Inspired by a definition in Seth’s recent post on creating sustainable competitive advantages, I thought I’d outline what your brand consists of.
The word ‘brand’ gets thrown around quite easily these days, as something important artists need to focus on and develop in order to be successful. But what is your brand and how can you develop it? A brand is not just your image as an artist, or your musical product. It’s something that comes from your core as an artist, and then extends far beyond yourself and can be amplified through all the different activities during your career. Your brand needs to be strong, consistent, pervasive and recurring throughout different aspects of your business. For an artists this means it should influence and be included in your live concerts, visual aesthetic (packaging, website, etc.), recorded music, merchandise, communication with your fans, and much more.
In summary, when you’re building your brand keep in mind:
- What you and your music stands for, your beliefs.
- How you relate to your audience and build and grow an honest relationship with them, which…
- If you’re consistent and persistent can lead to a certain level of trust between your audience and yourself, which…
- Gives you explicit permission to market to your audience, which…
- Can stimulate your audience to be your marketing team and help you spread your music by word of mouth.
Underneath all the fancy marketing campaigns and visual onslaught, branding still comes down to these basic elements. If you can’t get those right, no big budgets can help you fake it.