy the same color of guitar? It's extremely condescending.

The guitars themselves aren't gender specific. You bet your ass that the marketing is though. Remember how Dean put half naked women in all their ads? Do they still have booth girls at NAMM? Do you still have people who actually think they need to make guitars pink or purple to sell to women? If you're trying to get more female guitarists, that's the culture you have to fight back against. The industry is an old boys club that's completely clueless.

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[DKSEARS]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

DKSEARS, thanks again for proof-
Hope we got everything!

No problem. I’ve been doing financial and statistical analysis for an insurance company for the last 15 years. Some things just really stand out after a while.

Sorry, I didn’t get all the way through the articles (my boss has had me pretty busy the last few months, and much of the time I’ve had outside of work has been devoted to helping my wife finish her degree, only 3.5 classes to go, and rehearsing with our worship group), but I didn’t see much in them originally.


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[Mincer]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

You mean if they're under the age of 10, right? I doubt many grown women who are serious enough about the guitar to buy something as expensive as a Gibson want it to be pastel pink and glittery. Do all men only want to buy the same color of guitar? It's extremely condescending.

The guitars themselves aren't gender specific. You bet your ass that the marketing is though. Remember how Dean put half naked women in all their ads? Do they still have booth girls at NAMM? Do you still have people who actually think they need to make guitars pink or purple to sell to women? If you're trying to get more female guitarists, that's the culture you have to fight back against. The industry is an old boys club that's completely clueless.

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Dean still has 'Dean Girls' at NAMM. They own Luna guitars, which are primarily advertised to women. There is no shortage of pink, glittery and flowery models.

 

[justFred]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

If you take a spin through the top women guitarists...you see predominately traditional acoustics....traditional Strats...then Teles....a few traditional Les Pauls...even if you look at Taylor Swift...she is packing a traditional T5...don't think pink a sparkly is the ticket...do women drive pink sparkly cars???

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

Re: Gibson’s got a new CFO and the CEO installment in the Saving Gibson series

The guitars themselves aren't gender specific. You bet your ass that the marketing is though. Remember how Dean put half naked women in all their ads? Do they still have booth girls at NAMM? Do you still have people who actually think they need to make guitars pink or purple to sell to women? If you're trying to get more female guitarists, that's the culture you have to fight back against. The industry is an old boys club that's completely clueless.

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Yeah, I agree with you- I wouldn't have thought that pink would be a priority for all females, but I'm a sample of 1 and Mincer points out that someone seems to be selling pink guitars- As you pointed out, old boys club won't have a clue- it's all about research, it's not hard, but it requires persistence and standardized processes-

For example, we could start with the hypothesis that some females are driven by color, maybe that segment is age 8 to 14, and we build ads that we know will work for that demographic- we build multiple landing pages, some emphasizing color, some aimed at value, quality, etc, and randomly send leads down these paths.

So, we're talking about advertising that initially builds data and mindshare instead of sales- Maybe this demographic will click on lots of color oriented links and it will be clear that color is important for this segment- Or maybe they will totally surprise us and click on quality links- either way, we need to test that data with more and more research and as we nail the best options down, one of these advertising paths will start generating revenue.

In tandem we do the same thing for performing women and stay at home moms and hikers, etc and find out which segments are willing to buy, what features are important, and which channels they pay attention too (hypothesis to test- Pintrest will be a stronger channel than modern golfer

Yamaha is extremely good at this, looks like Fender is middle of the road and I've been told that Gibson only has 2 marketing people- if true, there's no way they're doing this well.