Kawai Piano USA Case History

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Case Study

Kawai America

Situation

Kawai Piano was already the largest manufacturer of grand pianos in the World. Its foothold in the U.S. market was established with many professional musicians. While the company also made uprights and other instruments, its reputation was its fine line of grand pianos.

Problem

Kawai needed more Factory Authorized Dealers with showrooms that could extend the opportunity to “experience” their line first hand. In musical instruments, demonstration is everything. Only live demonstrations can convey the pure quality of these fine musical instruments. TV and radio can take sound to the market second hand, but these demonstrations reduce the experience to the limitations of those media. A :60 spot is hardly enough time to audition a high end musical instrument. A quasi demonstration through audio media is often worse than no demonstration at all.
The agency was called in.

Solution

The Keys to the Colorful Sound Campaign: The agency hit the ground running. It launched a brand audit of other piano lines in the U.S., their products, price points, brand positionings, reputations among dealers, advertising expenditures, and marketing legacies.
In its discussions with Kawai dealers and would-be Kawai dealers, the agency learned that Kawai had a very high reputation even among the Steinway, Bosendorfer, and Baldwin folks. Their primary concern was product availability, factory promotional support and follow through.
To reach, recruit, and sell in its new lines to prospective dealers, as well as to its existing dealer base, Kawai needed a trade campaign that spoke to the concerns of dealers including its product availability (a big problem

with Steinway, Bosendorfer and others), its profitability, and its factory co-op marketing support. To reach prospective customers, the Company needed a campaign that would demonstrate the superior quality of music its instruments can make. The agency created an integrated campaign that would do both.
   The agency decided to use color as a metaphor for the sound a printed page couldn't make. Color is also a musical term that also suggests that level of quality, which can only be experienced first hand. By using color as a metaphor in magazine print, Kawai could access both trade and consumer markets in one process, recruit and expand its dealer base, and set in motion a program to promote live demonstrations.
   The Keys To The Colorful Sound Campaign was produced initially as a two page insert in Musical Trades Magazine. The campaign consisted of five full color consumer ads and five two-color dealer ads printed back to back that the agency printed on 100# litho stock and shipped to the magazine for binding in select pre show issues.
   Each consumer ad featured a Kawai Grand Piano in a color dominant setting – gold, silver, green etc. – and each featured a lyrical poem supporting the relevant color. The last line of the poem asked, “Is there anything quite like the ____ sound of KAWAI?”   Each trade ad on the backside of each consumer ad tied in with the featured color. The trade ad headline was the question set forth in the consumer ad with a slight change. “Is there anything quite like the Golden Sound of KAWAI?,” became “Is there anything quite like the Solid Gold Sound,” the “Silver Sound” became “Is there anything quite like the Sterling Silver Sound,’ and “the Green Sound” became “Is there anything quite like the Long Green Sound.” The body copy of the trade ads laid out the logic, the support, and the profitability of being an Authorized Kawai Dealer.

Results

The Keys to the Colorful Sound Campaign-- awarded the "Best Campaign of the Year" by Music Trades -- put Kawai on the map as a marketing smart company. Kawai quadrupled its dealer base in five months and its gross sales were up 28% over the previous year.

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