He was the Guild brand manager and responsible for selling the products from three different factories.
Right, "Brand Manager" would be a title for exactly the kind of position I suspected the "Guild Sales Rep" had as well, a "Fender Corporate" employee with responsibility for marketing all of the "Guild Branded" products.
True, technically everybody was a "Fender Employee", but I think the guys building the instruments on the floor only had to answer to the plant manager, and he probably only had to answer to someone in Fender who was not the Guild Brand Manager but an Operations and Expenses type corporate level manager.
We're probably on the same page and in violent agreement
Yep.
Like I said, I took some verbal shortcuts to keep that initial comment short, but the conversation makes me realize there are probably very similar structures in place at CMG right now.
(For the benefit of newcomers/folks who may not be aware of this yet):
Cordoba Music Group owns and markets several brands of which Guild is one, and even though the Guild branded instruments are sourced from 3 different countries, they're presented as a united front under the brand name, the Guild website is example #1 of that marketing philosophy (and was under Fender as well).
There's probably still a "Guild Brand Manager" employed by CMG, responsible for making sure each of the 3 lines ("GUILD" "Westerly Collection" and "Newark Street") is promoted properly, (and probably for input in setting and achieving sales goals too), but Cordoba now has the ability to offer different (from Fender policy) inventory plans to dealers, as Guildadelphia mentioned above.
It also occurs to me that might simplify the dealer's "behind the scenes" warranty procedures too.
I'm becoming ever more hopeful about seeing domestic built product IN STORES.
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