Fender is one of the most iconic bass and amp manufacturer in the world and are heavily focusing on China saying that their customers and sales have grown continuously in the country since 2018.
Founded in 1946, its guitars, amps, pedals and accessories have been played on more stages worldwide than any other company in the industry.
Fender joined Alibaba Group’s B2C marketplace Tmall five years ago. The platform and Fender offer educational content, including livestreaming and videos to engage and support guitar players throughout their musical journey. The brand’s flagship store on Tmall, launched in 2018, now representing over 10% of its total sales in China.
With China being one of their fastest growing territories in the world, there’s an interesting demographic with many people under the age of 35, almost equally split between female and male, choosing the guitar as the instrument that they want to play.
Fender say that the more artists that play a Fender, the more their market share grows as people gravitate towards what their favourite artist plays. That’s perhaps more true in China than anywhere as influences and live streaming are embedded into the culture and the way people make purchasing decisions. Fender have developed relationships with a ton of artist making sure they have a Fender to perform with it validates their selection of Fender as their instrument of choice and that flows over to consumer purchasing decisions.
While Fender have spent years developing their dealer network, they want a direct connection with the Chinese consumer. Their relationship with Alibaba and Tmall to give them access to consumers in an educational and trusted environment. Tmall provides an incredible amount of information to consumers, not just on the product page, but also through video content showing artists playing the product and through live streaming.
Fender’s efforts in China have delivered strong growth, they are the #1 electric guitar and bass brand in China today, with the strong Tmall relationship offering a robust D2C channel.
I can’t think of another platform that gives us that access to so many people in an educated and trusted way as Tmall in China. China obviously represents one of our fastest-growing markets in the world.”
Tmall is exceptional at providing not just the product but an incredible amount of information to consumers on the products that they’re going to buy.
We really do want to strategically have a direct connection between the consumer in China and Fender.
– Edward Cole, President, Fender Asia
