Okay, I finally got to the branding exercise this weekend and just in time because my band, Sunspot, released a new EP two weeks ago. Here's my notes and outline along with my exercise and I'm going to change our squeeze page tag with it:

1. What is branding and why is it important?
2. 1. Branding is not the same thing as marketing
   2. 1. The brand should precede and underlie the marketing
   3. Branding needs to be developed before the marketing, or the marketing won’y usually be very successful
   4. Marketing pushes while branding pulls
   5. Marketing should be pushing out to get a specific result
   6. It’s the truths of what you are or what you are not
   7. Branding is a shortcut for the mind
   8. A very effective condensed form of communication
   9. 1. It makes it easier for people to find you
      2. The key to being heard is to be clear and consistent
   10. Clearly communicate something about you that will resonate with your audience.
   11. 1. Be clear what it is that you stand for
   12. If your brand is clear, it’s easier for them to spread your message.
   13. Not just a business strategy, it’s a communications strategy

Thanks for the feedback and analysis, John. A lot of times when we work on our marketing and branding, we focus on the lyrics of songs, which in a EP like the one that we just released, "Dangerous Times", mystery and danger are central to the themes, but the music itself is pretty upbeat and dancey. Same with the follow-up, "In Vino Veritas". 

It's probably better to focus on the feelings that the music as a whole conjures up, that's why I was going for "When good people do bad things, hard rock hits the dance floor in Sunspot's latest single". But the issue of the branding matching the product has dogged us for a long time and trying to actually capture what our product is instead of what we think it is (or hope it to be). We're a real control freak DIY type of group. 

What I think our music really is -

Literate, often geeky and often dark, lyrics
Big choruses that you can sing along to
Beats that are danceable
Expert guitar work

The problem is that I'm not really sure how to portray that in a way that is easily relatable. Creating that story around ourselves is a challenge that we're seemingly always working on.

Now, where we're thinking of going with the branding is to work on a podcast where we talk about supernatural, occult, and haunted things in the entertainment world. One of my interests has always been folklore and one of my hats is that I run a small tour company in Madison, Wisconsin doing a haunted history tour that I researched and wrote.

We're going to host a podcast where we discuss music legends, haunts, curses, rockers that believe in aliens, etc... We haven't figured out the name for it yet but are thinking of describing it as "where South by Southwest meets Coast to Coast". Anyway, we have fun talking about the legends, maybe interview an author, and then each episode has a little song we wrote at the end relating to the theme. Since we've always had a occult or sci-fi references in our music, we thought that it might fit the brand we're trying to create perfectly - which is fun music about weird and geeky stuff and hearkening back to "literate, sometimes dark, lyrics" and "big choruses that you can sing along to".

Those things really are the heart of the brand, but the trick is to describe that in an exciting way that encourages the clicks. I think the podcast is going to lead people to the squeeze page and to join the community as well as offering chances for different kinds of merchandise and upsells, as well as just being a lot of fun and a new challenge.

Nope, blunt is just fine. I love this music and whatever gets more people to hear it is the main goal. 

I really thought that the dark thing was more in vein with the songs, but you've got a great point, that the vibe of the music speaks much louder than the content of the lyrics. 

You wouldn't describe "Jump" by Van Halen as a song about egging a guy on to leap to his death, you'd describe it as a fun rock song that you can sing along to and has an amazing guitar solo and one of the best keyboard riffs of the 80s. 

Fun, geeky, dance-y pop-rock is as good of a description as any (for our last EP, we went with "Disco-metal from the Cheese and Beer Galaxy" which had that sense of fun, but in the end, when people hear 'metal' now they hear something different than what I'm thinking, so we're going to have to adjust that.)

I guess the hard part has been to hang that description around some kind of story or image. It seemed easier to sell it around the lyrics because they lead themselves to something exciting, at least more than fun, dance-y, and geeky. We'll have to keep working on a good tag around that!

Scissor Sisters, interesting. I haven't thought of those guys in years. But I can see it, as soon as we say disco and then portray the present look. We definitely have some Disco-Metal tracks that we can feature (our last EP was heavier but still dance-y.) We're always pushing our newest music, but there's no reason we can't lead with another track and then talk about the EP in the e-mail chain.

Those pictures were taken to promote our EP last September where we played 6 states in 1 day and broadcast from our van the whole time. So, that's why we were in the van and we haven't taken follow-ups yet. 

We'll be adding some new pics when we release the podcast and that's when we'll really be focusing on branding because it's going to be something new and we want to make sure we hit the right balance. We're constantly releasing new material but this is something different and we're excited to create a story around it and our new music.

Anyway, I just finished listening to the new SEO module and I'll be working furiously on finding new keywords appropriate for the latest image (as well as a new photoshoot next month.) I'll definitely be returning to this exercise soon!

John Chorba's case study is very inspiring. In fact I spent a few hours doing the exercise last night. I will share my findings but first I feel it's important to share this: John you know a bit about me- I've said I'm kinda reggae, singer/songwriter acoustic guy. Truth is yes, these are all features to my show, but I've been ignoring the main benefit of my value (for some reason).

I sat down with my Dad yesterday who happens to be my number one fan, and he reminded me that the thing that makes me stand out, the thing that everyone remarks on when I play live and the thing that instantly makes me stand out: is my bass playing. Other than the fact that I do a one-man-show with loops/guitar/drums, my bass playing is the main thing people remember about me. I wish it was my songwriting, but it's my playing, and my bass playing in particular.

I play lead bass. I consciously chose bass instead of lead guitar as a kid because I thought too many people play electric guitar. But I still wanted to stand out on it, unlike many other bass players. It's quirky, and it's a style that I developed many years ago to be different, and I gained a small but strong following... but I abandoned it after a couple of years of thinking it was too weird to make me majorly successful.

So I gave up and took any musical job to pay the bills: lead singer in a funk band, drummer in a jazz band, bassist in a hip-hop group. I did land a couple of notable jobs like drummer with The Toyes, who wrote Sublime's Smoke Two Joints. And I played with Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead. All stuff that looked good on paper, and I also learned a ton.

But since I found MMM, I've come full circle with it- and after reading stories like Jew Jacobin Club and how actually being really weird can sell well if you find your audience, present it right, and present it bold... and your story too John about how you started as a singer/songwriter, but got to LA and beefed up your sound for the Majors, and now here you are again successful at doing the style you started out doing... it's really inspired me to get real. So before I share my findings in the same exercise you gave John Chora, I just wanted you to listen to the song I did the music video treatment for.

I would really like to get your take on it John, as far as what audience you think would best appreciate it amongst any other things that come to your mind. I trust not only your marketing savvy by also your musical ear, as you're one of the best damn singer/songwriters out there, and you happen to have worked with thousands of musicians too.

The song is called Goldfish, it's attached. It's just vocals, drums, bass, and a little acoustic guitar which I play all of, and some super rad production that a buddy did. Warning: there's a 43 second intro I maybe should've edited out but for the sake of taking action, I just wanted to share it w/you ASAP, to get your take on which audience you think I should aim it at and anything else that comes to mind. Thank you.