Charcoal Briquettes and a Lesson for Your Band

Picked this one up from Early to Rise...

The History of the Charcoal Briquette

Give Henry Ford credit for inventing the charcoal briquette. Ford made the first briquettes out of sawdust and scrap wood from his factories. Then he sold barbecue grills and the briquettes at Ford dealerships to encourage people to drive their cars to go on picnics.

(Source: That's a  Fact, Jack!)

It's interesting knowledge, but there is a huge marketing lesson here...

What Henry Ford did by getting people thinking about picnics was getting them to imagine how much easier their lives would be by owning a new car.  And he made the transition from car to barbecue grill seamless, to  where it didn't seem like that is what he was doing.

You can do the same thing with your music...

Perhaps you're a R&B singer with smooth love tunes.  What goes along with smooth love tunes?  Get people to imagine the scenario, so that your music is part of it.  In other words, say "If you want a good time tonight, you're going to need this music in your stereo."

Any time people can associate your music with a good time, whatever that good time is, you've got a great opportunity to sell something.

Bottom line-- You're not selling music; you're selling a good time.

Comments

[Pat Walsh]

This is quite true. I am earning a degree in marketing, and it is quite common knowledge now that consumers buy based on end results -- often needs and values and nothing else. If you can connect your music to a certain need than you will likely be more succesful. It doesn't have to be just good times either, as you can find another niche. i.e. Coldplay or Jeff Buckley fulfill peoples' need to listen to melancholy ballads when a relationship is sour, or Stevie Ray Vaughan when times get rough and they have the blues.

[Gary Neal]

Give Henry Ford credit for inventing the charcoal briquette.

Nope. It was Ellsworth B.A. Zwoyer in 1897.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/features/articles/summergrilling/charcoal.html