Ahead Chavez Tunable Bass Pad
Travis Matthews
What is my Product ( Laymans terms )
My product is The Ahead Chavez Arsenal Tunable Marching Bass Practice Pad, it is a practice pad designed to give the player a feel of practicing on a real live bass drum. Your able to change the tensions, or the feel of the practice pad head to make it feel and sound like your playing on big, loose, booming bass drum 5 or make it tight, and high pitched like on tiny bass drum 1.
It also includes mylar patches in the center of the heads, this allows the player to hear if he's playing in the dead center of the drum, or if he's playing to low/ or high on the drum. Right now this is probably the most realistic bass drum practice pad out there, and includes the better features for practicing on. The Creator was Brian " Chavez " Lowe. I'm not completely sure when it was exactly released, but the promotional video was published on the 18th of February. http://www.lonestarpercussion.com/Practice-Classroom/Marching-Bass-Practice-Pads/Ahead-AHCBDP-Chavez-Arsenal-Tunable-Marching-Bass-Practice-Pad.html
Features and Benefits
FEATURES BENEFITS
Tenision adjuster You can change how tight or loose the practice pad head is, to adjust to the specific type of bass drum you play.
Realistic Head Response The pad head has a built in mylar patch in the center, it allows the player to hear if there playing in the center or if their playing to high/ or low.
Nearly Silent The customer can now practice at home, or at the band hall without the worry of disturbing family or others around them
Easily Portibale The pad is very easy to transport, it can actually fit into a regular sized cymbal bag, so the customer can now take the pad on long road trips/ vacations.
Transparent heads With the transparent heads the customer can now easily see their hands, and how their moving. They can easily tell if their turing the wrist the right way, or if they need work.
Places sold, Price, and Promotions
Places sold:
The practice pad is sold at lone star percussion, Music and arts, Musicians Friend, Cascio Interstate Music, and Guitar Center.
Price: The pad cost $139.99.
Promotions: They have reduced the original price of 139.99 and are now selling the product for $96.99. Saving you $43.00
Products sold/ promoted with the product
The main product that is promoted with the practice pad is a 3 tear stand to hold it in, which surprisingly they don't sell with it. The stand, as it says in the name has 3 different pieces to it, allowing it to reach taller heights than most regular practice stands. So where a regular stand would come up to my lower chest area, this stand can reach a little above my head.
Marching bass drum mallets. Unlike other bass drum practice pads, the heads on this product were created so that you could actually play real bass drum mallets on them. so you can get the feel of playing on a real drum.
Suggestively sold products
Real drum heads: The creator mentions in the promotional video, you can put real heads on for if your putting on a show or gig, and bass drums are part of your act. Or if you want to hear what you sound like on an actual drum while practicing, you could apply the real heads.
History and Future of the Product, Company, and competition
Product:
History: As I mentioned earlier, the product was released back in February, so it's been out on the market for a little over 6 months now. It was created so that players could practice on something that gave them the feel, and sound of playing on a real live bass drum.
Future: There hasn't been a lot said about what the future of the product is, considering it's still fairly new. They do however plan to start selling a package and sell the 3 tear stand with the pad instead of selling it separately.
Company:
History: Ahead A: Advanced H: High E: Efficiency A: Alloy D: Drumsticks. The first product of the company was a pair of drumsticks. Mr. Rick Grossman created them. He was a drummer and engineer that that worked for the Easton company, ( witch created baseball bats, and was a world leader in making aluminum arrows ). These products were made out of aerospace-grade aluminum. The aluminum was strong and lightweight, and so it was able to replace a lot of wood sporting items ( Sticks, Bats ). Grossman got the idea that, Hey if they can replace wooden bats with aluminum, why can't I replace wooden drum sticks, with aluminum . Grossman went on to create aluminum core, and handle drumsticks with threaded nylon tips, and replaceable sleeves.
Future: Ahead wants to focus on marching sticks, mallets, and practice pads. They also plan to start expanding on a new line of drum hardware and pedals, and Ahead armor cases. http://www.aheaddrumsticks.com/about.html
Competition ( How, who )
There are 2 main competitors up against AHEAD, for selling marching bass practice pads. Vic Firth, Prologix.
Price: Out of the 3 Different pads, Ahead's pad is the most expensive coming in at price of $96.99. The next most expensive pad, Prologix ,is $69.95 almost a $30 dollar difference. Vic Firth the other product has a couple different prices,on some sites it's $69.10, others $62.95 or $64.99, but whichever price you look at it's about or a little over $30.00 less than Aheads pad. So overall Ahead doesn't win in the price competition.
Non-price: However in the non-price category, Ahead blows away the competition with it's many features. Vic Firth, and Prologix may cost less, but they have no were near as many features as the Ahead Chavez Tunable bass Pad. That's what puts it over the top, and makes people willing to pay the expensive price for it.
Market Leader or Follower
Trend setter or follower.
As A Sales Manager ( to increase sales )
Target Market
The main target of the Chavez Bass Pad, is obviously bass drumming musicians. I would say it targets musicians in the age group of 14 year olds and up. I say 14 because that's 8th grade year for most kids and that's when they start to get ready/prepared for marching band the next year in high school. So they ( the ones wanting to march bass ), are probably going to be interested in something like this product, which allows them to feel what it's like playing on a bass drum, and gets them prepared for next year, when they try out for bass drum . Then of course 15 and up, which are your high schoolers, college kids, and professionals. They would be interested in this because they would want a product that helps keep their bass drum technique up in the offseason, and something they can take with them to practice on the road ( Games, Contest ).
Contact System
What would you change ( 4 p's )
I would promote the product a little better. The company doesn't really promote the product that well. I mean the only reason I heard about it was because one of my drum teachers told our class about it. There's no commercials on TV that promote it out to everyone. There's a promotional video, but no one knows about it unless their subscribed to lone star percussions YouTube channel. That's the company who put out the video. Not every single drummer out there is subscribed to lone star, so how do you let them all know?
so personally if I were head of the company, I would send posters/ ads to all the different high schools, and colleges around the country, and to houses of customers/ subscribers alerting them of my new product. I would list on their the different sites you can find and buy the product on.