DJ Marketing 101

It’s very common for companies in the house scene such as record labels and promotions to have a logo. However, how often do you see a DJ with his or her own logo? Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the process of “branding.”  In this case, we are not branding your company, but your DJ identity.

According to BusinessDictionary.com, branding is the

“Entire process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product (good or service) in the consumers’ mind, through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Actually I encourage you to read that two or three more times to truly absorb it. This is about your image.

So how can DJs brand themselves? There are several ways to do this but for now let’s focus on doing this with a logo. As I mentioned earlier, you don’t see DJs with their own logo too often…at least not on the Deep House scene. But some of the biggest DJs in the world actually do have logos. While they may not be considered Deep House, maybe we should pay attention to what they’re doing.

Here are a few examples:

I would say these are pretty recognizable and memorable. These logos are on everything these guys do….all their event promotions, production, CDs, and websites. In many cases, they may require it to be used for their bookings.

So why shouldn’t we follow through with our own logos and branding? So here is mine:

The strategy behind this logo starts with the use of a specific font. I like the way my name looks in this font and I want people to see it this way. I also use a watermark in the background of my company, ChicagoSoundSource.com which shows my affiliation. I have this image saved as a .psd file (Photoshop) so that others can change the background to match their event artwork like this:

You’ll notice that I also use the logo of the promotion, HIGH on SOUL. This is not branding the DJ, but branding the event. I want everyone to know that they can expect quality events from HIGH on SOUL so I proudly slap it on my flyer. Notice how I wrote “HIGH on SOUL” just now with two words in caps. The way something is written is also part of branding. You can even apply for a trademark of your logo/image and you should. Oh and don’t forget to add your high resolution logo to your media kit along with your high resolution photos and bio.

Let’s share logos. Feel free to comment and add links to your logos if you have them.