‘When they lose sight of their reason to be, that can be detrimental’: Fender president shares the secret to nailing a collaboration
Last month, Fender unveiled a huge collaboration with Sanrio’s pop culture icon, Hello Kitty. Mumbrella’s Lauren McNamara joined APAC president, Edward ‘Bud’ Cole, in Tokyo to chat about it.
Fender is no stranger to a collaboration.
What started as informal partnerships with iconic artists – the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton – swiftly moved to formal collaborations with brands, placing the music giant at the forefront of culture and creativity.
And while some brands may lose their touch when taking on too much, Fender’s APAC president, Edward ‘Bud’ Cole, tells Mumbrella it’s embedded into Fender’s DNA.
The reality of this collaboration is that in 2006 the hello kitty guitar bombed, we guitarists bought them cheap on the used market and modded them mainly because it was funny, not for anything serious. But that trend took off and the used hello kitty guitars started to go up in price – not that much, as it was still a mid tier instrument at best.
Fender now have put out their second version of this so they can cash in on the cult status of the guitar, meanwhile pricing this guitar about double what its worth.
Also…lets not call artist signature guitars collaborations, in todays guitar market, artist signatures are purely for short term cash rather than any long term collaborations. Even, the artists themselves have seen through this, and its very common for guitarists to jump between brands to launch new signature models to get as much money off the hype of a new model. It happens on guitars, amps, pedals and every other accessory a brand can slap an artists name on.