The last segment of the Situational Analysis for your band’s Advertising Strategy is the Competitive Analysis. This is a great way to compare your product or service against another. If you are looking to start a band or are strategizing a new campaign for band promotion, you want to look at the strengths and weaknesses of other bands. Depending on the level of play you are at, this may be local bands or media saturated rock stars.
When you are creating your own competitive analysis for your band, there are two approaches that can each have tremendous impact on further understanding where your band rates in comparison to others. The first approach is to cross analyze a number of bands that you are directly categorized with in terms of level of play, reach of audience, and presence. The second approach involves gathering data on a range of bands both below your band’s caliber and above. For each approach, I recommend analyzing 3-5 other bands.
For bands that are looking to set goals and take first steps before launching into the music industry for the first time, a look at local bands in your genre will likely produce the most useful information. Your goal is to understand what expectations you need to have in order to compete, but also what you will need to do to ultimately separate your band from the rest.
If your band has begun to establish itself and is looking to develop a communications strategy to launch and promote your band into a new market or onto a new plateau of musical reach and definition, a strategy with hefty aspirations and non-negotiable expectations is highly effective. Your goal is to understand what elements have aided your success and what the popular band are doing that gets so much recognition.
A band promotion strategy should work to highlight your strengths and direct your energy to improve your weaknesses. As you analyze the competition, your most important criteria for comparison are in strengths and weaknesses. Aspects to consider in this analysis include: band website, social networking presence, music quality and uniqueness, stage presence during performance, brand recognition, the strength of either a record label or band manager, etc.
Write down a few key strengths and weaknesses that each band holds and organize them into 5 comparison charts. Underneath each table, analyze the data in comparison to your band. In a typical Competitive Analysis, you would introduce the data by explaining what you hope to uncover and close the analysis by commenting on trends and hot points to pursue in the rest of the Band Advertising Strategy.
View the Sample Competitive Analysis for Breakthrough Band |
