Guitar Center Professional Unveils New Website

Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, recently went live with its new website (http://www.gcpro.com/), greatly enhancing the user's online experience. The new site features a streamlined interface, straightforward navigation, and new market-derived content, all part of a clean design that focuses on the applications of GC Pro's customers, allowing them to easily connect with GC Pro's account managers and other sales staff. Up-to-date news on products and installations is seamlessly integrated into the site's main pages, which are split among dedicated recording studio, post-production, live sound and house of worship site areas. The site was developed as a cooperative effort between GC Pro management, Guitar Center's marketing communications team and Redondo Beach, California-based Jeff Klopmeyer Communications (JKC). JKC Principal Jeff Klopmeyer explains, "In designing the new site, we wanted to minimize the time it took for users to get essential information from the site, whether it was finding information on a product or getting in touch with the appropriate GC Pro account manager. GC Pro site visitors can now easily find the products and services for their particular application." The main "landing pages" of the site are categorized by customers' applications. Site visitors can choose recording, post, live sound or house of worship site areas. From there, the site presents featured articles on GC Pro's customers and recent installation successes, along with a selection of products that are appropriate for that application set. Other features include a resource page for educational institutions, a comprehensive news blog and an updated Account Managers page, which is now searchable via name and territory. The site will be continually augmented with new features and content. Monthly updates will consistently add new spotlights on GC Pro's high-profile customers and featured products. Featured stories will reflect the successes of GC Pro's rich client base. Also, the site will soon be adding another area of focus for GC Pro's new Systems and Products Installation Initiative, through which GC Pro will be supplying turnkey systems, working closely with leading sound contractors and system integrators. If all that is not enough to keep users excited about the site, a monthly sweepstakes is also being added, where people can win gear from GC Pro. "We've listened very closely to our customer base and taken great care to determine the needs and interests of those visiting our site," commented GC Pro Director Rick Plushner. "To that end, we've reorganized the site's layout and simplified its navigation, upgraded the content with a new focus on informative client/installation successes, made account manager searches even easier, and set in motion a series of monthly updates to keeping the content fresh. We're very excited about continuing to make www.gcpro.com a key destination for music and audio professionals."