Cardboard Box Records' Blog

After reading over my post Marketing, Part 1.0 (Take Two), which was a suggested layout of a marketing plan for bands (and labels, too, of course), I have decided that I am going to outline pretty specifically each part of a marketing plan.

Part 1, Section 1 is about the band summary and positioning statement. I left the band summary out of Marketing, Part 1.0 (Take Two), but it really is important.

Defining yourself as an artist is the first step to figuring out the whole process of marketing. Who are you? What do you have to offer? How are you unique? You can start by writing down a bunch of words or phrases that you think describe your band and your music.

Then, write a band summary that includes the words and phrases from your brainstorming session telling your audience why you do what you do, how you do it, and who you are. This can be about two paragraphs. Keep it concise. The point is to engage people. You’re writing a course description, not teaching the class, if you follow me.

Then, write a positioning statement, which to you should be a synopsis of your band summary of around 30 words. Make sure you get you why, how, and what in there. By the way, this is hard to do. Let me show you some examples of positioning statements using different approaches to the same information.  

What: a band called Red Paper Birds
How: Swing and ska genres
Why: to dance

Example of what, how, then why: “Red Paper Birds is a rock band blurring the line between swing and ska to make you dance.”
Example of why, how, then what: “Wanna dance? Swing and ska get all dizzied up when the Red Paper Birds get their rock on.”
Example of how, why, then what: “If swing and ska get your feet tapping, get yourself to a Red Paper Birds show.”

So, there are lots of ways to do this, obviously. You can also start with your positioning statement and write your band summary from there. Whichever works. But that’s the first part of your marketing plan, and in business terms the band summary is your executive summary and your positioning statement is… well, it’s still called a positioning statement.

Next up is the market situation analysis. Be ready!