A good name is just plain valuable. At last night's show, I saw a flyer taped to the wall inside an elevator advertising a concert that featured an artist name "Nicole Croteau and The Era." The name stuck out to me like a sore thumb.
When it comes to being an artist, there are two sides to the coin: artistry and business. I'm sure their name has plenty of artistic merit. It gives me the impression that they are incredibly deep and meaningful in their music, but what it doesn't do is help me remember them. I'm not sure I could have looked them up later even if I had wanted to.
This is where the concept of marketing ties in. Brand awareness. You want your product or company to be on people's minds as often as possible. While no form of mind control currently exists (whoever invented that would be RICH!), I feel there are plenty of steps we can take to make sure our name is memorable and triggers good feelings.
Sometimes I worry about our name, Nine Lashes. I think we get written off as a metal band, sometimes, and we've honestly kinda shot ourselves in the foot with our imagery, as well. Most of our photos look militaristic. And I think there's this other side of my band that people don't get to enjoy simply because they may move on after reading the name or seeing our picture. Definitely something to keep in mind for our next album.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Statistical Analysis vs Intuition
It's hard to ignore numbers. They tell a story, paint a landscape. Not necessarily of what will happen, but definitely of what has happened or how what the state of things are. For example, if I am an app developer, and I only have the resources, starting out, to develop my app for either iOS or Android, having a statistic sitting in front of me that says more people use Android than iOS, that will greatly sway my decision. Developing for one or the other affects the number of people my app is available to.
On the other hand, there are areas that analysis simply won't fill. Henry Ford said that if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said, "Faster horses!" He didn't have a number in front of him. But reason and problem solving, rather than statistical analysis, led him to developing the car. He just knew it would catch on.
I tend to lean on analysis for decisions. We recently had some shirts printed, and we polled on Facebook asking which shirt they would want out of five options. Since then, we've seen the number one shirt, having ordered it, flies off our table.
In the end, I think that each has its place, and each, in that proper place and in conjunction with the other, will lead you to growth.
On the other hand, there are areas that analysis simply won't fill. Henry Ford said that if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said, "Faster horses!" He didn't have a number in front of him. But reason and problem solving, rather than statistical analysis, led him to developing the car. He just knew it would catch on.
I tend to lean on analysis for decisions. We recently had some shirts printed, and we polled on Facebook asking which shirt they would want out of five options. Since then, we've seen the number one shirt, having ordered it, flies off our table.
In the end, I think that each has its place, and each, in that proper place and in conjunction with the other, will lead you to growth.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
An Idea For The Online Store
We're getting ready to launch our online store, and it's got me racking my brain for ideas on getting the word out. A Facebook post will obviously get things started, but what if there was a way to extend the word beyond the followers reached by the post? We have 72,000 likes on Facebook, but our very best posts end up reaching less than half of that.
So I think I have an idea to expand those numbers. When customers purchase something on our store, I need to find a way to implement some sort of reward for sharing that purchase on their social media sites. The hope is that friends of friends of friends will see our merchandise and find themselves wanting some for themselves. =]
Another avenue we can pursue, is having some sort of membership that our fans can join. They could get discounts for referring people to our store and our brand in general. The hurdle here is the logistics of keeping up with who is a member and who suggested who. If we could figure that out, I think it would ramp up our brand awareness, and our sales would greatly increase.
In a very A.D.D. side note, I can't believe Apple didn't name their smart watch the "iWatch." Maybe they're trying to build the "Apple" brand even more than it already is and they feel that the i-naming system lessens that? I don't know.
So I think I have an idea to expand those numbers. When customers purchase something on our store, I need to find a way to implement some sort of reward for sharing that purchase on their social media sites. The hope is that friends of friends of friends will see our merchandise and find themselves wanting some for themselves. =]
Another avenue we can pursue, is having some sort of membership that our fans can join. They could get discounts for referring people to our store and our brand in general. The hurdle here is the logistics of keeping up with who is a member and who suggested who. If we could figure that out, I think it would ramp up our brand awareness, and our sales would greatly increase.
In a very A.D.D. side note, I can't believe Apple didn't name their smart watch the "iWatch." Maybe they're trying to build the "Apple" brand even more than it already is and they feel that the i-naming system lessens that? I don't know.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Some Thoughts
I feel like I've been having some great ideas, lately. But through these ideas, I really felt like I needed to step back and simplify who and what this business/band/ministry is. I felt really inspired in reading the material from my ETP 279 class. I felt like that class and the 265 class have really helped me understand what it is that we do and what it is that we need to do. Seems like my brain has been nonstop since starting these classes. It's been great.
Stepping back was actually quicker and easier than I had anticipated. Who and what we are (or want to be) is really simple. We want to be an organization, however structured, that cultivates a relationship with Christ in the people we encounter. Second to that, we want to make a living while doing so.
This goal breaks down into two pieces. On the one hand, we want to reach those who haven't given their lives to Christ, and on the other hand we need to help those who know Christ grow in that relationship.
With this break down, it's easy for me to visualize the future Nine Lashes. Maybe we don't just make rock music. Maybe we branch out with a worship side project. Maybe we build our website to be more community oriented where followers can connect with each other instead of product oriented where we just have our tour dates and online store and nothing else.
We've even started taking prayer requests at our merch table via anonymous cards. We then send those requests back to our home church.
All these things, while making a difference in people's lives, leaves us to wrestle with the other part of our goals: making a living.
There is one thing that bands have in common with churches: they create a sense of community. With that community, you can both change lives and generate revenue. Churches can rally behind what we're doing and help fund our venture. The community can donate and feel like they're playing a part in reaching people. Perhaps we could even create a sort of membership for our fans to join, where they feel like they belong; like they're part of a bigger picture. They, in turn, will be a very strong source of word of mouth, which will obviously generate merchandise sales.
Then there's always youtube. Videos where fans are either entertained, inspired, or simply momentarily amused, all while serving ads that generate revenue at no expense to our fans.
I had really gotten down for a while, thinking that we as a band and a business had a ceiling due to certain personal convictions that really kept us from being competitive in the secular music industry. But now, I really see that there is so much opportunity.
Stepping back was actually quicker and easier than I had anticipated. Who and what we are (or want to be) is really simple. We want to be an organization, however structured, that cultivates a relationship with Christ in the people we encounter. Second to that, we want to make a living while doing so.
This goal breaks down into two pieces. On the one hand, we want to reach those who haven't given their lives to Christ, and on the other hand we need to help those who know Christ grow in that relationship.
With this break down, it's easy for me to visualize the future Nine Lashes. Maybe we don't just make rock music. Maybe we branch out with a worship side project. Maybe we build our website to be more community oriented where followers can connect with each other instead of product oriented where we just have our tour dates and online store and nothing else.
We've even started taking prayer requests at our merch table via anonymous cards. We then send those requests back to our home church.
All these things, while making a difference in people's lives, leaves us to wrestle with the other part of our goals: making a living.
There is one thing that bands have in common with churches: they create a sense of community. With that community, you can both change lives and generate revenue. Churches can rally behind what we're doing and help fund our venture. The community can donate and feel like they're playing a part in reaching people. Perhaps we could even create a sort of membership for our fans to join, where they feel like they belong; like they're part of a bigger picture. They, in turn, will be a very strong source of word of mouth, which will obviously generate merchandise sales.
Then there's always youtube. Videos where fans are either entertained, inspired, or simply momentarily amused, all while serving ads that generate revenue at no expense to our fans.
I had really gotten down for a while, thinking that we as a band and a business had a ceiling due to certain personal convictions that really kept us from being competitive in the secular music industry. But now, I really see that there is so much opportunity.
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