Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam.

So Fender has a way of manipulating common keywords that people use when searching for used gear as a means to branding and naming their products.

Being an eBayer since 97, there are certain things I search for like “San Dimas” or “Road Worn,” to help get me to exactly what I want.  Now, when I search for those keywords, a new product that Fender happens to be selling pops up. Sure, it kinda looks sorta like what I was in the market for, but it’s new, not the old gear I was looking for.

If I was searching for a ‘85 IROC-Z on eBay, I’d expect to see nothing more than parts or the actual car from a vintage 85 IROC-Z.

Now, if Chevrolet came along and named their new, reissued model of the IROC-Z ’85 IROC Z’, it would get a bit confusing.  Now, when I search for IROC-Z, there aren’t that many that come up. But when you search for a Fender Guitar, I get a return of over 66,000 results.  So, when they brand the name of their new instruments after commonly searched for older, discontinued, and highly sought after instruments, it can be confusing. It drives traffic to their site in what some companies (like eBay and Google) consider to be unethical. You might be able to put this under the umbrella of keyword spamming.

Google’s Spamming Policy. 

Synopsis: Don’t do it!

And, to be clear, I don’t care if it’s amateur keyword spamming, or product branded keyword spamming. If you’re naming your new product after what folks are specifically looking for, you are keyword spamming.

Here’s a few others for you :

‘Player’ strat (Which everyone knows that a ‘Player’ guitar is something that has been played.

American ‘Vintage’ strat. Need I say more?  Don’t most Fender enthusiasts at some point in their life search for a ‘Vintage’ strat?

Here’s a goodie; how about ‘Hot-Rodded’ Strat?  Funny thing is that ‘Charvel’ is supposed to be the ‘Original Hot-Rodded’ Guitar, and here is the parent company stepping on it’s own toes. Not to mention my own toes when I’m looking to see what other folks have done to ‘hot-rod’ their own Fender strats

Pawn shop is another example if you are a collector and are looking for a pawnshop special!

Yup. All roads lead to Fender.

But, let’s face it. Fender is smart, because they’re in tune with what people want.  So, I’ll talk out of both sides of my mouth.  How bad could they be if they are actually putting out gear that people really want?  Imagine if Gibson actually listened to people before they issued the Firebird X!

Someone once told me that one of the reasons why Fender is so successful is because they do a great job of teaching their sales team how to sell history and heritage. It’s not about selling the best car it’s about selling the feeling of owning an IROC-Z.

So, before you buy your next Fender, rate the experience, did Fender do a good job of selling you on a new guitar while you were searching for that old, road word, vintage, American, hot-rodded guitar you were really after?

Tiny URL for this post: