Chapter 3: Your Band’s Brand and Marketing
At some point, if you’re serious, the time will come when you’re ready to move your
band out of the garage, get on stage, into the recording studio and into the public eye.
You’ve practiced. You’ve rehearsed your stage performance. You’ve worked hard to hone
your act and define your sound. One thing you probably haven’t done is given some seri-
ous thought to branding and marketing.
Don’t sweat it. It’s not that unusual. Your focus has been on the music, improving
your playing, getting all the band’s members to play nice together (And, I’m not talking
about the music bits). That’s the way it should be. Before you can even think about
branding and marketing, you’ve got to have something to brand and market. Something
viable. That might sound like a, “Duh!” statement, but all too often small businesses try
to brand something that’s not quite there yet. Their branding, if it’s even addressed, is all
over the place and utterly inconsistent. Then, their efforts fail and they think branding
doesn’t work or isn’t needed. As I’ve mentioned, your band is a small business. Sure, mu-
sic might be your product, but the general business concepts are the same. As a business,
you’ve got a brand.
What Is Branding?
Branding is another one of those nebulous marketing terms you’ve probably heard about
it, but aren’t too clear on what it means. Take solace in the fact that you’re hardly alone.
You might think that a brand relates to things like chain restaurants, detergent or any