Musician's Friend Strikes a Chord with Consumers with Launch of New Interactive Digital Catalog

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Oct. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Musician's Friend, a global top 50 internet retailer and the largest direct marketer of musical instruments in the United States, is pleased to announce their partnership with Zmags, a top provider of commerce-enabled digital catalogs and publications.  Through the newly announced partnership, Musician's Friend will launch their premier interactive catalog. This new venture will serve to increase online shopper engagement, product discovery and aim to inspire and encourage purchases. The Musician's Friend Interactive Catalog will be available on the Musician's Friend desktop and mobile sites as well as on Facebook and other social channels starting October 10, 2012.  An interactive digital catalog, the Musician's Friend Digital Catalog exceeds ever-evolving consumer demands by delivering a superior visual and auditory experience across all digital channels.  With a growing number of customers shopping via tablets, Zmags and Musician's Friend developed a competitive digital platform on Zmags' cutting edge shopper interface –Verge. Taking advantage of all of the tablet's navigation capabilities, the online catalog incorporates ultra hi-resolution imagery, modern swiping interactions, novel navigation—and even includes zoomable 360-degree product views, branded video segments and audio clips to show the instruments in action.

The inaugural issue, Musician's Friend Private Reserve Interactive Catalog, will showcase the best and largest selection of premium and collectable instruments available today. Not only are the guitars pampered from day one in a humidity-controlled environment, but Musician's Friend's experienced personal contacts are available to answer questions and help customers handpick the perfect guitars.

"Our customers' needs are continually evolving," said Ryan Villiers, Director, Enterprise Brand Experience at Musician's Friend. "Shoppers want to engage on demand, across multiple channels and devices. With our Private Reserve Interactive Catalog, we are meeting our customers on this new playing field in a manner that celebrates the rich, lush nature of these beautiful instruments.  The advanced Zmags platform enabled us to emulate the feeling our customers could previously only get while playing an instrument for themselves. Most of all, we wanted guitar lovers to dive into the catalog and have some fun."

Verge, Zmags' cutting-edge shopper interface, brings an easy-to-navigate and streamlined shopping experience to the Musician's Friend catalog with:

• Ultra high-resolution photos including 360-degree views of each product
• Informative master-build videos on select guitars
• The ability to listen to select instruments through embedded sound files
• Downloadable wallpaper for desktop backgrounds

"Joining forces with Musician's Friend, a collective goal was to produce something above and beyond the usual digital catalog," said Scott Bleczinski, president of Zmags. "By using Verge, we were able to create the sensory shopping experience that musicians expect, engaging customers and allowing them to connect to the products. We loved working with such a dynamic brand and are proud that our commerce-enabled digital catalog effectively brings Musician's Friend's shopping experience to multiple digital channels."

To view the Musician's Friend Private Reserve Interactive Catalog please visit: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pages/private-reserve-special-issue

About Zmags

Zmags unlocks new revenue opportunities for retailers and marketers by delivering fully-branded, commerce-enabled digital catalogs and publications that are consistent across all consumer touchpoints. The Zmags platform provides an immersive digital environment that invites discovery, deepens customer engagement and allows streamlined purchasing directly from the page.

Zmags is among the fastest growing technology companies in North America, having been named to the 2012 Red Herring Top 100 North America Tech Startups and the 2012 Inc 5000, and is ranked #70 on the Deloitte 2011 Technology Fast 500. The company is headquartered in Boston, Mass. with offices in London and Copenhagen. For more information about Zmags, please visit www.zmags.com or follow us on Twitter: @zmags.

About Musician's Friend

Musician's Friend, Inc. is a global top 50 internet retailer and the largest direct marketer of musical instruments in the United States. Musician's Friend, Inc., was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Westlake Village, CA. With more than 70,000 unique products for sale, the company covers a wide range of musical needs, including guitars, basses, amplifiers, keyboards, live sound, recording equipment, drums, percussion, woodwind, brasswind and orchestral stringed instruments, as well as related accessories that are marketed through its print catalogs and websites, including musiciansfriend.com.

Questions regarding this press release should be directed to [email protected]

SOURCE Musician’s Friend