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d e p mA Gibson, the 120-year-old company that’s synonymous with Les Paul guitars and the rock gods who play them, is positioning itself as a millennial-friendly lifestyle brand by educating young music fans, building relationships with up-andcoming artists, and enlivening its brand story online

BY CHRISTINE BIRKNER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER

 cbirkner@ama.org

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Gibson guitar is an iconic symbol with a deep musical history. For more than half a century, it has been the chosen instrument of blues legends, country music crooners and rock stars, alike.

Noted guitarists such as B.B. King and Eric Clapton, as well as Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry are brand loyalists, and that kind of celebrity endorsement has helped propel Nashville, Tenn.-based Gibson Brands to No. 2 in sales, behind only Fender.

But now the company faces a new marketing challenge: appealing to a generation of budding musicians who are more inspired by Katy Perry than Joe Perry, and who have more exposure to hip-hop and electronica beats than to melodious— or thrashing—guitar solos. It’s a different musical marketplace than it was when Gibson rose to the fore in the 1960s, so the company is working to find ways to appeal to the next generation of guitar buyers.

To get it done, Gibson is strengthening its relationships with high-profile musicians, educating budding guitar enthusiasts through social media and YouTube, expanding the brand through product acquisitions and playing up its storied past.

THE LES PAUL PHENOMENON

Gibson was founded in 1894 by Orville Gibson in Kalamazoo, Mich., and incorporated as Gibson Guitar Corp. in 1902 by five Kalamazoo businessmen. In 1984, the Kalamazoo plant was closed and the company moved to its current Nashville headquarters.

Current Gibson Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and President David Berryman bought the company in 1986 when it was experiencing a significant drop in sales. “Before Henry and David purchased it in ’86, it was a sinking ship,” says Christian Wissmuller, executive editor of Las Vegas-based Musical Merchandise Review magazine, a trade journal for musical instrument retailers. “People wondered what would happen to the brand, and now it’s solvent and growing. They saved the company.”

The company has had a compound annual growth rate of more than 20% since 1986. In 2012, Gibson was the No. 2 acoustic and electric guitar brand in the market, with 33.5% market share vs. Fender’s 36.2%, according to consumer research firm IBIS World. And in 2013, the company’s best year to date, year-over-year sales increased by 45% and approached $1 billion, according to Juszkiewicz. Last June, the company changed its name from Gibson Guitar Corp. to Gibson Brands to better suit its growing business.

Much of Gibson’s success can be credited to the marketing of the Les Paul, its top-selling guitar. In 1952, Gibson rolled out that model, named after the famed guitarist, TV star and producer, who died in 2009. Gibson declared 2013 “The Year of the Les Paul,” releasing a 1961 Les Paul Tribute guitar and posting a historical timeline of Paul’s life on its website.

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The Les Paul guitar became a hit when musicians such as Eric Clapton started playing it in the 1960s, and its popularity continued through Led Zeppelin’s heyday in the 1970s and ’80s, says Chris Gill, editor-in-chief of New York-based Guitar Aficionado magazine. “Fans went to see Led Zeppelin in concert and they saw Jimmy Page playing a Les Paul, and it became a trademark instrument and something that people really aspired to. They wanted to be like Jimmy Page, so they had to get the same guitar he played.”

SCHOOL OF ROCK

With the company breaking its own sales records in 2013, the Gibson brand’s star power obviously hasn’t waned, but nowadays, Jimmy Page isn’t exactly a household name for young consumers, and guitar-heavy musical genres aren’t topping the charts, so Gibson’s greatest marketing challenge is making guitar playing cool again, Wissmuller says.

“The repeated refrain among the industry is, ‘Where are the guitar heroes?’ The last marketable guitar hero is Slash, and he was with Guns N’ Roses in 1987. There’s not much an instrument supplier can do. It’s going to be up to the market. There was a boom in guitar popularity in the mid-’80s through early ’90s because of the music that was popular. Hair bands and grunge [bands], those guys were playing actual instruments, so that drove sales. Now, you have a lot of dance music and R&B and hip-hop. If guitars are being played on stage, it’s faceless players that nobody really knows or idolizes. For Gibson to have greater connection with youth, it will take a breakthrough artist.”

“Back in the day, you had Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, Joe Walsh of the Eagles—just as much as the lead singer, you had the guitar god. The guy who was laying down the riffs was just as cool as Robert Plant.

That’s shifted so it’s all about the vocals these days, with shows like American Idol and The Voice. Who knows the guitar player in Justin Bieber’s band? Nobody.”

ANDRE GACCETTA, G7 ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING

Andre Gaccetta, vice president of Nashville, Tenn.-based G7 Entertainment Marketing, which worked on campaigns with Coca-Cola and Keds for Taylor Swift’s “Red” Tour in 2013, agrees. “Back in the day, you had Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, Joe Walsh of the Eagles—just as much as the lead singer, you had the guitar god. The guy who was laying down the riffs was

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Images courtesy of Gibson Brands.

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Gibson’s content marketing program includes articles, video series and more custom content.

just as cool as Robert Plant. That’s shifted so it’s all about the vocals these days, with shows like American Idol and The Voice.

Who knows the guitar player in Justin Bieber’s band? Nobody.”

With the spotlight on lead singers and a dearth of new guitar heroes stepping in, Gibson is working to build enthusiasm for its products among young music fans through paid, earned and owned media. The company advertises in industry publications such as Premier Guitar and Guitar World, with a heavier focus on online channels than on print publications. In an effort to garner the benefits of earned media, Gibson sends guitars to industry magazines to prompt product reviews.

“[The audio division] is actually one of our best-performing divisions right now. …

We changed our name to Gibson Brands because we’re not one brand. We are Gibson [guitars], and we can take market share and have success in that area, but our values translate to consumer electronic goods. We’re already a lifestyle company.

What we want to do is associate more products with that image.”

HENRY JUSZKIEWICZ, GIBSON BRANDS

When it comes to owned media, Gibson invests in a robust content marketing program, employing three editors on staff and 12 freelance writers who create articles for its website about music education and history, such as “Why the ’70s were rock’s greatest decade,” as well as a video series called “Three Guys and Guitars” where Gibson’s product and design specialists answer guitar questions. The team develops additional content based on online customer feedback, Juszkiewicz says.

On its Facebook and Twitter pages, Gibson focuses on visual storytelling, he says.

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“On social media, people eat it up when we put up a cool picture of a guitar, or allow people to send us pictures of their rigs or of them playing live. We get massive amounts of engagement.”

Gibson also produces a YouTube video series, “Outside the Label,” which teaches young artists how to use social media and YouTube to gain exposure without signing to a traditional label.

“We’re trying to help make professional musicians out of anyone who wants to make a dollar out of it,” Juszkiewicz says.

With education and engagement top of mind, the company incorporates gaming into its marketing strategy. The Rocksmith Xbox video game teaches kids to play the guitar, and is branded with Gibson guitars and guitars from its lower-cost Epiphone line.

And on the sponsorship front, Gibson lends tour buses and products to up-and-coming stars, and sponsors the DigiTour, a live concert series for performers with large fan followings on YouTube.

HERO WORSHIP

Such young-artist outreach is pivotal for Gibson, according to John Lastovicka, professor of marketing at Arizona State University, who authored a study in the Journal of Consumer Research called “Making Magic: Fetishes in Contemporary Consumption” in which he discusses consumers’ desire to imitate rock stars and the bonds that guitarists have with their instruments. “I’ve talked with people in the guitar industry who’ve said the bottom may just drop out of the market when the boomers go away. Staying in touch with nascent artists, people who nobody has ever heard of but are going to win a Grammy in a year or two, is really important,” he says.

But that focus on rising stars doesn’t supersede efforts to connect with established artists. Gibson sells signature Les Paul guitars by Perry and Page, as well as licensed models named after B.B. King, country music icon Chet Atkins, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and other artists. “Gibson is a very artist-driven company,” Guitar Aficionado’s Gill says. “They’ve pioneered the whole signature model approach in the electric guitar market, in hooking up with artists, getting them to design instruments and put their names on them. They led the path with that, and now pretty much every company has a signature instrument.”

The company also fully grasps the power of celebrity endorsements. Gibson’s entertainment relations program includes

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staffers in more than 20 offices around the world who are dedicated to building relationships with artists and actors with the goal of getting its guitars played in concerts and on TV shows.

For instance, a Gibson Flying V guitar was featured in and played

by Hugh Laurie’s character on the TV show House. No money changes hands in these partnerships, according to Juszkiewicz.

Actor John Stamos, who has been playing guitar onstage with the Beach Boys for 30 years, also has a 30-year relationship with Gibson dating back to his days playing guitarist and Elvis Presley devotee Uncle Jesse Katsopolis on Full House from 1987 to 1995. As he told Guitar Aficionado in its November/December 2013 issue: “I went to every company asking for gear, and Gibson was the only one that said, ‘Take whatever you want!’

It was like time-release advertising for them because a million people see that show every day all over the world. Kids are still like, ‘I want a guitar like Uncle Jesse’s.’ ” Demonstrating the staying power of a pop-culture phenomenon like Full House, and the resulting exposure for affiliated brands like Gibson, a clip of Stamos playing with his Full House band Jesse and the Rippers on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in July 2013 garnered 2.7 million hits on YouTube.

“John playing Gibsons on Full House introduced a new generation to Gibson guitars. [The company] knows that if John Stamos is going to be playing this on TV, it’s going to be seen by millions of people and that’s a small investment because the ad dollars to reach that audience would be phenomenally more,” Gill says.

JOIN THE BAND

Recently, Gibson has made moves to broaden its product portfolio and brand focus in an effort to reach music fans beyond guitarists. In 2011, Gibson acquired the Stanton Group, a DJ and audio equipment company that offers speaker, headphone and studio monitor brands KRK and Cerwin-Vega, in part to tap into the younger generation’s taste for pop and electronica. Gibson also has a partnership with Onkyo headphones, which offers a range of Gibson-branded products.

In June 2013, Gibson changed its name from Gibson Guitar Corp. to Gibson Brands to represent its growing selection of products and the company’s new lifestyle orientation. “The Gibson name is about more than just guitars,” Juszkiewicz says.

“This expands our reach to fellow music lovers and allows us to

access 20 in 20 consumers instead of the one in 20 we [previously] hit. [The audio division] is actually one of our bestperforming divisions right now. Our goal is to be 50% a music and sound business. We changed our name to Gibson Brands because we’re not one brand. We are Gibson [guitars], and we can take market share and have success in that area, but our values translate to consumer electronic goods. We’re already a lifestyle company. What we want to do is associate more products with that image.”

TUNING UP

Even though it’s expanding its product line, Gibson is still focused on making improvements to its bread-and-butter product. At the end of 2012, Gibson began marketing new guitars through a “model year” strategy. The 2013 and 2014 model years include improvements, and color and style changes to some of Gibson’s core guitar models. “We’re making a focused effort to improve things that our customers want to see to make the instruments exciting and current, and not stale or sterile,” Juszkiewicz says. The model year strategy “lends itself to making [the guitars] a collectible item.”

The model year strategy should appeal to many guitar buyers, Gill says. “Guitar players don’t usually have one instrument.

They’ve always got their eyes on something else, the new thing around the corner. They might want a new color or a different type of wood, so that’s very appealing to a certain customer.”

The new approach also makes Gibson products more accessible to more customers. While most Gibson guitars have price tags in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, Gibson offers lower-cost models, such as a $469 guitar in its 2014 model year lineup. “We want to have a guitar for the amount of money you want to spend and the amount of functionality you need, the look you want and the emotional connection you want to have. Our main focus is quality, then trying to match it to whatever audience level you’re at,” Juszkiewicz says.

Those lower-priced models serve as potential entry points for customers who’ll ultimately trade up—a good hook for a company looking to attract cost-conscious but brand-aware millennials, Wissmuller says. “It’s an upscale, upper-echelon brand. When you’re a kid learning to play the guitar, the Gibson’s a dream guitar. Part of that thinking is, That guitar is $1,600, so it must be really good.” m

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