The client is a sole entrepreneur who has developed an innovative guitar pedal controller for guitar players. As a guitar enthusiast who would like to have an efficient guitar pedal controller to improve his performance during gigs, he did not find a suitable one available in the market. He, then, developed his own, managing to create it with advantages over the current pedal controllers available. The product is finalized and ready to be commercialized, along with new product outlines to be released in the near future. In order to launch and commercialize the product, he will establish a startup, which requires the development of a solid marketing strategy to maximize the chances of success of the new brand.

The development of the marketing strategy followed the framework recommended by Mooradian, Matzer and Ring (2012), which has four main phases that guided the development of the work: 1. A situation assessment: in this section, an initial assessment of the situation was made, covering information concerning customer, the business and the competition. The competitors analyzed were chosen based on the level of similarity to the product and relevance of the brand and described according to the Michael Porter’s Competitive Analysis Framework. Secondary data publicly available or in databases accessible by Swiss universities was used for the collection of the necessary information, along with information available on the websites and social media of competing companies regarding their products. 2. The strategy formation: in this section, competitive advantages of the client were observed according to the information collected in the situation assessment, followed by segmentation, targeting and positioning recommendations. 3. The implementation: Positioning and the marketing mix: this section covers applied recommendations regarding to marketing mix elements based on the decisions made in the previous section and recommendations from literature, with focus on promotion and channel elements, as product and price decisions were already made by the client. 4. Documentation, assessment and adjustment: The last stage contains information regarding risks, forecasts made according to the client's decisions and measurement methods recommended by the literature.

The paper provided a recommended marketing strategy for the launch of the new pedal controller developed by the client. The strategy was developed taking into consideration the context in which the product will be released in the market, the client's resources and wishes, along with important considerations from the literature. The situation analysis revealed that for the product developed, potential customers are amateur or professional guitar players that perform in small and mid-sized gigs. The competitors analysis indicated that the main competitors are currently Mooer, BOSS and GLAB, as they are solid and well established enterprises which have large pedal portfolios and have been developing pedal controllers that will compete with the client’s products in the market. The competitive advantages observed, together with the SWOT analysis, suggest that the ideal positioning to be adopted should be of as high-quality, high price brand, or a premium brand, to be associated with innovation and technology. As a high-end, innovative product, and given that customers are willing to pay high prices for good products, the pricing strategy will follow a value-added pricing strategy, well above costs and competitor’s prices. Regarding distribution, since it is a small market, it is recommended the use of online channels in order to ensure access of the product to customers worldwide. Two main online channels were recommended: the own website of the company, or online retailers, that could offer the product on their website. The potential advantages and disadvantages of both channel options to be considered were described. As a new brand that needs to develop brand awareness and recognition, promotion strategies should encompass several branding activities, making use of a range of marketing tools. Taking into consideration the size and goals of the new startup, all free online promotion should be used, including the company’s website, SEO, content marketing and social media promotion activities. Paid advertising should also be considered in order reach a larger audience, according to the client’s budgets and needs. The last chapter includes possible risks to observe, along with prevention measures, sales forecast and the recommended controlling methods, that will evaluate the efficacy of the marketing strategy or the need for adjustments.