Prince – Master Musician and Brand Master

As many, I was shocked with the passing of Prince yesterday.  A musical genius who had tremendous influence on multiple generations.  Personally, I had 3 cassettes of the Purple Rain soundtrack.  Why 3? I wore them out from listening to some of the greatest songs of my generation.  Thank God the modern CD was created.

Prince was more than a musician; he was the master of the “Prince” brand.  Now whether he was cognizant or had a plan can be debated. 

• -          Color – how many artists are recognizable by a color?  For Prince it was purple.  The evidence was his use of the color in his marketing materials, songs, etc.  Last night’s tributes to him had lighting of purple across the globe.
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• -          Symbol – “the artist formally known as Prince.”  Remember that?  At first it was considered a joke. However, the symbol became as iconic as the color purple.  From guitars, graphics, t-shirts, etc. the symbol was uniquely his brand logo.
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• -          Super Bowl Half Time Performance – when on the grand stage of performance, with 100 million plus people seeing you perform, he cemented his brand.  His 2007 performance in the rain is legendary.  Frankly, it was perfect… the rain provided the backdrop when he played his hit “Purple Rain.”  An Interesting tidbit.. His performance was named the best Super Bowl performance.
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• -          Privacy – Prince was a private individual.  Living in Minneapolis certainly helps you be private.  But he didn’t get caught up in the LA scene, where the paparazzi and tabloid press prey on and can distort images.  That’s not saying he didn’t make the front page of The Enquirer, but it seemed to be tempered.  He controlled his brand by staying out of controversy.
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• -          Letting “Lightning” Strike Once -- After the movie Purple Rain ran its course, I was sure there would be a sequel.  There wasn’t.   But I have to believe it was discussed.  It seems to me he probably knew the risk of trying to make another hit, thus, damaging his brand.
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• -          Have Others Advocate His Brand – just a few artists who he helped or who played work he penned include:  The Bangles, Sheila E., Vanity, Tom Jones, and Sheena Easton.  They carried his brand by making hits out of his songs… those artists broadened his brand through their association with Prince.
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• -          Ownership – Prince was a stickler for “ownership” of his performances and work.   Sheryl Crow and others have discussed his business acumen at ensuring he “owned” his brand.  Prince seemed to know what his brand was worth and controlled it to ensure the value remained high.  

I’ll miss the live performances, new music and trend setting Prince provided.  RIP O’Purple One.

Scott  

iTunes Radio – The Great Cross Sell Platform

If you haven’t upgraded to the new iOS7 platform for your iPhone you’re in for a pleasant surprise – iTunes Radio.  As it’s similar to other internet radio platforms such as Pandora, etc. you would think it’s just another music streaming service…but alas, as you dig a bit deeper you’ll find iTunes Radio is the great cross sell platform.

What Apple’s done right with iTunes Radio

-          Access – it’s right there at the bottom of your music library where your playlist, artists, etc. is listed.  Easy to reach, easy to buy.

-          Features – easy navigation from the information graphic to an artist station, for the song, sharing the station (sharing also equals cross selling), ability allow (or not) explicit tracks.

-          Cross Sell – not only is the $1.29 buy button in it’s same graphic and placement you’re use to it… the announcer comes in very naturally/in no way obtrusive and briefly mentions a track you might want to download.

-          Individuality – the ability to “tune” the station from Hits to Variety to Discovery I found great.  If I wanted to hear the familiar – I kept it on the Hits, if I was in a more inquisitive mood I’d tune it to Discovery – more opportunity to Cross Sell. 

-          Clarity – reception via wifi was fine… but 4G seems to stutter a bit.

-          Fresh Music – although the music is probably the same as in my iTunes library, iTunes Radio creates a new playlist of music I normally wouldn’t listen too but fits the category.  And that becomes addictive… to the point, where I’ve downloaded 3 songs which I hadn’t heard for years – again Cross Sell!  And that data about my purchasing history is surely getting mashed up for additional cross sell opportunities in the future.

-          Integration – as all my music is on iTunes – buying integrates right into my catalog as you would expect it to…. keeping me from straying to another music service.

What Needs Improvement

-          Graphics – the same basic music genre has the same graphic images… It makes it tough for you to mental mind graph the music to an image.

-          UI – even after using it for a few days I keep stumbling with the UI trying to navigate my way around.

All marketers can learn another lesson from Apple.  This time, the lesson is subtle but just as powerful – sell horizontally and vertically.

Scott