Mini-Brand Audit of Guitar Hero By Activision (Independent Research)

Listed below is a pre-release, draft copy of a brand audit on the Guitar Hero brand by Activision. I performed this mini-brand audit as a self-funded, independent party, and I created this document for reasons related to business development, marketing, and teaching purposes (brand management & consulting).

The purpose of a brand audit is to provide a company with a starting point for managing brand architecture, brand identity, and brand-building activities. Brand audits are often refreshed every one to two years and may be done by either internal staff of the company or external consultants.

Although I am a stickler for crafting problem statements, I did not explicitly articulate the problem statement assosciated with this audit (which is something I typically recommend in a consulting deliverable). That said, the general notion of an audit performed by an external 3rd party is to provide a wholistic, and independent view of strategy and tacics. I believe this document accomplishes that goal within the described limits stated in the document.

For the coming weeks, I would appreciate input and feedback from folks. I would also appreciate help in spreading the word as I am not a mainstream media channel. 🙂

Again, there are few angles I am thinking about in terms of releasing this note in the public domain:

  • business development purposes for consulting
  • general marketing & personal brand development
  • instruction and teaching purposes

I plan to finalize version 1.0 of the document and re-release around September 1, 2009 before key milestones are reached by Activision and competitors.

Thanks for your interest. Please help to spread the word!

Draft copy of brand audit here (PDF file replaced by update below).

Update (8/30/09): Version 1.0 of Guitar Hero brand audit here (PDF file).

Update (9/4/09): Guitar Hero and related subbrand logos get a bit of a refresh (see here and here). The changes are consistent with the strategies outlined in the audit.

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2 Replies to “Mini-Brand Audit of Guitar Hero By Activision (Independent Research)”

  1. Steve, I read your report. Good job. I would comment that I have purchased both products for my daughter who is 17. You can learn more about me on linkedin. I think your report could benefit from talking with actual users. For example, we did not identify Guitar Hero so much as a rock product – although my daughter likes rock – because then it would be a duplicate of what we already had (Rock Band). We saw it would have a broader range of music, greater easse of use, music we can buy later, etc. So we saw it as a better product line.
    I would also suggest looking at comments about both products on sites like Amazon to get user feedback
    Jack

  2. Hi Jack,
    Yes. A larger, brand audit would benefit from more primary research, both at the user-level and channel-level (e.g., retail outlet). Our family has hands-on access to varying releases from both vendors (mainly Guitar Hero III and Rock Band which is not an apples-to-apples comparison) so I tried to stick to external perspectives and facts coming from the company.
    I did scan some of the comments on bulletin boards and the Amazon website. That said, I struggled a bit with how to portray that information systematically given the time constraints. Perhaps I’ll try to revist this in the next two weeks. I can potentially see taking a select subset of comments as related to those that either switch from one product line to another …
    Thanks for the feedback!

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