If you are in the market for buying a violin, you are likely to encounter a wall of violin brands and models. While many of them, at a student level level come from the same kind of factory in China there can be significant differences in quality that is important to unpick (See my violin buying guide here for specifics ). At higher levels you may see violins made by individual makers (rather than brands sold under maker names)
Violin Branding and rebranding has been going on ever since Stradivari became a household name, and it seemed like every other German farmer back a century ago starting making Strad copies (with Strad labels) as a winter side hustle (no judgement .. many are great violins!)
Brand, pricing and quality
The purpose of a brand, in a marketing sense is to position a product in a market such that it becomes visible, recognisable and synonomous with a certain price point and quality. Over time it a product grows in recognition, popularity and associated value. The value of the brand can thus grow (or diminish) over time. A violin may carry a factory brand, distributor brand, shop brand or just a makers name (a personal brand). Pricing of any product includes its intrinsic value, add ons and its brand value.
Thus from amongst our retailers of speciality stores, owner operator maker studios and generalist music shops the perception of value (and actual value) are all competing for a players dollar. A brand can really help position the product err.. violin in the marketplace.
Pricing of violins varies from high end music shops through to low cost retailers. Where you, as a consumer, see or perceive a value that is higher than the price offered, a purchase is more likely.
Today, with most student and intermediate level violins being made in China the market is replete with hundreds of violin brands to choose from. The choice can be overwhelming which is the focus of this blog to untangle. Handcrafted maker instruments are something to explore later.
Value
Many other factors play into the perception of value beyond the brand of the violin:
– Influencers, like music teachers, prominent players can strongly affect purchasing decisions, along with reputation of a store. Thus there is sometimes controversially the practice of kickbacks from stores to teachers in formal of formal (see Two Set Violins expose here) .
– The customer experience in a shop (are you getting value in the store – grumpy sales person versus welcoming and friendly) , knowledgable vs a work experience kid and the overall atmosphere of the store helps with sales and also develop a stores brand over time as well. The development over time of recognisable violin brands is also a draw card to get someone to the stor. More than 1/2 of my enquiries are people looking for a particular brand! A good surrogate for a violin brand is the brand value of the store /maker as well.
– Add ons: Strings, rosin, a school pack all help with the purchase. Does the case have a hydrometer in it? oohh….that looks techo…it must be a really good violin 😉
– At the entry level of the market though, where the customer is often less sophisticated price is usually the strongest determinate of a purchasing decision. It is here that some unscrupulous online stores can trade on perception that one violin is the same as another and pass off something that looks like a violin (ie made of plywood with plastic pegs to gain a sale) but does sound very good . These are colloquially referred to as a VSOs (Violin Shaped Objects) and should be avoided.
– The traditional experience. Almost all violin shops have European elements to them such as french doors, lots of timber panelling etc.. My own humble workshop, through the necessity of repairing and restoration of instruments, rather than artiface has many of these, and if I’m wearing an apron some people thing I should charge more 😉 Violin themselves often have brand names associated with Europe, famous players or classical music terms for this reason as well. Consumer behaviour says emotional engagement is a really important part of the buying process.
Who gets to make a violin brand?
So within the vast market place of violin brands, who gets naming rights? Actually anyone in the supply chain with a glue pot and a laserprinter – it’s a completely unregulated activity.
The supply chain
For instruments coming out of China there are multiple steps in a supply chain to reach you. At this stage they are usually unbranded, coming from large factories or town networks of smaller workshops. However there are exceptions where individual workshops have cottoned onto the importance of branding in the West and sell as branded instruments in their own right.
Thus the importer a distributor or larger violin shop usually brands the instrument once it reaches them (or gets the factory to do it before they are shipped) when then goes to a store (who might brand it ) and then to you!
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Distributor brands
When factories sell to distributors in a local country, the distributor often attaches a brand to the instrument, and may distribute a range of different instruments of varying qualities under different brand names. It’s not uncommon to see competing distributor brands all coming from the same factory, with just with a slightly different colour or style variations. How do I know this? – sometimes a different branded violin is sent to another distributor by accident, also careful examination on the inside and of the accessories shows it to be the same.
From here distributors may choose to on-sell the instruments as is, to only trusted retailers. Or they may sell to any retailer – depending on how tightly they want to control that brand. This is a critical step for distributor brand value as an unsetup factory instrument with lumpy fingerboard, high nut, poorly set pegs and unfitted bridge etc.. can be quite unplayable if sold as is. Many distributors wanting to control brand value thus also offer setup up services (at extra cost and the setup level varies) or may only sell unsetup instruments to competent retailers. Releasing an unsetup instrument onto the open market means it gets into the hands of a player over time the value of that brand is diminished and can make it way onto the do not buy list of a music teacher in no time.
The supply chain thus can start to become a little more complex when stores them selves enter directly into the supply chain with more advance levels of customisation/ setup / branding or going direct to the factory. Here the “value” of a brand can be powerfuly augmented or reduced. Some of the supply chain paths are below and I’ve label from Green, Orange, Red show the variation in quality that can result.
Figure: Supply Chain showing Factory, Distributor, Shops with brand options and different path together with likely quality
Shop brands / re-brands
A store may source instruments from one of more distributors (or even factories direct) and may keep that distributer brand or develop their own entirely. The advantages to developing their own brand is they can use multiple suppliers :
– to improve reliability of supply
– reduce single supplier dependancy or market power over their shop
– develop there own consumer recognisable product brand over years.
– limit price comparison with other stores.
For specialty retailers its a real conundrum wether to rebrand distributor instruments or not. If you are buying unsetup or poorly setup instruments from a supplier/distributor that everyone else has access to; you can put in all the work to market it, set it up, put better strings and bridge on it and get it playing really nice. However this is essentially increasing the brand value for the distributor, and anyone else selling that instrument. Then along comes a generalist or online retailer who appears to be selling the identical instrument for less, which in the eyes of a consumer looks a bargain based on price comparison. Further over time the overall violin brand is perceived as a mix of all the retailers in the marketplace. It’s here that a retailer may make the decision to rebrand it as their own instrument, or if there is appetite for extra work import the instruments directly (by-passing the distributor) and sell completely as their own brand.
Personally relabelling factory instruments I think is a reasonable business decision, though its not everyones cup of tea. Why expend resources to develop someone else’s brand and help your competitors thrive, when you can develop your own brand for what is a superior instrument in every way…others find relabelling inappropriate though. Personally I don’t rebrand
Shop/workshop import brands
A third option, much favoured by smaller businesses/makers is to develop a relationship directly with like minded workshops in China. Here they can control not only the brand, but the development of the instrument / product itself to something that suits their market and their own position in the marketplace. They can have input into the timbers used, the shapes and styles. The idea here is to make use of the lower production costs in China for the labour intensive components, and use personal expertise to add value and target individual market niches.
Supplier intimacy
At high levels of shop-supplier intimacy, personally sourced timbers, custom shape, doing the finishing and plate tuning locally can really maximise the quality – cost tradeoff. In fact today many of todays European violins are adopting this method – sending European timbers to China, getting the instrument roughed out or made in the white, and then do the finishing steps in Europe. Usually this is reflected in the pricing how much is done in China and reputable suppliers are open about this selling different levels of the instrument depending on how much is sourced or done in Europe. They can also sell it as a European violin – which as the birthplace of the violin has a greater perceived brand value.
Summary
So the brand you see hanging on the wall in a shop, you now know that where it comes from is often a twisty-turney path. Apart from the VSO scavengers, the price generally reflects the playable value of what you are getting. Value being a combination of sound quality (hopefully a major component), together with the look, design, timber selection, tuning, finishing and accessories. You are also paying for the brand value on top as well. This is both the brand of the violin and the shop.
As an aside I often have people come to my workshop with a more expensive violin they have bought directly from China – typically they need a lot of setup work, but can be excellent instruments for the price…but its real roll of the dice.
In general where you buy from is as strong an indication of what you are getting as the brand itself. For best sound value consider shopping
- on expertise of the retailers first,
- violin brand reputation second
- and then on price (within you budget range).
Unfortunately price is where entry level buyers sit, and despite the best efforts of influencers (teachers) telling them what not to buy, can end up with a VSO.
If as a buyer you see something you like and how its sounds in a quality string store, or appears on a recommended list from a teacher, hunting around on the internet to buy it online can still leave you with something that needs quite a bit of work to be setup, and likely won’t sound the same either
As a final note, the challenge for me as a newer entrant into the market is my brand awareness is lower and market power exercised by teachers to go to particular stores is a challenge, relationships of over 20 years are important and some teachers get kick backs…we all have to make a living I suppose.
Fiddler Dan undertook an MBA in a former life, when he was engaged in technology R&D / commercialisation before picking up the tuning fork again.