Marketing Diversity: The Making of a Global Consumer Product—Hohner's Harmonicas, 1857–1930

Unlike most nineteenth-century makers of traditional musical instruments, who did not aim at mass markets, German harmonica manufacturers were able to develop a large and worldwide market for their product. Located in regions outside Germany's industrial core districts, they epitomized successful specialty production. From the beginning, they relied on exports, especially to North America, a trade that was initially assisted by transatlantic emigrants who helped test market potential and tap into commercial networks. Hohner, the most successful harmonica manufacturer, created a well-known brand and extensively applied strategies of market segmentation and product differentiation from the 1890s onward, in part to satisfy customers' demand for myriad product variations. Sales channels and marketing methods also were far from homogeneous, being most effective when adapted to local conditions and cultures. For harmonica makers, diversity rather than uniformity was the key to global marketing success.