The lecture will take place in TANNA SCHULICH HALL, followed by a wine and cheese reception in room A833 (8th floor of the New Music Building).
ABSTRACT:
Starting a guitar manufacturing company from the ground up requires passion, vision, and business acumen including:
- Market studies to determine product price, positioning, and consumers
- Concept and design of products
- Identifying the merchants
Robert Godin will explain how he built his guitar company from a small guitar shop in La Patrie to one of the world’s largest and most innovative guitar companies.
ABOUT ROBERT GODIN:
Robert Godin built his first guitars in a small shop in Montreal over forty years ago. The success the shop had in Montreal eventually afforded him the opportunity to open a dedicated guitar building facility in the village of La Patrie, Quebec.
Motivated by a desire to bring a reasonably priced acoustic guitar to the market that emphasized great sound and playability, Robert designed the Seagull S6. The popularity of the S6 has grown steadily since that time and Seagull has become one of the premier acoustic guitar brands in the world. Robert had also become well known for his custom-made electric guitars as well as the necks and bodies that he was making in La Patrie under sub-contract for many of America’s premier guitar companies.
In the late eighties⎯full of ideas for new guitar designs⎯Robert began crafting instruments under his own name. Today, the Godin Guitar family includes 7 lines of guitars. They consist of the renowned Godin & Richmond electric lines and the finely crafted acoustic lines such as Seagull, Simon & Patrick, Norman, Art & Lutherie and La Patrie. Godin Guitars is also the manufacturer of the revolutionary TRIC acoustic guitar case and is the North American distributor of high-end Italian made Acoustic Solution acoustic amplifiers and Sarga Percussion. Godin Guitars has developed a superb reputation for quality of materials and craftsmanship with distribution channels in over 65 countries. Godin Guitars employs over 600 people and operates five factories in Quebec and one assembly plant in Berlin, New Hampshire.
VIDEO ARCHIVE - ROBERT GODIN
APA video citation:
Godin, R. (2014, December 2). Growing a global business from a small factory -
CIRMMT Distinguished Lectures in the Science and Technology of Music. [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pT5i1Fm3kw&feature=youtu.be