LET MUSIC PLAY

You maybe asking why does one need to BRAND OR NAME?

Well in the music profession branding is so important.

What is Branding/Naming?

My definition of Branding/Naming is a genre, identification, style, stamp, earmark, imprint… It tells your audience WHO YOU ARE, WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT, etc.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.
When we think U2, some think of The Edge. WHY? Because of his guitar sounds. He “BRANDED” the band with his electric guitar licks. We also think of Bono’s voice… It’s very much recognizable… branded! You know what else…Bono’s sunglasses. He wears a pair all the time. Rarely do we see Bono without sunglasses.

I didn’t realize I was branding myself when I placed a photo of myself on the first record In The Waiting. I had my dread locks and guess what, people associated me with my dreads. So I branded myself without knowing it.

I promised you 3 Key Components when you start to brand or name your product. In some cases, your product is YOU! Your voice is your product, your music is your product, your message is your product.

#1 Key Component is:

1 – Prominence

Your brand has to stand out, make a mark. It has to be bold enough to get people’s attention. That’s what you want to do is get people’s attention. Get them to want to know who you are, what your style is, why you sing, write, play. So STAND OUT!

When putting a record out, one of the smartest thing an artist can do is put a photo of their face on the cover. It gives people a person behind the voice. It makes it personal. It gives the touch feeling for people. I personally do not like putting my face on the covers of my albums. But it has helped my career tremendously.

#2 Key Component is:

2 – Simplicity

Your brand has to be simple, at least when it comes to a phrase, brand name, stage name.

There are many ways to brand yourself. I’ve already mentioned a few but let me go back and list some for you. You can brand yourself is by name. A band name or stage name. Another way to brand yourself is by a design. Kind of like Prince…the artist formally known as Prince (label/symbol design). I know its weird but he rebranded himself with a symbol. You can too.

Here’s another thing with branding. There’s the brand within the brand. What do I mean by that? Well, let say that you brand your name. Say your name is Joan. That happens to be your “stage name”. My stage name is “Isa” not my full name which is Isaminely. Do you think Isaminely would be a good stage name??? I would say NOT. The reason why is because the name is complicated to say, not at all easy to say and the last thing you want is people getting frustrated over trying to pronounce your name. So simple is KEY to branding yourself or your album/product.

Okay back to brand within a brand. Let’s say your stage name is JOAN. And on the record you have a symbol attached to your name…let’s say that symbol is a willow tree or something like that. Now you have a brand within a brand. You have your first brand which is your stage name (JOAN) and attached to that is a willow tree. That is what I called a brand within a brand. So many people do this and don’t even realize they are doing it. If you play on this marketing strategy well, you could stir a lot of attention towards you which means more sales.

#3 Key Component is:

3 – Consistency

Consistency is also a very important element to this marketing strategy. Keep it consistent. Don’t change your stage name after you’ve branded yourself, put your name out there. I’ve made this mistake. I put out an EP called Isa. Then I put out a full length record with the name Isa Couvertier instead of Isa. Bad Idea. Make sure you are sure about your name, cause after its out there its hard to re-brand yourself. It can be done but its like changing the name of McDonald’s to McD’s or something like that. Another example is changing Kmart to Macy’s. People have the name Kmart stamped in the minds. Hope this makes sense. Stay consistent!

Ok. That’s all for now. Have fun coming up with a brand/name.

To your results,
Isa