Fender does a ton of marketing. They are all over social media with highly targeted campaigns for particular products and learning services.
I visit Facebook to check in on the various professional groups I subscribe to. I also subscribe be to some music groups. Amazingly, I’m hit with ads for fender basses and amps like crazy. And even some rando Fender guitar ads, because what the hell, why not? Might as well cast a big, relatively inexpensive net. 
But as far as I understand it, buying any of those will make me cool instantly, right? 
I get a lot more Guitar Center and Sweetwater ads than Fender. Reverb too. Fender is lightweight compared to those.
As far as models, again the lack of diversity is as much due to the consumer as Fender. If Fender comes out with a new design, they get a lot of negative feedback from their customers for straying from vintage. And they don’t sell even if a good design.
And as long as they are #1, there’s no retail pressure for them to push the issue.
Cool as a fool jool but for me it’s no more than a tool. 
So Fender is basically the McDonalds of bass guitars? They can only have the Big Mac, McRib and McSundae … any change is always rejected…
That what I was saying about their marketing. They’ve found much of their success by promoting and selling mass quantities of 75 year old guitar product and 60 year old amps. Even their latest digital amps are copies of the old 60s models.
Fender and Gibson/Epiphone are legacy brands. Boomers grew up playing them and I suppose to a degree we’ve passed at least some of our loyalty to those brands and even certain models along to those who’ve followed us.
But both have paid some attention to introducing more modern variations on those original models and I’d like to believe those are slowly gaining ground as well. Gibson has brought back some models that didn’t sell all that well when they were first introduced and Fender has been exploring more modern body styles.
That’s Fender. What Leo created still sells so why swim upstream other than to add new colors and components like pickups, bridges, tuners, etc. The biggest changes have been 5 string and active electronics versions of the same basses they’ve always produced. Again, it’s a something for everyone approach at different price points.
One statement you see a lot around here is no one ever complains if you show up with a P bass.
And it’s true.
If I were to show up for a band tryout, I would bring my Offbeat, and my Fender PJ Mustang (with the himass bridge), one of the two would do.
I say the same about both a PBass and a Tele. Leo got it perfect the first time. From that point on the rest are all just fancier variations on the same basic scheme.
If you ever record professionally always bring a PBass because the producer will invariably want to cut at least one bass track with it even if he doesn’t end up using it.
Hahaha, yeah!
I went to a local guitar store last week and chatted with a sales guy / bass player.
He said that all the hipsters come in and only want a Fender, cause they feel they can buy a cool / underground identity and image. Also it looks great next to their long board, hanging on the wall … and the obligatory single speed bike.
Moreover, it’s much easier, chatting on a party
BassGuy: “I play bass!”
RandomPerson: “Oh really, what kind of bass do you have?”
BassGuy: “A Fender!”
RandomPerson: “Coooooooooooooool!” (cause he saw it in a mumblecore movie)
Having a P-bass seems to be a casual but intended stylistic understatement, according to the store guy, to show that it’s not necessary to have all those bass and whistles, like all those “posh” bass players (who also don’t own a long board and a single speed bike = not cool at all!).
My punky funky luthier agrees, by the way (he has no long board though, and I have seen him on an old dutch bike) - and the other sales person agreed too, mumbling: “I just need ONE knob”.
I hope he was talking about basses
My P bass isn’t a Fender. It just sounds good. No matter what I play on it. Guess I’m a hipster?
Do you have it hanging next to your long board and your single speed bike?
What brand are your glasses?
Also, you have a Reverend - you are the pinnacle of coolness (for me :-))
This is where I will concede Fender gets its marketing right, by getting instruments in the hands of new artists. Like the Linda Lindas, Wet Leg, and Blu DeTiger. Early clips they had varied instruments, and one day all Fenders. And they are 3 hipster acts. That Fender does well.
Bacchus on the other hand, won’t sponsor Magenta, bassist of GWER, so she has gone to putting black tape over the Bacchus logo. Kids all over Korea are picking up instruments on account of GWER, missed opportunity.
I just googled the bass player of my (current) favourite band: Idles. He is not the most versatile bass player, I guess, but the music is 100% my style (thanks, @faydout for the discovery).
I learned two shocking things:
I will have to burn my HB’s and get those!?
I’ve seen a whole lot of bands across a wide spectrum of styles. While Fender Precisions are certainly represented, a great deal of bassists use other models and brands.
If a bassist grooves in tune and in time, no one is going to complain about what type of bass he/she plays or doesn’t play.
Nah, very few Jazz in short scale.
One of my favorite bass players and why I picked up the bass in the end is Ian Hill of Judas Priest. He’s not very versatile either. But lays down a solid groove.
In a band it’s about the groove, not the bass. That’s my philosophy. I also like Ale of the Warning. Not a lot of bass gymnastics, but solid at the groove.
This will both be my goal and the motto I will put on a T-shirt! Thanks!
I use other models/brands, so I get it.
What I am taking the other point of view on is dinging Fender for having so many variations of the P. They got it right with the P.
And if you were to go to a recording session, bring a P along with your regular bass, producer will love you for it. Less work for them in the mixing.