Marketing
I’m the guy who never changes the channel during commercials. I flip through magazines specifically to look at the ads. I love brands and products and frequently kick myself when I see a simple, new product that I think I should have thought of.
Much of my marketing experience has been in the musical instruments industry, which was the impetus for Drive Channel Creative, a musical instruments marketing agency I started. Although music is my passion, I enjoy the challenge of all projects and thrive on developing creative approaches to complex problems.
Fender by Meguiar's Instrument Care Products
For decades, musical instrument care products were pretty much all the same (actually, products from most suppliers all came out of the same place. Guitar polish could best be described as a $4.99 bottle of soapy water and polish cloths were a $1.00 square of yellow cotton cloth that left yellow fuzz all over your newly cleaned guitar. A $2,000 guitar deserves more.
At Fender, I worked closely with Meguiar’s, the most respected name in car care products, to develop an entire line of premium guitar care products. We pushed the price point up from a $4.99 bottle of guitar polish to a $24.99 three-product guitar care kit (plus a $9.49 microfiber cloth), and revolutionized the market for guitar care products.
Full case study coming soon.
Links:Fender Musical Instruments, Meguiar's, Fender Instrument Care Products
GearPipe.com Musical Instrument Deals & Discounts Weblog
After moving to Denver, I missed being involved with the musical instruments industry. As I was learning more about web marketing, I thought I had a great opportunity to merge new and old passions.
There are a million and one “shopping” websites out there, but none did a good job pointing musicians to deals on musical instruments. In November 2007, I launched GearPipe.com to fill this niche. Each day, I post the best musical instrument discounts, promotions, and contests from around the web. In the year it’s been online, it has grown into the #1 website for this niche.
Full case study coming soon.
Links:GearPipe.com - Musical Instrument Deals and Discounts
CorePower Yoga Podcast Production
CorePower Yoga is the largest chain of yoga studios in the country and is rapidly expanding. As yoga becomes more and more popular, CorePower Yoga has a mission of making yoga accessible to the masses.
They are an excellently marketed company, relying heavily on direct mail and email newsletters. They approached me to help them break into “new media” with an innovative podcast program. Together, we’ve developed a series of audio and video podcasts that has quickly jolted to the top of the iTunes Fitness & Nutrition podcast ranking.
The “Ask a Yogi” audio podcasts feature CorePower Yoga’s most experienced instructors answering frequently asked yoga-related questions. In the “Asana of the Month” video podcasts, we guide students step-by-step through the most difficult yoga postures.
Links:CorePower Yoga, CorePower Yoga Podcasts, CorePower Yoga Podcasts on iTunes
Pro Co RAT Distortion Pedals Rebrading/Website
The Pro Co RAT distortion pedal was a trailblazer, introduced in the late 1970s and used by such groundbreaking guitarists as Jeff Beck, Joe Walsh, and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. Although still a very relevant product, over the years the RAT was somewhat lost in the sea of quality guitar effects pedals and within Pro Co, a company more focused on audio cables and interface products.
Through my marketing company, Drive Channel Creative, I was hired to freshen up the RAT product line through a rebranding effort and a new RAT-dedicated website. Through this, the RAT distortion pedal was placed back in the forefront and has found a new legion of younger, edgier fans.
Links:Pro Co Sound, RAT Distortion Website, Drive Channel Creative
Fender DPT-100 Detatchable Pedal Tuner
Never in my life did I think I would be granted a United States patent. I have always been creative and enjoyed product development, but never thought of myself as an inventor. I guess I am!
One of my goals at Fender was to revamp their line of guitar tuners. One idea I had was to create a hybrid of the two most popular types of tuners, handheld and pedal tuners. The DPT-100 is a handheld guitar tuner that also docked in a floor pedal, so a guitarist has the freedom to keep it on their pedalboard with their effects pedals, or detach it and keep it in their guitar case. Simple but apparently unique enough to be granted US Patent # 7,326,849.
Links:Fender, Fender DPT-100 Pedal Tuner, Full Patent Details