In today’s media-saturated world, we are surrounded by brands. For a DJ, branding is extremely important to long-term success.
It’s a fact - customers like doing business with brands. According to Jay Conrad Levinson, the developer of the “Guerilla Marketing” series, “awareness of your brand or your business usually means confidence in it, and confidence is the key to healthy sales.”
Your brand lets people know who you are and what you are all about. How does the public identify with your DJ service?
- You can be perceived as the affordable, commercial and charts DJ
- The Hip-hop and R&B DJ
- The clean and artsy house and techno DJ
- Go-to, grungy and underground high bpm rave specialist
Just as consumers discern major differences between brands like K-Mart and Nordstrom, so too do they perceive differences between DJs.
Know Your Company’s Values / Niche
Before you can share your brand, its associated values, and service offerings with the world, you must have a firm grip on your brand identity. Some important questions to be answered in defining your brand:
- What is your personal vision of musical entertainment?
- What are specific adjectives that you want associated with your brand? (e.g., affordable, trend-setting, reliable, artistic, family-friendly, exciting, conservative, luxury)
- What makes you different from the thousands of other DJs out there competing for the same jobs?
- What niche markets do you hope to cater to?
- Who are your target customers and what are their specific characteristics by age, gender, musical taste, income, and geography?
- Many starter DJs are happy to book whatever jobs they can. However, if you want to go far as a DJ, you need to get more specific - have a sound that people recognise.
Know Your Company’s Values / Niche
Before you can share your brand, its associated values, and service offerings with the world, you must have a firm grip on your brand identity. Some important questions to be answered in defining your brand:
- What is your personal vision of musical entertainment?
- What are specific adjectives that you want associated with your brand? (e.g., affordable, trend-setting, reliable, artistic, family-friendly, exciting, conservative, luxury)
- What makes you different from the thousands of other DJs out there competing for the same jobs?
- What niche markets do you hope to cater to?
- Who are your target customers and what are their specific characteristics by age, gender, musical taste, income, and geography?
- Many starter DJs are happy to book whatever jobs they can. However, if you want to go far as a DJ, you need to get more specific - have a sound that people recognise.
- Tightening up your brand identity will allow you to attract more jobs that best match your personal interests and talents.
Develop Your Brand Around Your Target Market
Your brand and its service offerings need to coincide with market reality. For example..
Develop Your Brand Around Your Target Market
Your brand and its service offerings need to coincide with market reality. For example..
- a DJ who seeks to specialise in New York-style House music in a rural, Country music loving community in Texas would likely fail (as The Black Madonna learnt)
- In the early days and in the heyday of “raves,” if you try and book Electronica parties at full, professional rates, this will probably fail because you are not appreciating that the target market (mostly college students) were broke and preferred free, outlaw-style parties. Only now the underground dance music industry has started evolving in terms of production quality and pricing.
You have to tweak what your service is offering to reflect develop a strong demand.
Appropriate name, logo and colour scheme:
- Black and white: provide the most balance and contrast and can be featured/partnered with anything then
- Yellow: his favourite colour, shows optimism and energy
Your marketable skills begin with your talent and your sound, but there’s more to this picture too – your consistency, dedication, professionalism and personality carry a lot of weight with your fans and with the people who want to hire you.
At the “superstar” level, DJs are a unique breed because they have to manage multiple aspects of their public persona. It’s not enough just to tour the world with an expensive light show, or to mix a mind-blowing set with passion and creativity. You literally have to be an arbiter of the future–attuned to emerging trends and technologies, and ahead of the curve with your selections, remixes, and productions
Think about the most successful DJs in the world, they have several things in common besides their technical skills and talent. They each have a distinctive sound, look and personality, and they each maintain a steady media presence–all of which connects to being memorable as a brand.
Your marketable skills begin with your talent and your sound, but there’s more to this picture too – your consistency, dedication, professionalism and personality carry a lot of weight with your fans and with the people who want to hire you.
At the “superstar” level, DJs are a unique breed because they have to manage multiple aspects of their public persona. It’s not enough just to tour the world with an expensive light show, or to mix a mind-blowing set with passion and creativity. You literally have to be an arbiter of the future–attuned to emerging trends and technologies, and ahead of the curve with your selections, remixes, and productions
Think about the most successful DJs in the world, they have several things in common besides their technical skills and talent. They each have a distinctive sound, look and personality, and they each maintain a steady media presence–all of which connects to being memorable as a brand.
Tiesto is a good commercial example; with his immediately recognisable logo and his dynamic presence on stage or in the booth (he’s known for dancing all night), his live shows have become ritual gatherings for his fans worldwide.
Elements like these are important in furthering your own DJ career. You need to create your own identity so you can stand out from the crowd of DJs who are available to play on any given night in any given city. Competition for residencies is always fierce, so you’ll need an edge to get ahead.
Creating and Curating Your Image
The way you dress and the music you play, as well as your social media presence, website, and the marketing materials you create, are all reflections of your personal brand. But don’t forget why you need it: you’re trying to get gigs so you can make a living playing music.
Logo: An eye-catching and unique logo shows that you’ve invested time and creativity in your brand. The most successful DJs in the world have customised logos. We’ll show you a few ways you can create one.
Promotional Photos: Your personality and how you present yourself as an artist are vital for landing new gigs. Most venues will happily put your image on a flyer, which from there usually gets posted on Facebook, the venue’s website and printed materials. It’s built-in advertising for you and your brand.
Business Cards: A set of smart, professional-looking business cards can be used to speak volumes about yourself, yet in this day and age for a DJ, I believe it has become quite redundant.
Elements like these are important in furthering your own DJ career. You need to create your own identity so you can stand out from the crowd of DJs who are available to play on any given night in any given city. Competition for residencies is always fierce, so you’ll need an edge to get ahead.
Creating and Curating Your Image
The way you dress and the music you play, as well as your social media presence, website, and the marketing materials you create, are all reflections of your personal brand. But don’t forget why you need it: you’re trying to get gigs so you can make a living playing music.
Logo: An eye-catching and unique logo shows that you’ve invested time and creativity in your brand. The most successful DJs in the world have customised logos. We’ll show you a few ways you can create one.
Promotional Photos: Your personality and how you present yourself as an artist are vital for landing new gigs. Most venues will happily put your image on a flyer, which from there usually gets posted on Facebook, the venue’s website and printed materials. It’s built-in advertising for you and your brand.
Business Cards: A set of smart, professional-looking business cards can be used to speak volumes about yourself, yet in this day and age for a DJ, I believe it has become quite redundant.
It is considered quite a different and unique approach now I suppose - however in the age we now live in, all communications in the dance music industry are primarily done via the online social platforms & email. Meaning your digital presence and personality have to be spot-on and engaging to get through to the events companies. Business cards get easily lost and ruined at sweaty club nights, believe me! So me and Ferguson wanted to approach this in a different matter.
Facebook Page: A Page allows you to build your fanbase and post news about upcoming events, new mixes and remixes, video clips and even merchandise. It also improves your chances of showing up near the top of a Google search.
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