WHAT ARE YOU REALLY SAYING WHEN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR BAND?

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Marketing 101: Elevator Statements

So, Tell Me About Your Band...

The Problem
A typical musician, when asked to describe his band, may say something like this: "Yeah, it's, like, sort of an alternative rock thing, but harder, and we mix in some hip-hop, and we have a DJ that plays, but we're not, like, rapcore or anything like that."

This description, although remarkably unimpressive, might be alright if you're just hanging out at a barbecue. If you're talking to a club manager, journalist, or A&R representative, however, you might as well just not bother. In fact, you might as well tell them that you're in a really crappy amateur band with no sense of purpose and no interest in press coverage or label support. Because that's what they're going to hear if you say something like the statement above.

As Denzyl Feigelson, the President of Artists Without a Label, likes to point out, there are two words in the phrase "music business." Bands are learning that the people that can help them - managers, journalists, and label people, for example - are only interested in artists that operate with a certian degree of professionalism. Consequently, thinking of your band as a business and your music as a product, at least part of the time, is essential to real success in the music industry. Artists are learning to take notes from their corporate counterparts in the pursuit of larger audiences and greater income. (Psst! If you believe that this is "selling out," then you might want to skip the rest of this article and go back to playing coffee shops for tips...)

The Solution
I want to share a fundamental marketing concept with you: The Elevator Statement. Marketing departments in Corporate America use elevator statements to distill their description of a new product to a few sentences. The idea is that if you get asked about your product in an elevator on the first floor, you should be able to describe it in a compelling, interesting way before you reach the end of the ride. In today's Internet-accelerated, attention-deficit-disorder world, nobody has time for anything that doesn't seize their imagination in the first few seconds. This is especially true in the music industry.

As musicians, we can borrow the concept of an elevator statement to clarify our own vision and have a ready-made description of our band for anyone who is interested. Since so many musicians are so flaky, simply preparing an articulate, detailed description automatically gives you an edge in the event someone with influence happens to ask.

Elevator statements are created using a specific formula. For our purposes as musicians, I've modified the standard formula for use in describing bands and their music. To develop your own elevator statement, complete the following sentences:

1. We have ____ players in the band.
2. We play music in the _______ genre(s).
3. People compare us to _______ and ________.
4. But we are different from these bands because_________.
5. The thing that most distinguishes us from other bands like us is _________.

Example answers:

1. four
2. alt rock, hip hop, R&B
3. Limp Bizkit, Incubus
4. our music is more dance oriented
5. we have a professionally trained female bassist

You then compile the information into a brief description, like this:

"We are a four piece alternative rock project with some influences from hip-hop and R&B. People compare us to Limp Bizkit and Incubus, but our music has even more of a dance-able feel than that. Our bassist, Laura, has a degree in music performance, so we have a really strong low-end groove that gets people moving."

Keep in mind, this is only an example. The idea is to describe your band and separate yourself from the average garage group in the span of a few sentences. If you have a gig coming up at a well known venue, you might mention that, or if you had a radio appearance, you could throw that in. The most important things are that

1. You are comfortable saying your statement
2. It is grounded in comparisons that hold meaning for the listener
3. You can say it in a tone that exudes professionalism, motivation, and confidence. You know who you are and you know where you're headed.

Specific details such as genre and band size are less important than the overall expression. If you talk about your band in a professional way, the people that matter will consider you a professional band.

Once you have an elevator statement, use it! As Columbia talent scout Sharon Fitzgerald mentions in my article on what talent scouts look for, A&R people are everywhere, so you should always describe your band with professionalism, even at a barbecue!

Epilogue
About a half-hour after I finished this article, I got a call from a friend that I hadn't spoken with in a while. I mentioned that I recently began playing with a new band. She asked what the band is like. I'm ashamed to admit that I was unprepared for the question! I tried to stammer out an answer and then just laughed and told her I had just written an article about exactly that. Rest assured that I came up with my elevator statement as soon as we hung up. Don't get caught like I did - think up your elevator statement!

Epilogue After-Thought (I can't seem to stop writing)
It's funny that we often don't do the right thing, even when we know the right thing to do. Here's another example: Most of us know the main ingredients to a hit song, but we still fail to incorporate them in the tunes we wish were hits. Sometimes we just need to be reminded. For a quick refresher on the main ingredients of super singles, read this article.

[Resource http://musicians.about.com/library/weekly/2002/aa033102a.htm]

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