Zildjian marketing/PR article

[Mark Zeger]

I found this on a public relations website. Lengthy, but might be interesting to many of you here.

 

Using the Internet to Strengthen Brand Promise in International Markets

Colin Schofield, Vice President of Marketing Worldwide

Avedis Zildjian Company

 

The Avedis Zildjian Company is the oldest continually family-owned business operating in the USA today. The history of the company dates back to 1623 in Constantinople where an alchemist named Avedis discovered a still secret process for combining copper and tin to form an alloy that made cymbals of unparalleled musicality and extraordinary clarity and power. His cymbals rapidly became famous far and wide and soon the Sultan bestowed upon him the name Zildjian, the Armenian word for Cymbalsmith. It is said that the unique musical properties of Zildjian cymbals inspired composers to include them in their works and the first appearance of cymbals in classical scores begin to appear in the late 1600s.

 

The modern history of the company really begins in the early 1900s. Avedis Zildjian III, who had worked in the cymbal factory in Constantinople as a small boy, had moved to the USA as a young man, married an American girl and had settled in Quincy, Mass where he operated a very successful candy business. It had always been the custom of the family to pass on the secret process to the eldest mail heir. In 1927, Aram Zildjian, then the owner of the company, in failing health and having no heirs of his own, wrote to Avedis in the US telling him that it was time for him to return to the old country to take over the family business that was his heritage. Sensing the rapid growth of Jazz and Swing music in the US, Avedis wisely persuaded his Uncle to come to the USA to teach him the process.

 

So it was that the Avedis Zildjian Company became incorporated in the USA in 1929 right at the dawning of the Jazz era. Avedis and his son Armand worked tirelessly with the great drummers of the day such as Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich to make modern cymbals, as we know them. Today, though still very much involved in R&D activities, Armand Zildjian has ceded the day to day running of the company to his daughters Craigie (C.E.O.) and Debbie (VP of H.R.) breaking the centuries old family tradition of passing the business to only the male heirs. They become the fourteenth generation of Zildjians to take the helm.

 

One of the most powerful and respected names in the entire musical instrument industry, Zildjian remains the dominant force in the cymbal category growing to an over 60% market-share worldwide in recent times even in the face of a proliferation of low cost overseas manufacturers. Zildjian counts everyone from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to Limp Bizkit to be amongst their customers.

 

Like many manufacturers of highly specialized products, Zildjian sees the Internet as a highly effective and ideal marketing tool and has invested accordingly. Everyone buys toothpaste...only drummers and percussionists buy cymbals. When one further takes into account the fact that the largest cymbal buying demographic, the 12-18 male youth segment, is also the group that spends the largest amount of time on-line, the Internet simply becomes an indispensable feature of the marketing mix. With an increasing number of me too products available in markets around the world, Zildjian has placed an even heavier emphasis on quality and product innovation. Zildjian became the first company in the percussion industry to gain the prestigious ISO 9000 quality certification and was recently voted Most Innovative Cymbal Company by the readers of Modern Drummer Magazine, the leading consumer publication. However, this alone is not enough.

 

Deconstruction of the Zildjian Brands continued effectiveness brings to light the importance of the long-term relationship, or agreement that the brand actively develops with its customers, the Brand Promise. We supply something special and unique that the customer agrees to invest in. Traditionally, most of the more resonant experiences that effect that Brand Promise occur at the retail level. In sophisticated retail markets such as the USA, we are able to directly impact these experiences through the deployment of elaborate point of purchase materials and effective merchandising displays. In the sophisticated retail market, the Internet can still provide a key supportive role in this process, however, in many markets outside the USA, where the standard of retail merchandising remains rudimentary at best, the Internet becomes a vital instrument to strengthen Brand Promise.

 

The latest incarnation of the Zildjian Website receives anything from 100,000 to 500,000 visits per month depending on the various promotions and activities going on at the time. 70% of this traffic is not surprisingly from outside the USA where consumers are less likely to be able to obtain quality information from their local music store.

 

The primary mission of the Zildjian Website is to disseminate information to prospective customers worldwide and as discussed, take the brand message to markets where Zildjian retail presence is more limited. The site features a magazine-style format that permits regular updating and provides a compelling online destination for musicians. Integrated with International print advertising campaigns it is always a consistent adjunct to other branded information distribution channels. The highly specialized content features such elements as the cymbal set-ups of over 200 artist setups from around the globe.

 

Specific international areas of the site feature foreign language versions of key information in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese with Japanese soon to come. The International contact locator provides direct links to the Zildjian distributor in each territory. These distributors report rapidly increasing referrals from the contact locators and now take responsibility to actively monitor and provide up-dates for their sections of the site.

 

Brand new areas of the site include the Z Club on-line club and the Z Store on-line store. The Z Club is an extremely effective direct marketing device. Members receive monthly e-mailings of Zildjian Noize Newsletter together with new product announcements, e-coupons and other special offers. It has become an invaluable low-cost market research and customer-profiling tool.

 

Though no core products are sold on-line (and we have no intention of doing so), the new Z Store has become a very active and much visited destination for consumers looking to purchase Zildjians popular line of branded wearables and accessories. Sales at the Z store have risen to over $75,000 per month.

 

Within a short period of time following the launch of the new site, it rapidly became obvious that we needed to reduce our reliance on outside vendors if we were to be able to maintain the high level of freshness necessary, yet still remain within our budgets. Zidjian has recently brought it web management function in-house with great success. Not only are we now able to manipulate and upgrade our site to a greater degree and with a great frequency than ever before, but we have also been able to deploy a variety of significant B2B solutions that have improved and streamlined our interactions with key distributors and retailers.

[Tedly Nightshade]

I see, they're marketing their cymbals to 12-18 year olds! That explains a LOT.

[coyote]

I haven't bought a cymbal (besides $10 chinas from GC) in 15+ years. I bought quite a few in my younger years... I understand exactly why Zindjian is marketing to that segment. Denigrate it if you want, but you have to get the attention of the folks who are actually bothering to lay out $$$ on the type of products you offer.

Originally posted by Ted Nightshade:

I see, they're marketing their cymbals to 12-18 year olds! That explains a LOT.