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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.
Image via WikipediaIf you’ve been reading the cultBLOG at all, you get how much I stress the need for merchandising; but properly merchandising your band or music organization is about more than just buying a run of one-color t-shirts and schlepping them to all over the place. No. There is actually logic behind all the madness. Check out these 5 steps to success:
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE: This is pretty straight-forward. You have no business being in the music business if you don’t know your audience, their age, their likes/dislikes, where they like to hang out, what other kind of music they listen to, etc. The advantage that you have as a performer is that you see and interact with your audience at every performance, with every wall posting on myspace, and with every mass email you send out to advertise album sales. Knowing your audience is the very first step to doing anything in the public realm. In the case of merchandise, you’ll get a better idea of what they might like to purchase and/or wear. A mettle band is probably not going to have a colorful, flowery vector image on a green shirt… likewise an adult contemporary band will probably not be sporting the sign of the beast.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT PRODUCT MIX: After you know your audience and you can get a conceptual feel for what they might like, the next step is selecting an appropriate product mix. Instead of reinventing the wheel, take a lesson from the bix box retailers and from the departments stores. You’d be pretty hard pressed to find a retailer that sells only one product in one model. In the same way, you should not sell only one item. With your music, try selling full length albums, singles, vinyl or I even heard of people selling USB jump drives with their MP3 audio files loaded onto them (hint: CULT STATUS can print your band’s logo on jump drives). When it comes to other merchandise, it’s just as important to offer a relevant selection of branded clothing, accessories, 1″ buttons, stickers, etc. In addition to presenting a more professional and established image, it gives your fans the option to spend as much or as little as they want and it also gives your fans the ability to continue supporting you after they get the CD and the T-shirt. Another thing I encourage you to consider is the packaging. There are few if any bands that really go all out with packaging and extras (unless they’re backed by big labels’ big money). You can give an MP3 away for promotional purposes, but still sell it on a CD with a really unique packaging design.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT PRICING MIX: Along with a great selection of products is a good price selection. A screen printed T-shirt is going to be priced differently than a poster or a bumper sticker, so there’s naturally some price variance. A band that has some buttons, stickers, a T-shirt, and their new CD is probably pretty well set compared to those who don’t sell anything or those who just have a CD or a shirt. Some savvy music merchandise pushers will even go so far as to offer package deals to help the goods fly off the merch table. The often neglected side to the pricing mix, however, is to consider something to price at the high end. Never judge how much money people have and/or how much they want to spend. Standard retail industry knowledge states that people usually buy the middle option when presented with a cheap, moderate, and expensive option. This strategy not only serves your audience better, it increases your odds for higher sales at each event and online. With one item on sale, their choice is “Yes or N0″ …where as with several items, their choice becomes “which ones and how many”.
PICK THE PERFECT PLACE: In order to sell your merchandise, you need a place to operate as your store. The biggest key to selling the most out of your merch is by making it as available as possible. This meas that you MUST bring your merch to EVERY event. I don’t care how big or small; how local or if on tour. It’s better to leave an event having sold nothing that it is to pass up the opportunity to make an extra $50. There is also another place that is just as important as your show… the internet. I’m not completely familiar with the process, but I hear that myspace allows you to sell MP3 downloads and Merch via your page. There are a ton of free shopping cart/online store software options out there. Paypal gives you free use of their shopping cart, buy-it-now buttins, and they will integrate with 3rd party shopping carts too. They will also allow you to accept every type of payment possible. There are also several 3rd party websites that allow you to sell merchandise/CDs through them. The advantage is that it helps your name and merch pop up in search engines and give you more “places” online where your products are available. This creates a larger perceived presence (more street cred.) and a higher likelihood that you’ll be selling like mad. The down-side is that they usually make your sales less profitable. The best deal for you is to use a mixture of direct and indirect methods to sell your products.
INCREASE DEMAND ON YOUR OWN: Believe it or not, you have the power to increase the demand for you own products. The first and most obvious part is directly advertising your merch. This includes directing fans to the merch table at each show, as well as sending out mass emails and bulletins to your fans via myspace. That’s pretty basic marketing. If you want to take it to the next step, I’ld consider the basic law of supply and demand. On a basic supply-demand graph, changes in supply, price, or demand will all effect the other two. By intentionally limiting the supply, you force there to be more demand for your product than there is supply to meet it. Normally this would create an increase in price, but most bands don’t have the luxury of price gouging. Instead, keeping limited items in the same price range will create added speed with which things are sold. Another way of thinking about this idea is to just come up with new merch every so often. If you order 100 Screen Printed T-shirts, instead of re-ordering the same design when you run out, change the color of the shirt and change the design. This also gives your clients a feel of “I bought this shirt back before they sold out”… I call it “Exclusivity”
Image via WikipediaAfter completing the graphic design work for the new “7th Calling” T-shirts earlier this week and screen printing them last night, I can say I was EXHAUSTED!
In addition to the physical demands of screen printing and sitting at a computer for hours doing various design/miscellaneous business tasks, there are many mental and emotional stresses that go along with running a small business –whether you print merch, run a band or promotion company, own a retail shop or cut hair. It’s often hard to find the balance between all that needs to get done in a day/week, the accompanying stresses, time to spend with your family/friends and also taking time to de-stress and take care of your own needs too.
Ironically, Jamie S. (of 7th Calling) brought up this very subject when he came to pick up his merchandise. He and his wife run a recording studio out of their house in addition to raising their kid (kids even?), touring and performing with their band, AND his wife has a day job. I’m not writing this for sympathy, but rather because this echoes my life and that of pretty much every other band member, musician, promoter and small business owner. There’s ALWAYS more stuff to do than there is time in which to do it. The worst part is that our family and relationships can often be the ones to suffer first.
Back in business school we learned a term called teleopathy (tee-lee-AWW-pathy) –or the disordered fixation on the goal or “end” –I’ll spare you the long business ethics discussion that follows.
Teleopathy and Workaholism are two dangers of the Entrepreneur and the Musician. Why? Because Music (and/or business) become Life. By embarking on a path that involves demands constant re-invention and promotion, it’s a full-time-plus kind of job. There is ALWAYS more to do. The key is setting limits. Those of us who have a hard time setting these kinds of limits can find that either they will burn out, they will start to preform shoddily, they will neglect other areas of their life, and/or relations with family and friends may become strained.
Ultimately, the right or just question to ask of one’s self is “Why did I get into this and what is my goal?”
Many people want a lot of money so they can relax, provide for their families and have a level of security. It kind of defeats the point if the whole time you’re working towards those goals you’re stressed out and your relationships are suffering, doesn’t it?
I have found these steps to be helpful:
Designate a WORK-ONLY space in your house (Even if you have a separate studio or office away from home). Everybody does SOME work at home.
Make a rule for yourself, family, room mates, and friends that when you are in your “work area,” you’re not to be disturbed.
Set time limits. You will ALWAYS get more done if you give yourself a reasonable time limit every day for work-only time.
Do not stray (too much) from those limits. When you’re done for the day. STOP WORKING. If people don’t get to go in your work space, your work should stay out of their “relationship space”
Constantly re-evaluate #1-4. I’m both right and left-brained (according to an evaluation I took –which could probably explain why I love to do graphic design/printing, but also enjoy calculating Pro Forma financial statements. I’m a nerd), which means that in addition to composing long, convoluted, ADD-like compound-complex sentences, I also tend to get random creative inspiration. Just like any artist/musician, you can’t just turn off your creative thinking, which naturally competes with the ridged structure of #1-4. You can’t always be creative when it’s work time and sometimes you feel creative when it might not be the best time to whip out your instrument of choice and go to town. This is why I suggest that you re-evaluate #1-4 to make sure that you are following the spirit of the rule… which is making a conscious effort to allocate some time to work and some time specifically toward relationships.
Always remember why you got into the music biz and don’t let all the distractions beat you down and kill you (literally and metaphorically).
Image via WikipediaThe Word Press community offers a billion different plug-ins that do all sorts of crazy things…
I installed one to help deter SPAM. I’ve been watching my traffic pick up and my “deleted SPAM” numbers rocket up, but noticed that there were no comments on my blog since I installed the plug-in. I un-installed it and lo and behold, comments AND spam!
I guess I’m done with THAT plug-in.
I apologize to all who may have commented and had their comments flagged and deleted. I never got to see the comments.
In my various dealings with clients, I’ve come across surprisingly few bands that have taken the plunge… no… not getting married -or maybe it is- but forming a legal business entity. If your group is serious about being professional and being the sole source of income for all the members, than maybe a legal business entity is the right step.
Signs you might want to incorporate (or organize as an LLC):
You purchase equipment for band use only
You advertise, spend money on studio rent, drive to/from shows, maybe tour around the country, etc.
You purchase and sell CDs, t-shirts, stickers, 1″ buttons, and other merchandise.
You are a solo act and/or have been with your current band mates a while –or you are new but intend to do so
While there may be many other good reasons to incorporate (or organize as an LLC), many people feel lost or like it’s WAY over their head. Legally speaking, you are already operating as a Sole Proprietor or Partnership. Taking the steps to incorporate will not only make that official, but it can add a layer or two of protection if you should get sued for any reason. It also can create a legal and fair method of distributing income and expense among various members.
Businesses also provide a good tax shelter in their early years. In addition to the standard expenses and deductions you can already take now, your new LLC/Corporation can pay for your cell phone, internet, and other costs associated with promoting your band. Because you business writes off the expenses, you might not have to pay tax for those items you normally use anyway. This is like getting between a 15-33% discount (depending on your tax rate).
Here are some steps you should take:
Talk to your band mates and make sure it’s the right move
Go to your Secretary of State’s website and check to make sure your name is available. Finding an available name might be a little easier for you starting up a band than it would be for a man named “Al” trying to start up “Al’s Plumbing”
Find a good accountant and a good lawyer to help you through the process. Their fees are deductible and their advice is priceless. hint: find professionals that specifically deal with musicians or music business
Get a Tax ID# and a Federal EIN#. –the added benefit is that with certain purchases, having an EIN/Tax ID will entitle you to pay less than retail for some items.
Purchase good accounting software (I use quickbooks). It will keep your band’s finances separate from your personal finances. It will also give you a great tool to create and send invoices to clubs, bars, event promoters, etc.
If you don’t already have a stellar logo/graphic identity, contact us to get that going ASAP!
BOOM! You’re in business.
Even though you’re a band, you should consider seeing yourself as a “lifestyle” or “entertainment” business. Your business model is highly brand-centric. In addition to your music, you should have plenty of well mixed merchandise for sale. You should also consider strategic partnerships with other bands, selling advertising at your events, collaborating with product repping companies, selling music to movies and commercials, and a host of other non-traditional (dare I say, “guerrilla”) styles of seeking revenue.
Image via WikipediaToday I’m focusing on the “street team” –which is really something that I never really got.
I’m a total business nerd and I love talking about marketing, pricing strategy, branding, financial management, and any number of other topics that are probably tripping your gag-reflex. That being said, I think that there are way too many buzz terms in the business world and I really hate when they become commonly used by people, even though most of us can only contextually (if at all) guess what they mean. What the hell is a street team? It conjures images of teenage redbull product reps from 10 years ago, and all the “truth” and anti “big tobacco” commercials that played a lot after the big lawsuits several years back. For me, those images are really comprised of irritating, quasi-hip/quasi-urban youth with cargo pants, sneakers with grind plates on them, and backpacks filled with free product samples and promotional goodies.
This still doesn’t answer the question; “what is a street team, why do I need one, and how do I get them to promote me (especially because I have no money)”.
Guerrilla Marketing, as defined by Jay Conrad Levinson (inventor of the term), is the process of accomplishing ordinary marketing objectives in extraordinary or uncommon ways. In the case of a musician, artist or band –this is EVERY marketing and promoting action you do, because you likely don’t have the marketing budget borrowed marketing budget from a big record label to purchase air time, national TV spots, ads in Rolling Stone, Vibe and the like. This means you have to think unconventionally about all your marketing so you can keep in under budget and be able to have the time in which to do it.
The street team is your personal group of disciples who go out and preach your band’s brand to any and everybody. For one of my customers, his best street team would be made of screaming female teenagers (that were all younger than he is). For another group, it might be wealthy retirees that want to contribute to an arts scene. In any case, the street team for the musician will largely consist of people willing to do work for free, or more often, in exchange for scenester points or other perks –like free back stage passes, a free t-shirt, or a public recognition from stage. These are the people that will take your brand message and email it to their friends, cross-post it on their own blogs/myspace sites, and even run around to record stores and coffee shops to put up posters and drop off flyers. Converting somebody into being your brand evangelist, especially before you have reached a modicum of success, means that either you’re compensating them or they are you close friend or family member.
Your goal is to make it as easy/likely as you can to get your evangelists out there preaching the gospel of you. Here are some examples:
Hold a design contest and encourage all your fans to participate. The winner should get something of monetary value (a CD, T-shirt, guest list for a year, cash, or gift card for a free lunch) -AND- their design should be your next album cover, T-shirt, Rock Poster, 1″ button etc. etc. Make sure you consult with your printer to get the correct format specifications for the contest and to make sure you have the number of colors and other specs set before you run the contest. No winner wants to be told that their design won’t be used after all. Your winner will tell everybody they won, and probably make all their friends buy the shirt or album.
Give your street team the tools to help market you. Include a few free stickers with every merchandise purchase, leave small piles of cheap promotional goods at record shops, music stores, cafes and the like. People will take the extras and hand them out, stick them to their car or backpack and do the advertising for you. Some saavy branders will have a page on their website that has screen savers, myspace layouts, posters to print at home for free, and a host of other user-driven items that allow people to download your brand and disseminate it.
Bribe them. I mentioned this earlier in the post, but it’s always okay to pay your marketers with free merchandise, a shout-out (online and on stage), or guest list access.
Be really good at music. Though it’s obvious, sometimes the best way to encourage people to spread the word is to just be really really good at what you do.
Thank Them. Relationships are the most important assets that humans can ever have. Make sure that as you build your band or music business, never forget that people come first. It’s astonishing what a little recognition and thanks can do to foster a relationship. Don’t use people, thank them.
After writing yesterday’s post, I did some “over-due-diligence” (copyright ME 2008) and came across a YouTube post from Dj Jazzy Jeff commenting on the Record Industry.
The basic premise goes hand-in-hand with what I said in yesterday’s cultBLOG post. –being that the world-wide record industry has gotten WAY to greedy and controlling and will now suffer a painful death (largely because they are probably not smart/agile enough to innovate, or at least do so in a timely fashion).
In this video, JJ explains how being signed to a label is basically a form of contractual slavery and further cements why nobody needs them.
The moral of this story is that you should do what you do with love, passion, and hard work. Define what “success” means to you, because it’s different for everybody. Develop a strategy to reach success, and you will see it happening to you!
Image via WikipediaMy web host, midphase, is running a spring madness sale on web hosting. They’re perfect for any band/music group because they do not limit media hosting on your website. Many web hosts will not let you share MP3 and Video content –or severely limit it, on the basis that they either want to avoid being sued for file sharing or because they don’t want it eating their bandwidth.
Here’s the limited time special:
M.A.D.N.E.S.S. Special
750GB disk space
10,000GB data transfer (10 Terabytes! Wow!)
20 domains hosted
99 MySQL DBs
Free Domain For Life!
FREE SSH available upon request!
CULT STATUS is offering $200Website design deals THROUGH MAY 31st, 2008!
–Offer applies with new web hosting package. Website includes optional installation of wordpress, shopping cart, paypal integration, and other great features! Offer applies to primarily html/xhtml and .css programming only. Contact us for a quote if you would like to include flash and database programming.
Image via Wikipedia“How can my bad get signed” seems to be the running question for a lot of musicians out there. It’s almost as if getting your band onto a major record label is the climax for many bands; but is it right for your band?
Back in the day (which was a Wednesday… thank you Dane Cook), record labels ran the musical world. They were the companies that handled the recording, marketing and distribution of the records –a process that required big money and big channels of distribution, when they had. Since internet and computer technology has made it very easy for independent lables and small businesses (such as independent merch shops -like Cult Status, independent recording studios, CD/Record manufacturing houses, etc.) to start emerging, the big labels have begun losing their competitive advantage. A large portion of my customer base happens to be artists, bands and orchestras who act as independent business units that do all their own management and marketing –mostly by outsourcing printing, recording, merchandising and CD/Vinyl manufacturing to small businesses, while handling the bulk of the marketing, booking and management duties themselves. (though this is not the only model under which to operate)
The lovely graph (courtesy Wikipedia) was from a 2005 analysis that shows the Indie labels dominating a larger percentage of the world market share than any one major label. Since the time this graph was made, there has been some industry consolidation, including the bankruptcy and merging of several big players. During this time, the “indies” have been taking more and more of this market away from the big boys.
Are these the conditions to which you want to be contractually obligated?
Lets get one thing straight. Record companies are businesses that (now more than ever) need to turn a profit. They are not a charity and do not care about anybody but themselves and their shareholder value (or what may be left of it). No deal you ever strike with a record major record company will have your interests at heart.
Given this, if a 16 year-0ld Detroit DJ can be heard in New York, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, Dubai, Tokyo, Lodz and about a million other towns all over the world through the marvels of social networking and file hosting/sharing websites, tell me again why we need major labels and why you need to be signed? We don’t You don’t!
Make great music
Promote yourself and live your brand –constantly
Hire a professional to do your graphic design, printing/screen printing, merchandising, web design and recording/mastering (the money you spend is by far worth the time and effort you save –plus you’re sure to get a polished look/sound)
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.
