In music schools and studios, you often hear phrases like...
We need to work on our branding.
We need to define our brand.
We need to get the branding right.
Organizations spend tens of thousands of dollars to bring in outside "branding specialists" to help them get it right.
But the problem is, most of us don't know what brand marketing is. At least, well enough to explain it to a middle-schooler.
And even worse, many of us have the definition of branding and brand marketing all wrong.
Most think it's about the colors, the logos, and the tag lines.
Those are part of branding, but there's so much more.
And when you run brand marketing thinking that you're doing direct marketing (we'll cover that, too), you may as well flush your money and time down the toilet.
In this post, we're going to take a deep dive into brand marketing, the right way. In the simplest, most practical terms possible so you can make the best decisions for your own marketing.
For all the life-changing work you do, you deserve to get your marketing right.
Definition #1: Branding is your Personality
A simple definition of branding is that it's about your program's personality. When you swap the words "brand" and "personality," it becomes easier to understand.
"This isn't really part of our brand."
"this isn't really part of our personality."
Easier to digest, right?!?
Brand marketing is about personality. Your other marketing is about educating.
Take Coca-Cola, for example. All the advertising you see from Coca-Cola is brand marketing. The imagery, the Super Bowl commercials, all that stuff.
Coca-Cola doesn't need to do marketing anymore.
Why?
Because they've done such a good job with marketing over so many decades, everyone on the planet knows what Coca-Cola is.
They no longer have to run ads that try to find new audiences and educate them on the product.
You'll never find an ad that says, "Coca-Cola is a sugary, carbonated beverage that will leave you refreshed."
When it comes to your music program's brand, it's all-encompassing. It's everything you do.
Ask yourself, what do my color choices and fonts say about my program's personality? What are the images saying about my music program's personality? Do strangers see it the same way I'm seeing it?
But it doesn't stop there.
If your branding says you're a fun place that cares about students, but whoever picks up the phone could clearly care less, that makes for an inconsistent brand.
Definition #2: Brand Marketing is Not Measured. Direct Marketing Is.
If you only remember this, you'll be miles ahead of even experienced marketers.
Brand marketing is not measured.
Direct marketing is.
Brand marketing is not asking the visitor for something.
Direct marketing is.
Here are a few examples.
An organization buys ad space on billboard to get new students.
A billboard would be an example of brand marketing. It's a display of the organization's personality. But, it's not asking for something (a signup, contact info, etc.) then and there.
And besides, people don't take down information from billboards anymore.
One of two problems are likely to happen. One, no new students come in from the billboard and they take it down after a couple months because it didn't do its job. Two, more students come in, they assume it's from the billboard, and throw a party.
See the confusion that can arise when a brand ad is run with direct ad results in mind, or when the wrong things are measured?
Another example would be holding a piano recital in a shopping mall as an effort to increase exposure and recruit more students.
This is also an example of brand marketing. Unless you're asking passersby to sign up for a trial lesson.
Direct marketing is what you see on your website; you're asking people to sign up for a trial lesson, or to make a payment to join your program. You can measure it.
Direct marketing is a Facebook ad offering a free PDF guide on why music is important in exchange for an email. You can measure it.
When in doubt - direct marketing is asking for something and can easily be measured. Brand marketing is not.
Your Marketing Can't Be Both
The reason these definitions are so important is people confuse which types of marketing they're doing for their programs. Most often, they run brand marketing thinking they're doing direct marketing.
Brand marketing is great. But, brand marketing is something that needs to be sustained for the long term.
When the Goodyear blimp flies over the stadium at the Superbowl, they don't expect the spectators to run out and buy Goodyear tires the next day.
But the hope is that, when the need for tires does come around, they'll have fun, happy thoughts associated with Goodyear because of long-term brand marketing efforts like this.
One of the most common cases for music teachers is posting on Facebook. We don't want to ask people to sign up in every single post. That would get annoying.
But when posting daily yields few to no results after a few weeks, most of us throw in the towel.
Again, this is brand marketing being confused with direct marketing. In the short term, we're not asking for anything and there probably won't be any direct results.
But, sustained over many months or years, when people you're connected with on social media think "music education," you'll naturally come to mind.
It's all about the personality.
Which One Should You Do - Brand or Direct?
You should run both. But, remember that marketing can only be one or the other.
You'll have your brand marketing efforts, and you'll have your direct marketing efforts.
Branding can be a wonderful opportunity to share your work and your students' work with your community and target market. Not expecting a direct response, but knowing that over time, people will associate you with awesome stuff.
Direct marketing will allow you to connect with people more directly with specific offers. And because you can measure it, you can easily assess whether it's working or not so you can change your strategies and tactics.
And remember, it's important to test, test, test your direct marketing.
Because nothing wastes money and possibility like continuing to run marketing that isn't working.
