Korg's European delivery misery: status update

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 3:33 pm

It looks like I have been happy too early about too little.

Having really been able to place an order here in Germany end of June (!) had already been close to a miracle to me, after all the half year silence and total European unavailability.

Now I got the trustworthy news that the long awaited delivery start in Germany, which is as late as end of July! (with very few exceptions of dealers with extra connections, selling very low numbers of 61s right now), means that each Korg dealer (inlcuding the big online stores!) will get - guess what number of Kronoi for selling?

!!! ONE EACH!!!
Next delivery (another ONE EACH would really add to the fun) is awaited in October 2011 then.

Can this behaviour, looking at fat deliveries to the US sine weeks, leave any other impression to Europeans than a funny kind of monkey business?
Is Korg going on and on treating Europenas as laughing stocks? Are they just good enough to be fed with single Kronoi, just to keep some hype going, without any need to treat them remotely as real customers (= Americans)?

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 4:08 pm

Probably more people are going to import it from the US. It's both cheaper and faster.

Gargamel314 · Post by **Gargamel314** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 4:27 pm

I'm sure this is great for Korg USA ... but doesn't this hurt the Korg Corporation as a whole? considering non-american Korg distributors don't make as much money, doesn't this just make things worse for those distributors down the road? Wouldn't it make more sense for the distributors to meet US pricing?

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 4:31 pm

It's hurting Korg's reputation in Europe, most definitely.

Biovac · Post by **Biovac** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 4:42 pm

Too late and too expensive compared to US.

Nobody can say when and how many units arrived in Spain.

MartinHines · Post by **MartinHines** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:45 pm

The U.S. market for workstations is significantly bigger than the European market. Conversely, arranger workstations sell more in Europe than in the U.S.. I believe the shipment order mirrors this reality. For example, the Korg PA3X arrangers were available in Europe before they were available in the U.S. (and I think they are still scarce in the U.S.).

The October delivery date for Germany does sound strange, given this is only July. Hopefully reasonably sized Kronos shipments will arrive there before October.

I assume (but do not know) that Korg Japan may ship units to Korg Country Distributors based on when that country distributor ordered them. Is there any possibility that the German Korg distributor simply did not initially order enough units?

I personally hope the Kronos sells well worldwide. The more sales, the longer the keyboard will be supported.

Mystic38 · Post by **Mystic38** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:53 pm

I think you do not understand how multinational corporations are structured..

It is most common for Korg affiliate to be its own organisation.. usually a wholly owned subsidiary..with their own responsibility for orders, profit and loss.. ie sales and profit.. in addition to support, marketing and loca trade shows.

So, it is simply up to the affiliates such as Korg Germany to ORDER its share of Kronos.. and given the arrival and sale of Kronos in the UK can easily be assumed to be extra transit shipping time Vs the arrival in the USA it is fair to say that Germany should have had product within 2 days of the UK..

The most reasonable assumption is that low stock in Germany will be solely the result of low orders or late orders to Korg manufacturing by Korg Germany...and cannot be blamed on Korg USA or Korg Corporate.

p.s. I think you are making an incorrect assumption stating that Korg USA makes more profit..highly unlikely.

Gargamel314 wrote:I'm sure this is great for Korg USA ... but doesn't this hurt the Korg Corporation as a whole? considering non-american Korg distributors don't make as much money, doesn't this just make things worse for those distributors down the road? Wouldn't it make more sense for the distributors to meet US pricing?

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:57 pm

MartinHines wrote:The U.S. market for workstations is significantly bigger than the European market. Conversely, arranger workstations sell more in Europe than in the U.S.. I believe the shipment order mirrors this reality. For example, the Korg PA3X arrangers were available in Europe before they were available in the U.S. (and I think they are still scarce in the U.S.).

That's a bad argument. Why there wasn't such a massive delay and incopetence from Korg's side when M3, or Tritons were released? Those sold here just as well as they did in USA.

MartinHines · Post by **MartinHines** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:59 pm

Mystic38 wrote: It is most common for Korg affiliate to be its own organisation.. usually a wholly owned subsidiary..with their own responsibility for orders, profit and loss.. ie sales and profit.. in addition to support, marketing and loca trade shows.

To add to your comment, I believe the only Korg Country Distributors that are actually owned by Korg Japan are Korg USA and Korg UK.

I believe the Germany Korg Country Distributor is a separate company who acts as a distributor for Korg (covers both Germany and Austria):
http://www.korg.co.jp/English/Distribut ... ?keyword=G

http://www.korg.de/footer/korg-impressum.html

MartinHines · Post by **MartinHines** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 6:10 pm

EvilDragon wrote: That's a bad argument. Why there wasn't such a massive delay and incopetence from Korg's side when M3, or Tritons were released? Those sold here just as well as they did in USA.

First, we are very early in the roll-out of the Kronos. Second, I suspect the initial demand for the Kronos is significantly higher than the M3. Just look at the forum pages here that have been created even before the Kronos was shipped. The M3 did not even have 1/10th of the interest. If there wasn't a big initial demand, no one would be complaining about scarcity.

Tritons are a different story. Since the original Triton was released back in 1999 (pre Internet era) who knows what type of distribution pattern there was.

Also, I don't believe these products "sold as well" in Europe as they did in the U.S., since companies like Korg, Yamaha, and Roland still ship larger quantities of workstations to the U.S. first (behind Japan of course).

Chriskk · Post by **Chriskk** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 7:16 pm

Second, I suspect the initial demand for the Kronos is significantly higher than the M3. Just look at the forum pages here that have been created even before the Kronos was shipped.

The number of posts in this forum has nothing to do with the demand because (1) it simply means that people have more questions about the Kronos (2) this forum represents a small subset of the Korg market, and (3) overall, the Internet usage has exponentially increased since the launch of the M3.

The M3 is a straightforward rompler + sampler. The Kronos is not. There are more questions for the Kronos than for the M3.

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:30 pm

@some comments above:

Responsibility shifting doesn't help or excuse too much.

Korg Japan, Korg US and European Korg distributors created a common result for European customers.
And the result looks a lot like real satire at Monty Python absurdity level, doesn't it?.

Laste7 · Post by **Laste7** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 8:56 am

Moin,

I have different informations from my dealer. I was able to order on the 15.06.2011. Just a few minutes after the Korg Field Sales left. It is right, that every Dealer just get one piece in the beginning for the showroom. They are not allowed to sell it. But in 4 to 6 weeks, that means 1 to 3 weeks from now the dealers get more. I never heard something about October....

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:55 am

Interesting.

I got my information update yesterday from staff of a big reseller.
Before, I had been told what you were told.

Information about delivery state on the German Korg site (news) is zero.
And now it seems we don't even have the same information status from different (in part big) resellers who all communicate with the same Korg Germany site.

Another reseller who is selling a few 61s right now due to special connections doesn't get Kronoi 73 before the end of August (IF he gets them as announced). Fantastic chaos!

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:51 pm

Weird!!!

A few moments ago I suddenly get a message that my Kronos 73 (preorder from January, order from June) will be sent to me today. Have I been too explicit in this board?

Happy as I am - I still can't believe the communication chaos I went through over the last months. And I hope I'm not one of only a few happy ones with a good outcome here in Germany and Europe.

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Korg's European delivery misery: status update

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