What do Hoobastank, President Bush and the athletes of the 2004 Olympics have in common? Over the past year, they have, respectively, made music, debated politics and celebrated Olympic victories via microphones provided by Stow-based Audio-Technica U.S. Inc.
Audio-Technica U.S. was formed in 1972 as an independent distributor of Japan-based Audio-Technica, under the umbrella of the Teledyne Corp., which had offices in Akron. The Japanese company, which got its start more than 40 years ago as a producer of phono cartridges, expanded into the microphone business in the late 1970s as the advent of the compact disc changed the audio industry.
By the early ’90s, wired and wireless microphones became A-T’s major product line, used by professional musicians as well as in-home recording studios, schools and universities, corporate boardrooms, council chambers and places of worship.
Today, A-T U.S. President and CEO Phil Cajka says the demand for wireless microphones has grown, while the demand for wired mics has decreased.
“People want mobility, and … (the price of) wireless microphones has also been coming down to a point where it’s more affordable,” he says.
Cajka, who began his A-T career as a controller in 1981, was named president in 1996. Not bad for a guy who played drums through the 12th grade but “knew my talent was somewhere else.” In fact, Cajka says the company is full of “recovering musicians,” some of whom still jam with local bands and whose love of music drives their passion for their work.
“That adds to the fun of the job, and it’s easier to relate to some of the customers,” Cajka says.
A-T U.S. markets and distributes its products throughout the Western Hemisphere and provides marketing and engineering support to operating companies in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong. A-T’s U.S. and European operations, with combined sales of $75 million, work hard to target the product to individual cultures, and the local facility is 71,281 square feet of innovative spirit.
That innovation can be found throughout the company, and that and the drive for quality influence everything it does.
“We’re looking for technological innovation, but it’s also important to recognize that innovation can happen in a lot of areas,” Cajka says. “You can have innovative packaging that makes it a little easier, more eye-catching to sell a product. You can have innovation in the supply chain — how can you get your product quicker and easier to your customers? How can we do things more efficiently internally?
“For us, innovation captures all those activities … to talk about it and identify those times when you’re successful, or when you try things and they don’t work –that’s OK, too.”
A-T recently formed the Audio Solutions department to answer technical questions from customers, not only about A-T products but about any product in the industry.
“It’s meant as a way to answer customers’ questions and then form a relationship with (them) that they can depend upon us,” he says.
Check, check … test 1, 2
“Are you claustrophobic?” Cajka asks before we enter one of two anechoic chambers at A-T’s Stow facility.
The room, which fits only a few people standing, simulates an ideal acoustic environment — one with no walls, ceiling or floor. When the door closes, it seems to disappear.
Fiberglass cones, like wedges of yellow cheese covered in wire mesh, jut out from every angle, and the metal grate on the floor — covering more cones below — seems a thin barrier between existence and the unknown. The room is suspended so vibrations from cars and trucks driving the busy industrial parkway outside don’t affect the quality control testing of microphones from A-T’s Japan factory.
“They tell me that if you stay in here long enough, you’ll just hear your heartbeat but I haven’t gotten to that point,” Cajka says, his voice sounding truer here than in any other room.
A-T’s engineers often pull samples of their lower-end microphones, hook them up to a computerized testing station and make sure the microphone’s performance is equal to the company’s quality standards. They test every high-end mic and put a copy of the results in the package.
“We want to use it as a marketing tool, showing that this is the mic operating at the characteristics it’s supposed to be,” he says. “That’s one of the ways you build a brand — being able to have a quality-consistent product.”
A-T customers are as varied as legendary music producer Phil Ramone — who Cajka says was loaned an A-T mic and liked it so much he wouldn’t give it back — to garage bands who buy their mics at more than 100 Guitar Center stores nationwide.
The company’s Web site features endorsements from music producers and sound engineers who have used A-T mics for studio recordings and concerts by bands including Evanescence and Sevendust, contemporary Christian performer Steven Curtis Chapman and musical newcomer Los Lonely Boys.
“In some type of endorsee situations, you may have a company paying somebody to endorse the product; in our case, we’ll give them free product … but we won’t pay them for it directly,” Cajka says.
A-T’s development and marketing departments stay in contact with these end-users to see how they like the product and find out how A-T can help them with other audio challenges.
“In some cases,” he says, “we’ll specially develop something for a unique application if the relationship’s strong enough.”
Loud and clear
Considering A-T’s role worldwide, Cajka’s philosophy is, “Think globally but act locally.” The company’s redesigned Web site is expected to launch in April with text in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and German because “even though we would like to think English is the universal language, people still want to speak in the language they’re used to,” Cajka says.
That’s reflective of Cajka’s desire to adapt A-T’s culture and marketing to the countries where it does business.
When it comes to artist endorsements, A-T’s European operations are pursuing relationships with bands unique to European countries. And when determining ad placement, A-T’s European sales team is identifying the industry publications most read by, for example, French broadcasters or German studio engineers.
“The approach may be the same but the execution, the detail and the tactics will be appropriate for each one of those countries,” Cajka says. “My role is making sure the overall strategy is in place … and making sure there’s the financial resources and support.”
The biggest challenge in designing product packaging and advertising for other markets is the language.
“You may say something one way in a culture that means one thing, but you take (the product package) somewhere else, it could have the opposite effect on what you’re trying to do,” Cajka says, adding that good translation services are essential. “(Customers are) more likely to buy and consider a product if it’s in their home language because they recognize that the company’s looking at them as an individual.”
A major part of branding is making the effort to understanding the target consumer.
“In Latin America, you’ve got to recognize the average income for people and the type of product you’re going to sell down there. They’re at a fraction of the earnings power of the U.S. right now, so you have to gear products in a way that meets that need,” Cajka says.
“We’re in the process of developing a line of entry-level microphones specifically for the Latin-American market that will have some specific advertising associated with that product.”
State-of-the-art
The walls in one of A-T’s meeting rooms are lined with gold and platinum albums, awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America to recognize the number of copies sold. The ones on the wall honor Linkin Park, Jars of Clay, Randy Travis, Faith Hill — a who’s who of the recording industry, and all of them recorded using A-T microphones.
Another wall features photographs of musicians in concert, A-T mic gripped
in
their fists, the company’s triangle-in-circle emblem visible.
More than 400 A-T mics were used at last year’s GRAMMY Awards, and more than 80 A-T were used at the 2004 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The company supplied in excess of 200 vocal and instrument mics for the 38th annual Country Music Association Awards show last November, and its product was used during last summer’s 28th Olympic Games in Athens to pick up the sounds of gymnasts’ hands striking the pommel horse, volleyballers grunting and runners’ shoes hitting the track, as well as for the Games’ opening and closing ceremonies.
And when it comes to events where the clarity of every word is crucial, A-T has been outfitting the U.S. presidential debates since 1988.
A-T also sends representatives to eight to 10 trade shows annually to build relationships with producers and engineers in the recording industry, international merchandisers of commercial and retail music products, broadcasters and designers and installers of commercial electronic systems.
“There’s a top group of professionals in the industry that are responsible for organizing these events,” Cajka says. “Our first opportunity (to form relationships) may come from a problem that they can’t solve, so we come in and solve their problem. They then become confident in our products and what we can do for them in our relationship. Once it works well the first time, they ask us back, and each time, it just adds another page to the storybook, in a way.”
But there can also be problems.
“The worst phone call that any one of us can get is, ‘This is so-and-so, and I’m at the GRAMMYs right now, and I’ve got this problem.’ … We work very hard not to let that happen, and as people build confidence in us, and having (A-T) people on-site, even if some unexpected problem comes along, it can be solved, we’re ready to go,” he says. “We’re very professional, and that just reinforces the whole relationship.
“The first time we were involved with the debates, we actually had the podiums come back, and it was kind of refreshing to see that there were actually sweat marks from the candidates on the podiums,” Cajka says. “I know at one of the (debates), one of the candidates came up and shook our guy’s hand, and that was just a wonderful experience.”
Or, as Cajka says, another page in A-T’s musical storybook.
HOW TO REACH: Audio-Technica, (330) 686-2600 or www.audio-technica.com
