When researching our genre we went in with the mindset that what we found could be utilized to help build our own brand for this project. We were searching for how the bands in the alternative genre specifically marketed their band and built their communities. The first thing we noticed is every band we researched had some form of social media and a website that had links to further merchandise or tour dates. From this we found our target audience, primarily 20 to 24 year olds, and this combined with the social media used from our case studies, we began to build our own social media. We decided to primarily use Instagram and Twitter, as although Tik Tok is a viable marketing platform, we felt it was for younger audiences than our target. Also we began to formulate ideas for our music video after researching the band Fall Out Boy, which makes use of a Llama as a symbol in a lot of their music videos, so we decided to come up with a symbol/brand in which we could use to build brand recognition.
The song for our music video, "The Man," has very egocentric and cocky lyrics. I mean the song is literally titled "The Man," so what would you expect? After taking a closer look at these lyrics and keeping the information of using a symbol to build brand recognition, we noticed the lyric "I carry the crown." Crown, now thats something we could get behind! And thus, M'Lady was born! With a royal, somewhat cocky, and lighthearted brand, we were ready to start creating our logo and merchandise. We decided to our logo would be a lion with a crown, king of the jungle right? This combined with purple and yellow colors helped to majorly promote the royal theme we were going for.
Now that we had our brand, it was time to start planning our music video. We knew we wanted to have the crown be a symbol but how could we put it in the video? Simple, have your main character be a king! I purchased a crown and a royal robe and I assumed the role of "The Man." We wanted our video to relate to the lyrics but not one to one. For example, the lyric "I got a household name," is accompanied with a shot of one of our main characters outraged, and asking how exactly I got in his house. Also we again wanted to keep the lighthearted brand of the band, so we did not take ourselves too seriously when filming or with our shots, I rode on a kids toy horse, tried to climb a tree, and acted like a fool. Not only did it fit with the story, as the "Man" does what he wants, but it also made the video super entertaining and fit right in with our marketing strategy.
Editing the video was a little tricky, as like most projects, time was of the essence, but over the course of two work focused days we managed to get it done. Some changes were made due to some shots not coming out how we would have liked or simply not having the necessary shot, but overall the video came out really well and we were proud of what we made. The colors, the symbols, and the over all vibe of the video were just what we hoped for!
In our presentation we made sure to mention everything I have already mentioned, but we further expanded on our efforts with social media and how we would market ourselves. We spoke of how we wanted our band to be a friendly band with an embracing community and we wanted to be close to our fans, through social media Q/As', give aways, and even shouting out fans on our Instagram. During the presentation, although I was nervous, I tried to maintain the lighthearted enthusiasm that our band was built on and so I even wore the crown from the video while presenting!
Overall this project was a lot of fun and it was very interesting to learn about how the alternative genre is marketed. I really enjoyed creating a brand from the bottom up and utilizing that brand and marketing within our video. I felt the most important thing was to build brand recognition and audience interaction, and not only do I believe we succeeded, but I have the texts from my fellow class mates asking for signed crowns (our number one merch idea) to prove it!
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