 What's up everybody, once again it's Brandon Shawn and we gotta talk about something that so many people have asked me before I know a lot of people are wondering what is the difference between your brand, a true core brand device and a straight up gimmick. How can you tell? But first before I even get into it I gotta start off by saying gimmicks are not a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with having a gimmick. Gimmick should be used as a tool but they shouldn't get confused with your core brand and that's why it's important to know the difference. So let's go ahead and define that. So your core brand and everything that's a part of it is who you are as an artist, who you are as a brand, what represents you that goes into your values, your personality and five other things that I'm not gonna get into right now but there's a core to who you are as a brand and it basically can be interpreted as anything that you represent. It's not superficial at all. Now a gimmick on the other hand is pretty much defined by a device, some sort of tool that's used to get attention. We can get real deep with the core brand or the gimmick but that's the best way to think about those two things just to make it clear in separation and how you should go about it. Of course I'm gonna come with some more examples but with those two things being said you also should keep in mind that a gimmick for one artist is not necessarily a gimmick for another artist because a core brand is different for every single artist. Really quickly let's touch on an artist that I already talked about her. Just in case you haven't seen the video basically I talked about how hey nobody knew she was initially but eventually she revealed her identity and that helped her maintain her core brand because the mystery started to become a gimmick. She got her attention and that was great but when it became something that so many people associated her with it started to become more and more a gimmick and gimmicks are bad long term. You don't want people to associate you with your gimmicks. You want to get people's attention with your gimmicks but you don't want them to brand you with your gimmicks. And why the mystery was a gimmick for her is because her core brand was supposed to be about the music itself. Now let's think about an artist like Lil Pump. Lil Pump has so many things around him but one of the most well known things is the fact and it is indeed a fact that Lil Pump went to Harvard. Now a lot of people would consider that whole thing a gimmick right? So many people making jokes oh Lil Pump went to Harvard and he graduated from this class and he did this while he was at Harvard. It sounds like a great joke and it seems like it's a gimmick because it is funny and it seems like something that's simply a troll just to get attention. And indeed some of that is true but when it comes to Lil Pump a large part of his brand is that trolley. Bringing everybody in for an ongoing joke just helps build community and creates these inside jokes where fans feel closer to you. So in Lil Pump's case the going to Harvard storyline is really symbolic of something deeper and that's when we're talking about core brands. It kind of gives you a peep into who he is as a personality who he is as a core brand the less self serious the whole I'm ignorant thing that's what he pushes and promotes. Whereas you have somebody else like Lil Yachty that red the red hair particularly is something that's really just to get attention and it's something that works for him and he pushes past that by not overdoing it but at the end of the day he originally did it to get attention. So it's something he used to stick out he made all of his original music and so much stuff wearing red but it doesn't have any deeper meaning it's just a cool thing marketing branding device he's using it as a tool to get attention and that's really just a simple difference if it's attached to something deeper that people can really relate as something that represents you then it's core branding and you could keep pushing it when you have something that's a gimmick then it doesn't really represent too much deeper than what it actually is and again there's nothing wrong with that at all you just have to know how to use these things strategically and just an as an additional thing where a lot of people wouldn't necessarily associated with it being a gimmick it's fast rapping a lot of people rap fast and it's really just to get attention or to seem like they're talking about something or being cool but it's not a part of what they're trying to represent as a deeper brand now there are some rappers who their thing is fast rapping and that's what they want people to know about them but it's some people who they're only rapping fast simply for the attention hoping it makes them sound better but really they're trying to have a brand that's more lyrical or whatever the other many brands there are out there that they might want anything that you use to get attention for the core brand can be considered a gimmick in its own way but the problem only becomes when people start to associate that thing with you to the point it becomes a distraction from what your actual brand is so I've already thanked y'all before but I gotta thank y'all again for pushing me to actually come out with a master music branding guide for you guys and it's out I've already mentioned in videos and I'm gonna keep keep pushing it just until everybody who actually asked me to do it knows about it you can find it in the description below if you are serious about your artist image if you're trying to understand how to make strategic moves or make sense of other artists branding it touches on that all of that stuff in there and I actually directly answered so many questions that people ask me in the comment section so if you have an interest in branding whether it's because you're an artist or you have an artist check that out in the description below other than that if you liked this video go ahead like button if you like it might as well share it if you're not subscribed you know what to do hit that subscribe button