Today I’d like to share a valuable excerpt about Marketing from the book Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. Pay attention and use your critical thinking skills as how to apply it to yourself and your music.

12. Communicate Your IdentityEvery business has a company personality. Customers keep buying and referring because of it and are often attracted to a company because of its personality. There are two words that describe this personality. The first is a terrible word that I urge you to avoid. The second is a superb word I urge you to embrace.

The first word is image, which is based on fantasy, not reality. As a result, it is not real and could be dangerous. A business owner decides that his marketing must express his company’s personality, so he comes up with an image for his company, based on what he wants that personality to be. Prospects respond to that image, but when they meet the people connected with the business or come in to make a purchase, they see that the business is not what the image suggests. They feel that the company has misrepresented itself. Like all of us, they’ve been ripped off by false marketing before, and their inner red flags are waving a warning.

The second word is identity. It expresses your personality as it really is. Your identity doesn’t exaggerate, lie, or come off as phony. Prospects respond to your identity by becoming customers when they see that there are no unhappy surprises in dealing with your business. The business is exactly as it has portrayed itself to be. It’s not surprising that prospects become customers, since they feel that they can trust this business. And trust is the foundation for profits.

There’s no cost to communicating your real identity. It’s very simple to live up to who you really are rather tan who you wish you could be. Instead of communicating who you aren’t, your marketing communicates who you are. That’s the personality you want to convey, and the one your prospects and customers want you to convey.

This book really has tons of great information on how to use free and low-cost yet amazingly effective forms of marketing. I highly recommend it.

When Miles Davis was once asked if he had any advice for young aspiring musicians he said: “Only play what you like.”

Show the World your identity as a player, not some fantasy image of something you wish you were, and you might just find more respect and a greater following of fans. Be Proud of who you are and what you play and it will pay off for you.

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