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February 9, 2005

brand pyramid

6 Comments

In mar­ke­ting there’s something called “The Brand Pyra­mid”.
Basi­cally it desc­ri­bes how the brand “inte­reacts” at dif­fe­rent levels of the value chain.
In the com­ments of a recent post I desc­ri­bed gaping­void in pyra­mid terms. Star­ting from the bot­tom of the pry­ra­mid and wor­king upwards:

–At the bot­tom, you have rea­ding the stuff on gaping­void for free.
–Then you have the affor­da­ble merch, let’s say, blog­cards, t-shirts, books etc.
–Then you have prints and dra­wings.
–Then at the top you have com­mis­sions and consulting.

Basi­cally, all the layers inform and nou­rish each other…
I heard a rumor of a cer­tain well-known mar­ke­ting guru who (*ahem) shall remain name­less, who basi­cally used his own money to buy back who­le­sale from his publisher enough books to get his name on the NY Times Bes­tse­ller List. He made no money from his book. In fact, it cost him a for­tune.
And then he would give his books out for free at his semi­nars, or mail them out as ups­cale pie­ces of direct mar­ke­ting.
But… he was able to put “NY Times Bes­tse­ller” on his busi­ness cards and mar­ke­ting bumf. Made it easier to land those large, 6-figure con­tacts with big clients.
Having your work become part of the lar­ger cul­tu­ral matrix– beyond the industry it’s in– makes it much easier to sell within the industry.
But any “crea­tive” or “guru” will have a brand pyra­mid. Look at Tom Peters. Char­ges thou­sands of dollars an hour for per­so­nal appea­ran­ces, but still mana­ges to find the time to write his blog.
Ker-chiiing!

Rock Bands have a simi­lar pyra­mid– free radio air­play and down­loads at the bot­tom, paid down­loads, CDs and t-shirts in the middle, con­cert tic­kets at the top etc.
If the record com­pa­nies are going out of busi­ness, it’s because they got too attached to one price point on the pyra­mid– the CD sales– and stop­ped paying atten­tion to what their jobs should have been i.e. “Pyra­mid Buil­ders”.
Gaping­void is quite dif­fe­rent than other car­toon brands because it pays more atten­tion to the top and the bot­tom of the pyra­mid (the con­sul­ting and the free web­site part), and less atten­tion on the more con­ven­tio­nal middle (publi­ca­tion reve­nue, books, t-shirts, mass media etc). Although gran­ted, that is begin­ning to change.
If you’re trying to break into the crea­tive busi­ness, try to see the whole pyra­mid. Don’t think your ans­wer is going to come from one sin­gle price point– the roya­li­tes from one book, the royal­ties from one type of merch. You need to learn to jug­gle. You need to read “The Sex & Cash Theory.“
Even the best income streams have an anno­ying habit of drying up fast and unex­pec­tedly (just ask Time War­ner). Best to have more than one on the go. Best to get into the habit of inven­ting new ones, fas­ter than neces­sary.
And yes, all this applies to “non-creative” jobs as well.

6 Responses to “brand pyramid”

1. Albone says:

   February 9, 2005 at 2:21 PM

   Very cool article, it cer­tainly puts my pur­pose and point into perspective.
2. Lex says:

   February 9, 2005 at 3:24 PM

   Action figu­res! Don’t for­get the action figures!
3. hugh macleod says:

   February 9, 2005 at 3:25 PM

   Pez dis­pen­sers! Bur­ger King plas­tic cups!
4. mamagiggle says:

   February 9, 2005 at 4:10 PM

   mmhmm, snake oil, all of it…
5. Colleen says:

   February 9, 2005 at 4:22 PM

   Screw the biz cards – I’m prin­ting *this* out and put­ting it on my cubicle. (Well, okay – my fridge. I don’t have a cubby.)
6. mamagiggle says:

   February 25, 2005 at 2:01 AM

   whoah, time warp, wha-zing, what the heck, cool I’ll just walk through this hall again and remem­ber the good times.