Calmstock

[Originally posted at Marketing profs]

You’ve done your homework and designed a strategic brand program. You’ve found insight through research, learned what makes your constituents tick, established a strong brand foundation, developed a framework for messages, and evolved a system for visual expression—all necessary to help your organization realize its goals and vision.

Now it’s time to build.

An Architecture of Action

So how do you translate your planning and strategy into tactics that drive desired outcomes?Although you can define your brand in a corner conference room, it doesn’t really exist unless your constituents “get it.”

For that to happen, you need communications—both outbound and inbound, articulated and acted out. And those communications must address the needs and opportunities presented by target communities; they must help people see their personal brand in the context of your corporate one; and they must get the right information to the right people, in the right format, at the right cost, at the right time.A “communications architecture” is your best tool for planning and then executing the communications most likely to achieve those goals—and eliminating the ones that aren’t.

Continue reading at Marketing profs >>

[Originally posted at Marketing Profs]

Know whom you serve, and why they care.

Much more than just “your customers” or “your audience,” your constituents are all the people for whom your work is meaningful—the internal and external populations whose interest, participation, and advocacy are important to your stability, growth, and long-term success.

Many of these people know you through your products, programs, and services—or because they’re staff or volunteers—but some know you only through how you communicate and through the reviews, posts, tweets, and comments of others.

Whether you’re a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise, your goal is to have relationships with your constituents—to move beyond transactions. But as your organization evolves and engages in more areas of endeavor (it’s rare for a business to do one thing these days), the challenge is to start and nurture more relationships than ever before.

Doing so successfully requires that you have two-way conversations with your constituents—dialogues. It’s not enough to push out communications from headquarters. To have conversations that are meaningful, you need to know who your constituents really are. You need to learn what they care about, what moves them, what keeps them up at night, how they like to be communicated with, and what your value to them is—or could be.

Read more at Marketing Profs >>

[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

Back in December I posted an entry entitled, “What carbs can teach us about branding.” With the holiday feasts around the corner, I thought it would be good fun to walk through brand relationship strategies using snack isle brands as examples.

To briefly recap, businesses—for-profit and nonprofit alike—typically manage a family of products and programs, and the perceived relationships between those offerings and the “master” brand matters. That’s ultimately how credit and equity accrue in the right places.

With that in mind, snack isle mainstays Mars, Nabisco, Pepperidge Farms, and Entenmann’s provided a clear set of examples to help frame thinking around brand relationships, which exist on a continuum from product-focused to master brand-focused.

So what does this mean in the world of social media?

Social media provides marketers and brand stewards myriad new opportunities to engage those that matter most in meaningful, two-way dialogues. Some say the price you pay for this increased engagement is a loss of control. While you can’t control the conversations, you can work to control the brand context in which they take place.

Social media involves people just as much as programs and products. How you connect to and leverage the power of your people will play a huge role in your success online. And with brand diffusion a continuing threat, managing how your social media outposts are positioned verbally and visually is vital.

Continue reading at ‘Round the Square >>

[Originally posted at Dysonsound]

I’ve been MIA for a while. Getting a new EP recorded, CDs and vinyl pressed (one-sided white vinyl!), gigs and radio appearances booked, promo packages together– it’s a ton of work as you all know. But I think I’m coming out of the woods a bit and want to get some thoughts down on the exciting re-emergence of patronage via new, arts-focused, micro-funding platforms.

Perhaps best known as a driving force behind the European Renaissance, arts patronage has played a vital role in advancing culture for centuries. And beyond the visual arts, patronage has impacted the work of some of the greatest writers, scientists, and composers we’ve ever known. Nowadays, however, there’s a lot less in the way of direct-to-artist patronage. But since I’ve only taken one art history course, I’ll stop there and leave the history lesson to others.

That said, it’s important to recognize the critical role patronage can play in contemporary culture, and it’s great to see technology providing a means for connecting people and ideas to crowd source micro “gifts” that advance creative endeavors— particularly musical ones.

As a former grant writer (among other things) for a contemporary arts center with a storied live music program, I was routinely dismayed by the difficulty of fundraising for music projects. The simple, yet no less frustrating, rationale was always this: things you can see are more tangible, thus visual art forms are better positioned for fundraising. The ephemeral nature of music typically doesn’t appeal to patrons in the same way. One can’t quite feel ownership over a commissioned piece of music in the same way you can a commissioned painting, and one is easier to display in the foyer. That was the argument anyway.

So why the current momentum in micro-financing music? What’s happening now, I think, is that (a) people still value real, honest music and are becoming increasingly bored by mainstream pop; (b) it’s getting cheaper to produce quality music projects; (c) the 20th century music funding model (i.e. the recording industry) is becoming more irrelevant by the minute; and (d) we’re talking high-volume small gifts. You don’t necessarily need one major donor when a couple hundred small-scale donors will do just fine (and can actually be easier to secure).

Fundraisers will tell you there’s a significant difference in tactics required to secure 200 $25 gifts as opposed to 2 $2,500 gifts. The latter is about cultivating dialogue and stewarding potential (major) donors looking to advance a personal vision. The former is more “transactional,” requires little cultivation, and is more easily scaled. Sure, donors at both levels want a “return,” but the expectations of a transactional donor are much more manageable– making web-based, crowd-sourced, micro-funding a great fit for musicians looking to execute small- to medium-scale projects.

The well known success story of Jill Sobule illustrates this perfectly. Through a special website, Sobule offered “returns” to her patrons that –to varying degrees– allowed people “ways-in” to her project (in much the same way a museum membership program works). It wasn’t about “guilt” or “charity” (as some micro-funding critics have said). For higher-end patrons it was about realizing a dream (I got to sing on Jill’s album!!), while at the smaller gift level being part of something unique and special was enough.

So, my $.02 for musicians out there thinking of trying out a micro-funding platform? If you’re known like Jill Sobule and have a strong fan base (i.e., a strong brand), you can probably raise money for run-of-the-mill projects like CD/vinyl pressing by coming up with “returns” that make it exciting enough for patrons to step up. If you’re not well known, consider something new. What kind of project could you put together that people might find interesting who don’t even know your music? How might you build a compelling art project “around” your music? And how can you frame the project so that it provides ways in for friends and strangers alike?

Either way, let’s try and NOT use these new platforms for business as usual. The truly exciting opportunity they provide is the ability to garner support to try something new, as well as connecting with like-minded people who value the role of music in contemporary culture.

I have a Kickstarter invite burning a whole in my pocket, but I’m taking the time to try and plan a project that people can be a part of– something with different “ways in” for people of varying means. Who knows if it will be a success, but it’s great to have new avenues for pushing the envelope.

Some sites to check out:

http://www.kickstarter.com/
http://www.pledgemusic.com
http://www.sellaband.com/
http://www.thehectorfund.com/
http://www.society6.com/
http://microfundo.com/

[Originally posted at Dysonsound]

It’s been a hectic fall. I attended my first Musicians for Music 2.0 meet-up, found my way to Music Hack Day Boston, tapped into some super smart brains on Twitter, started writing about what I was seeing and hearing, and read seemingly a dozen articles a day on the business of music for about 4 weeks straight.

And all the while I’ve been hard at work on the new Longwalls EP; recording, mixing, and wondering… wondering what the hell we were doing! Everything I was reading and hearing was having a real-time impact on what I thought about promotion, distribution, making “records,” managing a little label, and being in a band. It got pretty overwhelming at times and a fair amount of sleep was lost. But as I get ready to finally unplug for a week, I realize all the thinking has lead to a bit of clarity. Some things I’m thinking about heading into a new decade of music making…

Continue reading at Dysonsound >>

UFO…
It can’t be real to me…
As flames burst over sea…
Falling down…

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[Originally posted at 'Round the Square]

With the holidays upon us it’s officially open season on carbohydrates. But instead of bemoaning inevitable holiday weight gain, let’s take a moment and see what our sugary friends in the snack isle can teach us about brand relationship strategies.

Most businesses manage a family of offerings, and the perceived relationship between those “sub” brands and the parent or “master” brand matters. From financial firms with multiple fund lineups to non-profit arts organizations in the performing, presenting, education, and retail businesses, a strategy for managing the relationships between parent and product brands—so that credit and equity accrue in the right places—is a must.

Continue reading at ‘Round the Square >>

[Originally posted at Dysonsound]

They sure do Mr. Gent. In fact, most of my favorite music is in some way “local.” From post-punk to punk-punk, new folk to new country, I by and large listen to music made by people that I in some way know– or that at least I might have the to chance to get to know. Sure I’m a bit spoiled living in Boston, and if you live in NYC or LA a whole lot of music is in some way “local.” But the point is this: for those out of touch with their local scenes, get in touch! Plugging in to your local scene is beneficial to you and your community–and the music is way better than you might think.

Continue reading at Dysonsound >>

An opening salvo? A shot across the bow? 2:10 of picture perfect pop? Yes thank you.

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[Originally written for Sametz Blackstone Associates and later posted at MarketingProfs.]

Is the social media explosion a “big bang” that’s creating a whole new brand communications paradigm, or is it part of an ongoing evolution where focused brand-building principles are not only still relevant, but more important than ever?

The more things change…

Social media is indeed changing the ways though which brands can be built and expressed––and how they connect with, and influence, key constituencies. But successful brands have always been––and will continue to be––the ones that are understood and valued by their constituents, deliver on their promise, are differentiated in the competitive landscape, and are enthusiastically recommended by engaged brand advocates. No sea change here.

What’s evolving is the nature of brand discourse––from predominately one-way, out-bound organization-to-constituent monologues, to two- and three-way conversations among your organization and constituents, the latter often talking to each other beyond your hearing. This has significant implications around how your advocates proselytize, where you put your brand communication resources, and how you build trust and relationships.

Continue reading at Sametz.com >>