My last post covered the importance of social media and keeping up with your fan base to sell your brand and sell seats. Now, I want to talk about selling merchandise. At the Grammy GPS workshop in Dallas another topic that was covered was merchandising in the e-market.
Jessica Ballis, who is the current Digital Strategist and Marketing Manager at Universal Republic, offered an interesting piece of advice. She and the other panelists Aaron Sainz and Theda Sandford recommended that when selling music in today's digital market, artists should bundle music with tangible items such as limited edition shirts, vinyl records, and anything else that would only be available by an artist and in demand by their fans.
I thought this was a brilliant strategy, not only would it sell the music but it allowed the artist to make up for pirating losses and gave the fans something to have physically, possibly wear out with friends or brag about. Part of the punk fan in me initially thought this was sneaky and possibly underhanded, but with fewer and fewer fans going out to shows to purchase merchandise, selling things I, as an artist, could support along with my music should have been reinforced long ago.
Another suggestion was to have a limited edition event or auction that would allow access to an artist for a price and/or bid. Such an event might be a personal meet and greet, backstage passes, or anything that would allow exclusive access to the biggest fans with the largest wallets. A comment from the crowd encouraged that "You would be surprised the financial support the biggest fans of your band would give to be able hang out." This also raised a red flag in my head. "Hey! I am totally one of those people!" I am hurt to think my favorite band would do this but I can see how a marketer, manager, and artist would benefit and the fan is getting the chance of their lifetime, even if it isn't earned by hard work and luck.
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