Research&Planning:Branding and Marketing task.

In class today we were looking at the ways in which music artists are branded and marketed and to do this we first started by looking at a Jaffa cake and discussing ways we would market and rebrand it.

We first started by looking at the aesthetics, texture and taste of the jaffa cake and decided on the name U.F.O (utterly fantastic orange) as we thought this incorporated the shape and taste of it as well as having a fun name that would stand out.
We then tried to work out what our target market would be and decided that it would most probably be in the C-D-E social-economic diamond group as they are quite cheep and not known for being very posh. Age wise we assumed that we would not have a specific target audience as anyone can eat them and everyone eats them. We briefly thought about colours we would use for branding, orange and green because they fit the alien and orange theme, and a slogan that would get people remembering our product.

We then started thinking about marketing and how we would get our product out there. We thought that a huge part would be by using social media such as having a Facebook page and a twitter feed. This is because a lot of people are on these medias and we could reach a lot of people for free. In addition we would put an advert on youtube. Then there are the more traditional ways of marketing products and these would be Billboards, Tv ads, promotions and competitions. Then we thought we could sponsor the TV show My Parents are Aliens as this fit in with the theme and as it is a very popular program we would influence a lot of people.

After doing this task with a Jaffa Cake we then started applying it to how we could brand and market our band. As our band already has a name, image and fanbase, their brand is really already done. We were given the option of rebranding our band however this could have annoyed the band as it is like saying they do not have the right image and so we decided that we would keep the brand they already have as it is a good one anyway.

Marketing would be the same, but a lot more focus on social media as this is a revolutionary way to get music out there and it has the bonus of being completely free. As well as facebook, twitter and myspace we would also market our band on youtube, reverbnation, soundcloud and other music sharing pages on the Internet.

Finally we looked at how a popular new singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeren, had been marketed. As Ed Sheeran doesn't fit the stereotypical singer/songwriter look in this society his record label told the director of the video,  Emil Nava , that he shouldn't be seen in the video as people would judge his music on what he looked like not on the music himself. So in the video there are only flashes of Sheeran and close ups of him such as his feet stepping on a loop pedal or his hands as he plays guitar. This meant that people wouldn't base their first impressions of him on his looks but instead his voice and talent. The video was also filmed in black and white which kept details of him down.

Overall this lesson was really helpful and I learnt a lot about branding and marketing bands which will help me with my music video and ancillary tasks.