MI Pro

When MI Pro sits down to quiz Fender GBI’s Mark Ramsay (Jackson/KMC brands manager), Neil Whitcher (marketing communications manager) and Graeme Mathieson (general manager – pictured above), about their plans for Hamer, we can’t help but be reminded of our December 2008 interview.

When we spoke to Mathieson back then, one of the first ‘off the record’ issues we wanted to discuss with him was the vacuum left in the UK guitar market by Gibson’s decision to sell exclusively through a small number of appointed dealers. It had proved to be possibly the most controversial move in British guitar retailing for a decade or more and, for all that those appointed by Brand G will tell you how well they are doing as a result, there is still anger and frustration among others, some of whom had been doing excellent business, particularly with the affordable and popular Epiphone range.

Why should this bother Fender? Because, when it acquired the Kaman stable it took on, in the form of Hamer, one of the few guitar ranges which could comfortably fit into some of that empty space – what has been called  the ‘Gibson gap’.

Though a bigger name in its native USA than here, Hamer’s vaguely Gibson-like designs have tremendous cachet at the top end of the market, while its Far Eastern sourced XT range could potentially save a lot of retailers from having to turn away business when customers come looking for Epiphone models they can no longer supply. It’s not that the XTs are copies – it’s that they do similar jobs and come with a recognised US brand pedigree.

Fender GBI is far too professional to talk publicly about going head-to-head with another major manufacturer and really would prefer not to mention the competition by name at all, but that inhibition doesn’t apply to commentators – so we can say that the company’s recent decision to ‘go for it’ with Hamer is likely to be the source of some serious interest to retailers. Particularly at a time when they are looking forward to the buying season getting under way in the autumn and are wondering whether anything has yet come along to fill the gaps on their walls.

“We’ve taken some time to identify where Hamer sits in the UK market,” Ramsay
says. “The XT range fits quite nicely in the lower to intermediate level, with prices ranging from £229 to almost £600.”

Ramsay sees the potential XT buyer in quite definite terms: “It’s the general player, but with a slight bias toward the younger end – say those aged from ten to their early 20s, who want a first or intermediary guitar and who are looking to spend that bit extra more than they perhaps did on the entry level guitar they bought first time.

“What sets Hamer XTs apart is the quality of them. There are models there that cater for a number of needs in terms of the style and they are all very well made. We’ve got guitars with Floyd Rose tremolos on them; we’ve got guitars with high spec Seymour Duncan and EMG pickups. There’s something for everyone – it’s quite a wide range.

“You pick up a Hamer XT and you don’t think you’ve picked up a Far Eastern guitar – you think that you’ve picked up a really good quality guitar.”

Ramsay says it would be wrong, however, to think of Hamer simply as a substitute for anything else. “That would be the wrong way to think about it. It’s a brand that exists in its own right and has a reason to exist because of the quality, the range and the price points.

BUILDING THE BRAND
Good though the guitars might be, there is certainly no shortage of good, cheap guitars on the market today. A retailer has any number of options and even a few significant brands in their own right aren’t unheard of in this price range. But what Hamer offers is a name that has serious American pedigree.

However, though Hamer is undoubtedly a well-respected brand among older cognoscenti, it has had a troubled history in the UK. Only in the past few years has it achieved anything like its potential and it’s never having received its promotional dues. Fender has had, therefore, to plan carefully to establish the name with the younger players.

“There’s a definite vibe that we need to get going with the XT series,” says Whitcher, whose job it is to re-establish Hamer under the Fender banner here. “We’re pitching it right in there for the people who don't just want the obvious shapes like a Strat, a Tele or a Les Paul. In the XT range you’ve got a wider choice of styles to choose from, with a V-shape, an Explorer-like and a double cutaway model, and we need to pitch it for those potential buyers.”

“It won’t happen overnight, we know that,” adds Mathieson. “Players of 30 years and older will know about Hamer, but an 18-year-old probably won’t even know who Cheap Trick was, whose Rick Nielsen was such a big endorser for Hamer. So our first priority is to get some ads out there to make them aware of the brand and to get them into the stores to give dealers the opportunity to sell them.

“We think our first step with Hamer is getting the product out on show, which is what we are doing right now. When people see them in the stores and see what price they are, they can reach their own conclusions and we’re pretty sure the reaction is going to be, ‘Blimey – is that that price?’”

“In terms of the marketing, we’ve created a new catalogue with a fresher look and there will be advertising in the consumer guitar magazines, but our focus is very much based on the product itself,” adds Whitcher. “We haven’t been working on the artist side of Hamer yet – in fact we’re really at the first stages with it and that means getting it to the dealers so that they can see the opportunity that’s there for them.”
That said, Fender isn’t the only guitar maker bidding to fill this market gap, so what is it that makes Fender the place for a dealer to put his business, over and above the appeal of the guitars themselves?

“We’re becoming a bit of a one-stop shop for some retailers,” says Mathieson. “We’ve got the brands and it’s all part of a single cash-flow stream with those dealers. It becomes easier to handle when it’s all under one account, so dealing with us is very easy. And it’s important to realise that we’re not trying to cast our net very wide with Hamer. We’re not looking for 500 dealers. We’re in the first stages of brand building and if we end up with 50 dealers or 100 dealers, then that’s what it will be and we’ll grow the line gradually, as we’re doing with some of the other brands we took over, such as Genz-Benz and SWR.”

SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Which brings us to the question of supply, although, perhaps predictably, Fender is more than confident that, should Hamer suddenly become flavour of the month, it could supply in the sort of quantity that could be demanded. “That’s not going to be a problem,” Mathieson promises. 

“There is definitely a gap that has emerged in the market and we can only put that down to a lack of availability to the end user,” he continues. “If you’re looking to buy a product that costs £1,500 to £2,000, you don’t mind travelling a bit, but if you’re looking to spend £200 or £300 you don’t want to travel any great distance.

“This is really our first toe in the water with Hamer as a brand and we’ve taken our time working out what we are going to do with it. We think now is the time and that there are a lot of smaller and medium-sized dealers out there that haven’t got a suitable product in this market area.”

With a strong enough consumer push and some mining of the brand’s heritage, it’s hard not to see Hamer’s XT series as being in with a serious chance. It certainly has competitors in its price range, but some of the more serious of those with US connections are aimed squarely at the heavy metal market and Hamer is broader in its appeal than that. Whether Hamer’s hour has finally come in the UK remains to be seen, but a lot of retailers will be considering its attractions very seriously over the next two or three months.
Fender GBI: 01342 331726