Having a strong brand saves us time, money, and headaches. A common thinking among independent entertainment people is that a brand is a device for commercializing or deceiving fans / consumers.
A brand is for communication
No matter how important our work is, it’s not as important to others as it is to us. We can’t expect others to spend enough time understanding our work so that they appreciate it in the same way we do. They will not get the whole picture. Most will not get even a big picture. So, if most people only get a small picture of what we do, it’s our job to communicate that small picture with the most honesty and clarity.
This honest small picture is the brand.
We are window dressers for someone peeking through a keyhole.
When an isolated ADHD teenager takes a glimpse at the cover of my book and sees that the book is made for isolated ADHD teenagers, that’s more important than the other aspects of the book that are also important. That teenager doesn’t need to know that the book is set in Idaho, or that the main character’s parents are divorced, or that the writing is in iambic pentameter as much as they need to know that this book is written for them.
It’s great that a brand draws in the right customers.
Then, the book content sticks to the brand. The story is an empowering or heart-tugging story for ADHD isolated teenagers.
The content on-brand serves the customer.
Then, the message that that teenager takes with them is a clear message about what the book is and who it’s for. It’s either for other people like them, or it’s for readers who want to understand people like them. Again, we’re empowering our audience by giving them clear tools to share and connect with others.
The more branded, the more rewarding + the more remarkable
So, our branding is a service to our audience all the way down the line and our branding (if strong) is integrated into every part of our creation.
I understand being unremarkable.
I love bending genres and creating things nobody knows how to characterize. I marketed myself for a long time as “Pancake Juggler” which is interesting, but not remarkable. It’s hard to remark on it. The descriptions of people who saw my shows got even more muddied.
Because of this weak brand, I was constantly questioning…
- what to present in the show,
- how to dress,
- what to put on a website,
- what to say to people when they asked to book me
And I had difficulty getting booked unless someone had seen my show. Even word of mouth didn’t work very well because it was way easier to say “Book this magician” than “Book this guy who is a juggler, but not like only that, he does… he has a pancake that he cooks… on stage… there’s a backpack for America… he has a really fast wit… it’s like a comedy show, but better…”
I know it’s a challenge
My point is, I know it’s a challenge to minimize our genius creative works into a simple little package. It’s hard to put a damper on the ever-expanding wonder of making.
This is our responsibility and also our relief.
Here comes the relief
Imagine the book cover for the isolated ADHD kid book again. I don’t know what you’re imaging, but I know what you’re not imagining.
- A picture of an old man
- a picture of a tree alone in a field
- and antiqued style
- a cover that just has a giant author’s name on it
- black and white text
- anthropomorphized animal cartoons
- a leather-bound hardcover
- lots of guns
While we HAVE to say ‘no’ to some brilliant things when we’re making a solid brand, the brand also makes it easy to say ‘no’ to a million things before we even consider them. These easy ‘no’s streamline everything. Suddenly, we’re not considering every composer to help us with our music, we’re not considering every shirt to wear to a photoshoot, we’re not worried that our video game can scare someone who’s not even supposed to be playing it.
There is power in the ‘no.’ As I wrote about yesterday, the limitation is our fuel. Most badass entertainment creators already think in ‘no’s. We think of all the things that need to be done that aren’t being done. We think of all the mistakes of our ancestors that we don’t want to make.
‘No’ is a great starting place, and when we stand up and say ‘no’ on behalf of our audience, we are giving them a tremendous gift.