Branding
Marketing, Promotion & Consistency all play a vital role in how your company as a whole is perceived by potential customers. Developing a brand for yourself is the next topic we'll cover in your producer crash course, so strap on your seat belts!
At this point, we now need to figure out how to carve out an avenue & create an image that people will always associate with you & your brand! How do we do this? Well, let’s find another successful business, & study them for a bit, shall we…? Personally, we’d suggest that you find a business unrelated to your own personal field. This is because, we don’t want to make ourselves a “carbon copy” of another business. Instead we’re looking for valuable principles that can be universally applied to most, if not all businesses. We’ll use a fairly popular brand as an example: McDonald’s. Let’s ask ourselves a few questions.
What comes to mind when thinking of McDonald’s?
Why do these things stand out?
What comes to mind when thinking of McDonald’s: The first thing to come to mind: Golden arches? Some vague combination of the colors red & yellow? Did you hum their trademarked melody “ba da ba ba baaaa” or say their trademarked phrase “I’m lovin’ it”? Did I get close to guessing what you were thinking? Of course I did! No, I’m not a physic, I’m just familiar with the McDonald’s Brand & these are some of the things that I associate with it. Let’s break down some of the more obvious reasons why their brand is so recognizable.
Their Easily Recognized Logo: The logo is the face of the business. It should always be the first thing a person see’s when they interact with your business & it’s also a good practice to try & make it the last thing a customer will see as well. This helps your business by creating a subtle sense of familiarity gradually establishing trust between you & the customer. Even hearing their jingle on radio commercials while driving to or from McDonald’s is a form of audio branding (i.e BEAT TAGS!).
When you’re on your way to McDonald’s, even before you see the actual building itself, you see the big tall pole, with their logo & deals beneath. It’s the first thing you see. When you’ve ordered your food, even when you’re home, you’re still being influenced by the logo on the packaging, it’s the last thing you see. This is intentionally done, so that the next time you’re thinking “hmm, I’m hungry” you’ll likely at least think of their company again.
What Makes These Things Stand Out:
Let’s evaluate this for a second. First off, we’ll make note of the color scheme. Red & Yellow, simple yet effective. The yellow logo, when paired up against the primarily red background, makes a nice canvas for it stand out on.
When brainstorming logo ideas for your production company, be sure to keep these key things in mind, & try to apply them!
Brand Consistency: Study’s show that potential customers typically convert only after interacting with a business at least 7 different times. These interactions will typically include; TV/radio/internet advertisements, email communication, social media interaction, phone & maybe even in person interactions.
During this time you want to make sure that all of your branding is the same through out each of those different channels. From your Facebook & Twitter headers & profile pictures, to the images you use on your custom business cards. They should all be the same. Again, this creates a sense of familiarity which ultimately leads to potential beat buyers to trust your business when it comes time for them to give their hard-earned money in exchange for one of your products or services.
Applying this to Our Business: Now that we have a better understanding of what branding a business consists of & how this benefits the company, it's time to apply some of these same principles to our own beat business. Let's come up with a few ways to brand ourselves on AND offline.
How to Stand Out
Get Yourself a Logo: I'm pretty sure if you're good with this kind of stuff, then you already have a logo for yourself. If you don't, then it's high time you get yourself one buddy! You don't have to spend a ton of money on a logo. Use it to create Brand Awareness & Consistency across All of Your Social Media Platforms.
Get Business Cards: This aspect of business branding is often under utilized or not used at all by many music producers. This is an extremely easy & convenient way to promote your business while on the go (without a phone or computer). It's a good idea to stash a few in places where you're likely to be while away from home. For example, you could keep a few of your producer business cards in your car & in your wallet &/or handbag.
Thank You for Reading
I Hope You Are Learning From & Using This Information. Remember, There is No Secret Formula to Success Continue to Build Your Foundation The Right Way!
STAY TUNED FOR PART III