Dan W. and Guitar

Originally uploaded by getcultstatus

Being busy is good for me, but not so good for a waning blog audience.

I/we have completed quite a bit of work recently (photography, screen printing, graphic and web design, etc) -which explains the lack of blogging.

Here’s a photo I took and edited of a local artist, Daniel Wieken, for his website that will be launching shortly.

As promised a while back, I’m about to upload a series done for an Irish rock band, The Langer’s Ball.

This links over to the CULT STATUS flickr account, so feel free to browse more.

More soon,
-Alex

I never realized what a busy time of year this is for everybody –myself included.

Have a good time and stay safe!

Update: Cult Status has received an inordinately large amount of design and screen printing work, thus explaining my lack of ability to blog much. I’ve re-structured some duties around the shop and will hopefully have more time to get things back up to speed in the blog front after the weekend.

Custom screen printed Rock Posters have always been big in certain music scenes (And will probably continue to be for a very long time). Sadly, the main stream does not share this sentiment, but one day… oh, yes… one day they shall! Whether you’re part of a music scene that embraces the beautiful art of a well-done, screen printed poster or not, they are well worth looking into.

I’ve known people in the past who have been squeamish about spending the money on the posters, whether it was because they are so limited-use, or they just didn’t see the value in them. I can honestly say that I don’t blame you if you have shared this sentiment. I know I have –both back when I used to promote events, and sometimes even now as a screen printer.  The fact is, they aren’t very cost effective as a marketing tool, and they’re certainly not too big of a money-maker for a lot of print shops either.

… but that was BEFORE you started reading cultBLOG!

It has always been interesting to me that high-quality posters/prints can be sold for between $1-5/poster (depending on quantity, # of colors, complexity of registration, etc.) to the band (who then uses them for marketing purposes) and then can be sold on ebay for $20 each after the show. It’s kind of nuts and I’m here to put a stop to it!

By all means, use screen printed posters for your band’s marketing. They look great and demand attention, and all that good stuff… but what I am really concerned about is using the posters as merchandise. It seemed like a few years back, there was some craze that involved art-deco and vintage absinthe posters bedecking the apartments of pretty much everybody I know. I think the time is ripe to do that with rock posters.

If you’re serious about running your band like a business, it’s imperative that you have a diversified offering of merchandise and music for sale. Having a couple rad posters for sale is a great thing to offer at the show, but is also something that would do VERY well online. In addition to your website, you might look into listing some posters on ebay under the art section, possibly getting them listed on Etsy or other indie websites that specialize in hand-made or unique products and perhaps you could even try framing them and trying to get them into local shops.

Any way you cut it, screen printed posters hold the potential for being mid to high-ticket items for bands willing to use them as merch. The other added bonus is they will typically carry a much bigger profit margin compared to the typical 50%-100% mark-up of most merch.

I totally dropped the ball on blogging this week.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was dealing with all sorts of drama with buying my first house. On top of that, I’ve got a lot of heavy design work in the pipe, so this week has been full of stress and lacking in sleep.

…and cultBLOG suffered.

More blogs to come starting monday and I promise that there will actually be some. (I’ve already stared writing one or two)

see you on Monday

-Alex

Image via WikipediaI was speaking with a friend the other day about patches. When I was in high school, patches and buttons were the way to customize your book bag and show off your stunning and ever-so-hip musical taste. The more enviable patches were those that showed more local and/or obscure bands (as opposed to the standard big radio station bands).

The problem for many bands is that embroidered patches typically have to be bought in pretty large runs and can be fairly expensive. The Punk scene had a very simple alternative to this, which is to take a piece of material (usually canvas, but anything will do) and they would print their logo on it. The patches were often attached by safety pins, or sometimes sewn on by hand.

Our conversation got me thinking about how the punk patch is a really great and cheap way to expand your merchandise line. Because of the printing process, it’s possible to make several designs and/or sizes of patches which means that you can expand the merch line by several different patches for the same cost as one. You can’t do that with a T-shirt!

If you’re looking to expand your line, or if you just want something a little outside the ordinary, I recommend checking out the punk patch.  Pricing on patches like this can easily be in the $0.10-$0.20 per patch without having to purchase thousands of patches. In fact, you can get about 20 sheets of patches for that price which leaves you more money for marketing or other merchandise –always a good thing.

Contact Us if you have more questions about ordering some punk patches for your band.

Again… busy week = bad blogging.

In the meantime, you can check out the MPLS pops website www.mplspops.org

The website still has some updating after my client sends some more information, but it’s currently in a usable state in time to send out some newsletters.

These have been a hectic couple of weeks for sure!

I’m still dealing with some house-purchasing drama (inspectors and appraisers, etc.), while at the same time getting a ton of design/print work done for the new portfolio. I should have something up this week to post to the “The Process” category.  The Langer’s Ball and The Minneapolis Pops have provided me with some good portfolio opportunities. More on that this week! (drama not withstanding)

Expect some major updates to GetCultStatus.com as well –in the medium term– including some better information and interactivity with portfolio, pricing and purchasing information.

More soon!

-alex

Happy Mother’s Day to everybody (and their mothers).

Image via WikipediaMy apologies to you for the lack of post today.

I’m the process of trying to purchase our first house and are having some issues with the city inspection requirements possibly exceeding the value of the house –which makes for an unfavorable lending situation for banks (especially during a housing crisis).

More posts to come next week.

Happy Weekend!

Image via WikipediaFor the newbies to the cultBLOG, I like to use Jay Conrad Levinson’s definition of “Guerrilla Marketing” –mostly because he coined the term and has written about infinity and a half books on the subject. His basic definition of Guerrilla Marketing is accomplishing ordinary business/marketing goals by unconventional means. In the same respect, effective merchandise marketing means not getting stuck in the “I’m a band and this is how all bands sell merch” mode of thinking. This includes to whom you sell it, how much you charge, what kind of payment types you accept, etc etc. One of the best, albeit seemingly backwards, ways to sell more merch is to give some away.

The “conventional” musician will take their cheapest piece of merch, hand it out to some friends and/or people they want to impress and that’s the end of the story.

But because you’re a savvy guerrilla, you already know what demographic descriptors best identify your primary and secondary audience… meaning that you know who likes your music. Chances that 45 year-old republican lawyers do not listen to “scremo” and you might be hard-pressed to find too many foot ball-playing, weight lifting frat boys storming the stage at the next fisherspooner concert. -but those are just my personal stereotypes. Who knows. So once you know whom you’re targeting, you have to identify who ELSE these people happen to like, what shows they watch, whom they find appealing in the celebrity world, etc. After this becomes clear, you do whatever you can to give your merch away to celebrities, other bands, comedians and anybody who can get in the public eye. If you’re lucky, your T-shirt could end up getting exposed to millions of potential and current fans.

Easier said than done, right? Maybe not.

Many TV shows are no longer produced directly by the networks on which they air. In fact, there are many small to mid-sized companies that create much of the content you see on TV. Do some homework and find out who produces your favorite shows your fans’ favorite shows. Try to directly contact the wardrobe department, but if you can’t you can always just send them some shirts. You may find the next time you’re watching TV, someone’s got your shirt on!! Every TV program from Hannah Montana to Law and Order to The Daily Show to Design on a Dime all need costumes, both for their main characters and for all the extras on the set. It never hurts having several extra items on hand.

guerrilla hint: PLEASE make sure that your merchandise is worthy of being aired on national TV before you attempt this strategy. If you have a black, Guildan or Anvil shirt with your band’s white logo printed on it, you may not see the shirt hit the air waives. If, however, you have a very well-designed shirt –possibly on American Apparel or Alternative Apparel– that has visual interest (colors and/or details of the design), then your odds are better.

The other way to do it is to try to see if you can get Celebs to wear your merch. Same basic method, but instead of seeking out production companies, you should try to find the proper contact channels for them. This may mean that you need to dig up an office phone, a general P.O. Box#,  a manager, or a personal assistant –but if the shirt is the right size and it looks in keeping with their image, you may find your merch in the next tabloid photo, or they may be seen out at a club or bar somewhere.

These methods take a little leg work, but they can end up in BIG-TIME returns for your band… because you gave your shirt away to the right people.