Executive Summary Today we are here to represent our client Reverend Guitars and give a presentation of a potential ad campaign in order to achieve the advertising objective of brand awareness for the brand. Currently, Reverend Guitars has an issue with brand awareness due to its audiences personal preference of other competitors. Today we are here to propose an ad campaign that will help increase the brand s awareness through advertisements using magazines, sponsorship-events at popular musical festivals, a TV spot, and Internet advertising. Situation analysis Company Analysis Reverend is a global guitar supplier that began in 1997 by Joe Naylor, in East Detroit. Reverend is currently based out of Toledo and is run by Ken and Penny Haas. Although Reverend receives their parts from Korea, they assemble and inspect each guitar in their stores to ensure the best quality. Popular artists that use Reverend include Kid Rock, Pete Anderson, and Reeves Gabrels. The brand is attractive to both popular musicians and local musicians. Currently, Reverend uses social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Google+, and a Reverend forum. The Reverend forum includes their updates, news, and products. Reverend guitars are available to their consumers through online and retail outlets like Riff City Guitar and The Guitar Store. Customers are able to go to Reverend s website and find the retailer nearest to them. Recently, Reverend won the Supplier Excellence Award featured in Music Inc. Magazine. The magazine honors the top 10 suppliers using their readers votes. Consumer / Market Analysis
Our demographic includes men between the ages of 17-55 who have an average personal income of $40,000 $80,000 per year. The careers that this demographic may include are those in the music or artistic fields. Our psychographic includes men who enjoy music and either play or have an interest in electric guitars. Their skills range from beginner to professional and they may play multiple instruments. They frequently attend concerts and value quality, tone, and playability when searching for a guitar to purchase. Reverend falls under the acceptance stage on the brand loyalty continuum. While people accept Reverend as a brand within the electric guitar market, Reverend is not insisted like their competitors Gibson and Fender. They are also not well known in terms of brand awareness when compared to its competitors. Within the perceptual map, Reverend falls under the affordable category with their mid-ranged priced guitars and their stylish, exclusive designs. Per capita disposable income is a large influencer in consumers purchases of goods and services. Electric guitars tend to be on the higher priced end for their product category, targeting the higher income individual. A higher per capita disposable income allows for the opportunity for guitar dealers to bring in more customers and make profit. According to IBIS World, per capita disposable income was expected to rise in 2015 and continue to rise thereafter. This offers a great opportunity for businesses like Reverend to be in the electric guitar supplier industry. Product Analysis Reverend sells both electric guitars and bases. The electric guitars are broken into four categories: signature series, bolt-on series, set-neck series, and left-handed guitars.
These guitars range in prices from $800 - $1800 and include a case. The bases are broken into two categories: bolt-on series and set-neck series. Bases range in prices of $1000 - $1400. The parts for these products are outsourced in Korea and are shipped back to be inspected by Reverend to ensure the best quality with the inclusion of a one year limited warranty. Reverend also sells a variety of apparel and accessories including hats, shirts, sweaters, stickers, guitar picks, logo patches, and the like. The Double Agent OG Guitar has Humbucker/P90 pickups and a single cutaway body. The OG also offers both a tuneomatic bridge and stop tail to its customers. The guitar comes available in four color styles: coffee burst, alpine green, midnight black, and vintage clear flame maple. The list price for this guitar is $959, making it one of the more affordable options offered at Reverend. The USP that Reverend s products focus on is a that they hold a unique, retro design and sound at an affordable price. Competitive Analysis Gibson and Fender guitars are Reverends largest competitors and hold a majority of the market share. When comparing Reverend to these two brands as direct competitors, we will be referencing more towards their lower end lines for a valid comparison. Gibson s line Epiphone is considered as a competitor, but the Reverend brand still seems to offer better quality for the price. In addition to competitors, we will consider Washburn, Kramer, Eastwood and Ibanez because they have intermediate pricing similar to Reverend. While Reverend suffers from brand awareness and preference compared to their competitors, they are able to offer a exclusive style that makes them unique to brands like Gibson and Fender. Target Market Profile
Reverend Guitars primary audience is urban males ages 18-35, who are focused on urban trends, authenticity, and valuing the local community. They are aspiring and inexperienced guitar players who are young, vital, impulsive, and rebellious. They seek variety, excitement, and the offbeat. They are known to be experiencers, or selfexpressionists, and have a medium income level. Reverend Guitars secondary audience is older men ages 40-60, who are inexperienced guitar players. Despite the fact that this audience may have the money to make a big investment on a guitar, they continue to desire a quality product that does not require that big of an investment. They hold a medium income level and are experiencers, or self-expressionists, similar to that of the primary audience. There are certain consumer behaviors that influence the purchase of a Reverend Guitar. For one, status and self-image play a major role. The target audience(s) look for divergence when purchasing a guitar and for the fulfillment or desire of wanting to stand out with an instrument that is retro and authentic. What impacts the consumers the most is the sound of the guitar and it s playability. Other consumer behaviors that play a significant role in our product category are the social factors that surround them. This can include the consumer s perception of social media and what celebrities are considering trendy, as well as, the pride that these consumers have in their hometown. The consumer behavior of learning, or the concept of actually trying something when deciding to purchase the product, plays a huge role in the purchase of an electric guitar. In order to satisfy this consumer behavior, we need to make sure that the Reverend is accessible and present in the world of our consumer so that they can receive first-hand experience with the brand and get a feel for Reverend s value and unique sound. To
our audience(s), it is about self-image, as mentioned before, so it is ideal that they find a guitar that represents their authentic taste. SWOT Strength Reverend Guitars are known for their retro design, playability, and affordable price. The company places emphasis on the design concept and the fact that despite the lower price, these guitars hold a magnitude of value. Reverend Guitars are known for producing a unique sound, for being stylish, and affordable all at the same time. Despite the fact that company does outsource the guitars from Korea, they are sent back to Reverend s Metro Detroit location and are set up to perfection. So overall, they are hold better value in comparison to other outsourced guitars because the design procedure is so significant to this brand. Weaknesses Although there is no specific brand that has an overwhelming market share in the electric guitar industry, there are still competitors with guitar lines that equivalent and are desired over Reverend. As mentioned, Reverend also has been outsourcing its manufacturing and making sales in Korea since 2006. This is part of the product weakness because our audience(s) do take pride in the local community and knowing that our product is made overseas can influence them to ignore our offerings. Opportunities Reverend Guitars unique selling point is that they do exemplify a unique, retro design and sound, along with having a lot of value. Multiple local bands and rising celebrities are featured on the Reverend Guitars webpage for having a personal preference of the
brand. With that being said, these musician s likeability for Reverend provides strong credibility in the perspective(s) our audience(s). Since self-image is ideal to our audience(s), having the credibility from other successful musicians can be a huge selling point in our campaign and can also provide the brand with the opportunity to influence bigger artists to represent our brand in the future, ultimately influencing their fan base that fits our niche market to check out our brand as well. Therefore, to initiate this opportunity, Reverend has to become immersed in major musical events where these successful musicians perform and that our audience(s) attend. This includes sponsoring and having a booth at events such as Coachella in Coachella, California; the Billboard Music Awards in Los Angeles, California; and South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. This opportunity will allow Reverend to show its versatility by being associated with different genres of music all while promoting the brand. Lessons and classes can also be provided so that aspiring guitar players can get first-hand experience of this unique brand and get the feel for a guitar that suits the consumer s personality. All of these opportunities support the brand s objectives of increasing brand awareness and sales. Threats The industry of electronic guitar retailing and manufacturing is in the mature stage in reference to the life cycle chart. According to IBISWorld, this industry is characterized by a declining number of players, slow technological changes and brand awareness. Due to strong import competition, smaller industry operators will find it hard to compete and either shut down or move operations overseas. Relying on brand recognition is a trait indicative of an industry mature stage, so in order to gain more attention over
competing brands, Reverend will have to face the issue of investing in a significant amount of marketing in effort to gain an advantage over other competitors such as Fender and Gibson. Overall, the Reverend brand suffers the recognition or preference that many guitar playing consumers have when making a purchase on a guitar. Advertising Objectives Reverend guitars advertising objective is to increase brand awareness, preference, and sales for the urban middle class from ages 18-35. We plan to achieve this by sponsoring a selection of major events, sponsoring popular YouTube stars, and two contests. In addition to this, we also plan on endorsing Reverend Guitars through YouTube ads and targeted magazines. Marketing Communication Strategy We suggest Reverend utilizes it s strength of having a very unique style and build its campaign around the idea to Create Your Own Sound. This would appeal to people who believe in self-expression and want to stand out in their own creative way. Advertising Strategy Creative Since Reverend Guitars is a smaller company compared to competitors, the pulsing schedule will initially provide heavy advertising in the area to create brand awareness and interest. Ads in targeted magazines that our niche market has readership in, along with television ads, YouTube ads that will be played before videos, major event booths/banners, YouTube sponsorship, point-of-purchase displays, contest flyers, and directing e-marketing, will provide brand visibility to our target audience and play a role in accelerating the adoption of our brand.
The first part of our strategy is to use targeted magazines because they will allow us to reach our particular target audience with a high-quality presentation. We will be able to present Reverend s guitars with flexible design options, i.e. rich color, and believability, demonstrating the brand s retro and unique design through visual appeal to the audience. Since our brand lacks awareness, the provision of full page ads will increase our awareness and influence our audience(s) to come into a location that sells our guitars. Quarter ads will also be used as a constant reminder of the Reverend brand throughout the year as well. Guitar Hero inspired the creative behind our quarter and full-page print ads. Here we have our USP Create Your Own Sound to appeal to the younger generation. The creative resonates with the primary audience by visually showing that every aspiring musician has to start somewhere, practice, and eventually work their way up to the top. The creative behind our television spot is based on this idea of Reverend being versatile and able to resonate with the different musical tastes within our primary audience. The ad s creative purpose is to take this idea of versatility and connect it with the aspiring artists musical journey. The spot begins with a person entering the Reverend store who fits into our primary audience and is checking out our guitars. He gets a feel for our featured guitar in our campaign, the Reverend Double Agent OG Guitar, and purchases it. The spot then shows the man s musical journey and shows shots of him playing on stage with a roaring audience. The ad then concludes with him in the same Reverend store with the guitar featured in the beginning of the spot years down the road, where he signs the guitar and it gets hung on the wall. This symbolizes the musical journey that
every aspiring artist aspires to have, while also showing that Reverend is a brand that is unique and loyal to its customers. Media The media schedule for the Reverend Guitar campaign mainly focuses on point of purchase displays and YouTube video content because this is a product customers want to test before purchasing. This allows customers to hear the sound of the guitars themselves and make them feel more confident in purchasing. The cities selected to have point of purchase displays are ones that have a large music culture and have multiple Reverend Guitar retailers in the area. The time of year we have a display for each city is based on the number of music events in that state. We placed displays in months that have multiple music events to draw in the newly inspired musicians (many people feel more motivated to try an activity or product after being surrounded by it, so increase of guitar sales during festival months is anticipated). On YouTube, we invest $4,000.00 a month on ads before videos and $1,500.00 on banner ads. We direct a lot of our funds at YouTube because a lot of consumers watch how-to videos and listen to other people playing guitar as inspiration. To top off our YouTube efforts, once every six months, we want to sponsor a big guitar sensation on YouTube by offering a free guitar in exchange for endorsement. Online, we also sponsor two contests. The first we have right before peak music festival events to encourage people to get musically active, and the other is towards the end of the music events because people by then have been exposed to musical inspiration. Magazines selected for ads are Guitar Player, Vintage Guitar, and Guitar World because they target our electric audience. For our print ads, we will do a full page ad
once every three months to build interest and awareness, and a quarter page ad in each magazines for the remaining months of the year to keep the brand in mind. Major event sponsorship is also encouraged for three popular music festivals. We chose the Billboard Music Awards, Coachella Music Festival, and South by Southwest because they are very popular events and because it gives us a good distribution of our funds during the peak festival months. For Direct Marketing, we are going to email a monthly newsletter in order to make a consistent connection between the brand and the consumer. Our media schedule will also include the sponsorship a few major musical events that are popular to our primary audience. The three major musical events we chose to sponsor are the Billboard Music Awards, in Los Angeles, California; Coachella Music Festival, in Coachella, California; and South by Southwest, in Austin, Texas. These particular events were chosen because they are trendy to our audience, have high attendance, and have popular musicians performing at them. South by Southwest will be from March 15-20, 2016; Coachella will be from April 15-24, 2016; and The Billboard Music Awards sponsorship will be on May 22, 2016. Each sponsorship pricing will be $25,000. Additional Creative Strategies Since the Reverend brand represents products with unique playability and design, it is ideal that our campaign goes beyond a print and television visual so that brand awareness can be reached towards our primary audience in medias that they prefer when searching for information. It is also important that our campaign represents the brand as being one of a kind and trendy by providing additional strategies that will
captivate our audience. Our primary audience depends heavily on technology as a part of their daily routine, hence, why we implemented additional strategies such as YouTube Sponsorship and banner ads, YouTube video ads running before video content, Directing Marketing, POP displays, major event sponsorships and booths, and submitted contests online. The main purpose for the YouTube sponsorship is to increase our brand s awareness by having a popular YouTube celebrity do covers of popular songs that are currently streaming and by having them review and recommend our guitar to their viewers on their channel. Basically, the creative idea behind this is to send a popular, YouTube musician celebrity a Reverend Guitar so that their video content can show them using our brand while creating music. This will not only introduce the celebrity s viewers to our brand name, but it will also show them a demonstration of our sound, playability, and unique design, which can ultimately induce them to check out our webpage or nearest location of guitars. Since our primary audience are aspiring musicians, it is likely that they go to YouTube to search for video content on lessons or for music. Therefore, in order to reach them on medias where they search for this video content, we decided to create an interactive YouTube banner ad. The interactive ad will captivate their attention, forcing them to spend more time with the ad so that they can be reminded of our brand and content. The creative behind this ad is to have an interactive ad showing the guitar strings of a guitar. When scrolling the mouse over the guitar strings, the ad will enlarge over the YouTube screen and allow the viewer to play around and create their own sound with their mouse running over the guitar strings. A click on the banner ad will lead them to
Reverend s webpage with the list of their guitars available. The purpose of this ad is to have the viewer spend time with our brand and click it in order to search for more information on our brand. Our YouTube video ad that will be playing before a video that the user clicks on will be the exact same ad as the one for our television spot. Direct marketing will take in the form of email. The Reverend creative strategy, Create Your Own Sound, will be used with this type of advertising and will be advertising the Reverend Double Agent OG Guitar. This guitar was chosen because it is one of Reverend s original guitars and is symbolic of the brand s foundation of being original with a unique tone. The creative will feature some description of this guitar and increase brand awareness by providing a direct link to Reverend s social media platforms for the consumer to follow. The objective of this advertising channel is to make a connection of the brand with the consumer and to keep reminding them of our brand throughout the year. The creative that we provided is an example of what we would send out on a monthly basis. Each monthly newsletter sent out would be based on different content regarding the guitars the brand provides. The point-of-purchase displays are inspired by both our print and television ads. The displays will be an end cap that will provide an image of the man from our television spot. The man will have a symmetrical contrast down the length of his body, the first half being an image of him with a Guitar Hero guitar and the second half will show him with a Reverend guitar in hand. The displays will motivate the ideal-self image our primary audience and indicate that with Reverend will remain loyal as you, from beginner to professional musician, as experience your musical journey.
In order to connect with our primary audience and create a strong relationship with them, we need to prove to the primary audience that we are the brand that they need when searching for a guitar to purchase. The best way to influence our young, selfexpressionists, audience is to prove that Reverend is associated with consistent value, the offbeat, and authenticity. In order for Reverend to be accepted into the world of this audience, we have to become a part of it by being present in major music events that these audiences attend. This is why we chose to sponsor major events that our audience attends such as the Billboard Music Awards, the Coachella Music Festival, and South by Southwest. Each of these music events introduce a different genre of music, but each still captivates our primary audience. Sponsoring these events will not only prove how unique and versatile Reverend is, but it will also increase brand awareness because our brand will have booths set up at each event where our audience will have the chance to (a) be introduced to our brand, (b) spend time with our brand and learn more information about it, or (c) make an impression towards the consumer that our brand is hip and affiliated with the lifestyle of our consumer. Since we will be sponsoring these major events, immediately our logo will be listed on each event s web page where viewers can learn a little more about our brand and be provided a direct link to our webpage for more information on what we offer prior to the event. At the actual event is where our connection will actually be met. Our creative team plans to create a booth in the shape of one of our electric guitars to stand out and show consumers how divergent we are. In the world of our audience, experience and being authentic ideal, so creating this unique booth will captivate them initially.
Since our client struggles with brand awareness, we decided take on another interactive approach so that the primary audience can be more aware and involved with the Reverend brand. In order to do this effectively, we needed to reach them on social media platforms that they use most in order to start a trend for Reverend Guitars (i.e. Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook). Since hashtags are known for making brands viral, we came up with the creative concept of using a content to influence this brand awareness and recall. The contest ad is titled with our client s USP Create Your Own Sound, where contestants must upload a 15-30 second video of themselves playing an original or cover song while using the hashtag #CreateYourOwnSound before uploading. The first place winner will win a Reverend Double Agent OG Guitar with a case and the second place winner will win a $300 Visa Gift Card. The main objective of this creative ad is to attract our primary audience on platforms that they use the most so that we can create a relationship between the Reverend brand and them. This will help Reverend because of the trending hashtag and visual content of contestants will attract our primary audience to check out our page and see how valuable Reverend s guitars are. Not only that, but this is an attractive and interactive way to captivate this audience in a way where they can show off their own sound and aspiring skills. Conclusion With our campaign evaluation we predict that there will be an increase of 30% brand awareness within the primary target market and 15% with the secondary target market. We also expect to see Reverend move from acceptance to preference within the brand loyalty continuum. If both of these goals are met we expect to see Reverends sales increase within both the primary and secondary audience by a combined total of 50%.
To find this we will conduct a pre and post test of the target market and monitor the Reverend s sales trends. The objective of the pre test is to see where your target audience's awareness and perception of your company/product is before the start of the campaign. The participants include males between the ages of 18-35, make an average personal income of $40,000-$50,000 a year, and are either interested or own an electric guitar. The test will be distributed as a non-probability convenience sample by Survey Monkey. The post test would include the same parameters as the pre test and its objective is to be able to measure the change of your target audience s awareness and perception of your company/product after the campaign.