Yes, your business can learn a lot from a band whose members play on stage in their Halloween masks. Find out what it is, without being subjected to their awful "music"


How Slipknot stands out from the million other bands with no talent

Slipknot's musical style is not for everyone. In fact, it's for a very tiny percentage of people. Their music is loud, contains plenty of screaming, and is downright frightening. Their live shows look like a rave in Hell. But lots of other bands make music that sounds identical; so what makes Slipknot a huge success, and similar bands nobodies? Simple: They make themselves stand out with fantastic branding


A simple trip to the costume store = Branding genius
Unlike other bands with no talent, Slipknot's members all wear memorable, one of a kind costumes on stage. The costumes are Halloween masks, that look like props from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. To be honest, it was hard to find any that were appropriate for this story; they were all grotesque. But that's the point. The more disturbing, the better as far as Slipknot cares. Their masks are genuinely frightening, and they ensure that the band is remembered by anyone that sees them. It's branding genius, and it has elevated them from 'just another loud band' into a huge commercial success


The "scary mask" strategy's success throughout history
Slipknot is not the first band to incite interest through props. Black Sabbath had almost no success when they first formed a band. But they underwent a dark makeover; they realized that people enjoyed paying money to be scared by scary movies. The took this idea, and ported it over to the music world. They reached stardom by looking frightening on stage, while using dark lyrics to build a massive audience. They became a "scary" band when nobody else was. Obviously, this distinguished them from the other bands that looked relatively plain by comparison

Kiss was actually failing miserably on their music alone when they started out. But after initial failure, they turned things around. How? Gene Simmons started to get people talking about his on stage stunts. Among them were spitting blood on stage (yogurt with food coloring), and breathing fire. Kiss developed a reputation as a great live band, and their sales took off

Have you noticed the recurring theme?

1. Consumers don't really care for the band
2. Band becomes memorable by becoming "scary"
3. Band becomes successful

It's fascinating that the music is not the biggest reason behind each bands' success; the branding is. The theatrics, costumes, and explosions, are what turned Black Sabbath's and Kiss's fortune. They didn't grow in talent. They simply changed their appearance, style, and target audience. This adaption turned them into music giants. Slipknot was smart enough to distinguish themselves with masks since the beginning. Like Black Sabbath and Kiss, their unique image contributed to their success at least as much as their actual music did


How you can apply similar tactics
Your company needs to stand out from the millions of other "bands" that you compete against. Let's face it: there's usually not a big difference between web design companies, or roofing companies, or whatever it is that your business sells. Similarly, there's not a big difference between loud bands that spend all their time screaming about how enjoyable Hell would be. The key is differentiating your company from the pack.

You need to be creative in how you execute your differentiation strategy. On a feature level (the lowest level), you should be able to fill in the following sentence: "We're the only company that provides _______". If you can fill in the blank with a meaningful answer, you can differentiate yourself on a low level. You can bubble this sentence up through the different levels of your business, until you reach the presentation layer (your website, or store front). Modify the sentence accordingly for each level. At the top level, the sentence might read: "We're the only website that provides ________", or "We're the only store with a _________ appearance". As you make the different elements of your business memorable, you can begin to carve out a brand

For optimal success, you need to get people talking about your product. Slipknot uses Halloween masks to achieve this; Black Sabbath used scary music; Kiss used spitting blood and fire breathing. What will your business do to get people talking about it? This is where your creativity comes into play. You need to spark people's interest; you need to drum up buzz. You need to become your industry's Slipknot

Please press Tweet if you enjoyed this!  Tweet

Prefer Facebook? Click to Like this!