Branding in the music Industry and How it affects your career

Being in the music industry in Ghana is quite a challenging one. There are a whole lot of things you should have in other to gain control of your territory or surpass and lead the competition. So in relation to this that means I'm talking about branding. Most Ghanaian musicians have succeeded in creating a unique brand for themselves, but has this unique brand help them become successful in their career? That is the major question

My take on this is you need to be careful the way you brand yourself because your brand affects the speed of your success and the way your fans and listeners will interact with you. If your branding contradicts with the contents and the way you portray yourself in your music then you have a huge problem coming. Lets take a look at one person who has done well in branding himself, Sarkodie.

Sarkodie

King Sark as his fans call him has done very well when it comes to branding. Creating a logo out of his name and creating a clothing line with clothing items that represents the type of music he does (mainly hip hop related clothes). Sark has been able to promote his brand very well and since there is no contradiction between his brand and the way he portrays himself in his music....wait actually there is a contradiction. With his beef between Manifest, we clearly got to see in broad day light the contradiction between Sarks music and his brand. Now the Sark brand was promoting western culture more than it was promoting Ghanaian culture and the dude raps mostly in Twi. This particular loophole really affected Sark when this beef became heated because through that beef, a lot of music fanatics got their eye opened about the faults in Sarks brand. Then came his lyrics, like I said earlier on, there shouldn't be a contradiction with the way you portray yourself in your music and the way you brand yourself outside, they should be the same. We all saw Sark talking about how he moved from zero to hero to how hes always been a hero. Sark at one point lost his humbleness and stuck to pride and he didn't let that get  to him, he quickly put some measures together to make sure he hasn't lost his way, he had a secret party with his fans, a dinner and a lot lately. His clothing line at the long run collapsed and I think its because of bad strategies and he didn't consider his fan base pertaining the price tag but in all, his brand name hasn't faded and its still working for him and we wish him all the best.

With sark as our example, many male artistes have successfully branded themselves considering most who are in the mainstream music especially Manifest with his African print always representing his mother land Ghana, his lyrics do not contradict what he does and in his lyrics lies a combination of the English language and the Twi language, a simple combination of the two worlds he grew up in but he represents more the one in his blood.

Becca

Now coming to female artistes, are they branding themselves like they are supposed to or are they getting the message all wrong. Ok lets start with Becca. Becca has done very well in branding herself, she has kept that elegant lady look and every one of her fans love her. She has the right look and the right brand with the type of music she does and to be honest she is slaying in the brand game. Becca has stood up for a lot of humanitarian causes like forming a rescue organization that raises funds to support children in Ghana affected by HIV/AIDS. This and other similar humanitarian works. She represents herself as the lady she is, her lyrics do not contradict with the type of person she is. So lets say becca is in a comfortable lead.

Ebony

Now lets go to Ebony, she calls herself the 90s bad girl always dressing up in revealing clothes and always making music with some erotic meanings backed to it. Now who does she remind you of? Cmon you can remember?....Ms?.....Miss Bel. MzBel started her music career just like the way Ebony is riding and going wild everywhere she finds herself. Well their branding never contradicted with their celeb life but it sent the wrong message to the fans and guess you remember all the things MzBel went through when she was hitting the peak of her music career. I'm not saying the same thing will happen to Ebony but I'm just saying the reason you need branding is because music is a powerful tool and the message you send across to your fans is what will determine how they see you and the way  they will act when they are around you. So if Ebony chooses this path as the path to brand herself then I believe she already has an example of the things that might come her way.

Comment below about your take on this article and share your ideas and suggestion on Branding in the Ghanaian music industry