How bands use the Marketing Funnel

How bands use the Marketing Funnel

By this point, I think every marketer at WWU knows about the marketing funnel. Let's break it down very quickly:

Awareness: Get your customers aware of your product!
Knowledge: Once they are aware, now they need to learn more about your product to gain information! They seek out more info.
Liking: What about your product will make the customer like it?
Preference: If they like it, now they have to choose your product over another one!
Trial: Give them a way to test your product, free trial?
Purchase: Finally, all these factors lead to a purchase!

Now, let's relate these concepts to bands and how they do this for their fans!

Musical Marketing Funnel: Awareness

How do bands create awareness for their product? Repetition of band elements! I made a whole article about this concept, so be sure to check that out. Bands have to make themselves and their music noticeable so people become aware of it. This can be done by displaying advertisements, like posters, flyers, social media posts, YouTube videos, billboards, etc. Two big factors of achieving awareness are getting a song to be a big hit, and going on tour. This gets a lot of people to check out your band if they've never heard of them prior to this.

Knowledge:

Have you ever discovered a new band or recently gotten into a band's music for the first time and felt the sudden urge to learn as much as you can about that band, their music, and their story? That's the knowledge part of the funnel! I often find myself reading all about bands I like and their different eras of the band and album releases and the stories of what their albums are about, when they recorded them, how the band formed, and drama that occurred, etc. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this! It's fun to learn more about something you're interested in!

Liking

Now that you're aware of a band, what does it take for you to like that band? Many factors go into liking the product. Here are some examples:

Band brand image: The values the band is all about, and their overall aesthetic and way they act can greatly influence whether or not someone likes that band.
The music: Of course, whether or not someone actually likes the music the band makes will greatly impact how much they like the band!
How personable the band members are: The people in the band also play a big role. People usually love when band members are nice, kind and caring towards the fans. Members who will meet fans happily and sign things for them, and are always up for a picture. They're funny, and have good relationships with their bandmates. These factors vastly help with liking!
Their live concert performances: Some bands may sound good in the studio on an album, but they sound terrible live in concert! Bands that sound nearly just as good live as they do in studio will make people like them more.

Preference:

How do you get people to prefer your band over others? Create something unique about your band! Make it stand out compared to others. Some examples that may make people prefer certain bands over others are as follows:

Paramore has catchy pop-punk and pop songs with a female lead vocalist, Hailey Williams. The pop-punk scene does not have many female band members, so having one be the lead singer starting in 2005 drew attention to the band very quickly in the scene, and made them be preferred over other certain bands.
Blink 182 has only 3 members: Two lead singers, which are The guitarist, Tom Delonge, and the bassist, Mark Hoppus, along with the drummer, Travis Barker. There are not many bands that have 2 different lead singers. This makes them unique. Mark and Tom are best friends and have hilarious banter on stage that the crowd goes nuts for. And Travis Barker is regarded as one of the greatest drummer of all time. These factors make people prefer blink-182 over other bands!

Trial

How do people get a trial or sample of a band's music? One way is by hearing their songs on the radio! Another way is seeing the band open for another band at a concert! This gives the person a taste of what the band is about. This could influence them to becoming a full-fledged fan.

Purchase

Finally, Once someone is aware of the band, learns more about it, decides they like it, prefers it over others, and hears a few songs, it's much more likely that they will become a full-fledged fan and buy their music! This can be through buying concert tickets, buying their album, merchandise, or streaming on their phones.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the marketing funnel plays a big part in the way bands get the word out about their music to potential fans! Thanks to the knowledge I've learned in IMC, I can apply this funnel to many different concepts.

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Creative Message Strategy Methods:

Goal: Achieve Awareness of this website through repetition of brand elements spread throughout the website.

Goal: Achieve Liking of this website through: Repetition of my unique value proposition.

Goal: Achieve Knowledge of this website through using the "feel good" method of messaging.

Goal: Achieve Preference of this website through giving reasons why, demonstrations, visible passion and dedication.

Goal: Achieve Trial of this website through incorporating risk reduction throughout my brand.

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