MUSIC MARKETING STRATEGY Law #5 Focus

The all-time best way for your brand to become successful in the music industry is to own a word, name, or concept.

Take me to your Ocean
Take me to your Ocean
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You burn your brand into the mind by narrowing the focus to a single word or concept. It is the ultimate marketing sacrifice.

Michael Jackson is the King of Pop. He will never be the King of R&B, though that might be an equally accurate classification for him.

Who is the World’s greatest guitarist? Jimi, Clapton, Brian May, Eddie Van Halen, David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Santana, Slash, Larry Carlton? See what’s happening there. All seared into pop culture, you don’t even need the full names of the main contenders.

There’s no such thing as the best guitarist of course, but they all own a word. Van Halen owns ‘tapping’ for example. You might not have heard of Larry Carlton (my choice), but he owns the concept ‘Steely Dan’s Guitar player’ (even though Walter Becker played more Dan solos).

So, what word, concept or name are you going to own?

You could always get yourself a Blues name. After all, Donald Glover got his rapper alter-ego (Childish Gambino) from a Wu-Tang name generator, so who’s to say you can’t do the same?

For fun I’m going to call myself Benny ‘Fingers’ Sutton from now on - a name that others once called me in affectionate jest (thanks Steve).

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