In the past I have been occasionally accused of being stuffy and old school (unfairly in my view - just like Lords, which is the most forward thinking ground in the world) so I feel able to comment - I don't believe the branding is in anyway old school.
Some of it very much isn't to my taste - but that is the point of a huge brand - to offer variety to different demographics.
Look at the competition - GN to that really well with the Legend/Scoop style bats vs the more brash bats.
GM have the 1885 - for the really traditional and the Zona at the other end of the scale.
Clearly they have looked at their sales and felt that the more modern styling hits more of their target market and then pushed for that.
GM is not a boutique business - you have to understand the market place - on here we can be to micro in our views and tastes rather than understanding the macro position as well.
Although there's a lot of info there, Buzz, and it's well explained, it's all a bit too much for me. Less is more, especially for the average customer who doesn't care about a lot of that stuff.
Although you wouldn't know it from reading this thread, my take is that GM are targeting more of the "cricketing geek" rather than your average Sunday cricketer. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a little strange given that they are one of the larger brands and the average Sunday cricketer market is bigger...
Paul - I don't agree - In my view they are trying to demonstrate the value you get for buying a branded bat like GM - rather than a smaller/boutique brand option.
The other question I ask you is how often a Sunday cricketer buys a bat and whether having the Sunday cricketer as your target market would be as a sustainable business model.