Normandy Guitars

The case study of a successful new product PR campaign by Word's Out PR.

Transcript

1. Normandy Guitars A PR Case Study The story of a successful product publicity campaign, taking a new American-made product to international audiences
2. Text Normandy Guitars The world’s first mass-produced aluminum arch top guitar; a revolutionary concept.
3. The client: Jim Normandy Musician, former bass player in a rock & roll band Passion for making music Self-made man, was an executive in banking industry Bass player > high-tech manufacturing business
4. The business: Normandy Guitars Normandy Guitars started in 2007 World’s First production aluminum arch top guitar 15 prototypes All-American, custom-made product Paid homage to the classic Gibson and Gretsch $2,000-$3,000 price point
5. The strategy: creative PR Created custom, targeted media contact lists Regional National Machinery & metalworking magazines Music trade publications International Industry-specific through National Association of Music Manufacturers (NAMM) Pitches, angles Entrepreneurial Philanthropy Endorsements Product reviews
6. Text Martin, Leslie A.M. Northwest - KATU-TV Producer lmartin@katu.c om (503) 231- 4264 Portla nd OR Entertainment; International News; Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Griffin, Matt Channel 2 News at 5 PM - KATU-TV Producer thedesk@katu. com (503) 231- 4222 Portla nd OR Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Miller, Kristi Good Morning Central Oregon - Central Oregon Television Host and Producer kmiller@bendc able.com (541) 382- 5551 Bend OR International News; Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Martin, Leslie KATU-TV Producer lmartin@katu.c om (503) 231- 4264 Portla nd OR Entertainment; International News; Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Picha-Buller, Elena KATU-TV Special Projects Producer ebuller@katu.c om (503) 231- 3520 Portla nd OR Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Ashford, Kelly KDRV-TV Producer kashford@kdrv .com (541) 773- 1212 Medfo rd OR International News; Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Howard, Rick KDRV-TV Producer rhoward@kdrv. com (541) 773- 1212 Medfo rd OR International News; Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Nelson, Mike KDRV-TV Executive Producer mnelson@kdrv. com (541) 773- 1212 Medfo rd OR International News; Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Phillips, Amy KEZI-TV Executive Producer newsdesk@ke zi.com (541) 485- 5611 x4002 Eugen e OR Local News; National News; Regional News 100 S Media Contact Results Contact Name Outlet Name Contact Title Contact E-mail Contact Phone Number Contact City Contact State Contact Subjects Keyword Relevance Contact Source Page: 1 07/18/2008 The secret tool: Cision, Vocus Direct access to all media contacts
7. 2008 NAMM Media First Name Last Name Company Phone Fax Postal/Zip NOEL WOLLMAN RAVI . BLAKE WRIGHT 281-7261312 77095 BRIAN BERK 11050 JOE SHAMBRO ABOUT.COM 314-954-7554 63101 SHAWN BELL ABOUT.COM 314-954-7554 63101 RON GRENDA ACCORDIANA 630-2439876 60439-8750 ELIANNE HALBERSBERG ALLHIPHOP.COM 706-736-2118 30909 ZACHARY JAYDON ASCAP 818-522-3581 45248 DANIELLE KIFFER BACKSTAGE MAGAZINE 21-24404549 21-24404549 22730150 MARK JOHNSON CHURCH PRODUCTION MAGAZINE 510-787 4823 94525 KIERA JOHNSON CHURCH PRODUCTION MAGAZINE 510-787 4823 94525 BILLY JEANSONNE CLASSIC DRUMMER MAGAZINE 770-438-0844 770-437-9044 30082 BRUCE JEANSONNE CLASSIC DRUMMER MAGAZINE 770-438-0844 770-437-9044 30082 SHELLY JEANSONNE CLASSIC DRUMMER MAGAZINE 770-438-0844 770-437-9044 30082 GREG STEWART CLASSIC DRUMMER MAGAZINE 770-438-0844 770-437-9044 30082 GLENN PEOPLES COOLFER.COM 646-5222921 37203 SHELDON BRADLEY DIGIMUSICTV.COM 901-8305258 38016 ANDY DOERSCHUK DRUM! 408-9719794 408-9710382 95113 GEARY YELTON ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN (MAGAZINE) 704-364-2258 28226-6823 DIETER ROESBERG GITARRE & BASS 50996 FLORIAN ERHART GITARRE & BASS 50996 CHRIS ARMOLD GUITAR DIGEST MAGAZINE 937-572-5581 45342 JIM BASARA GUITAR JAM DAILY 703-2070541 22042 TERRY BUDDINGH GUITAR WORLD MAGAZINE 925-447-6871 925-447-6871 94551 KEN VOLPE GUITARJAMDAILY.COM 203-966-2096 06840 ERIK BEYER HARMONY-CENTRAL 541-8403866 97504 BILL NEWMAN HARMONY-CENTRAL 97504 IRWIN KORNFELD IN TUNE MONTHLY, PLAYBACK MAGAZINE, TEACHING MUSIC 914-557-1053 914-741-1136 10570 EVAN HAGA JAZZTIMES 301-588-4114 301-588-5531 20910 MARK FRINK LIVE SOUND INTERNATIONAL 904-3079971 32207 DONNA FRENCH LIVE SOUND INTERNATIONAL 904-7072300 32207 DANIEL EAST MACSIMUM NEWS 561-8899932 33458 JIM DALRYMPLE MACWORLD 415-699-3383 208-955-5600 B4A 1X8 ANDY BARRETT MI PRO MAGAZINE RICK LANDERS MODERN GUITARS MAGAZINE 703-8602442 20191
8. Smart move: killer photos
9. NEWS RELEASE Contact: Coco Miller Phone: 503.897.3183 Cell: 503.949.7621 coco@normandyguitars.com METAL FABRICATORS ROCK ‘N’ ROLL SALEM, ORE. 9 OCT., 2008 — Normandy Guitars is manufacturing a revolutionary product unparalleled in the metal manufacturing industry. Taking us beyond the conventional wooden guitar, Normandy Guitars has just introduced the world’s only aluminum sheet metal archtop production guitar. “This one of a kind instrument is made out of aircraft grade aluminum, which provides musicians with unparalleled sustain qualities, superior quality and durability,” says CEO Jim Normandy. Tooled up in an unconventional way, musicians and guitar aficionados agree there is currently nothing like it on the market. Zephyr Engineering helped realize the dream of corporate executive and lifelong musician Jim Normandy. Zephyr is manufacturing the instrument that has, within its first year of inception, received international acclaim. Early metal guitar manufacturers attempted to build their products out of solid billeted aluminum, which must be custom made and tends to be costly with limited availability. Normandy Guitars manufactures its archtops in a production environment, making the product more consistent, readily available and affordable. This archtop is formed and riveted with special tooling along the band edge to provide a smooth and uniform surface. With the exception of coating, which is still done on the west coast, the Normandy guitar
10. NEWS RELEASE Contact: Coco Miller Phone: 503.897.3183 Cell: 503.949.7621 coco@normandyguitars.com ALUMINUM GUITAR HITS THE MARKET, CAPTURES NAMM’S BEST OF SHOW SALEM, ORE., 7 JULY 2008 – An Oregon-based guitar company has hit the market with the world’s first production aluminum archtop guitar. Introduced just last month in Nashville, Normandy Guitars instantly gained international acclaim and captured best of show honors at NAMM, the largest music trade show in the world. Much like the transition from wood to metal in the tennis industry, the buzz in the music industry is that this could be the advent of a new era in the guitar market. “Our response at this show was phenomenal,” said Jim Normandy, CEO of Normandy Guitars. “The guitar’s distinctive craftsmanship and design gained recognition from artists, manufacturers and media. The world does not need another Stratocaster copy,’” said Normandy. Macsimum News presented the “Best of Show” honors for Summer NAMM 2008, where they recognized the ATG-SB Aluminum-Body Guitar by Normandy Guitars as one of the hottest products at the show, “ seek out what you want and hold on to your strap when you hear the monster tone of Normandy Guitars,” they say. “Turn heads with your sound, but cause whiplash with a Normandy.” The Normandy guitar is made out of specially selected aluminum, resulting in sustain qualities that are better and have been touted as far superior to the traditional wooden-bodied guitars. “The purity
11. Lining up interviews Jim was a dynamic spokesperson Directed NAMM media contacts to Jim early Creative media kit inside Psycho Guitar Killers comic book After we got the interviews, we promoted & used them
12. Musical pioneer makes his mark TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ I Statesman Journal Jim Normandy plays one of his chrome-jinished archtop aluminum guitars. SALEM · NEW DENTl · NEW PARTI · REPAIRS · RE PRODUCII\ QUALITY, NAT APPEARING DE~ AT A PRICE YOU CP truer, longer, louder." Shawn Sonnenschein, gui- tarist for the Portland metal band Black 'n Blue, said he's the first endorsee and now is playing only Normandy gui- tars. "The first gig was a couple weeks ago in Tulsa, Okla., in front of 30,000 people (at Rocklahoma), they played really well," he said. "The guitars travel well, they sound amazing - great tone, playability - and they look incredible." Tim Knight, rgw owner of Guitar Castle in downtown, so far is the o.nly officially licensed dealer. He has yet to sell a Normandy, he said, but has seen customer interest in the guitars, which retail for $1,999. "People are interested in them," he said. "I have three in here for customers to play. I'm nothing but giggly about it. I'm happy for Jim, and I'm waiting for more players to come in and give it a try." www.normandyguitars.com http://profile.myspace.com/ind eX.cfmPfuseaction=user.viewpr ofile&friendID=386564022 http://vids.myspace.com/index .cfmPfuseaction=vids.channel& ChanneIlD=38656g.022 www.gearwire.com/normandy- gtiltars-smimm08.lihnl www.namm.com/summer www.namm.com Links See this story at StatesmanJournal.com to find: PHOTO GALLERY: See images of the guitar-making process NORMANDY GUITARS: Explore links about the guitars, including the Web site and videos NAMM CONFERENCE: Learn more about International Music Products Association and see images from its Summer Event to Salem when he was in sixth grade and returned with his wife in 1996 after attending college in Portland - is dedicating much of his time not spent at his con- sumer finance job to guitar production. The work of building the guitars has been contracted with South Salem-based Zephyr Engineering, and on a recent Thursday, the cav- ernous warehouse vibrated with activity. Workers supervised the laser-cutting of enormous sheets of aircraft-grade alu- minum; others welded a long metal ribbon around the two curved body pieces, hand- clamped to ensure the cor- rect arch. Although you might expect a metal guitar to sound tinny, this isn't the case. The tonal difference, Nor- mandy said, comes from a much greater sustain - how long a note played on the instrument holds out - than from a wooden guitar. "I use the analogy of a Online extras Salem man builds award-winning aluminum guitars By K. WILLIAMS BROWN Statesman Journal For 15 years, Jim Nor- mandy worked patiently on his idea. Through 15 proto- types - thicker metal, thin- ner metal, different shapes, different aluminum grades - he slowly developed a lightweight archtop guitar with an aluminum body. The Salem resident origi- nally jumped into making instruments for himself in the early '90s. "I'm a bass player, and back when all of the acoustic bass stuff was going on, I wanted an acoustic bass," he said. Although Normandy couldn't afford the $3,000 price tag, he thought he could make one himself - out of plastic, wood or metal. After seeing his friends' reac- tions to his metal prototypes, he decided the idea could have commercial merit. "People really started freaking out," Normandy ·said. "The sound is awesome, and he looks so cool." He decided that the guitar market would be bigger than the bass market and diligent- ly applied himself to develop- ing the perfect metal guitar. And then in June, Nor- mandy Guitars exploded. Patents were finalized; the guitar was debuted at the Summer NAMM show,one of the music product indus- tries' biggest gatherings. Normandy found himself the recipient of a Macsimum Best In Show award, with the citation noting the "stunning sound as well as a look that is absolutely going to be the ice- breaker for many conversa- tions. Turn heads with your sound, but cause whiplash with a Normandy." Normandy made 25guitars for the NAMM show; Since then, the orders have been pouring in through his Web site, from as far away as Aus- tralia. Six weeks later, Normandy is in the process of produc- ing his 87th guitar. Frank Black, a guitarist for The Pixies, is in the studio
13. ▪ All Jim Normandy ever wanted to do was play rock ‘n’ roll music or be in the music business. Growing up in the 1960s, he’d hear his mom listen to Janis Joplin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin and think “this is what I want.” But like many other musicians, Normandy realized playing rock ‘n’ roll for a living would be difficult while trying to raise a family. “It’s difficult to do the band thing when you are starting a family and a career,” says Normandy. “So I let it go.” He played bass for a few punk bands in college and started build- ing his own bass guitars. When he first started thinking of how to make a bass, he tried thinking of different materials to use than just traditional wood. He experimented with plastic and fiberglass but wasn’t impressed with the results. One day he asked a welder friend if he’d help him make an aluminum bass. “I picked it because it was lightweight,” says Normandy. “I found out later, because of the patent process, that there had been earlier patents, people who tried to make guitars out of aluminum. They weren’t necessarily successful, they couldn’t make it viable.” The more he refined his prototype, the more he thought of making guitars instead of basses. “There’s way more guitar players,” says Normandy. “I thought, if I want to do this as a business, I should work on guitars first and then get basses down.” Now about 15 years after his original prototypes, the Oregon na- tive has introduced the very first commercially viable aluminum guitars. Last June at the Nashville NAMM 2008, the world’s largest music trade show, he officially introduced Normandy Guitars’ first few models of electric guitars made from aircraft-grade aluminum. His guitars won the Best of Show Award and ever since musicians have been lining up to play and buy his guitars, he says. Working with aluminum is labor intensive, he explains. Several engineers work in the facility where his guitars are made and it takes about 40 people to make the guitars. The guitars are indi- vidually crafted and engineered on a computer. Lasers precisely cut the aluminum body, while Normandy uses hard maple necks and frets, and high output humbuckers to complete his guitars, which range in price from $1,400 for newer models, up to less than $3,000 for chrome models. While he may not look and sound like a typical executive when speaking casually of his life before Normandy Guitars, when he talks about his aluminum guitars, his enthusiasm shines clear. “The interest is insane,” says Normandy about his new guitars. “I can’t keep up with the orders. Professional musicians and novices alike, they love it.” Musicians who have bought Normandy guitars include Frank Black of the Pixies, the guitarists from Eagles of Death Metal and Wil- liam Bragg. Besides being lightweight, aluminum guitars provide greater sustain (how long a note rings out). “I don’t think you can make something cooler looking than a chrome color guitar,” he says. “They sound good, or better than any guitar. They are super cool and sound awesome.” To learn more about Normandy’s aluminum guitars, check out the website www.normandyguitars.com. 34 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 behind the nameplate
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16. PR take-aways Photos are crucial Dynamic spokesperson Ask for reviews Build relationships w/ media contacts Have fun, be creative