Branding: How it applies to products:

What is branding?


 A brand is not the same as a product. A brand is a particular make of something, for example, with coffee; coffee is the product and 'Kenco' or 'Nescafe' are brands. Branding is all about creating an image that is memorable to the customer.


How does this apply to the music industry?


 All musicians will have some sort of brand image. That could be a logo, type of colour they wear or the kind of costumes they wear. It's important to establish a brand image, so their audience will have something to associate that particular artist with, and gives that musician a bigger and more interesting personality.
 As a result, this brand image will be repeated over and over again to their audience; i.e. on album covers, in their music videos or in promotional photoshoots. Again, this creates a memorable image for the audience, and they'll be able to link the brand image to that artist.
 Logos, designs, advertising and marketing can help the audience deduce certain ideas from these particular things and give them an overall idea what a person's brand image is. For example, if the artist's brand image is a skull and cross bone, they'll have certain ideas from that image, i.e. they're from a rock genre and their songs are likely to be dark. This same idea applies to colours, clothing etc.


How does branding help?


Branding can make a particular artist unique and gives them something that other artists don't have. It gives them something their fans can relate to and a special connection between them and the artist. Branding is all about creating a positive image that can be recognised easily and as a result things like having an artists logo on something can boost the sales of it.


How does this help us with our product?


We will need to create a brand image for our band. We'll need to come up with a consistent, memorable and simple brand image that will get the audience interested in our product. We'll do this through the design; i.e. colours, images and costume, and hopefully that'll help the audience have something to link to our band and associate themselves with the band. We also hope to create something that is instantly recognisable by the audience, and we'll do this by repeating our image on each of our products.