Into the Future
On the edge of its seventh decade, Marshall is just getting started. Brace yourself for the next chapter of innovation, brainwaves and revolution…
What next? Where do you go when you’ve conquered the amp sector, attracted the biggest music stars from every generation and built a consumer brand that embodies the swaggering spirit of rock ’n’ roll? For less imaginative firms, the answer might be to sit back and dine out on past glories. For Marshall, however, it’s to race headlong into creating the next trailblazing product and triggering a new cultural revolution.
“If you rest on your laurels and rely on your reputation, you’re going to fail every time,” says Managing Director Jon Ellery. “There are people snapping at our heels, but they’re always going to be there. And that just makes us stronger.”
From Milton Keynes to Vietnam, every member of the Marshall operation is looking at the road ahead. That doesn’t mean casting off the time-honoured amps that built the legend: it just means juggling cherished models like the JCM800 and JTM45 with the endless bright ideas pinging above the product innovation team’s heads.
We’re mindful of older technologies; we’re proud of our classic amps, and we’ll always make those products,” says Ellery. “But product innovation is a huge thing for us too, and we invest so much in research
and development. “For example, for me, the CODE series is still in its infancy. We want to really drive that amp series forward now; develop technology that lets players slow tracks down and even get guitar lessons through the amp.
“For me, it’s about trying to get people to interact closer with our products. We want people to start off on a journey with us – and take Marshall all the way through their career.”
“We have so many big projects in development right now,” adds Product Director Luke Green. “I can see the Studio amp series being something that will expand in the future. I think that’s a range that our customers will ask us to develop. As a technology, Powerstem is something that we’re really keen to push forward with. We’re always here to listen to what people want, then deliver that to them.
“In terms of new products, there are so many things we can do. The tricky thing is usually working out what not to do.”
Alongside the hardware, the Marshall brand is growing at a lightning pace. “My intention is to keep driving this firm forward as a music brand, in everything we do and everything we touch,” says Ellery. “So of course we’ll keep on developing cutting-edge amps as the core Marshall product. But we’ll also keep expanding the line of licensed Marshall products with the headphones and speakers. We’re going to keep building the Marshall Live event and working with bands through Marshall Records. That brings the whole thing fullcircle for me. Driving this company forward is always about music and how we can help people experience it.”
“They kind of feed off each other,” picks up Green. “We have Natal drums, we have Eden bass amps, we have the label – and that’s amazing market research, too, because it’s a way of finding out what real-world guitar players actually want to use. When you stop looking at things from that blinkered view of amps alone – and you start to incorporate what people want into other products – everything improves.”
From its humble beginnings to becoming one of the defining brands of rock ’n’ roll, Marshall’s past has been bright – but it’s the next chapter that looks really dazzling. “The future is great for the Marshall brand,” says Ellery. “I worked with Jim Marshall for the last 10 years of his life. I had his confidence. And I think people can see that with what we’ve done to push the company forward, and how the brand is evolving – everything we do is what Jim would have wanted…”