Korg Forums

Maybe I'm little late on this one, but it just came to my attention and thought I'd put it out there. The Kronos Brochure UK addition..
You may have to zoom in to read. Forgive me if it's been posted already.

http://www.korg.co.uk/downloads/brochur ... ochure.pdf

Up to this very moment, I was pretty much ok with Kronos. And patiently waiting for the marketing materials to start popping up. After reading this stupid PDF... not so much anymore. For one thing, and one thing only.

"Kronos is more then a new instrument. It is a milestone in synthesis and workstation evolution; one that embodies fresh ideas and breakthrough technologies....."

No, it is not a new instrument. No, it is not a milestone. Both for the same reasons - OASYS had both of that, minus the EP and piano. Fresh ideas, not really. Sample-based EP's and pianos have been around the block for 10+ years. So is streaming from hard drive. Breakthrough technologies? I wonder which one.

The notion of "affordable price" also seems a rediculus one. Since the very beginning. Prices that I'm hearing about (EU prices) don't deserve a serious commentary.

This is just the "OASYS owner" part of me (rightfully) bitching about another take on weird marketing that - after a knife was already "safely deployed" to OASYS owners' chests - goes a bit further and twists the knife a bit more. This is actually perverse and morbid. A superbly cynical thing from KORG to do.

I'm not bitching about the Kronos. But I sure as hell am bitching about the marketing approach. Sad to see a company go so low.

Marketing materials "popping up"? I would say - pooping up.

veddy,
why are you so upset?


It's the usual marketing talk. You can read similar text for every other keyboard. Forget the brochures. Advanced users know exactly what to expect, without any brochure. The only question is the final price. The brochures are probably directed to new customers and those without much knowledge about the Oasys.

vEddY wrote:Up to this very moment, I was pretty much ok with Kronos. And patiently waiting for the marketing materials to start popping up. After reading this stupid PDF... not so much anymore. For one thing, and one thing only.

"Kronos is more then a new instrument. It is a milestone in synthesis and workstation evolution; one that embodies fresh ideas and breakthrough technologies....."

No, it is not a new instrument. No, it is not a milestone. Both for the same reasons - OASYS had both of that, minus the EP and piano. Fresh ideas, not really. Sample-based EP's and pianos have been around the block for 10+ years. So is streaming from hard drive. Breakthrough technologies? I wonder which one.

The notion of "affordable price" also seems a rediculus one. Since the very beginning. Prices that I'm hearing about (EU prices) don't deserve a serious commentary.

This is just the "OASYS owner" part of me (rightfully) bitching about another take on weird marketing that - after a knife was already "safely deployed" to OASYS owners' chests - goes a bit further and twists the knife a bit more. This is actually perverse and morbid. A superbly cynical thing from KORG to do.

I'm not bitching about the Kronos. But I sure as hell am bitching about the marketing approach. Sad to see a company go so low.

Marketing materials "popping up"? I would say - pooping up.

I hear you my friend!

As for noobies not knowing about the OASYS - well, if they're stupid enough to part with what ? £3000? without doing a bit of research - like typing into Google 'Korg Forum', then more fool them.

I have often questioned how Korg have dealt with this whole affair and appears to me to be totally bizarre to ignore the legacy of the Kronos - on one hand you have danatkorg replying to many posts on this forum, saying 'read the OASYS manual', then you have RichF in a video demo saying that the 'Polysix has been especially re-created for the Kronos'...

WTF. Korg really must think we are monumentally stupid. Either that, or they're relying on people to be monumentally stupid to not realise they are not buying a game changer... they are buying a cheaper re-hash of an existing (better but not profitable) instrument.

And then there's this huge delay in delivery and pricing information - sorry, all it does is make this server strain with meaningless speculation.

The Kronos, one day, will be used by the Kellogg School of Management as a case study of how NOT to launch a product (in terms of existing customer relations and information release).

sani wrote:veddy,
why are you so upset?


It's the usual marketing talk. You can read similar text for every other keyboard. Forget the brochures. Advanced users know exactly what to expect, without any brochure. The only question is the final price. The brochures are probably directed to new customers and those without much knowledge about the Oasys.

Hey man, long time no word Hope we'll get some coffee soon, it's been a hectic quarter for me, almost haven't been at home at all...

It's something I've been thinking about and working on for awhile. Lately, it seems that pretty much all of the companies in the world are only worrying about profits, without thinking about _not being assholes_ in the process. Korg sort of signed in on that list. Rarely there's a company that's bold enough or innovative enough that doesn't have to do that.

This has _absolutely nothing_ to do with Kronos itself, it's the background principle of business and marketing that's pissing me off lately - a lot. My work and responsibilities have taken me all over the world, but it hasn't been until recently that I've really thought-out and "absorbed" how much marketing bullshit is happening. From "enhanced truths" to "outright lies". That's what's bugging me. And I do get 20 or so PR's like this per day, to put things into perspective...

On the other hand, I'm also very worried that people have accepted this as "business as usual", as it's ok, just nodding, breathe-in, breathe-out, "it's ok", "it will get better". It will surely as hell not get better while people are fed half-truth-to-lies, without any reaction from the people.

Business of marketing is to sell a product, but by making viable points. It's not the "marketed truth about the product" that needs to be innovative, it's the product that has to be innovative. And quite a few companies - KORG included - have lost perspective on the matter. To put it in one sentence - when products aren't all that exciting and innovative, and don't necessarily offer presumed value for money - either by being too expensive or just flat-out overall boring - then "innovative" marketing kicks in to take over what the product itself should carry - the "torch" of sales. Music industry is probably the part of the industry where people haven't felt this as much as it can be felt in other aspects of the industry. But now, that principle is taking over in 5th gear. OASYS (as an unfulfilled marketing approach) was a semi-start for KORG in that respect. Kronos builds on that, in 5th gear. Very, very cynical indeed.

That's what's pissing me off. The lack of guts in the whole process. Not the product itself. Not by a long shot.

cello wrote: WTF. Korg really must think we are monumentally stupid. Either that, or they're relying on people to be monumentally stupid to not realise they are not buying a game changer... they are buying a cheaper re-hash of an existing (better but not profitable) instrument.

And then there's this huge delay in delivery and pricing information - sorry, all it does is make this server strain with meaningless speculation.

The Kronos, one day, will be used by the Kellogg School of Management as a case study of how NOT to launch a product (in terms of existing customer relations and information release).

To all-the-companies' "credit" - people DID become more stupid and retarded. As a spicies, I'd say that our collective, average IQ has gone down by 30% in the last 50 years. New ideas are nowhere to be found in general public, just endless cycles of rehashing the old. I'm not saying that IN SCIENCE nothing is happening that's interesting. Au contraire. Let me give you an example.

When I finished secondary school, the last thing that we learned at physics class was special and general theory of relativity. When you put things into the "right" perspective, here's an astounding conclusion - we've been learning Einstein's theories at the "end of an educational era" as if that's what's "on the end". It's not. It's actually the beginning. That man single-handedly did more for science then almost all of the physicists before him. And even after I finished college, those relativity theories were the "peak of knowledge" we were learning of.

What the heck? Where's the application of those theories to newer theories? String theory? M Theory? Ramifications on big bang theory? Not a word in science curriculums in secondary schools all over the world about that. That's just plain stupid. And I'm not happy with that, at all. That's why I spend endless amounts of hours while flying all over the world reading about stuff that have been almost hidden from public eyes by being ignored.

We definately have become more stupid, we're just afraid or oblivious and don't want to admit it.

Back to Kronos. Pricing bit - until the pricing information is publicly confirmed - doesn't deserve a single more character on the subject. It's beyond insane to - for example - have pricing for a product for US market, and not to have it for EU. I don't want to get into the whole "they said they'll announce pricing for EU then and then" discussion. I sincerely don't care. But if it ends up being as it was rumoured, then I'm really Lost for words, (c) Pink Floyd.

In terms of product management (Kronos's, to be precise), marketing part of the product is stupid, offensive, cynical to the point of puking and generally ignorant to the whole concept of truth, let alone customers who gave a shitload of hard-earned cash to pay for OASYS so Kronos could exist on the market today.

That being said, this is probably the first time in history of Music Industry in modern times that a company's marketing approach to a new product they developed "burns all ties" and "ignores" its heritage to the "S-Class" product that preceeded it. And one that a company should be proud of.

Korg is lucky that music industry is such a small business when compared to IT. Otherwise I'm pretty sure they'd get a class-action suit a long time ago for the OASYS. Companies have been slapped by courts in the US for far less then a "missing EXf".

vEddY wrote:Companies have been slapped by courts in the US for far less then a "missing EXf".

LOL!

And what about if computer manufacturers released a keyboard that had a button that didn't do anything!

cello wrote: And what about if computer manufacturers released a keyboard that had a button that didn't do anything!

Personally, I like that Function button. It's so.... heavily cool like a black hole in otherwise almost perfect OASYS universe

cello wrote:And what about if computer manufacturers released a keyboard that had a button that didn't do anything!

Haven't you seen a PC running Windows yet?

...

Akos Janca wrote:

cello wrote:And what about if computer manufacturers released a keyboard that had a button that didn't do anything!

Haven't you seen a PC running Windows yet?

What is Windows?!

Akos Janca wrote:

cello wrote:And what about if computer manufacturers released a keyboard that had a button that didn't do anything!

Haven't you seen a PC running Windows yet?

Akos, ++1 ..

Ahh yes Windows.

I remember that....

IIRC, it's the software that stunts your workflow (if you get any!)

Yes indeed this changed game stinks for me too.
I, like many others, pre-order Kronos and 4 months later still don't know what price will it be and when it arrives.
For sure any company have decision of their own marketing strategy, but it looks like the one from Korg is not working for me, because I am seriously thinking of canceling my order.

I believe that I am not alone...

There was once a cereals company that were thinking of marketing a new version of their product as:

"Same s**t, different box"...

In the end they chickened out.