In classic marketing, a brand is a group of associations that people can make about a product, service, company or individual. Think about Apple computers.. What do you associate with that name? Maybe some of these:
- Quality
- Successful
- Expensive
- User Friendly
- Controlling
When someone talks about doing a search on the internet, they often simply say they will 'Google it'. Maybe you have heard someone say that they need to hoover a room? These are examples of when a companies brand has become so deeply associated with the service it provides, that the brands name has come to replace the name of the service. Does that happen in magic? It does.. and magicians that spend time creating associations between their brand and the service they provide have a great deal of success.
What associations have the public made about Dynamo? - Urban, edgy, nice guy, rags to riches...
How about Houdini? - Escape artist, risky, hot headed, cocky, daring...
What springs to mind about David Copperfield? - Spectacular, showman, the best at what he does, world class big illusions...
How about Penn and Teller? - Funny, edgy, unpredictable, exposure...
Drummond Money Coutts - Expensive, society, glamorous
Max Maven - strange, otherworldly, mind control, cold.
These magicians have created and sculpted the associations that fit their 'brand' and allows them stand out above the average generic magician. Start looking at every magician you see and ask yourself
'What associations does this person want to be connected with? What's the brand?'
Then think about what you want.
Maybe you want to be seen as the affordable 'every mans magician'.. Perhaps you want to represent luxury. Do you want to be cold and mysterious, warm and funny, or crazy and oddball?The goal is that when people think about a magician with your associations, YOU pop into their heads. A client thinks about holding a luxury event.. You pop in to their head automatically. Someone is looking for a aftershow party for a popular band.. you come to mind. That's the power of a brand, and why you need to decide on YOUR BRAND as soon as possible.
People don't hire YOU, they hire what you represent.
The associations people make about your brand is your reputation. That's how a reputation is build, by making associations between yourself and the needs of your clients.
Think about the last car you brought. Chances are that you had a range of brands that you wanted to choose from right away, based on what you believed those brands would give you. The 'Make' of a car is a huge pile of associations. It's 80% of process most buyers put effort into.
So lets look at how to go about branding yourself. The worst thing you can do it TELL people what they should associate with you. Printing: Expensive & Luxury Magician on your business cards actually gives the opposite message.. It's more subtle than that. You can't tell people what to think about you, you have to SHOW them, so they can make their own associations. In reality, you controlled what they saw, but they made their own minds up...
You should control what you audience 9 Your customer) see's in everything you do. How you dress, how you appear in videos, how you talk on the phone.. It's all the little details that people pull together to create their associations about you. If you want to create a brand, then everything you do needs to fit that brand image and reinforce it.
Do this:
Decide if you want to create a brand.
Think about the clients you attract, are you happy with this customer base?
If you are: Then start making notes about their values and their needs from you.
If you want to change your market. Decide who you want to reach.
Start making changes to everything that your clients experience about you. Control their experience through making sure EVERYTHING fits with the associations your brand should have.