Sound Marketing

helping music brands be heard

Category: Advertising

Counterintuitive Selling Strategies for Musical Instrument Retail

When markets become turbulent and unit sales dry up for any number of reasons, a somewhat natural reaction is to hunker down and be extra cautious about expenditures. While this sounds logical at first glance, it may not be the best course of action. Often when writing these blog posts, I am transported back in time to moments in my career where similar dynamics have occurred, … [Read more...]

Print advertising is still critical to music brands

Why are we still talking about print advertising in 2017?

Certainly the musical instrument manufacturing industry has seen better days on the sales front. With marketing budgets getting leaner, maybe that beautiful new ad campaign you developed just got met with some bubble-bursting comment from the CFO like, “Why are we spending all of this money on print … [Read more...]

Extraordinary British Rock Albums Still Inspire Music Brands

Four design lessons in memorable branding from landmark British albums.

Great Britain is one-fifth the population of the United States, but it has produced some of the greatest rock bands of all time, including the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and the Clash. And it’s not just the flood of amazing music that has influenced generations of … [Read more...]

Practicing Brand Alignment Can Help Music Brands Become More Powerful

Create better customer experiences with your company by being consistent with your brand.

If you’re in the marketing department of a music manufacturer, you’re probably busier than a talented, in-demand session guitarist. You’ve covered all the big marketing bases: sound strategy, social media plan, ad schedule, product videos, and plenty of PR in the music trades. It … [Read more...]

Music Brands: Your Brand is Bigger Than Your Product

Three essential lessons about marketing every music brand should learn.

A brand is not the Nike Swoosh. It is not McDonald’s Golden Arches. Leo Burnett put it very simply: “A brand is anything that leaves a mental picture of the brand’s identity.” Musical instrument and equipment manufacturers need to understand that the brand is bigger than the … [Read more...]

Customer Feedback Helps Music Brands Prosper

The importance of inviting customers into your brand.

The way people engage with brands has changed drastically over the past decade, largely thanks to social media. Rather than being spoken to, customers enjoy a dialogue with the brands they love. They yearn to participate, especially in an enthusiast category like music industry manufacturing. If your brand … [Read more...]

Is Anyone Paying Attention to Your Music Brand’s Content?

With the glut of content, there is a need for a thoughtful online content strategy.

There is an obsession with online content as the easy fix for musical instrument and equipment manufacturers’ marketing woes. But there are so many channels of communication available and so many opportunities to connect that a marketing plan needs to be extremely focused and … [Read more...]

How Music Brands Can Boost Website Engagement

Customer engagement is more important than traffic.

Counting the visitors coming to your musical instrument and equipment manufacturers website is not the only measure of success—the most important consideration is the level of engagement. Online engagement is simply the ability to hold an individual’s attention. This focus of attention will lead the visitor to … [Read more...]