Branding

All types of merchandise such as stickers, flyers, posters and badges can be used to create an individual brand identity for a particular band or artist. These types of product are often sold in record shops such as HMV, because one of the main purposes of that store is to sell CDs, it makes sense to also sell merchandise for the bands and artists there. Also, if the consumer was only going in to purchase something in particular and hadn't intended to buy any of this merchandise, they might be encouraged to. Even clothing is sold in these stores which establish a brand identity of the artist or band as well. All of this can also be found in markets, for example Camden market would sell merchandise for bands that weren't particularly mainstream and popular. Some bands and artists even have dolls of themselves made, like Katy Perry.


It is made clear by this Katy Perry merchandise what her brand identity is - 'girly' and sugary sweet, almost in a naughty but nice way, even the typography on the T-shirt is made to look like candy.

She continued with this theme in one of her recent videos for the song 'California Gurls', where everything is made out of sweets and candy. This merchandise almost sells itself, Katy Perry's biggest fans are going to want the Katy Perry doll, and even if you weren't a huge fan of hers, the clothing could still appeal to different audiences.