Music Marketing Project: The Planning

    For my music marketing project, my group and I started off with an engaging discussion of the type of image we want to portray in our alternative music group. We wanted something fresh and unique, feeling a strong sense of empowerment for the song we chose, “The Man''. Searching for adjectives for a group name to encapsulate power, we came up with “Spark Plug”, coming from the description of calling someone a spark plug, meaning a person who gives electric and positive energy to a group. With the foundation laid down of our new music group name, we began discussing possible colors for merchandise and a logo, falling towards blue, yellow, and red for an electric and well rounded feeling from all 3 of the primary colors. We made sure kept track of our flowing ideas regarding these and other aspects such as social media presence on a Google doc (see below). We recorded every idea, even if we don't end up using all of them. 

Google Doc for planning

    Diving into ideas of band marketing became complicated. We wanted to make sure our ideas were not too ambitious but could still appeal to our target audience of teenagers and young adults. We researched top casual purchases of an age group between 15-25 and fell on Vans, a collab that we were sure would be successful. We sketched a logo from the colors we decided on and designed a pair of Vans matching the aesthetic. Upon design of the shoes, I researched Pinterest boards of custom Vans to understand the level of different color usage I could design without making the shoe “too busy” or not cool enough to purchase. 

                   Spark Plug logo design                                  Collab with Vans

    A major challenge my group and I faced during this portion of the project was coming up with something new and unique for the world to be interested in. It seems as if everything has already been done. Creating something like a collaborative deal as Vans seemed like the right thing to do; taking something popular that already exists and putting our own, unique spin on it. We discussed how this concept aided to the correct marketing we were going for and decided to expand our ideas to more collaboratives, such as Monster Energy drink. 

    Our next steps we continue to come up with new engaging ideas and further explore this project are to create a music video portraying the proper image of empowerment we have laid down. This process will include proper storyboarding, filming, and editing. The brainstorming process for this will be similar, starting with a general discussion of intended image to portray. I believe the creation of this entertaining video will inspire further ideas for the killer and buzzing marketing strategies of Spark Plug.