Why Every Filmmaker Needs a Strong Personal Brand
Most filmmakers want to make movies. However, few think about establishing themselves a brand as a filmmaker. In the immortal words of Alex Ferrari of Indie Film Hustle: “If you don’t think you need a brand as a filmmaker, you’re wrong.” As wonderful as I personally find that quote, I think it needs a little elaboration. What follows are 5 reasons you NEED a brand as a filmmaker.
1. It helps to further relationships with your customer
A brand is essentially the cumulative interactions any potential business partner or customer has with an entity or organization. So in a sense, saying a brand helps you further your relationships with your customer is a bit redundant. However, the idea of you your brand, is essentially the personification of your company. Having this personified image of your company makes it much easier for your clientele to establish a relationship with your company.
2. It helps people better identify with the creators behind the content.
At least when a brand is starting out in the film industry, the brand will be heavily associated with the filmmakers themselves. As such, for the first couple of films your company makes, the brand you’re developing will also be furthering the personal brands of the key crew. If your key crew tends to put out similar films time and time again under your production company’s brand, then eventually the brand itself will develop a following of its own. After a time, it creates a feedback loop.
3. It gives your audience something to you and your work with beyond a single film.
If you develop your brand correctly, then consumers will come to know what films you make that they like. Giving your customers a brand to rally behind can really help them to develop a relationship with the creators. Instead of being able to say I really Liked Paranormal Activity, customers can say I really like the movies Blumhouse puts out.
4. It helps you develop a community around yourself.
People can have a really deep association with brands. Look at what happened when Coca-Cola Released New Coke. Even though taste test after taste test proved that consumers strongly preferred New Coke to Coca-Cola, the brand eventually experienced a tsunami of customer complaints for getting rid of the old flavor of Coca-Cola. Essentially, the brand had built such a large community that were so attached to their original product, when they took it away a small but extremely vocal part of their community couldn’t handle it. Even though many of those parts of the community were shown they liked New Coke Better in blind taste tests.
Branding and Community building can be so powerful that even when a customer prefers an alternative product, they’ll keep coming back to yours for that warm fuzzy feeling they get when they use your product. Don’t forget, that can be a double-edged sword if you ever want to pivot to somehting new.
5. It turns you from a person to an icon.
Most of the people reading this already know that JJ Abrams is the head of Bad Robot Productions. However, there are a lot more people involved in Bad Robot than just JJ Abrams. The bumper of the robot running through the field gives sets the scene for an exciting time at the movies since you associate it with other times you saw great movies that were preceded by that bad robot bumper. You remember that bumper, it’s iconic. Such associations are how JJ has become an icon that will likely outlast him.
If you want help building your brand, you should check out my FREE indiefilm business resource package. It’s got an e-book, a whitepaper, lots of templates, and a monthly blog digest to help you grow your knowledge base so you can build a filmmaking career.
