'now you're not satisfied, with what you're being put through...'
A few years ago, to highlight the need to think more strategically about their artists positioning, a member of our team put six images of six different solo artists on an A3 board and asked the label president and the A&R to identify which was their artist. Both got it wrong on the first guess. It took one of them three guesses.
In the December 6th edition of The Superfan Formula, we floated the contentious opinion that the music business is not very strategic. That there’s not much medium to long term planning going on, certainly at an artist level. That story kind of proves the point.
“...IT’S BEING EXECUTED WITH ALL THE STRATEGIC FORESIGHT OF A GOLDFISH WITH A TIKTOK ADDICTION.”
This lack of strategic planning presents an intriguing quandary for those excitedly chirping away about ‘super serving the superfan’, because like most music business trends, it’s being executed with all the strategic foresight of a goldfish with a TikTok addiction.
emotive, individualistic nature of music demands strategic planning.
Thing is, we see again and again businesses talking strategic yet acting tactical. Come to think of it, February 4th edition of The Superfan Formula also highlighted an absolutely humongous piece of short-term thinking by some very well-paid people. So, what is strategy and why is it important to nurturing fan engagement?
Strategic planning versus tactical planning is probably one of the great confusions of the modern age, right up there with which bin do the yogurt pots go in and why branded printer ink costs more than a small family car. But the emotive, individualistic nature of music demands strategic planning.
“SUPERFANS’ AREN’T JUST PEOPLE WHO SPEND MONEY...”
Superfans’ aren’t just people who spend money; they’re deeply engaged, emotionally invested, and have distinct behaviours and preferences. They’re not some homogeneous horde. Treating them as some generic cash cow with endless limited-edition vinyl, premium tiers, superfan apps, and pointless NFTs isn’t a strategy, it’s a cash grab. The fact that each artists fandom is unique, and the breath & complexity of each fans eco-system are actually gift, but to realise that gift demands a strategic foundation to be able to target the right fans, in the right way, with the right stuff. And of course, this is where Sound Effects can help you.
...deeply engaged, emotionally invested...
“WHAT TRUTHS CAN TURN PASSIVE LISTENING INTO DEEP FANDOM?”
Strategic Planning
Think of strategic planning as the grand master plan, the big picture, where you want to be. Like a Bond villain stroking a white cat and plotting global domination. It’s the long-term, ambition. Strategic planning for artist or repertoire requires you to stop thinking in campaigns and start thinking in career arcs. We like to think about:
What world is this artist building?
What emotional need do they fulfil for fans?
What truths can turn passive listening into deep fandom?
Where will this artist be in three, five years—not just on the next release?
Uncovering truths are a vital part of what we do at Sound Effects and essential for our work delivering growth and incremental revenue for our artist/repertoire clients. We’ll talk more about truths soon, but unless you start prioritizing attitudinal insight over short-term metrics, you’ll never uncover the ‘truths’ that a strategic positioning can be built upon and will chime with an audience need, value, belief etc.
Uncovering
Tactical Planning
On the other hand, tactical planning is the ‘how we are actually going to do it’ part. To thoroughly milk the 007 analogy, it’s the orange clad henchmen, in the yellow pith helmets with clipboards asking, “Right, so how many lasers do we need?" and "What type of shark tank will be on-brand?". Tactical planning is a servant of strategy.
“DIGITAL STRATEGY” IS NOT STRATEGIC PLANNING!”
In the music industry we can get it spectacularly wrong, with marketing being only tactical, like throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping some of it sticks, except the spaghetti is an artist’s career and the wall is TikTok. No one asks from one artist campaign to the next, if it should be a pasta-based food stuff. Or should it be rice? I mean, should you even be throwing it, would smearing be a better approach? Should it even be at the wall – even if spaghetti or let’s say fettuccini is the right material. “Digital strategy” is not strategic planning! Putting the word ‘strategy’ after the word ‘digital’ doesn't make digital marketing any more than the tactical channel that it is. It's a tool of strategy, as is live, promo, press, streaming, synch, physical, etc, etc, etc
“...NOW THE CONCEPT OF ‘ALWAYS ON’ HAS LONG BEEN COMPLETELY “OFF”.”
Look, in defence of the teams that ‘market’ artists, much of this is out of their control. The pressure from above in some organisations on what’s reacting right now rather than where the artist is going long-term is huge. Most ‘marketing’ people are in fact product managers and most of the senior marketing people, who knew how to market an artist are no longer working within the company. But teams don’t have the bandwidth anyway, because they’re being asked to work more artists than ever before. And of course, we’ve always been guilty of being locked into the ‘cycle’, but now the concept of ‘always on’ has long been completely “off”.
Most ‘marketing’ people are in fact product managers!
Solid Strategy = Accurate Targeting and Positioning
Solid strategy is based on solid insight and will reveal who your ‘target’ audience(s) are and which artist ‘truths’you need to dial up (or down) to ‘position’ them for that audience. In the next edition of The Superfan Formula, we’ll take the logical progression from strategic planning, to explore Targeting and Positioning in more detail.
Till then… unless you can't wait, then you know where we are.
Team Sound Effects