The global market for music instruments covers about $16,8 billion. As there are no reliable sources on worldwide sales data for guitars, the U.S. market shall be examined exemplarily. Table 1 shows the development of units sold, retails, and the average prices over the last ten years. It can be observed that there is a growth of nearly 275% in units sold, and about 160% in retail, whereat the average price decreased by 57%. According to this there is a strong tendency for low price products. Year | Units Sold | Retail | Average Price | 2010 | 2,991,260 | $1,151,290,000 | $372 | 2009 | 3,302,670 | $1,158,592,050 | $350 | 2008 | 3,201,220 | $1,022,861,000 | $309 | 2007 | 2,341,551 | $903,261,000 | $386 | 2006 | 1,942,625 | $921,057,000 | $529 | 2005 | 1,742,498 | $922,280,000 | $529 | 2004 | 1,648,595 | $923,522,000 | $560 | 2003 | 1,337,347 | $762,185,000 | $569 | 2002 | 1,153,915 | $694,883,000 | $579 | 2001 | 1,090,329 | $710,769,000 | $652 |
In table 2 this tendency appears very obviously. In the low price segment, that is prices below $500, are about two third of the whole market volume. Comparing acoustic and electric guitars it can be observed that there is a stronger request for high prize electrics than acoustics. | Units Sold | Units Sold | Type | Acoustics | Electrics | Under $100 | 390,028 | 256,354 | $101 to $200 | 410,030 | 561,537 | $201 to $350 | 110,008 | 195,317 | $351 to $500 | 40,003 | 97,659 | $501 to $1,000 | 40,003 | 61,037 | $1,001 to $1,500 | 10,001 | 24,415 | Over $1,5o1 | 20,001 | 36,621 | Total | 1,490,260 | 1,501,000 |
Also it turns out that high quality guitars as Gibson’s or Paul Reed Smith’s, which are presented in this paper, are prestige goods with an inverse price-demand relationship. That is higher prices are associated with higher quality. Gibson’s former attempt to join the low price segment in order to compete with