Gibson Guitars: Great design NPD

Example of great design, translating needs into features: Gibson Guitars and the Gibson Les Paul

For the past 50 years, Gibson Guitars has co-dominated the high-end guitar market (along with Fender and its famous Stratocaster). Integral to this dynasty has been its variations on the Gibson Les Paul model, a guitar that has existed largely unchanged for decades. Gibson’s strategy of solidifying the Les Paul as a traditional icon and aspirational purchase, while making minor modifications and then launching new models, has kept it at the forefront of the international music scene—cementing profits though charging thousands of dollars for each instrument, which typically costs less than $400 to make.

How can a product reign for 50 years in essentially the same form (see Exhibits 1 and 2 for comparisons of seemingly-identical 1958 and 2008 Gibson Les Pauls)? Gibson has realized that, in order to retain its enviable position, it must preserve the emotional and personal identification that people have with the famous 1950’s form. However, to stay modern and avoid becoming “stale,” it must update that model enough to create buzz around new product launches. Gibson has accomplished both with a series of new product lines and technological improvements that allow it to reach out to new customers while utilizing its earned brand recognition that has made the Les Paul a status symbol.

Exhibit 1: late 1950’s Gibson Les Paul

Exhibit 2: Current Les Paul Standard

Over the years, Gibson has taken at least two clear steps to diversifying its product line to appeal to more customers. First, it began manufacturing the Epiphone line (Exhibit 3), an Asian-made guitar with a smaller price tag ($400-900 instead of $3,000+), which contains essentially the same components and design as the American original. By doing so, it has invited price-conscious consumers to taste a bit of the Gibson value, while also enticing them to “aspire” to trade up for the pricier real thing. Second, it has a long history of making signature models for famous guitarists that span musical genres from country to heavy metal. In this way, it has been established as the ideal guitar for an almost seemingly-impossible range of music. Additionally, it has done so by making extremely small changes to its original form (see Exhibit 4 for one very popular design), which both reduces costs and reinforces brand identification while permitting a huge number of different products geared for separate audiences.

Exhibit 3: The Epiphone Les Paul

Exhibit 4: The Zakk Wilde Signature LP

While Gibson’s electronics suppliers have incrementally changed pickups, wiring, and capacitors over the years, the technological improvements in these instruments have been mostly marginal. In fact, many

guitarists dislike the changes in these features and pressure Gibson to return to the components used in the 1950’s versions. However, in recent years, Gibson has made considerable waves in the guitar world with two key innovations (both present in the “Robot” guitar, Exhibit 5). First, based on the neck-scale, Gibson’s are notorious for going out of tune easily (particularly the G-string). Gibson, recognizing this shortcoming, developed an automatic tuner technology that senses when the tension in the string has gone awry and mechanically corrects it. This design, which does not affect the form very noticeably, directly addresses one of the long-standing complaints from Gibson owners. Second, many guitarists own several guitars in order to benefit from the unique sounds that each wood-pickup-electronics arrangement offers. Gibson, in an attempt to appeal to all guitarists regardless of sound preferences, has included complex electronics in a new line of Les Paul that alters the guitar’s signal and models the sound of a large range of instruments (again, at the touch of a knob that does not affect the guitar’s appearance).

Exhibit 5: The Robot Les Paul

With its multi-pronged strategy of adhering to its traditional, time-honored roots while creating new versions and new technologies for customers it might not otherwise satisfy, Gibson has managed to maintain its profitable foothold on the electric guitar market for half a century.

Stephen Klein

New Product Development T/Th 10-11:30am