Hacking MusicCreative Differentiation for Artists, Red Oceans VS Blue Oceans, Getting To a Blue Ocean — The ERRC Framework

John Pisciotta
Aug 23, 2017 · 8 min read

(Section from Hacking Music)

CHAPTER 3

Creative Differentiation

We talk a lot about the importance of artists finding their lane while trying to create a brand that is different from everything else out there currently. This is actually a component of individual music businesses that, way more often than not, is left neglected by artists.

Sadly, many of them brush aside birthing something about them, their music, and their image that is unique…a flaw that can prove fatal to most music careers before they even have an opportunity to begin growing. In the next section, we are going to address how you can go about determining whether your brand is going to be unique.

Before that, however, we want to make sure you have a firm grasp on WHY this is so important.

DIFFERENTIATION

What follows in this section of the book is mid level look at how artists with a basic foundation can begin to build. This section will specifically help the novice or advanced beginner as she continues to grow and develop into the competent or proficient level.

Differentiation is the process of setting yourself apart and making yourself different. Not in the familiar way of being weird or different just one different. Differentiation, has a accretive benefit for the artist and their career. Definition is a clarity in the mind of the consumer regarding the ways that the artist is different that all the others.

When you think of your favorite artists or legends, All of them will have an attribute or attributes that instantly comes to mind. They have spent years answering the question: In what ways am I differentiated from all other competitors.

An artist who begins to unpack their own answer to this question early will positioned for a sustainable long term career.

In this section we look at ways an artist builds differentiation into their brand.

SECTION 1

RED OCEANS VS BLUE OCEANS

The imagery of Red Oceans and Blue Oceans is a powerful method for reinforcing where your branding and business goals should sit. It is imperative for those in the music industry to create a product that will exist in the Blue Ocean. Businesses and brands operating in Blue Ocean environments have a much greater chance at long-term success and notoriety.

What this visualization does is portray Blue Oceans as business environments in which the brand is operating with very little competition, where their brands are highly valued to the point that there name and image mean something to consumers or fans, and where people are willing to pay a premium for the product.

Red Oceans, on the other hand, are business environments in which brands are viciously competing against each other based upon price instead of quality or experience. The businesses and brands are more focused on beating out the competition than operating independently to create the best possible experience for the consumer. That environment is extremely crowded and the competition is cutthroat…hence the term Red Oceans symbolizes the blood in the water as brands battle each other for whatever scraps they can get.

There are very specific defining factors for determining in what ocean you are operating:

RED OCEAN

  • Red Oceans are extremely crowded with competition.
  • Those operating in Red Oceans are more focused on competition that consumer experience.
  • Boundaries within your industry are strictly defined and accepted allowing for very little creativity or divergence from the “normal”.
  • It is the known “common” market place.
  • Competition in Red Oceans is based upon established rules that rarely change, holding back the growth and evolution of the product.

BLUE OCEAN

  • See and market themselves as an “experience”. (Apple, Nike, etc)
  • Focus on customer experience, not competitors
  • Industry boundaries are undefined, allowing the company to discover creative solutions and product features
  • Products and services are chosen specifically as a unique set of value
  • A willingness to position the brand as one encouraging being different
  • Asset capabilities are fluid, not fixed
  • These companies solve problems across their entire supply chain

In sitting down and thinking about your own music business, think about what it is that you are doing that is different from what everybody else is doing. What makes you unique?

Much of what is discussed about Red Oceans and Blue Oceans will actually play a major role later in this section when we begin to break down The Experience Economy.

Examples of Red Ocean vs Blue Oceans.

  • Guitar Lessons guy down the street or Lesson with Jimmy Page
  • Studio singers or Celine Dion
  • A community college or Stanford University
  • Pro Tools or Welcome to 1979 (Nashville’s analog centric recording studio destination)
  • Disney or Pixar
  • Ringling Bros Circus or Cirque De Soleil
  • Hoover Vacuums or Dyson Vacuums
  • Ford Taurus or a Tesla
  • Acer or Apple

SECTION 2

GETTING TO A BLUE OCEAN — THE ERRC GRID

One of the most important tasks in today’s music business is for an artist to create a brand that the masses will perceive as being different and unique from everything else out there. Too many people spend too much of their time hoping to be the next (insert famous artist’s name here). What they don’t understand is that they are trying to duplicate somebody else’s brand instead of creating something new that is capable of filling a void.

Why would a fan of Taylor Swift want to listen to another artist who sounds like Taylor Swift when the fan can simply listen to Taylor Swift?

When you look at artists like Taylor, Garth Brooks, KISS, Gaga, and Jay Z, it is extremely difficult to compare them to any artists who came before or after them. They were so unique when their careers began picking up steam that they filled a void that most people weren’t even aware existed. They thrived by doing their own thing instead of trying to copy something that was already out there and, in doing so, they created something so unique that people coming after them couldn’t copy what they were doing because they would have been accused of blatant unoriginality.

This hurdle, easily one of the three most important an artist will ever deal with, appears in other areas of business outside of music as well. Curves’ decision to market fitness centers specifically to females is a fantastic example. Cirque de Soleil is more than just a circus; it is an experience that brings to the table an artistic vision that allows the company to operate uncontested. Nintendo broke new ground with its Wii video game system, which was able to get people off the couch with its motion-based control system but the company also marketed the system in a manner that even those who never played video games, particularly people over the age of 60, were also getting involved.

Referencing the previous section discussing Red Oceans and Blue Oceans, artists like Taylor, Garth, Gaga, and Jay Z have all found ways to create brands and identities that are unique from their peers. They are all operating from Blue Oceans.

So the big question is how does a new artist create and build up that kind of unique brand that allows them to operate in a Blue Ocean instead of becoming just another feeder seeking out scraps in the Red Ocean.

THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

Make no mistake…the most successful brands and companies in the world don’t simply fall into the Blue Ocean by accident. They have sat down, asked the proper questions, answered them, and then acted upon those answers. This should further reinforce the notion that there are no overnight successes.

All of these companies and brands have methodically asked four important questions…and pay attention to the focus words in each question.

Which factors should be ELIMINATED from what is currently an industry standard? ie: guitar solos, disco music, boy bands.

Which factors should be REDUCED well below what is currently an industry standard? ie: three-minute song formats.

Which factors should be RAISED well above what is currently an industry standard? ie: artists who write their own songs.

Which factors should be CREATED that the current industry has never offered? ie: screamo vocals, 24-hour raves, beard bands.

Those four focus words — Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create — form the basis of what is known as The ERRC Grid:

The ERRC Grid provides a visual representation of the questions and illustrates that a potentially industry-changing brand, product, or idea will lie within the overlapping answers to those questions.

WHY THESE SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

The four questions weren’t picked out of thin air. They appear in the ERRC Grid for very specific reasons.

Answering them forces originality. Music artists and managers trying to answer these four questions are pushed to simultaneously different directions in a manner that is fast paced and effective.

Answering them requires laser-like focus. It prevents music artists and managers from over-engineering a concept or idea, which is a very common problem in the music business. They can utilize outside-the-box thinking but the answer must fit inside-the-box created by the four questions.

Answering them requires teams to align properly. The four questions force everybody on the music artist’s team to be on the same page. They are given a clear goal to work toward and they can immediately engage in conversation and brainstorming. The ERRC Grid creates across-the-board consistency in decision making.

Answering them creates honesty sequencing. Completing the grid is a challenging task and it forces everybody on the team to honestly scrutinize every thing about the current state of the music business. It also sheds light on the wide range of implicit assumptions made by many people working in the music business.

Answering them encourages whole-brain thinking. Because the questions require a great deal of analytical thinking, answering them forces artists to utilize both left and right brain thinking, combining analytical examinations with creative problem solving.

The ERRC Grid is invaluable for music artists, managers, producers, and entrepreneurs. It allows for you and your team to understand what has to be done for the artist to be original in a business full of copycats. And as a team grows, the framework of the ERRC Grid provides teams with a smart and focused strategic approach that, when used properly, resists derailing into a typical subjective creative discussion.

You can download a preview of Hacking Music: The Music Business Model Canvas

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John Pisciotta

Written by

Managing Partner at Jetpack Artist Ventures, Co-author of Hacking Music — The Music Business Modal Canvas http://www.jetpackartistventures.com

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