Brand Audit of Gibson Brands
Progress Report of Phase 2 (Brand Planning)
For years Gibson Guitars Corporation remained focused in just the musical instruments, mainly famous for their classy looking guitars. Being the market leader in musical instruments industry and to go with the flow, Gibson Guitars Corporation felt the need of related diversification and RE-BRANDING, so in June 2013 they Re-Branded their name and changed it to Gibson Brands.
This step was purely aligned in terms of their resources and direction with the overall corporate direction, it’s their current corporate strategic alignment, to diversify.
Brand Portfolio:
Les Paul, Epiphany, TEAC, KRK, Stanton, Crewing-Vega
Strategic Branding Alliances:
Currently Gibson Brands and Harley Davidson made a branding alliance to promote each other’s marketing campaigns. One recent marketing campaign was ‘Custom Nights’, about bringing music and motorcycles together. As both the brands are about class in their respective product categories.
Gibson’s current positioning in the market:
It’s very rare for a market leader company to have no positioning statement but Gibson Brands is one example of it. They have no positioning statement or slogans or jingles. But their guitars are positioned to be classy, highest quality and innovative.
Celebrity Endorsements:
One reason for not having a proper positioning is that their celebrity endorsements is very strong. Guitar purchases are highly influenced by guitar heroes that use and endorse a particular brand of guitars. Gibson Brands have associated their brand with best of best guitar players the world has ever seen. For example, SLASH, JOE PERRY etc.

Involvement in BTL activities:
Gibson Brands is more focused and aligned towards below the line activities, they believe doing things and connecting with their customers in unique ways and to give them an experience. Recent examples of their high involvement in below the line activities is their program GuitarTown
GuitarTown is a complex program that involves artists, musicians, city governments, and numerous sponsors. Artists create the guitars, the musicians lend their celebrity by signing the sculptures, cities provide the public art space, and sponsors defray the costs. "We did want it to be a community effort," Miller says. Because each participant had something to gain from being involved in the program, all were eager to get on board.