Music Video Research: Who Are My Target Audience

When researching about Target Audience I came across these articles that I found useful in helping me discover what demographic are most likely to listen to Indie music.

Click Here to see Musicians: Who's Your audience? How Do You Know?  - an article from DIY musician listing the different aspects that make up who your target audience are.

Here is a link to another article, Wondering Why Using Music Genre labels Is Important? from The Balance. The article mainly focuses on music genre, however, it does highlight the importance of understanding a genre's target audience.

My research:
To get results on what my artists target audience would be, I made a short questionnaire and gave them out to 30 people of varying ages from 15 to 70.

Out of the 30 people who filled out my questionnaire, 1 people said Indie was the genre music that they listened to most often.

Here are the results from these 14 people:





















Here are some examples of the types of answers I got from the people that said they listened to the Indie genre:

Target Audience Character Profile

After looking into the demographics, gender, hobbies and locality of people that listen to the genre Indie Rock, I decided to create a character (based on the evidence I collected) that I can refer back to when I come to planning my music video, and think wether aspects of it would be appealing or relatable to her. This will also come in use especially for my CD Digi Pack and Music Magazine Advertisement so I can refer back to Jennifer's profile to advertise my artists album according to what would grab her attention when shopping for albums. This will also allow me to create an image for my artist that that will appeal to the Indie Rock genre's target audience, because an artists target audience (Jennifer) will most likely be more drawn to people that dress similar to themselves because they match their collective identity.



Profile: Jennifer is an 18 year old sixth form student that lives in Kettering. Jennifer is very passionate about music and spends as much time as she can listening to her favourite artists and bands, and learning the chords and riffs to their songs on her guitar. Some of her favourite songs are ones with meaningful lyrics that highlight issues and situations that are relatable to her and her friends (who also share her passion for music) that are prominent in their own lives. One of her favourite ways to socialise is to organise trips with her friends to different cities followed up by going to a concert that one of their favourite bands are headlining.

When she's not studying or pursuing her enthusiasm for music, she works a part time job at her local HMV store which she quite enjoys as she gets discount on a lot of the CD's they have. this makes saving up for for tickets to her favourite summer music festivals a lot easier.

  Being a young person in this day and age, Jennifer is very familiar with technology, owning the latest phone and iPod that she downloads music onto via iTunes, which she will then listen to on her way to and from work and school. Although she likes the fact that this allows her to portably listen to music wherever she is, Jennifer has a large CD collection ranging from different genres from older music and new music. However, she mostly listens to Rock, Indie and Acoustic music, and in addition to listening to the latest hits playing on the radio, she loves to discover very niche bands that haven't quite broke into fame yet.

Planning: Lighting

I practised with the camera and lighting equipment so I could teach myself how to use it all for when I come to creating my CD Digi pack and magazine advertisement as I might consider having a photoshoot of my artist in different lighting, in addition to the type of lighting I want to use for my music video. 

I am thinking that during my music video I will have the artist singing in front of a plain back ground switching between it being blank and having a projection. When the background is blank I want to have quite dark lighting to emphasise the sad tone to the lyrics of the song. Due to this I not only experimented with basic lighting with the light boxes placing them in various positions to see how to achieve natural but professional looking lighting with out it looking too artificial. 

First I researched various types of lighting such as low key and high key lighting to get  better understanding of what type would be more suitable for emphasising the tone of the song. 

Low Key lighting: Low key is a style of lighting that uses a hard light source to enhance shadows, often used to coney night time, or to isolate a subject to create a more dramatic atmosphere in a scene. This type of lighting may also be used to reflect a character's emotions and could also be used to make a scene more sinister. Rather tan using traditional three-point lighting, to achieve this low key lighting you would use only one main key light (usually a fill light and sometimes suing a reflectorThe Complete Beginner's Guide To Shooting Low Key) which creates contrast due to the high light ratio and dark tones from filming in at night or in shade or dim lighting. 

High Key Lighting: High key is a style of lighting that reduces the light ratio in a scene which can be used in day or night scenes or to create an upbeat/airy atmosphere. To achieve high key lighting, you use multiple sources of light, usually using three-point lighting however using soft lights creates the same effect. Unlike using low key lighting, you don't have to makes adjustments for each scene you shoot however it means that shits might look less dramatic. 

I feel that using High Key lighting would be a lot easier to use for all of the shots in the music video however I don't think that doing so will be as effective for the song I chosen. Additionally there are sections of the song that sound sad and I like the dramatic effect that Low Key lighting creates as I think that this could emphasise this. 

Here are some of the articles I found during my research of different lighting and techniques: 

. The Complete Beginner's Guide To Shooting Low Key - I found this article quite helpful as it covered the basics and also ways of shooting in Low Key on a budget which could be quite useful. 

. Using lighting style to create mood: High-key and low-key lighting

. Lighting - High Key and low Key - DIY Photography

I looked at lighting for photography as well as filming as I could use similar lighting for the CD Digipack and magazine advertisement as I will in the music video, as this might help to create an image for my artist, because a lot of artists and bands have their own motifs when it comes to how they and their music is shown in the media. One example of this ids the 1975 who's music videos are filmed in often low key lighting or in black and white.

Here are some examples of the use of lighting and colour in different 1975 music videos:

                1st Album                                                                                                1st Album                    

               2nd Album                                                                                              2nd Album

Here are examples of the use of lighting and colour in different 1975 album covers:

               1st Album                                                                                                2nd Album

        

As you can see the band has it's own motifs that correlate according to their albums; the black and white music videos from their first album (The 1975 (2013)) which is also black and white with low key lighting, and the use of one single colour in the music videos for songs from their second album (I it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (2016)), which was done created through the lights and in some videos colour grading.

Equipment:

. Backdrop - White cloth 

. Soft Lights x2

. K180A  Light

. Stands 

First of all we set up the stand for the back drop, and hung and clipped the white cloth on it. 

due to not being put away properly previously it was very creased making the light reflect unevenly which appeared very clearly on camera, however this can be fixed by ironing the cloth beforehand. On the other hand, I may use a plain white wall or surface to use in stead of a back drop because I might think about filming the shadows and I feel that in addition to having a clearer background, that the shadows would be a lot sharper and I would use the lighting to help me do this. This is something that I would like to test out next regarding lighting. 

When setting up the lights, I used Two Point lighting due to having backdrop set up where a back light would be if I were using Three Point lighting. This mean that I had the two soft boxes set up either side of the camera facd in the direction of the person I was photographing, who I also adjusted the height of the lights according to. 

Once I set up the lights I then practised taking photos I could learn to position the lights according to how what lighting I wanted to achieve and what worked and what didn't in terms of how the lighting would look on camera. 

In addition to practising using the lights, I thought I would experiment with coloured light because although I haven't experimented with colour grading yet, this could be a useful alternative that could create a similar effect. I did this by fixing coloured sheets onto the front of the light so that when it shone through it would give off that colour. 

When experimenting with the use of coloured light, I set up the K180A Light in between the camera and the soft box to the right of it so that it could reflect onto one side of the face to create a very subtle effect. However, I want to try this again when trying Low Key lighting as I could only get a weaker colour against their face due to the High Key lighting of where the lighting was set up. Overall, I really like the idea of using coloured lights in my music video as I think that I could it to convey a characters emotion to an audience due to connotations of certain colours (Red=danger etc.). 

Due to having a large window next to the lighting set up this caused a lot of natural light to come through which meant that the lighting of the corridor was already quite High key so I didn't get a chance to test lower key lighting as we weren't in a dark enough environment. Due to this I might have to find a darker area such as the school theatre to experiment with Low Key lighting. 

I experimented with the proxemics of the lights to the person I was photographing to see the effects would have.

The closer the lights were to the person the harsher and brighter the light looked on their face, I think this would be a good effect to use in a flash back of a memories it looks very intense so to the audience would be very distinct that that section of the music video was not taking place in the present. 

Music Video Research: Detailed Artist Research

• evidence of any interviews that have been conducted with the artist.

Local Natives

. Local Natives are a Los Angeles based Indie Rock band previously known as Cavil at Rest who formed in 2005. 

. Genres that the band is associated with include: alternative, indie, rock, indie rock, and indie folk. 

Here is a biography from the band's iTunes page:

Here is a list of their top 20 songs:

Band Members:

. Taylor Rices - Vocals and Guitar (2005 - present)

. Kelsey Ayre - Vocals and Keyboard (2005 - present) 

. Met Frazier - Drums (2005 - present)

. Ryan Hahn - Vocals and Guitar (2005 - present)

. Nik Ewing - Vocals and bass Guitar (2012 - present)

. Andy Hamm - Bass Guitar (2006 - 2011)

  

Albums:

Gorilla Manor

Released: November 2, 2009 (UK). February 16, 2010 (US)

Labels: Red Rockets Glare (Rancho Park, California), Hot Pie Studios (Pasadena, California)

Studio: Infectious Records (UK), Frenchkiss Records (US)

Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Folk

Length: 52:40

Producer: Local natives

. The album was self funded by the band 

. The album was recorded by Raymond Richards in his own studio Red Rockets Glare in West LA

Humming Bird

Released: January 29, 2013

Recorded: 2011–2012

Labels: Infectious Records (UK), Frenchkiss Records

Studio: The album was recorded in producer Aaron Dessner's home studio

Genre: Indie Rock

Length: 44:06

Producer: Aaron Dessner (Guitarist of the band The National)

Singles: "Breakers" (October 18, 2012), "Heavy Feet" (January 2, 2013)

. One of the songs "Mt. Washington" was feature on the soundtrack of the 2015 game 'Life Is Strange' 

Sunlit Youth

Released: September 9, 2016

Recorded: 2014–2016 

Labels: Infectious Music (UK/Japan), Loma Vista (US), Hostess (Japan)

Singles: "Past Lives" (April 29, 2016), (June 6, 2016), "Fountain of Youth" (July 7, 2016), "Coins", (August 26, 2016)

Genre: Indie Rock

Length: 45:26

Producer: 

Local Natives, 

Brian Joseph, 

Rob Kiran, 

Catherine Marks, 

Little Dragon, 

Ryan H

ahn, L

ars Stalfors

. The single "Past Lives" was featured on an episode of the Netflix original series Flaked (March 11th, 2016)

. The album was recorded in several different countries including Thailand, Nicaragua, Malaysia, Hawaii, and Ojai, California 

Social Media:

I believe that social media plays a big part in who listens to an artists music, for example, most young people are very familiar with social media and this is a contributing factor in regards of the band's target audience. Because they are very active on social media the people they attract are mostly younger people which correlates to the age of their target audience which is people from the ages of 18 - 25. 

Additionally this research will be useful when I create my CD digi pack and magazine advertisement as I think it would be appropriate to include their social media links. 

Twitter: @localnatives

Followers: 104k

Facebook: www.facebook.com/localnatives/

Likes: 383894  

iTunes: itunes.apple/local-natives/

iTunes is a service for buying music digitally in the form of an mp3, and artists can sell their music on there either on a record company or independently, so this does't single out more independent artists. 

Spotify: Local Natives

Is a music subscription service that allows it's users to listen to any music for a fee that they can pay monthly. This is another way for artists to gain recognition in the music industry as it allows people to listen to all of their music without having physically buy a copy of their album. 

Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/local-natives

Similarly to YouTube, Soundcloud is a website that allows independent artists to promote their music for free which is a good starting point for bands to start becoming more known, as this is a site which is used by people to discover new music rom artists that they otherwise might not have heard. 

Followers: 4983418

YouTube: www.youtube.com/localnatives/

I think that the band's YouTube channel is one of the most useful platforms of social media that they use due to that being where their music and music videos are published and available for people to watch. This is especially useful for a less well-known band like the Local Natives as their music videos most likely won't be distributed to music channel on the TV or played on the radio often due to having a smaller fan base than artists such as Ed Sheeran who's music often features in the Top Hits. Because of this, it is a lot harder for more niche bands to grow their fan base and have their music listened to, so video/music sharing websites such as YouTube allows them to promote themselves for free. 

Subscribers: 33,900

Website: thelocalnatives.com

Their website is used to promote their newest album 'Sunlit Youth' (2016), to sell their merchandise in addition to showing their Tour dates. 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/localnatives/

Followers: 70.3k

This platform of social media is mostly used to document the band's travels, giving an insight into their lives and keep their fans up to date with release dates of albums, singles and tour dates. 

Existing Local Natives Music Videos: 

Here is a list of the Local Natives' top music videos (ranked by iTunes):

Here are some examples of some existing music videos uploaded on their YouTube channel:

'Breakers'

 

'Ceilings'

'You & I' 

There are two main styles of music videos that are frequently uploaded to their channel, their 'Official Music Videos' and Lyric videos

Here are some examples of the lyric Videos:

'Villainy'

'Foutain Of Youth'

'Coins'

Artist Interviews:

This is an NME '90 second' interview with the Vocalist and Guitarist of the Local Natives(2016):

2014 Vevo interview with Guitarist Ryhan Hahn and Keyboardist Kelcey Ayre -  on their experiences at the OutsideLands Festival - which they performed at amoung artists such as The Kooks, Macklemore and Ryan and Ryan Lewis - and potential new music (that would be their third album Sunlit Youth).

The Line Up for the OutsideLands Festival in 2014

The band has also performed at numerous other festivals and even headlined for The Kings Of Leon throughout 2014.


Click Here To read an interview by Fader from June 7th 2016 as they discuss their latest album, 'Sunlit Youth'. 

Here is another interview, by Pitchfork an online music magazine in 2013:  Local Natives | Pitchfork

Research: Analysing A Music Video Using Andrew Goodwin's 6 Features Of Music Videos

Best pop video – Budget

Director: Eoin Glaister

In his book Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) Andrew Goodwin points out 6 characteristics and features that can be found in music videos. 

1.   Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). 

2.  There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). 

3.  There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). 

4.  The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). 

5.  There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. 

6.  There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

(From Andrew Goodwin, DANCING IN THE DISTRACTION FACTORY, 1992.)

1.   Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). 

The genre of the music video which I chose is a pop music video. 
Pop songs are usually quite upbeat which is reflected in the editing of the music videos, which is usually fast paced with quick cuts to different shots of the band/artist (mostly of the singer) and/or the actors. In terms of Mise-en-Scene, the music videos will often have bright lighting and props - creating a happy tone - which appeal to a younger audience, in addition to having the artists and actors in either bright colourful clothing or the latest trends which their target audience find fashionable. Much like the target audience of the genre Pop, artists and the actors in their videos are usually quite young so they are relatable to the audience. Pop music videos often contain lots of movement and close-ups - so the audience can recognize them - of the artists lip syncing (like most music videos of any genre) especially of them performing or dancing to their songs. If a pop video has a narrative it usually centers around young people in love or a narrative with a positive message behind it. these types of videos attract the younger audiences because the situations shown are similar to their own experiences so it makes the video relevant to them. Additionally pop music videos sometimes reference other artists and pop culture and sometimes products (if they are being sponsored) because these things are either current in the media or seen as cool. 


This music video does reinforce the expectations of this genre, to a certain extent.  
The tone of the music video is not stereo typically happy like most music videos of this genre, which is shown through the Mise-en-Scene. Natural lighting has been used as the video has been shot in the early evening which reinforces the main characters feeling of sadness due to a broken heart. Similarly to the majority of pop music videos, the narrative is centered around love, the main character likes a girl to then see her kissing his friend. However, the video is non-linear and the audience is shown flash backs (before he is heartbroken where he and the girl were close), all of these scenes were filmed when it was still relatively light creating a happier tone, which is a juxtaposition of the characters feelings in present time. The actors shown in the video are of the same age of the target audience and appear to be in secondary school judging by the school uniforms they are wearing in some of the scenes and also by the different coats/jackets they wear, which is similar to what you would expect teenagers to be wearing (hoodies, leggings/jeans). 
The artist, Aquilo, does not appear at all in the video which is quite uncommon for this genre as the artists often have the most screen time instead of the entire music video consisting of just narrative. The Editing used in this video is not as fast paced as you would normally expect a pop music video to be, however, this is not so surprising as the tempo of the song is rather slow. 

2.    There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustration, amplification or contradiction). 

At the start of the video, the first thing the audience sees is  a handheld long shot of the main character getting out of a car - which we can assume is his friend's as he is the only one seen driving in the video - that seems like has been crashed into a gate by him, and walk off with the camera panning across him. The next shot is of a large concrete structure on a grassy cliff top which he approaches in the next shot. There is an extreme long/point of view shot framing a small part of land next to the sea, then a mid-shot of him looking out  at it. From then on in the video it switches from present time to flashbacks showing the gradual change of his relationships with the girl he likes and his friend, leading up to where he sees her kiss his friend. The music video ends on similar to the start with the main character still staring out to sea on the cliff in a mid shot then a point of view in an extreme long shot of the sea. 

The narrative of the video definitely illustrates the what is being described in the lyrics of the song quite closely. For example, the main line of the chorus is "I'm losing you" which is the main message the video tries to convey, which is shown throughout as the main character realises he has lost the girl he likes to his friend. 


3.    There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustration, amplification or contradiction). 

I think the music video for this song reflects the tone and atmosphere of the song very well. The music video has a very calm atmosphere which goes well with the songs sad tone in combination with the slow-paced editing with fairly long shots between cuts which really reflects the pace and the tempo of the music. The mise-en-scene also helps to emphasise the tone of the song due to the casts' acting, there we are shown lots of sad/upset and angry facial expressions and much happier ones during the flashbacks. 
Unlike most music videos of the pop genre the artist doesn't have any screen time and there is no lip syncing from the actors either. 

4.    The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). 

The artist Aquilo, is not actually promoted in the video as he does not have any screen time, instead, just the actors are shown however there are lots of close-up of them to show the characters emotions. This is quite uncommon for this genre as promoting the artists image is one of the most important things in a pop video as it is what shows what the artist represents and the genre of music they make. An artist's image is usually established in music videos through lots of close-ups of their face, allowing them to have a lot of screen time - usually, it is the singers out of a band that get the most as they are the frontmen of the band - so people will recognise them and long shots which show their style through their clothing which might make them more popular to their audience depending on what genre they fit into. 

5.    There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. 

No, there isn't any evidence of this in this music video, mainly because I think this song and music video is aimed at a younger audience especially judging by how old the actors in the music video are as it is shown through the mise-en-scene  that they are still in school as they are seen wearing school uniforms. 

6.    There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

There doesn't appear to be any references to any other media in the music video, possibly because it wouldn't fit with the concept of the video, which is to illustrate the lyrics through the visuals and so referencing other music videos or films/tv might seem random. However, a lot of pop music videos do reference other artists, for example, 'Moves Like Jagger' by Maroon Five, both the song and music video reference Mick Jagger, the singer of the Rolling Stones, with videos of him and other people auditioning as Mick Jagger Impersonators, imitating him dancing. Some artists also reference films as a way of promoting both the film and their music which would then be included in the films soundtrack or on the end credits. One example of this is 21 Pilots' music video for 'Heathens' which is set in a prison that resembles the one in the film 'Suicide Squad' (2016)  which includes snippets of the characters in scenes from the film. 
Although this music video doesn't directly reference any other music videos it does remind me of a lot of other pop music videos as they all mostly have the same narrative of love which is a recurring theme of this genre. 

Independent Research: Importance Of Image

This is an article I found while researching how artists are promoted through music videos, written by someone who has been involved in the music industry, as I will have to create an image for my chosen artist (which will be an Indie artist). I feel that this is something that will be useful to gain a better understanding on for when I create a music video, magazine advertisement, and CD Digipack.
This article was posted on DIY Musician, a website aimed at Independent artists, which offers advice and information on promotion and how to have a successful career in the music industry.

Click Here to visit the website.

[This article was written by guest contributor Brandon Seymour.]

I’ve played in bands on and off for nearly 15 years. In addition to being a musician, I’m also passionate about marketing. Over the past couple of years, I’ve written several articles aimed at helping local, independent musicians improve their online marketing strategy by boosting brand awareness, leveraging social media and building a strong online presence. It just sort of made sense. I enjoy marketing and I enjoy music, so why not integrate the two in some way?

I learned a lot from working with different clients over the years, and I’ve been able to take some of the things I learned at my day job and apply them to my musical projects. What I didn’t realize at the time though, was that the most valuable insight I gained wasn’t from marketing. Instead, it was something I learned from playing in bands that would end up changing my outlook as a marketing professional. I learned that image is, and quite possibly always will be, more important than music. And the same holds true for just about anything else. Image is everything.

They call it “show business” for a reason. The music industry (and I use that term very loosely) isn’t concerned with art or expression. It’s not about identity or originality. And it’s definitely not about talent. It’s about money. I’m not saying that you won’t ever be appreciated as an artist. I’m also not saying that being an artistic genius precludes you from mainstream success. I’m saying that the music industry as a whole doesn’t care who you are unless they can profit from what you have to offer – regardless of how amazing or awful you actually are. It’s not evil, it’s just business. As with any other business, even the greatest products can’t sell themselves; the image or brand perception is what makes people want to buy.

Interestingly enough, in most cases when people argue that image is more important than the music itself, they’re usually referring to the “mainstream” industry. But how is the “indie” or “underground” industry any different? Sure, Bleached may not make nearly as much money as Mumford and Sons, but that doesn’t make image any less relevant. Remember, the goal of the “industry” itself, big or small, is to sell. Be it selling CD’s and t-shirts or selling out stadiums. The scale may vary, but it’s essentially the same concept. The indie scene cunningly masquerades as a collective movement that caters to artistic integrity over image, when in reality, image is essentially the lifeblood of the underground music industry.

A couple years ago, I was sitting at a bar with a friend who also happened to be a fellow musician. We met after our bands played a short string of shows together a year or two prior. Since both of us were looking for new projects at the time, we thought why not start a band together? In terms of musical taste, we were never really on the same page. It wasn’t like we played together and shouted “this is it!” or anything. But that didn’t matter. The only thing we had in common was that we both liked our music loud and fast. Like the sound a spoon makes when it’s stuck in a garbage disposal, only with more reverb and feedback. But we also had something else in common that felt a lot more promising than liking the same band or sub-genre. We both knew what we wanted to achieve and had a pretty good idea of how we could make it happen. All we had to do was focus on the overall image, and the rest would come. In a lot of ways, the music is the easy part. The trick is laying a solid foundation.

In our first few months starting out, we built a website, established a solid social following, received press mentions from several local newspapers, all while averaging 5 shows a month. Not too shabby for a local band, right out of the gate. A few months later, we were opening for national acts and headlining local festivals. Two separate publications named us “Best Rock Band” in South Florida, and another ranked us #2 on a list of the top local bands in Florida that should already be famous. Soon we were turning down more shows than we were playing. Eventually, were doing what we loved and we were getting paid what we felt we deserved, which felt pretty good.

We’re not exceptionally talented or good looking. We didn’t practice every day or spend countless hours writing songs. We played all covers for the first few shows and no one ever knew the difference. None of us have rich parents and we never asked for a dime in any Kick Starter campaign. We pretty much had no budget whatsoever. We never made t-shirts. We never toured. We never even recorded (until very recently). We’re just normal people with regular jobs that wanted to make something special. The only reason we were able to make it happen was because of the image that we created for ourselves.

I get that it’s not always about fame and fortune, and that plenty of artists simply have zero interest in commercializing their music whatsoever. But I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of indie artists at least want to gain exposure, even if it’s not for profits. Exposure isn’t free, though. You have to earn it. I’m not saying you can’t earn it with your music alone, but if you have the whole package, your chances improve significantly. Image doesn’t mean changing who you are or what you stand for. You don’t need to make a statement or box yourself into some subculture. Image is about consistency and an unwavering commitment to a specific tone, look and feel. It’s about creating something that people can stand behind because they feel as if it’s more than just a product; it’s a brand they can trust.

Author bio: Brandon Seymour is founder of Beymour Consulting – a Florida-based SEO and content marketing agency. Brandon has a passion for live music and has played in several different bands and hundreds of shows over the past 15 years. You can follow him on Twitter and Google+.