Please note: this project was while under full-time employment of British Drum Company. I do not claim the work as my own but have contributed to the design & other areas during the time as the full-time Graphic Designer.
British Drum Company takes pride in designing and manufacturing the finest drum sets and snare drums using highly-skilled UK hand craftsmanship for musicians who recognise and value the highest standards.
This commitment to quality comes at a cost, as BDC drums are positioned in the higher price bracket due to their exceptional quality in both aesthetics and sound. Each snare drum carries a unique story, demonstrating the company's innovative design thinking and development.
The Challenge
In 2022, British Drum Company aimed to launch a brand-new snare drum, the RAVEN, with the goal of transforming their reputation in the drum world. The RAVEN would be the first product in their snare drum range to be priced lower than the others, despite being crafted with the same skills and methods.
To plan the design and marketing launch of the RAVEN, British Drum Co sought my support and design thinking to ensure the success of this product launch.
Research & Analysis
The first area to research was the story behind the drum and its manufacturing. The RAVEN snare was inspired by the director’s trip to the Tower of London, where six ravens hold residency inside the fortress. It is historically claimed that the Tower and Crown will fall if all six ever left the fortress, insisted by Charles II around the time of his reign in 1666.
With any launch comes an opportunity to research into the latest trends which would relate to the consumer. The market research revealed the economic challenges faced by musicians post-COVID-19, which informed the strategy to emphasise the RAVEN's affordability and lasting quality. The sleek black-ash look and birch inner shell were identified as features that would resonate with musicians looking for value and long-term use.
The last piece of research is how other competitors in the drum industry at the time launched their products and how this could work with British Drum Co’s own launch strategies. BDC is known for their uniquely hand-crafted snare drum range which not many other drum competitors put their focus into, however we could still understand and analyse how other drum companies would market a drum product to their target audiences with the combination of unique selling points and keeping to their brand values.
Planning & Execution
The plan process for the British Drum Company's new snare launch was broken down into several key elements:
A website page dedicated to providing comprehensive information about the RAVEN snare drum, highlighting its features and other details that set it apart.
A one-sheet leaflet for the sales team and dealers to distribute to customers, effectively summarizing the key selling points of the product.
Social media creatives designed for the RAVEN snare drum, including creative copywriting and media content for BDC's dedicated social media platforms, highlighting the product's features and appealing to the target audience.
A social media plan, complete with a schedule and strategy for engaging with the audience, generating interest, and building anticipation for the product launch.
Key Deliverables
The Webpage
Working closely with the sales & product team, I drafted up a webpage to be published onto the website. This webpage dedicated itself to the RAVEN snare and showcased key areas such as the material, design and the story.
The One-Sheet
The RAVEN’s one-sheet is dedicated to the key specifications and values it provides to drummers in various musical settings. The collateral was made for both web and print specifications, as well as translated to various languages for dealers to distribute to their customers depending on the country.
Social Media Creatives
For the digital marketing launch, a short series of social media creatives were made, both design & copywriting. As before, these creatives were dedicated to the key values of the product as well as promoting engagement by asking the target audience questions and showing behind-the-scenes processes in the factory.
Results & Impact
The RAVEN snare was one of the most successful product launches at British Drum Company. As well as its streamlined launch digitally, providing dealers with sales materials allowed them to showcase the product using the correct marketing voice and thus resulted in high sales.
After the engaging social media content, we were able to expand and further improve our digital strategies to keep the Raven snare in the back of user’s minds. One example is asking users to photograph their Raven snare in their musical setting to which we then published onto social media two weeks later. Influencer marketing has always been a great method to use for promoting a product with high humanisation and this strategy did just that.
The website was also a success in traffic-driven analytics during the time of the Raven launch, with 21% increase in site sessions, 24% increase in unique visitors and 35% increase in page views compared to previous period.
Challenges Overcome
As the deadline for the project launch was fairly tight, there were other design areas we could have looked at to further expand the launch plan but had to be put aside for the more priority items. This included a brochure with the full snare drum range for customers to compare and see for themselves how outstanding the price was for the Raven.
A few challenges also came to light during the project timeline which interrupted the official launch dates planned. Although this did cause some setbacks and priorities had to be rearranged, as the design & marketing launch were successfully on-track we were able to launch the product earlier than expected. Once the product was launched, we were able to bring the other design items which were set aside back as a priority which became more beneficial in the long-run as it allowed to continuously promote the product digitally.
Conclusion
The British Drum Company's RAVEN snare drum launch was a resounding success, redefining their brand and setting new industry standards. This project showcased the power of meticulous planning, innovative design thinking, and effective marketing strategies.