History of Branding

Branding is often thought of having originated with cattlemen who would burn a distinctive symbol into an animal’s skin with a hot branding iron as a way of differentiating one’s cattle from another’s. Historically, however, all manner of goods and crafts were often imprinted by branding with the trademarks of the tradespeople who produced or crafted the product. Among other uses, these marks were a way to assure customers of the quality and the origin of a product.

While trademarks were applied to goods in other ways besides branding irons—and the practice of actually branding a trademark onto barrels, bags, sacks, and goods fell out of favor—the term “branding” remained.

The modern concept of branding products originated in the early 19th century when the advent of industrialization created the need for manufacturers who were mass-producing goods in factories to promote their goods visually to a larger number of consumers who may have been unfamiliar with their products. A few of the first manufacturers to embrace this “branding” concept were Campbell’s Soup®, Coca-Cola® and Ivory™ Soap (AEF, 2014).

Branding Basics

Brands like Apple, Disney, MTV, and Sony are just a few examples of strong identities whose brand marks, according to Forbes, are valued at millions of dollars and in the case of Apple, more than $100 million (Forbes, 2014b).

Individuals also have their own brands to manage, which is often referred to as personal branding. An individual artist’s or group’s brand involves how they are perceived by the public, fans, corporate America, and members of the press. The artist’s brand has to do with all aspects of their public image from how the artist’s website looks, to the album art, to style and brand of clothing that is worn. Logos, fonts, the look and feel of marketing materials and press kit, live performances, concert merchandise, hair style, videos, wardrobe, what the artist says and does in public, and the brands with which the artist is affiliated all play a role in the development of the artist’s brand (McQuicklin, 2011).

What are the images and words that come to mind when you think of your favorite music artist? What about Robin Thicke? Lady Gaga? The Rolling Stones? Katy Perry? Justin Bieber? Each of these artists has a strong brand that is vastly different. A strong brand increases a product, company, and an artist’s marketability and value. In fact, a brand can be one of the most valuable components on a corporation’s balance sheet even though it is an intangible asset. For example, Flowers Foods paid bankrupt Hostess Brands $350 million for its bread brands (including Wonderbread) and attributed 55%, or $193 million, of the purchase price to identifiable intangible assets, mainly trademarks (Lavin, 2014).

Brand Architecture

Brand architecture is the structure and interrelationship of brands across an entire organization. It outlines the roles and relationships between all of the brands in the portfolio showing how the corporate brand and sub-brands relate to each other, support each other, and reinforce the main mission of the corporate brand. The way brands in a company are connected helps a company introduce new products by leveraging the brand equity and consumer loyalty of that product line and helps prevent the company from introducing new products that do not support the main brand’s core mission. This also helps to provide clarity for the consumer enabling them to easily differentiate one product from another in the line of offerings.

In their book Brand Leadership authors David Aaker and Erich Joachmisthaler outline the main brand relationship strategies (2009). The two most popular of these are a branded house or a house of brands.

A Branded House—In this approach the master brand is the dominant brand with sub-brands being descriptive in nature. Virgin is often used as one of the best examples of Branded House. Under the Virgin umbrella is Virgin Airlines, Virgin Music, Virgin Radio, Virgin Hotels, and Virgin Mobile Phones among others. All offerings under this approach include the master brand so the branded house offers clarity and leverage with the consumer. All products carry the overarching brand name and the brand values and attributes that come with it.

This approach enables companies to maximize resources by putting the majority of marketing effort into supporting and building the master brand. Although the synergy of this approach offers improved efficiencies that same close connection between brands also increases risk; if the master brand is damaged the negative connotations are extended throughout the entire portfolio.

House of Brands—Under a house of brands approach, the primary brand is used minimally on package and in communication with consumers. Instead, the sub-brands are the focus and are treated as distinct, independent entities with the parent company receiving little or no mention. The brands are independent and unconnected. Proctor & Gamble is probably the most famous example of a house of brands structure. Under the P&G “House” there are dozens of brand offerings including Charmin, Cascade, Pampers, Prilosec, Duracell, Gillette, and Tide, just to name a few. These brands are recognized by their brand names alone and not by “P&G’s Pampers” or “P&G’s Gillette razors.” This approach is often used to allow a company to position multiple products differently even in the same category.

There are also hybrid approaches to brand architecture where brands are combined in some way to be complementary. Aaker and Joachmisthaler note that using an endorsed brands strategy offers credibility to a brand while a sub-brand strategy allows a parent brand to compete in new categories that would have previously been inconsistent with the brand’s positioning.

Branding in the Music Industry

In the music industry different structures and blended strategies are often utilized. Most label groups have different sub-labels or imprints that each target a different segment of the market. For example, the Universal Music Group (UMG) brand family includes diverse offerings like Blue Note Records that focuses on Jazz music and was formed to target the adult music consumer while the company’s Def Jam Recordings focuses primarily on a younger audience with Hip Hop and Urban music.

Building strong brands has become a central focus of marketers across the music landscape. Radio stations, radio personalities, concert venues, musical instrument manufacturers, and artists each have their own unique personality and attributes for which they are or want to be known. Through the use of imagery, words, slogans, logos, and style, these entities can create a powerful brand that consumers recognize and trust.

Why is branding such a cornerstone of marketing artists? Because a strong brand increases an artist’s value to the media, to fans, and to brand partners.

Successfully Creating an Artist’s Brand

Strong artist brands do not happen overnight. It takes years of cultivation on behalf of the artist and the artist’s team to develop a strong brand. To be successful at branding one must have a firm understanding of how to create the artist’s brand, how to promote and build the brand, and how to maintain the brand.

Defining the Artist and Developing a Brand Identity

The first step to developing an artist brand is to truly understand who the artist is. What values do they hold dear? Are they focused on family or a free spirit who loves adventure? What is their personality and style? Is the artist polished and fashion-forward, or rugged and disaffected? Are the artist’s live shows full of energy and high production or more laid back and intimate? Does the artist drink alcohol or publicly denounce any kind of vices?

What makes the artist stand out from others in the genre? What is their story? What makes the artist interesting to fans? What makes them interesting to the media? These and other such questions provide insight into the characteristics and personality of the artist. Unique characteristics can often be embraced as those differentiators help a consumer more easily recognize that brand when compared to others. Defining the artist and being clear about who they are authentically is the first step to building an image and developing a strong brand (Dahud, 2012).

Figure 5.2

Defining the Artist’s Audience

In addition to needing to know who the artist is, it is important to know who that artist serves. In other words, who is buying the music? Who is attending the concerts? Who is engaging with the artist on social networks?

Research plays a critical role in this step. One of the best methods of developing a deep understanding of the artist’s primary audience is through the use of surveys. Online surveys may be sent to the artist’s email list, mobile list, ticket purchaser database, or social network asking basic demographic, geographic, lifestyle, and behavior questions and intercept surveys may be conducted by a team of researchers as concert goers enter the building (See chapter 4 for more information.)

Through this research activity artist marketing teams can gain understanding of what their fans want from them and what characteristics and traits they love about the artist and the artist’s music, which will help the artist better meet their needs. They can also find out more about the audience that will help them better target both existing and potential fans. With this research a target market and customer profile can be developed. A customer profile is a persona or description of the ideal customer that includes demographic, geographic, and psychographic characteristics, as well as consumption patterns. This profile can be used to identify the best places to place paid advertising promoting new music and identify which categories and brands they like most. This information, in conjunction with the artist’s profile, helps the artist team identify which companies and brands would be a good brand fit; in other words, a company that shares the same personality and target audience.

Promoting and Building the Brand

Building a strong brand, goes beyond creating a logo or visual mark and placing paid advertising. It is about consistently shaping and promoting all of the associations of the brand both mental and physical.

Maintaining the Brand

The Role of Corporate Partnerships in the Music Industry

Music and brand partnerships continue to gain in popularity because they offer benefits for the brand, the label, and the management team and artist.

Finding the Right Brand Partner

Artists build strong brands in part by remaining consistent about who they are and partnering with brands that are a good brand fit. A bad fit can damage an artist’s brand just as much as a good fit can help build it.

As noted previously, a firm understanding of an artist’s brand identity, as well as the artist’s audience profile are the first steps to being able to hone in on the right category and brand for a potential partnership. Primary research of the fan base can provide valuable insight. In addition to primary research of the audience labels and management groups use other tools and services to help them develop the artist’s profile and identify the best brand fit for possible partnerships.

An alternative data collection source is using a third party provider of consumer behavior. There are several companies in the United States that specialize in surveying consumers and selling the results to interested parties. These parties include corporate brands, media outlets, agencies, and yes, record labels. Three of the most widely utilized databases in the advertising and marketing industry are GfK Mediamark Research and Intelligence (MRI), Nielsen Scarborough, and The NPD Group.

GfK MRI gathers information on consumer behavior through annual in-person, at home interviews of 26,000 consumers about their “media choices, demographics, lifestyle and attitudes, and usage of more than 6,000 products in 550 categories” (GfK MRI, 2014). The company licenses this database to companies and organizations that can pull data specific to their need (most major advertising and promotional agencies subscribe to MRI). For instance, a record label looking to secure a brand partnership for an EDM artist might run a crosstab report of all adults ages 18–45 who purchase or listen to EDM music with the brands and products they purchase, what television shows they watch, and what activities in which they like to participate during their spare time. The reports can be used to identify the most likely prospects for a partnership or to strengthen a partnership proposal.

Nielsen Scarborough is another market research service that offers consumer demographics and insight on media consumption, attitudes, and purchase behavior. Nielsen Scarborough captures consumer data on more than 2,000 product categories and brands collected from a sample size of more than 210,000 adults in 77 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) across the United States (Scarborough, 2014). The main difference between MRI and Scarborough is that Scarborough specializes in local market insight. For example, while MRI can tell you how many people who go to hockey games stream rock music heavily, Scarborough can tell you how many people who go to Seattle Seahawk games do so. This localized information is particularly helpful to radio stations that often use the data to sell ads to local businesses.

The NPD Group (formerly National Purchase Diary) is a consumer market research company that uses sales data from retailers and distributors, as well as consumer-reported purchase behavior through its online survey panel of more than two million consumers to provide its clients with “a comprehensive view of consumer behavior and attitudes across all distribution channels and demographics.” Of particular interest to the entertainment industry is that the company also tracks the awareness and product usage of more than 100 celebrities allowing artist managers and labels to provide detailed product usage and behavior information for fans of these specific artists (NPD, 2014).

The Importance of Brand Fit

Imagine a fan who is a passionate supporter of a popular artist. The fan was there from the beginning of the artist’s career—attending multiple concerts, buying all of the artist’s albums and following the artist on major social networks. The fan has a good idea of the artist’s brand: young, rebellious, taking pleasure in being the bad boy. He drinks, he smokes, and he lives life in the fast lane. His look is rugged; he has tattoos and piercings. His look is “bad” in a good way. The artist knows who he is and embraces his rough and tough image.

Now imagine that this artist teams up with Yoplait yogurt to sponsor his upcoming tour. He is in Yoplait’s commercial promoting the health benefits of yogurt and free yogurt samples are given to fans at the artist’s shows. His fans’ reaction is one of confusion because the pairing seems odd. It is not a strong brand fit. The fans start to lose faith in the artist because they do not know who he is. They begin to identify with him less and less.

Creating an Artist Brand Profile

An artist brand profile (also referred to as an artist brand presentation or artist brand deck) is a visual presentation of an artist that is often provided to corporate brands and agencies to offer some background on the artist’s career and personality. The information conveyed should help these stakeholders understand the attitude, style of music, preferred activities, and other characteristics of the artist even if the brand representatives have never seen or heard of the artist. The artist brand profile helps brands and agencies determine if a partnership is a good brand fit.

The presentation is usually brief (8–10 slides) and includes the following elements:

• Links to the artist’s recent and most popular videos.
• Highlights of the artist’s career and successes they have obtained—radio, sales, albums released, etc. (see Figure 5.3).
• Social stats and fan reach and engagement.
• Press coverage or other industry quotes that speak to the success or appeal of the artist.
• Upcoming events including appearances in movies or television programs, album releases, collaborations with other artists, tours, etc. This is important information as it gives the brand an opportunity to compare their promotional calendar to see at which events they may be able to leverage their involvement.

Figure 5.3

A Brand Profile may also include product categories or brands that would be a good fit for the artist. Perhaps it denotes activities in which they like to engage, products they consume regularly, or brands that speak to their personality. It may also include the artist’s audience profile.

Cause Marketing with a Brand

While most artists have individually taken on a cause because it is something they believe in or by which they have been personally affected, many have found success in partnering with a corporate brand to jointly promote a cause. Corporate brands have money and media assets (magazine ad, television spots, and large social networks) that can be used to support an effort about which an artist is passionate. This cause marketing is often a more comfortable way for artists to create an affiliation with a brand, particularly those that fear their fans will see a corporate endorsement as the artist “selling out.” The brand often gets the benefit of creating goodwill amongst its customers and the artist’s fans for its support of a project. It is a win-win-win scenario for the artist, corporate brand, and the cause.

For instance, Granola products manufacturer Nature Valley formed the Preserve the Parks program to bring attention to and improve our open lands. Their project, The Quietest Show on Earth, was a special concert featuring the folk singers Andrew Bird and Tift Merritt performing in the Mojave Desert Land Trust. The concert was taped and distributed online to raise awareness for the Parks (Ferreiro, 2013).

Big Machine Label Group partnered with General Mills and Feeding America for the Outnumber Hunger campaign, which included special concert events and the label’s roster of artists being featured on selected boxes of General Mills cereal (General Mills, 2013).

Figure 5.4

The Future of Music Partnerships

Artist-Owned Brand Opportunities

Increasingly, instead of an artist renting or licensing their name to an organization, the artist chooses to take more of an ownership role by owning and controlling the brand. While the risk with this approach is greater for the artist the potential rewards are substantial.

Jimmy Buffet’s expansion of the Margaritaville brand is one example or this. Buffett has built an empire from the leveraging of the name, which includes massive merchandising efforts and a national restaurant chain.

Avril Lavigne has spent years building a brand that she was able to leverage into several businesses, including her own line of clothing and a line of fragrances (Sauer, 2013).

Instead of opting for another endorsement deal multi-platinum artist Kenny Chesney create his own Caribbean Premium Rum Company, Blue Chair Bay, inspired by his music and island lifestyle.

Figure 5.5

Chesney was able to use his connection with his loyal fan base to promote the brand. In fact, one of the key marketing tactics for the launch of Blue Chair Bay was a co-sponsorship of Chesney’s No Shoes Nation tour in 2013 where fans could sample the three flavors of rum before the show on the deck of a specially-created 20-foot sailboat, reaching an estimated 1.25 million fans in 42 markets nationwide (O’Malley Green-burg, 2013). The sampling program continued with the 2014 Nowhere But Here tour hitting 25 markets (Blue Chair Bay, 2014). Today, the spirit is cited as one of the fastest growing new brands in the liquor business (Bieler, 2014).

Conclusion

The importance of branding for an artist cannot be overstated. Today’s environment is challenging, retail space is scarce, and revenue from album sales is down resulting in significantly less profit for the label and artists alike.

A strong artist brand:

• Assists an artist in building a passionate following.
• Generates interest among the media resulting in increased publicity opportunities.
• Allows the artists themselves to capitalize on the brand name they’ve developed and generate additional revenue.
• Attracts the attention of corporate partners looking to expose their products to a passionate fan base. The increased marketing impressions lead to more brand equity for the artists.

Increased consumer awareness from broader exposure helps build brand equity that can be leveraged in many ways for greater profitability by both the artist and the label.

Glossary

Action alley—a term used most commonly within the Wal-Mart community of employees and suppliers that refers to the main aisles down the center of the store that separate the departments.

Artist brand profile (aka artist presentation or artist deck)—a visual presentation usually created in software such as PowerPoint or Keynote that is created to provide a snapshot of an artist’s background, lifestyle, sales success, career highlights and brand preferences. This presentation is most often used to educate members of the media, advertising agencies and brand marketers on the artist’s brand.

Brand—a name, term, design, symbol, or any other mark that uniquely identifies a seller.

Brand architecture—the structure and organization of brands across an entire organization that outlines how the company’s various brands interact with and support one another.

Branded display—a special section in a retail environment, usually at the end of an aisle or in the middle of a wide aisle that separates departments, that features select products and is branded with that product’s logo and photos.

Branded house—a brand relationship strategy where the master, or main brand is the dominant one with other brands being descriptive in nature, e.g., Virgin Music, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Airlines, etc.

Brand fit—refers to how well two partnership brands align. A good brand fit refers to a partnership where the artist’s personality and fan base fit the personality of the corporate brand and vice versa.

Cause marketing—a form of marketing where an artist teams up with a charitable organization to raise awareness or resources for a social issue or problem.

Co-branding—when two or more brands from different organizations combine to create a special product.

Content marketing—a marketing tactic by which companies create, gather and distribute valuable and relevant content to its existing and desired target audience. The objective of content marketing is to establish goodwill, which will eventually lead to sales or other customer action.

Customer profile—a “persona” or detailed description of the ideal customer. Whereas a target market might be 18–21-year-old females who make a salary of less than $25,000 and live in suburban markets, a customer profile might be a 19-year-old female college student who likes top 40 pop music, shopping at Forever21, and dancing.

Endorsed brand—a brand relationship strategy where independent brand names are strengthened by attaching an organizational brand, e.g. Courtyard by Marriott allows the mid-priced hotel chain to leverage the quality association of the word “Marriott.”

Endorsement—the act of an artist giving his or her public support or approval to an individual, brand, or company (e.g., Jessica Simpson and Proactiv).

House of brands—a brand relationship strategy where the master, or main company brand is used minimally on packages and in advertising. The brands in the company’s portfolio each have their own distinct image and positioning, e.g., Facebook owns Instagram and Whatsapp but each brand is independent and is seen by most consumers as separate entities.

In-kind support—goods or services provided to an artist instead of money. Common examples include music equipment, lighting for stages, and travel services.

Master brand—the dominant brand identity under which all of the company’s other products and services fall.

Non-traditional outlets—online and offline stores where music is not generally sold, e.g., grocery stores, sporting goods stores, and clothing retail stores.

Open rate—the highest rate charged by an advertising medium such as a magazine or newspaper for placement in the publication. Contract customers, or those placing multiple ads throughout a specified timeframe, receive quantity discounts but non-contract advertisers (such as those who only run one ad) are charged the open rate.

Personal branding—the branding and self-positioning of the individual person. A personal brand involves all of the attributes and characteristics associated with an artist including their style, demeanor, and reputation.

Product category—a group of similar, like, or related items, e.g., Ford, Toyota, and GM all make products that fall under the “Automotive” category.

Sponsorships—the act of an organization paying a sum of money toward the cost of an activity or event such as a tour or music festival in exchange for assets surrounding the event like inclusion in advertising, on-site signage like stage banners, and the ability to engage with consumers onsite via booths and product sampling.

Sub-brand—brands connected to a master brand that add associations to make a brand seem more appealing to consumers or to stretch a master brand allowing it to compete in a different category, i.e., a record label that markets predominantly country music might add a separate sub-brand or sub-label to focus on the pop genre.

Target market—a broad group of potential customers usually defined by ranges (age, income, etc.) and is the group of people most likely to purchase a product of service.

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