OK, OK, I already complained about this in another post, but every time I see it I get annoyed. I got a Bachelor of Science in Music Business, after all. Marketing blunders bug me. Remember in the olden days (like the 60’s and 70’s) when making a mistake was called a boner? Heh heh heh. Marketing boners, you could call these.
I just watched yet another Line 6 video where the guitarist played, naturally, a Yamaha guitar, because Yamaha owns Line 6. Yamaha makes good guitars, you say. Why shouldn’t they play their own guitars in these videos, you say. I’ll tell you why. It violates one of the most important marketing directives of the modern (2020) age – it’s not authentic. The vast majority of guitar players likely to buy and use a Floor Pod Plus aren’t playing Yamaha. They’re playing Squier and Epiphone. It just REEKS of corporate BS to ONLY see the Line 6 demonstrators playing a Yamaha Pacifica in every damn thing out there. It’d be like if every video made by Andertons had ONLY Chapman guitars in it. They’d get raked over the coals. Lee Anderton has gained a lot of Internet good will by being authentic. Who doesn’t love the Captain? C’mon now.
The Pacifica line has some great instruments in it, and it also has some turkeys. That’s not the point. The point is that Line 6 has no doubt been told “Don’t play other guitars except for Yamaha in any videos or pictures.” Somebody doesn’t get it. Brian Wampler and Josh Scott both hilight other competitor’s pedals on their YouTube channel. Didn’t stop me from buying 3 different Wampler pedals.
Fender and Gibson both had shitty, shitty (bang bang) YouTube channels in the past, and now they’re both killing it on YouTube. They hired some people who understood 2020 YouTube marketing.
I’m a huge HX Stomp and Floor Pod Plus fan. I was a huge Pod 2 fan back in the day. Line 6 is a great company. But sometimes you just figure that there are executives making some of these stupid decisions that are hurting the company. I bet you a hundred bucks there are people who work for Line 6 who’ve made this same argument to management and lost.
Oh well. Sorry to vent on the same topic again, but sheesh. Some companies don’t get it. And don’t get me started again on how bad the presets are.