Who is Esteban?

You're up late and turn on the TV, flipping through the 100+ channels to find something worth watching...

And there he is... A man in a black hat and sunglasses, looking like Zorro and playing "Wildwood Flower" on a $99 guitar...

And you think, "Who the hell is this guy?"

Esteban is the stage name of Stephen Paul. According to his web site, he became "Esteban" while studying in Spain under Andres Segovia, who was unable to pronounce "Stephen."

His relationship with Segovia has been disputed, but one thing for certain is the man is moving both albums and guitars via direct response television.

It all started while Esteban was performing at the Hyatt Regency in Phoenix. He came to the attention of Joy Mangano at Ingenious Designs, the company behind direct response hits such as the Miracle Mop. She invited him to play on QVC in November 1999. The response was so good that they brought him back again...and again.

And here is where it gets interesting...

Esteban sold 132,000 CDs after two appearances on the Home Shopping Network in the summer of 2000, and two of his albums reached the Billboard 200.

From 2001 to 2003, Esteban released over a dozen additional albums, four of which made the Billboard 200.

He was featured in a Super Bowl commercial...

He has a distribution deal with Sony/RED Distribution and it's estimated that he has sold over 4,000,000 albums in total.  He has sold over 700,000 guitars via the Home Shopping Network.

Is he a good guitarist?  Does he sell quality guitars?  Did he really study under Andres Segovia?

Maybe.

Has he helped hundreds of thousands of upcoming musicians get going?

Yes.

Comments

[john]

"Helped" them get going? If by "helped" we mean sold them some commodity item to play music on, sure. The same could be said of Gibson, Fender, Guido, Hohner, the Sears-Roebuck Co. and countless others. I do not consider what Esteban does "music marketing" any more than I consider what Best Buy does music marketing. They sell people stuff to play music on. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but there's a not-insignificant difference between retail marketing and music marketing. If musicians market their work the way retail juggernauts (and yes, Esteban is a retail juggernaut) market their mass-produced commodities they're playing an apples and oranges game to a disappointing end.

[David Hooper]

The difference between Esteban and the companies you mentioned is that he is involved in direct marketing. In my opinion, there is a big difference between this and retail since he is the one approaching customers and not the other way around.

Esteban is basically stopping people and saying, "You want to play guitar." Not the hipster type of "opt-in" marketing that somebody like Seth Godin is doing, but it does get results.

All of the companies you mentioned are important, but this guy adds an inspirational and personality element to sell his stuff, which are not only examples of great marketing, but also things that will hopefully encourage people to continue playing (or enjoying) music. The actual lessons may not be as good as the guy at the local music store, but Esteban is probably more hip and successful than that guy, which is worth something. It's what http://www.metalmethod.com/ has been doing since 1982, but on an entirely different level because he's reaching more people.

[Kris]

He was able to capitalize on his market and kept with it. This is something that most never bother to look at!

The commercial music industry is one thing but there are multiple avenues that are out there that most listeners still want to hear. There are some countries who would give a damn about a properly compressed mix in a million dollar recording studio with expensive hardware used on the mix. Some of the best songs out there were recorded on a 4-track recorder and have sold multiple millions and still sell today.

Its always about the soul within the song not the over production of the songs out there now a days!

[Twisted Finger]

Anybody ever try to play one of those Esteban guitars? I've had a chance to play two different ones and let me tell you that you get less than what you pay for. One was a guitar my daughter's boyfriend's mother bought him to learn on and I tried to play it. Tuners turned like a pepper grinder and the action could slice cheese. I could squeeze a tune out of it but not very encouraging to a young man's fingers. Another one was my Uncle's whose wife thought it would be a nice gift for him. We both chuckled about the guitar when my Aunt said it sounded so beautiful when Esteban played it on the infomercial, my Uncle quipped "He could make a shoe box with a broomstick and strings sound good." I'm happy for his success but those guitars are horrible...at least the two I played. Buy a used guitat off ebay if you want to learn and stick a brand name if you can.

[David Hooper]

Ha! I agree on the quality and that many would be better off getting a good used guitar, borrowing something, a "factory second" with a finish flaw, or a quality new guitar they can grow into, but if this gets somebody in the game, which is seems to have done, I think it's great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l777M0_W1g0 has an unboxing video you may be interested in.

[David W. king]

Something was missed with this commercial was that he was successful in helping people save 15% by switching to GEICO. This commercial certainly moved me to switch insurance companies. I have also taken to wearing sombreros and Ray-Ban sunglasses. LOL

[gant roades]

estaphan is cool leave him alone to do his thing
i have his guitars and they are something else for sure
one of them actually plays better than a taylor of my friends no joke yea there are bad shipments that come from spain where these are made but for the most part they are pretty good for the money spent