With digital downloads, streaming services and video channels so readily available it is increasingly hard to earn a living as an artist from just selling your music. Savvy record labels now develop broader revenue streams by adopting the ‘360-degree’ model. This essentially means intentionally identifying every area the artist could make money, and not just through the music. ‘360 degree’ marketing is about building a portfolio of income streams including touring, sponsorship, endorsements, digital licensing, publishing, and merchandising. Don’t just leave this to the major labels though - smaller independent artists can still learn lessons about how to apply these principles to their own music career - and it may just keep you afloat!
Merchandising is clearly a massively important part of an Artist’s creative and financial arsenal. You may think it is just something you do but there are several key benefits to having a clear merchandising strategy:
1. Financial Gain
Not only can it be financially lucrative to sell merchandise directly to your fans, particularly when you cut out the ‘middle-man’ but it also helps increase awareness and excitement around your other products. Consider your merch table has only your last EP on it at a gig - you may sell a few. Consider the impact of having a well laid out area with banners indicating the area and making it look inviting and attractive - T-shirts, badges, bags, pens and hopefully some other creative items. It will draw a crowd to just have a look at what there is... and nothing draws a crowd like a crowd! The presentation of your merch matters. So think clearly about how you lay out what you have got - make it easy to see, with prices clearly labelled and even an obvious direction for people to walk in so you get a flow of customers past the merch rather than a mess of people which can put off people trying to get to the table from behind. You are a small business - so learn some sales techniques from all the thousands of companies trying to sell things to you everyday! Product placement - have some of your items on stage or wear them around the venue - get your volunteers who are manning the stand or otherwise helping you to wear your t-shirts etc to help sow the seed in people’s minds that they look good, that they are available and that other people are already wearing them (so they shouldn’t get left out/behind!) Having a good range of items drives up sales of the other items. So what other items could you sell? What would YOUR particular fans buy? Not sure? ASK THEM! Do a survey, speak to fans at gigs, get a sense of their culture and community and target them with products they will like that reflect their values and interests. It doesn’t have to be a music item - it doesn’t even necessarily have to be branded with your logo - jewellry that quotes one of your songs... framed artwork on a relevant theme… handwritten lyrics… maybe even experiences like featuring on a future track… but we’ll come to the in a minute.
Obviously you should take a factual approach to merchandising - if an item does not sell do not order any more of it! If an item sells well - how many do you need to have at your next gig? To be able to make those kinds of decisions you need to keep good records of sales and regularly be in the habit of looking for patterns and being able to project sales based on crowd size and other demographic, geographical and economic factors - such as when is pay day? Do your fans have disposable income? Are they internet savvy?
Similarly the best products are the ones that cost you least to produce and can be sold for the most. Plus factor in how much time and effort they take to produce, administrate, store and dispatch. Badges are fun and sell well - but they don’t have big margins - if you order them you will make very little actual profit from them - but they are probably still worth doing - but you could probably invest in a decent badge maker and make more in the long term - although you will then have to spend your evenings pressing them all! T-shirts can be good sellers and profitable (if you order 50+ they can work out at maybe £5 each giving you potentially £10+profit on each one - more than your album earns you??) But it can be a nightmare to order the right number of the right sizes and colours without ending up with a load of unsold items - remember - all tees you can’t sell actually take that £5 production cost back upwards… and your profits overall downwards. Plus you have to store all those cardboard boxes somewhere and transport them to every gig!
2. Brand Awareness
Obviously the more people who have your branded goods the more of their friends will see them and them more they will think they need them or need to check you out - so never miss a trick by including your contact/website details on labels and demo CDs and think about products that are cool enough to buy - but also sell your brand. It’s no good if the website emblazoned on your t-shirt is too in your face for people to wear - better a subtle design that people can feel comfortable wearing out that has your name or website quietly tucked away for enquiring eyes to find…
To that end here’s some DON’Ts!
DON’T change your signature branding if at all possible - ie. keep your name as long as possible, don’t change your url or your logo or colour scheme if it is distinctive to you. Your aim is to get your brand stuck in fans’ heads at gigs and online - they need to see it in several different places before they will start to trust it and if you change it you lose all your hard work. HOWEVER - if your branding is not distinctive - then DO change it! Find a logo, colour scheme or some aspect of your branding that makes you memorable - and then stick to it!
AVOID using swear words or offensive ideas in your branding. You might think your fans will like it - but at the least have clean alternatives - it may be hilarious but it will make it unwearable or inappropriate in a lot of contexts and could make you lose out on opportunities. Email address or website address have profanity in it? Some industry professionals or key strategic partners/businesses who would otherwise endorse you will immediately cross you off their to-do list and some social media, search engines and parental controls may block you from showing up at all.
3. TIPS
With the rise of internet shopping and the fall of the high street people are used to ordering goods online and so the internet is now your friend. Merchandising is partly about money and partly about your getting your brand out there and visible - so register to sell your merch on eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and anywhere else that is relevant - it doesn’t cost you anything so even if you don’t sell much through it it helps to make you look bigger than you are. To really make that income useful try a fan-funding site like rocketfuelhq.com where visitors are encouraged to buy more and more and you can get really creative about what you offer - from songwriting sessions to branded marshmallows to living room gigs!
4. The Customer Journey
There is a business model that charts the journey of a typical customer from not having heard of you right through to being a super fan who tells all their contacts about you. This is useful for you to consider. What takes people from stage 3 (having heard your music) to stage 4 (buying your music)? What takes them from that stage to Stage 5 (coming back for more)?!
5. Don’t call us, we’ll call you
Your merchandise stand is the very best place to get people’s details. Without direct contact details (email address, phone numbers and even postal addresses) you are relying on your social media posts grabbing people’s attention. This is increasing difficult whilst people are bombarded with adverts and amusing photos so don’t miss the opportunity to reach your fans directly. A clipboard, pen and paper can work wonders for your business and it’s not hard to find a willing volunteer to canvass the crowd a fill up you neatly presented mailing lists. There are some great apps out there which can also work if you’ve got an iPad on online access...you do however need to be careful leaving expensive gadgets lying around as you may end up losing something more valuable that a clipboard.
Merchandising Checklist
- Have you thought through who your intended customer is? What are they likely to buy? ie. students and young people and rock-loving middle aged men love buying t-shirts - other styles of music and demographics may prefer posters and badges (teen pop?) or jewellry and accessories (goth, emo and female pop fans?)
- Your branding, choice of format (download, CD, vinyl etc) and artwork should reflect your target customer
- What creative ideas have you got for merchandise?