Branding Continued: Creating A Plan

Once you have an idea of your audience, your brand, and your goals, put it all together in one document – something that gives you a sense of where you have come from, where you are now, and where you are headed. It also lays out your next steps for getting there (even if they are all theoretical at this point). You have done the dreaming, and this document is going to define the logistics. This is your business plan. My business/marketing plan is 18 pages long, and it is constantly changing, but it keeps me on track. You might not need 18 pages; you may only need one. Or maybe you need a hundred. Everyone is different. One thing is indisputable, however: Having a plan will give you a professional leg up. I talked to one booking agent who said that she has signed artists upon seeing a business plan alone. 

First, include in your plan information about where you are and what you have accomplished so far. How big and how active is your fan base? How big is your email list? How many concerts did you play last year and how much money did you gross on concerts and merchandise sales?

Next, include all of your touring goals for at least the next year (or whatever time period you decide on). What cities do you want to be hitting? How big do you want your audience to be? How big is it now in each of these cities (if you have never played there before, your audience is zero until your first concert there). How many concert dates do you want to play every year? How often are you planning to return to the same city or do the same route? Are you going to stay in one place for a month to do several residencies in the area when the time is right? At the end of this period, what numbers do you want to be hitting (audience and sales-wise)? 

The last part of your business plan (and perhaps the hardest) is working out a budget. It’s going to be nearly impossible to know how much things will actually cost until you get out there, but you can come up with a general idea, and you should. We will talk specifically about tour budgeting when we discuss tour preparation later on, but for now you should have a solid idea of what you plan on doing, and a rough estimate of what it will cost you. 

Define Your Goals

Remember that while writing music is a practice of creative expression, professional touring is a business. The difference between a hobbyist and a professional is that the professional artist goes out on the road with the intention of growing and engaging his or her fan-base and making a living. 

It's important to have goals for every aspect of your career, but since we are talking about touring, let's focus on that. 

First, allow yourself to dream a little. What are your ultimate touring goals? Do you want to be playing clubs? Theaters? Stadiums? County Fairs? Symphony Halls? Really think about your music and the type of audience you would like to be connecting with night after night. Your ultimate goals will drive your decision-making and the way you approach your career, starting now. A lot of this will depend on your target audience and your brand, which we've discussed at length during the last few articles. In five years, where do you see yourself performing? Who are you playing for, and how many people at a time? Are you appearing on television? Are you appearing on stage with other artists; are you collaborating? How much are you making per show? Are you touring by bus, plane, RV, or van? It’s your dream, and you have the right to put it together however you see fit. 

There are plenty of books written about effective goal setting, and I think it lies in everyone's best interest to have a good idea of your long/short term goals before starting out on something as emotionally, financially, and time intensive as a concert tour. 

Once you have your broader career goals defined, let’s zero in on this upcoming tour, or period of touring. How many people do you hope to meet/play for in this year? Is your ultimate goal to make money, or is this a first tour where the goal is to increase exposure and build relationships with venues, fans, and press? (If this is your first year of touring, then your answer to this question will probably be the latter.)

If you’re going to make a commitment to touring professionally, know that this is a long-term process and success happens with time and perseverance. Be prepared to hit the same markets (cities) multiple times a year (Ideally, 2-4 times per year). Be prepared to lose money for awhile. If you are consistent, you will see your audiences grow. If you go to a place once and don’t return for another year, you will find yourself starting over every time you visit a city. I think it is very helpful to set specific goals for the long and short term and then work your way back from there, year by year, to now. Things rarely happen exactly the way you anticipate, and these goals will be a moving target that you will have to revisit every few weeks/months, but having specific targets (audience, concert fees, social-networking numbers, merchandise sales, etc.) will help keep you on track and give more meaning to your day-to-day efforts. 

I have found it very useful to write down my long and short term goals in a place where I can easily access them. Every year, I'm able to look at the list, see what I've accomplished and what was maybe too much of a stretch, and revise. If you are an artist in the process of planning a tour, try challenging yourself to do this for your upcoming tour or touring period. 

The A, B, C's of Fan Demographics

As an exercise, take out a list of your fans (maybe an email list, or a facebook list, etc) and see if you can break your current fan base down into three basic categories: “A”, “B”, and “C” fans. This will also help you define your target demographics.

Your “A” fans are your musical evangelists. These are the people who tell everyone they know about your music, show up to your concerts early with groups of their friends, and buy everything you sell. 

Your “B” fans are people who love your music, but aren’t necessarily as loyal or committed as your “A” fans. They might come to most of your concerts in any given town, buy some of the things sell, and be fans on your social networking sites, but they don’t necessarily go around telling everyone about you. 

Your “C” fans are there only when convenient for them. They might listen to your music from time to time and come to your concerts with their friends who are “A” and “B” fans - and they might follow you online, and even occasionally buy something - but that’s about it. 

Do you have an idea of who might fit into each of these categories? Knowing who your “A”, “B”, and “C” fans are will help you figure out how best to approach your career and who to market to. For example, if you know that most of your “A” fans are college students (say, particularly female college students), this might be a good group (demographic) to target in your marketing efforts. Of course, you might have many different fans in different demographics, but the purpose of this exercise is to figure out who, in general, responds most strongly to what you do. When doing this exercise, remove any outliers (such as parents, boyfriends/girlfriends, etc.) and try to focus on people who are only fans of your music first. 

Next, given the information you have, identify your primary demographic. This is the demographic you’re going to put the most effort into reaching. For example, if your music gets the best response from American female college students, then you might consider targeting a primary demographic of educated females, ages 18-22. In this case, any concert opportunity that helps you reach that audience will take priority for you. In general, marketers love the younger demographics for music, because kids in high school/college usually have disposable income, so if this is the crowd that truly appeals to your music, great. If not, it’s more important to pursue YOUR audience than it is to pursue a popular audience.


If you have trouble with this idea, think of an artist you sound similar to and analyze his/her primary demographic – what age and background are most of the people who go to this artist’s concerts? What is their financial background? Religious background? If you do something that becomes popular, it is likely that people of all different ages and backgrounds are going to be attracted to your music eventually. But it has to start with a consistent primary demographic, and consistent marketing efforts.


One thing to think about is something I call the “Hometown” Principle – the idea that people like to support their own. An artist usually has the biggest following in his or her hometown, because there’s this sense that he/she is “one of us.” This works in many different respects. If you’re a Christian or Jewish artist, zeroing in on church or synagogue events might be a way to get in front of a crowd who will understand and respect what you’re doing, and do everything they can to help grow your career and share your music. If you’re in a fraternity or sorority, visiting that frat or sorority house in the different towns you play will probably earn you more loyalty in that community.

Branding (Part One)

6 MONTHS PRIOR TO TOUR:

1.     Define your brand.

2.     Define your audience.

3.     Define your goals.

4.     Create your business plan.

As opposed to later entries, in which I will lay out specific procedures you’ll walk through for every tour, this section details procedures that you’ll only need to do once (and revisit from time to time after). These things are all about laying a wider groundwork for your touring career, and, once you have them in place, it should be easier for you to take the more concrete steps. If you've already done this, it's always helpful to take a moment to re-evaluate your branding and make sure you're doing everything you can to make it effective.

DEFINE YOUR BRAND

If I name any A-list celebrity or public figure, you can probably tell me in one or two words what the public’s impression of that person is; not just what he/she is known for, but how people see him/her. 

Every artist knows that it’s important to be seen, but how people see you publicly is just as important. You and I could walk into a random party and immediately start making up stories about each person we see based on our first impressions. We could guess where each person likes to hang out, what they do, who their friends are, how much money they have, even what kind of music they like. If I pointed to someone and told you he/she was a musician, you could probably tell me what kind of music he/she plays on appearance alone. That’s branding! We could, of course, guess wrong about everything. But it doesn’t matter. We live in a culture of short attention spans and those first impressions stick with us. Before people even hear your music, they will likely be exposed to elements of your style, presentation, logo and graphics, fashion, nicknames, and the tone of your communication online. These things, in addition to your music, are all part of your brand, and they play a huge role in determining whether the right audiences will gravitate toward you. As a matter of fact, it may sound crazy, but audiences may form a solid impression of you - and may decide to like or dislike your work - long before they see you perform or even hear your recordings.

With a physical product like a sports drink, branding is easier to figure out. You research the audience you are after and mold the packaging, design scheme, and marketing to reach those particular people. For an individual - especially an artist - it becomes a lot harder. No artist is one-dimensional, but most good brands, at first glance, have a simple, one-dimensional appeal. The challenge is taking the most marketable, most memorable aspects of what you stand for as an artist and a personality, and distilling those into a brand that hooks people in, a brand that people can easily talk about.

Many artists are very resistant to the idea of one-dimensional branding, and worry that presenting themselves in such a limited way will negatively affect their creative options. The truth is actually the opposite – by branding yourself well, you will pull in the right people who will then have a chance to discover the depth of your work. On the other side of it, if your brand is too generic, scattered, or inconsistent, people won’t take the time to try and figure it out, and your work will likely remain obscure. The most iconic artists have been branded like this for decades; the only difference was that many of them had a team of people telling them what to do, and for the time being, you’ve got to do it for yourself. 

What do you stand for? What does your music stand for? What genre/musical tradition is your work a continuation of? If you sing folk songs about the struggle and plight of the workingman, but you show up in dressed in trendy clothing, carrying a flashy new guitar, you might send a mixed message to potential fans. At the same time, if you’re crooning ballads and targeting wholesome family audiences and you show up covered in tattoos, wearing a grungy t-shirt and ripped clothing, what are you saying to your audience? You want to make sure that your brand – your logo, mode of dress, and presentation – are in line with the audience you’re trying to reach and the impression you want them to have of you.

Your audience wants to see their best selves in you. This is why we listen to music – not to connect with the artist, but to connect with what the artist shows us about ourselves. Whether it’s our most poetic selves, our most eloquent selves, or our most rebellious selves – we look for that reflection in the music, movies, books, and other art we love. Become a conduit for that, in your own way. 

A Career In Music is a Career In Politics

There's a great HBO movie called The Special Relationship, which explores the complex relationship between an American president (Bill Clinton) and a British Prime Minister (Tony Blair). Toward the beginning of the film, there's a moment when one of Blair's advisors, after seeing Clinton's success, tells Blair, “It’s easier to change what you stand for than to change what people want.” For an artist, of course, this is terrible advice. Creatively, moulding yourself to what you think people want you to be is the kiss of death. But when it comes to your business, knowing who your audience is - and knowing how to tailor your approach to them - is the absolute key to your success. 


A tour is a political campaign. They have candidates. We have artists. Politicians hit the road with a message. We hit the road with our music. Politicians give speeches, but the most important way they connect is by meeting voters. We perform at concerts, but the most important way we connect is by meeting and interacting with fans. In politics, supporters speak with their votes. In music, fans vote with their money. Politicians are running for office so they can be the voice that speaks for their constituents' minds. We are running a campaign to be the spokespeople of hearts. 


Many artists think that touring is about showing up, performing, getting in the car, and driving to the next place. For these people, vagabond mentality can easily take over on the road, and it's shortsighted. If they get in a disagreement with a venue owner or another artist, they figure it doesn't matter because they're leaving town and will never see them again. And for people who think that way, they're right. They'll never be invited back. The reality is, as much as that hour on stage may be your favorite hour of the day and the one that keeps you going, the other 23 will make all the difference between success and failure. 


If it's not apparent now, wait until you get on the road and start navigating your way through complex and 'special' relationships with industry people, venues, fans, press, and other artists, over weeks, months, and years. You may be a musician, but make no mistake - if you tour for a living, you have a career in politics.


If artists really understood this concept, the world of touring would be completely different. Artists would approach the idea of professionalism differently. They would build relationships differently. They would spend more time making their fans feel special and important. And you know what? Artists would all make more money. Accepting that you are building a long-term reputation, and realizing that you have professional commitments to your colleagues, vendors, and supporters is an essential first step before talking about anything technical. Before you reach out to venues, it's important to know what you stand for, how you plan on conducting your business, and who exactly you should be setting your sights on. 


Next week I'm going to talk about branding, and present a few ideas that may help in that process. A lot of artists have trouble with the concept of branding themselves (they somehow liken it to the process of being marked with a hot iron). Instead, think about the following question: If you were looking at this as a politician might, and you were running a campaign around your music, what would your platform be? Would you have a slogan? What types of signs would you want your fans to hold up for you? What types of people would you be targeting to 'vote' for you? And ultimately, what feeling would you want to leave people with when they met you and saw you perform?


More on this next week. 

Interview w/ Jeff Riddle of TheGiveGive about Negotiation with Venues

Jeff Riddle started out as a touring musician, and eventually went on to work in booking/artist management and artist/venue consulting. He managed my career for over a year, and helped to secure me tens of thousands of dollars in concert fees. Jeff now lives in New York City, where he heads the East Coast division of a successful marketing firm. He also runs TheGiveGive (www.thegivegive.com), a blog that specializes in teaching professionals to build lasting business relationships. I recently spoke with him about booking, and specifically about the process of negotiation. Note that in much of this interview, we're talking about negotiation with venues that are willing to pay a guarantee, such as colleges, private events, festivals, etc. 

MT: When you realize you have interest from a venue or a college, what do you want to keep in mind?

JR: First you’re going to want to address the mindset. The typical mindset in the negotiation (and a common misconception!) is that the artist is going to feel undesired, and that the other party (venue, presenter) has all the power. The reality is that if the other party is willing to work with that artist, they need the artist, too. So once there’s a mutually agreed-upon movement forward, the artists need to understand that they are in a much more powerful position than they let themselves have. Remember that just because you ask a question, or ask for something, doesn’t mean they aren’t going to want to work with you anymore.

MT: An artist might also run into a situation where a venue hasn’t committed yet, but is ‘shopping around’. This happens a lot with colleges, especially college festivals. 

JR: That’s another mindset. Say they email you back something like: “This sounds interesting, but how much does it cost?” In this case, the artist becomes a commodity. The venue is basically price shopping. Depending on how you feel about this as an artist, you can respond one of two ways. You can either say, “We don’t talk price until we’ve had at least a commitment that a venue wants to move forward,” or, if you are okay with that and have an idea of what they might generally pay, you can name a price range. For example, you could say, “For this type of event, I usually get this range of price, depending on details - travel costs, promotion, etc.” This gives you leeway.

MT: Do you think every artist should set standard prices for each type of show they might play?

JR: Yes, I think they should have a general price point for each type of venue. With every new business, when they start out, they’ll work with anybody who will pass the fog test – meaning, put a mirror up to their face and if they breathe into it and it creates fog then they’ll work with them, (laughs), And that’s kind of how it works with the artist, too. Anyone who will even give them a dollar, they’ll play for them, because it’s like ‘Oh my god, I’m getting paid’.  So in terms of price point with every business, you can take one of two approaches – you can either start high and work your way down to figure out your fair market value, or you can start low and work your way up. Most artists are going to start low, and that’s okay, but one of the advantages to starting high is that your value is set high – there’s an association with price and value – so there’s some power because of that, but at the same time there is a possibility that if you’re trying to book a full tour, you cut out 2/3 of the shows because you’re not even in that range.

MT: So how do you know if you’ve set a good price for yourself?

JR: A lot of it is based on peoples' reactions. Based on how they react, you are able to determine what they’re willing to pay.  And in most businesses, pricing is so similar, but for artists every venue is so different.

MT: That’s one of the hardest things about the music industry, especially for independent artists. It’s hard to know what the right approaches are.

JR: There are all these standard approaches that people talk about, rules of negotiation – like, for example, ‘the first person to name a price loses’. Most people go into this looking at it as a win/loss – meaning someone is going to win and someone is going to lose. Unfortunately, the problem with that is that if you look at it that way, the artists are almost always going to lose. Instead, you should approach this entirely as how do we create a win/win situation, a situation where the venues are happy, and we’re happy too. That should be the mindset and the general approach.

Have a general idea what your price is – if you are super flexible and will play for $10 one night, but another venue you want to try to play for $500, that can hurt in the long run. You should standardize pricing to the best you can. Along these same lines, artists should have a non-disclosure agreement with every single venue; a confidentiality agreement that they won’t share the price you gave them with other venues. 

You should also try to subsidize as much as you can; try to get venues or organizations to try to pay for products, travel, promotion, etc. Sometimes, at colleges for example, they can budget out separate things in different areas. For example, if you go to a company or marketing organization and try to do something with them, they may only have a limited budget in some areas, but then in other areas they can make up the cost with travel, because it’s a different kind of expense – things like that.

Artists should have a standard terms and a standard agreement. The venue might send a contract, but you should also have a standard contract to use. Even if they send a contract, still having some standard terms of your own - attaching a rider, for instance – makes you more consistent and more professional, and the more professional you seem, the more money and respect you’ll yield. 

MT: I was talking earlier about how an artist is somewhat replaceable until they hit some level of notoriety or critical mass. 

JR: The critical mass is all based on financial value – and I think that’s something else artists need to remember with negotiation. We all know there are plenty of artists out there who are not that musically talented, but they’re getting paid a ton of money. At the end of the day, you have two choices – you either go into your room and do art, and it’s all about the art and it’s for you, but if you want to get out there and make a living at this, you’ve got to look at as a business, and unfortunately in the business community, they don’t really care as much about the art. The more you can understand that, the more negotiation will make sense, because it’s kind of a counter-intuitive approach.

There are two ways to go about this. If you’re going to just show up and be entertainment, then you’re just a commodity. But if you’re dedicated to building a following, and leveraging the tools and resources that exist out there, then that’s something different. In that case, the negotiation doesn’t even matter.

MT: Any other advice?

JR: Building and leveraging relationships will be really important, too, as a marketing tool. If you’re playing one place, these guys all know everybody else, too, so it’s in your best interest to A) build a relationship with them and be really professional and B) Leverage it in the right way.

MT: And people talk between each other more than we realize – venues and agents all talk with each other, and it’s a smaller community than we might think. 

JR: One of the things a lot of artists don’t have going for them s professionalism. If you’re professional, it can go a long way. People really appreciate that, and they’ll talk about it.

-Martin Storrow for Modern Touring

*Visit Jeff's blog at www.TheGiveGive.com