The management expert Peter Drucker defined knowledge workers as "people who knew more about their jobs than their bosses did", and singles out orchestras as a prime example of organisations that are populated by knowledge workers. The main point Professor Drucker is making is "conductors trust members of an orchestra to play their instruments because they all have the same score. All organisations need one of those Ð a common purpose, an understanding of what they are trying to achieve". What I would like to outline here is how each individual musician should be their own knowledge worker, thereby asking the most important questions: what do I expect from myself and what is my actual area of business?

The best place to begin, I suppose, is to look at mythology. A myth (according to the Oxford English Dictionary) is a "traditional tale containing beliefs about ancient times or natural events". Another definition from the same source is simply an "imaginary person or thing".

Modern myths are created to cover a whole range of stereotypes, inadequacies or general beliefs that are felt to be too bothersome to test. Some of the modern myths that govern our everyday lives are sayings such as:

One size fits all
• It will only take a minute to fix this
• It's no more that a two-quid cab ride

One size, generally, doesn't fit all, it never, ever takes just a minute to fix anything and the last time I took a £2 cab ride was in about 1978. While the above-mentioned examples have little lasting impact, some myths can create a damaging perception of the intended target, such as:

Women are bad drivers
• Australians only drink beer and watch footie
• Americans are overweight

When it comes to actual commercial products, there are numerous case studies where these popular myths have actually served to put companies, or product lines, out of business. Just think back to what people were saying about the Sinclair C5, Amstrad computers or the Ford Capri.

When it comes to the life and career of a musician, these myths explode into a plethora of multicoloured assumptions and mistruths that help to influence the perception of the buying public. For example:

• Business has nothing to do with music
• Talking about money will give me a bad image
• It's bad to promote myself
• Negotiating over fees may put people off
• Dealing with business aspects will undermine my musical integrity
• Success is about being in the right place at the right time
• It's who you know that's important if you want to get ahead
• Musicians don't understand anything when it comes to money

And possibly the most damaging of all:
• Musicians play music for the love of it, not financial gain

How many times have you heard, while being offered a subsistence level fee, the cheery words "but isn't it wonderful that you do something that you love"!

To the development of a musician, these myths are very damaging. They attack every aspect of the professionalism of the career-performing artist and only serve to set the minds of the business world into that of a parent/child relationship with the musician. The question I always try to ask is who is responsible for these myths continuing and developing? Is it the market place that creates these constructs from observed behaviour? Or is it the musicians themselves that knowingly or unknowingly, perpetuate these myths?

I have met so many musicians who almost make a virtue out of the fact that either they never read a newspaper or have absolutely no understanding of finance at all. Keeping this "bohemian spirit" alive may be one thing, but organising and running a career that will help you buy your house, pay your mortgage and put your kids through school is something else entirely. So it is from here that we must start and begin to analyse what out business is, why we do it and how we go about making it all happen.

The best place to start is with a definition of business. You deal with business functions and structures everyday of your life: when you buy a newspaper, purchase a cinema ticket or go out for a meal, you come into contact with all forms of business models and business techniques. Therefore, if asked to give a definition of what business is, some may define it as being:

• An exchange of goods
• Selling and buying
• Marketing your services
• Investing and making a return on that investment
• Managing people
• Advertising and promotion
• Understanding competitors and market forces

Negotiation and interaction with other people

Business is a task, occupation, trade, process, structure, buying and selling.

When looking at the modern day musician, this definition fits perfectly. To be a little Talmudic for a moment, a task is what the musician does each and everyday of his/her life. Just as a Coca-Cola factory ceaselessly produces can after can of soft drink, so the musician produces note after note, sound after sound, experience after experience. This experience is not only restricted to the heightened emotional state of a live concert but also educational forums, workshops, session work or outreach events that all require the musician to practise his/her trade or conduct a specific task.

The process and structure relates to the very disciplined way in which a musician goes about his/her occupation. Practice, rehearsals, performances, teaching, workshops, etc., all have a very defined process and structure that needs to be followed. While this process may not be as formalised or legislated as, for example, running an airline or bank (where paperwork is paramount with every action pre-planned and executed according to a specified protocol), there is still a very clear structure within which the musician operates. It is this very structure that governs the working life a career musician.

Buying refers to, in the first instance, the raw materials that a business needs. All commercial establishments need to purchase materials whether it is paper, oil or people. In the case of a musician this can be music, instruments, accessories and, most importantly, knowledge. Buying lessons, advice, training or inspiration are all vital raw materials of the musician that will, eventually, be turned into the finished product that become the performance, lesson or recording session. Every product stands or falls on its ability to fill the needs and requirements of the end user. These products are, in turn, reliant on the quality of the raw materials that are used in the manufacturing process. Therefore, it is important for the musician to seek out and purchase the best possible raw materials for his/her identified task or occupation so as to create a product of outstanding and lasting quality.

And finally, everyone is in business to make a return on investment. Money, resources, time and effort have all been spent developing, creating and perfecting a product with the final stage being selling it to the target market. This selling, whether it is a material product or a service, is where the business hopes to generate an income in order to reinvest into and develop the business further. This, plainly put, is called profit. In the case of a musician, it is this profit that is going to support his/her future development and it is this profit that is going to pay for everything that is required in life.

Therefore, what the above has shown is that the musician is in business with the end result being to stay in business, develop the business further and make a return on investment i.e. profit. However, the interesting thing is that this is a business model with a little twist as the product and the business are the same entity. The musician is the business and the product is the musician.

So the next stage in answering the question "what do I expect from myself" is to ask "what business am I in"? This is what I call the aeroplane test. On long flights, you sit for hours next a complete stranger without saying a word. Then as the plane is taxing off the runway towards its parking stand at your destination, your fellow passenger turns to you and asks, "So, what industry are you in?" You now have two minutes to give a full and representative reply. What do you say? Most musicians would reply, "I'm a musician", however, there is a lot more to it than that.

Without a doubt, every musician is somehow involved in the entertainment industry. Indeed every musician is, in someway, in show business. From the minute that you walk onto the stage to the time that you are completely alone after the concert, you are in show business. Even as a non-performer, throughout your career you are going to come into contact with people to whom you have to present yourself in a manner that represents your business ideals.

Education is another prime area where almost all musicians play a part. No matter in what form or how you do it (one-to-one teaching, classroom instruction or purely through the medium of performance), if you pass on experience and knowledge to another person you are educating.

All musicians are also in the service industry. Plumbing, public transport, hospitals, these are all service industries. However, through teaching, music therapy, performing, administration, etc., you also play a vital role the service industry.

However, the largest industry that a musician is active within is the manufacturing industry. When you go to Disney World, the organisers there have manufactured a complete wonderland, a fantasy world. In the same manner, what musicians do is manufacture a whole experience, right from who you are, what your character is (from the way you look, address the audience, deal with people) to how you actually perform on the stage or run your organisation. Using the raw materials mentioned above, musicians manufacture these performances, experiences, events, other musicians, music itself, recordings, knowledge, etc., etc. As stated above, in addition to the "audio" product these raw materials are used to manufacture you. Whether you are creating a flamboyant Pavarotti character, an expansive Steven Isserlis character or a serious Anne-Sophie Mutter character, you are creating a specific persona.

Once the musician realises that manufacturing simply entails devising a product, defining the market, buying the raw materials, putting it all together, promoting it to the target audience and then selling the finished product to the end user, then a very formalised structure becomes clear for all to follow. This is what is known as a business.

So as musicians you are involved in a combination of all of the above business sectors. To use an analogy, you most likely thought that manufacturing was making cars, the service industry was getting your car washed, and education was being taught how to drive your car. However, being a musician is an absolutely unique business because you can get involved in all and every area of the business cycle simultaneously.

So maybe the mythology about the modern day musician is not true at all. All musicians are, and need to be, very shrewd, astute and creative business people whose main tasks are to look at the market, look for the opportunities and then manufacture a product to fill the needs of the buying public. So how do we do all of this?

A while ago I was speaking to American lecturer at Eastman School of Music who had attended one of my seminars at a conference in New York earlier in the year. "I really enjoyed you seminar, " he stated "but I am sorry I had to leave before the end. You were talking about flour, sugar, milk and eggs, if I remember correctly. Fascinating!" he ended full of admiration. The seminar I was giving was on marketing the musician and all he seemed to have remembered were some random cake baking ingredients, which delighted me no end. This is because "flour, sugar, milk and eggs" are the four corner stones of marketing, of which I will explain more further on. First, we need to understand what the definition of marketing actually is.

Marketing is a daunting word and is often misinterpreted. When asking for a suitable definition from non-business people I invariably get answers ranging from selling things to making things to advertising things, etc., etc. The fact is that marketing actually encompasses all of the above definitions but, at its core, contains one very fundamental and primary function. However, before we get to what that function is, let us examine a few "formal" definitions of marketing.

"Marketing is the way in which an organisation or individual matches its own human, financial and physical resources with the wants of the customers" (Wills, Kennedy & Rushdon). This definition provides a clue as to the main function of marketing i.e. to assess and understand the abilities of and money available to the organisation or individual in order to create, promote, sell and distribute a product/service to a particular customer. In the main, this definition deals with the resources available to the producer/supplier. However, it's a little long-winded!

"The marketing process includes shaping a 'product' and then getting it into outlets that service the correct customers" (Lathrop & Pettifrew). In a similar vain this merely means creating and fine tuning the development of a product and placing it in shops or outlets so that the correct customer can buy it. This definition relates how the marketing process impacts the manufacture and distribution of the product/service.

"Knowing what business you are really in and understanding the underlying perceptions that connect your product to the people it is being marketed to," (Heiniger). Now here we are beginning to get somewhere! Last month's article began to examine what business you are really in. What this definition does is take that information and relate it to what the customer really wants. Here we are looking at customer profiles (what we will refer to later on as consumer segmentation) and how it relates to what you actually do.

None of these definitions, however, provides a simple and workable explanation of what marketing is and does. Therefore, to summarise all of the above definitions, marketing is simply the identification and satisfaction of customers needs at a profit. To do even more Schenkerian analysis on this definition, only two words are important:

Identification: every marketing process begins with two elements. One, the identification of what the product is and does and, two, the identification of who the product is for, why they want it and how they will buy and use the product/service.

Profit: of course no one is in business to break-even! As stated above, businesses are in existence to make money, which in turn can be reinvested in the business so as to make it bigger and better. If you don't know what your product is and are selling it to the wrong person anyway, little income will be generated and no profit will be made.

The reason we have to undergo this process of analysis and evaluation is because by really understanding what the market needs and wants, we can avoid unnecessary effort and wasted expenditure. By undertaking a marketing exercise we limit our risk by providing the customer with a product they really want. To look at it from a different angle, the management expert Peter Drucker once said "Marketing is about telling the customer they want a product before even the customer knew they wanted the product". You can only get to that stage if you really understand what the customer wants. However, it is very important to state now that marketing is not selling. Selling is merely the last stage of the marketing process and one cannot successfully sell a product/service without first conducting some market research.

As explanation, let me provide a very simplistic example: if you manufacture a white-board pen and are trying to sell it, there are many "outlets" where you can place this pen for sale. You could place it in a university stationery shop, a sweet shop or a bookshop. All this distribution is going to cost time and both physical and financial resources. However, only one outlet (the university stationery shop) will provide a return on this investment. The reason for this is that the clientele of the university shop is most likely going to include university lecturers who require white-board pens when they lecture. The sweet shop's clientele will be made up of people wanting sweets while the bookshops clientele will be composed of those looking for something to read. The customers of the latter two outlets are unlikely to desire or look for a whiteboard pen in those shops. By understanding your product, market and routes to market, the physical and financial investment in the final selling stage of the marketing process will be reduced considerably and have a much higher degree of success.

Of course, all of this is common sense but take a moment to reflect how you may promote a concert. Often, musicians print off a run of leaflets and then send this flyer to everyone on their mailing list. This includes friends, family, colleagues, agents, media personnel and maybe unknown parties drawn from a purchased list. The cost in money, printing leaflets and postage, together with time stuffing envelopes can be immense and often the "strike rate" of this mailing campaign is small. If the concert is a lunchtime recital in a city church then, for a whole host of reasons, only certain people on that mailing list will be able to attend. In addition, if the programme is exclusively 20th century works, many of the people invited will not be interested. Without understanding what you product is and what your customer wants, again time and money will be spent without a proportional return on investment. So as musicians (or a musical organisation) you need to undertake a logical and clinical analysis of your product and potential market. The "hit and miss" form of the concert leaflet mailing, as per this example, will then be reduced to a minimum and you can directly "connect your product to the people it is being marketing to".

I would now like to introduce a product. It comes in a very handsome blue bottle, which can hold about a third of a pint of liquid. I'm going to call this product Glop, which is a brand new type of alcoholic beverage that has just hit the shops. Glop costs £4.99 and is sold, almost exclusively, in budget outlets such as Kwik Save and Asda. The people who drink Glop are young, student types on a budget and probably drink it in order to get drunk rather than savour the taste. The "core drinker" of Glop most likely reads the Sun newspaper, travels on easyJet and holidays in Ibiza. In addition, our target customer is, more often than not, male and between the ages of 18 and 25. He probably works as a junior in a non-city company and spends his leisure time with friends in the pub or watching sport.

Now let us change only one variable: a third of a pint now costs £19.99. This price change will impact every element of how this product will be sold. For a start, it is now called Glop Gold and is sold, almost exclusively, in Waitrose and specialist off licenses. The people who drink Glop Gold are trendy, up-and-coming professionals and probably drink it in order to make an impression. The "core drinker" of Glop Gold most likely reads the Times newspaper, travels business class on British Airways and holidays in Rome or Paris. In addition, our target customer is equally split between male and female drinkers. They probably work as middle to senior managers in city firms and spend their leisure time with friends in wine bars or hosting dinner parties.

The above, while very one-dimensional and tongue-in-cheek, demonstrates a market profile for Glop and Glop Gold. What we have identified here is what the product does, who its for, how much it costs, where consumers can purchase the product, how it is advertised to them and in what circumstance they will be using the product. All this information is known as the marketing mix, which very nicely brings me back to "flour, sugar, milk and eggs".

When you bake a cake, your basic ingredients are flour, sugar, milk and eggs. There are many ways in which you can combine all of these ingredients but only one way (depending on the cake you wish to make) will work. It you put too much sugar in, the cake will be too sweet. Too much flour will result in a rock. Too much milk and you land up with a gooey mess, etc., etc. However, there is only one quantity of all these ingredients mixed together that will result in the perfect piece of cake. And this becomes your cake mix.

In marketing, all we are doing is baking a cake. For each product there is only one mix of ingredients that will sell that product successfully and these ingredients are what's known as the marketing mix or the four-Ps: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

Product defines the characteristics of your product or service that meets the needs of your customers and targets the most appropriate market segment you are trying to sell into Price relates to the price of the product or service - particularly the price compared to your competitors Place relates to how the product is distributed and where consumers can purchase your product or service Ð you route to market Promotion includes all the weapons in the marketing armory - advertising, selling, sales promotions, public relations and exactly which media outlets are best suited to reach the target purchaser of the product

When looking at Glop and Glop Gold you will be able to identify the four-Ps for each product and, as can be seen, just by the altering one variable (in this case the Price) every other variable has also changed.

So the challenge now is for you, the musician, to begin to create your marketing mix for your particular product/service. However, it's not that simple because as a musician you do not have only a single product/service but multiple products and numerous services. It is vital to identify what each of these diverse products are, their unique characteristics and what they actually do for the consumer.

If you think of a can of Coca-Cola, what comes to mind? A refreshing drink best served cold? An American icon that encapsulates the promise of the New World? Or maybe just something to keep the kids happy? One thing I am sure never comes to mind is carbonated water, phosphoric acid, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate, caffeine and E150d! For that is what Coke actually is. Which brings me onto a vital axiom of the marketing process: consumers by benefits, not features. The ingredients of a can of Coke are the features, what it does for you are the benefits.

However, let us take a step backwards and return to the marketing mix that was written about in above. The four Ps define what the product is, how much it is sold for, where it is sold and how it is advertised. Every product will have a different marketing mix. However, more importantly, every sub-brand will also have a unique marketing mix. Think of Coke again. What may come to mind is a dark coloured, fizzy, surgary drink. However, there is not just one type of Coke but a whole family of colas. There is Coke Classic, Diet Coke, Caffeine Free Coke, Diet Caffeine Free Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet Cherry Coke, etc., etc. Each one of these products has its own marketing mix and will be sold to unique sets of consumers respectively. In addition, each individual Coke product has a unique set of benefits while the feature (dark coloured, fizzy, sugary water) in essence, stays the same.

When we look at the musician, this product extension is just as prevalent. As stated above, when asked "what do you do?" many musicians reply "I'm a musician". This, in effect, is like pointing at any fizzy drink and, when asked what it is replies, "Oh, it's a can of Coke". Musicians have numerous products that, not only have unique sets of benefits, but also need to be marketed according to an individual marketing mix. For example: you are a cello teacher. That is your overall product category. But what are you sub-products? You may teach beginners as well as professionals. Beginners may be six year olds or adults. Professionals may be first year music students or college leavers. In addition there are young, talented students still at school who come to you privately while others you see peripatetically. So far we have identified six different teaching products. Each one of these will need to be marketed in a different way. Your marketing mix for each product may look like this:

Let us look at another one of your products. You are a cellist therefore you may play for regional music clubs and societies as well as high-end Wigmore Hall type recitals. You may also play in a piano trio as well as the odd string quartet. In addition there are lecture recitals and lunchtime concerts. Then there are concerto appearances: those with youth orchestras, others with semi-professional orchestras and then the big ones with national and international orchestras. So as a "performing cellist" we have now identified nine separate products, each with its own pricing structure, method of promotion and route to market (place). So already as a cellist taking into account your teaching and solo work, we now have fifteen distinct products. This if before you include any orchestral work, recording sessions or other activities you may undertake. One of the biggest problems all musicians face is that some of these products, which may be highly lucrative, are often neglected in favour of those products that the artists desires to pursue. While this is a noble and virtuous path to travel (i.e. follow one's dream) it usually leads to financial and resource allocation problems. In the commercial world many companies have gone out of business because they were "following the wrong star" i.e. they had set their hearts on one product, forgetting about the other profitable ones. Enter the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

• Stars
• Problem Children
• Cash Cows
• Dogs

The BCG developed a grid in order allow companies to plot all their diverse products so as to identify which products to concentrate on (i.e. which product to allocate more financial, resource and time investment) and which products to forget about. The graphic below shows what the grid looks like and, once you have identified all your products as detailed above, your task is to plot them as honestly as possible onto the grid.

The Star products are those products that yield the highest margins either financially or by notoriety. For example, you may have recently performed a recital at the Wigmore Hall. This, undoubtedly, would be a Star product (high-end solo recital). This particular product will attract either some financial return or valuable exposure (or both) and can be seen very much as an important milestone in your performing career. At the same time you have a series of lunchtime recitals scheduled at various music societies up and down the country and, while not particularly lucrative, they do add a certain amount of experience to your brochure and CV and are vital to keep your career progression moving forward. You know you have, say, ten of these dates coming up and little attention needs to be paid to the marketing or development of these products (bar the practicing). This "music society" product is therefore a Cash Cow. You desperately want to perform a couple of concertos with some local orchestras and, while you have had a little success in raising conductors awareness of who you are and what you can do, there is still more ground work to be done in order to secure a few firm concerto dates. This is your Problem Child product and the way you market and develop this product has to be very carefully examined in order to turn it either into a Star or Cash Cow. Finally, one thing you have always wanted to do is perform the Shostakovich Cello Concerto with the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall under Laren Maazel. You have sent brochures, CDs, faxes, made calls, applied for auditions, written to agents, camped outside office doors (a la Martin Sheen in Wall Street) with not one element of success. At the present time, this product is a Dog. No matter how much effort and finance you invest, at present, this high-end concerto product is not going to sell and, therefore, rather than divert funds and energy away from the Problem Children, it is best to shelve this product until the market is more favourable.

The important aspect to remember when working with the BCG is that, once plotted, products do not remain static. The grid merely offers a snap-shot in time of your career productivity. Depending on market forces, economic factors and general attitudes, Dogs may become Problem Children. Your current Problem Children can move into the Star or Cash Cow categories and Stars usually move into the Problem Child quadrant once they have finished being Stars. Cash Cows, once the work runs out, return to the Problem Child box and will require further investment in time and effort to turn them back into Cash Cows.

Musicians' "portfolio careers" require tremendous, time management, resource allocation and organisation skills and what the BCG grid tries to show is which elements of this portfolio require attention and which elements can either be left alone or allowed to tick over.

Let's zoom in a little and look at how you may develop a Problem Child product. To continue the analogy introduced earlier, let us assume you want to develop your concerto playing product more. We now need to look at this product in much more detail an, it is here, that I introduce another grid like business tool called a SWOT Analysis. SWOT is one of those little acronyms that the business world delights in inventing and simply stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The graphic below shows how a SWOT Analysis grid looks and, yet again, is something that you need to spend time filling honestly. The most important aspect to remember about the SWOT analysis grid is that the Strengths and Weaknesses are internal elements i.e. information about you, while the Opportunities and Threats are external elements i.e. outside factors that impact upon your career and product development.

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

After some analysis you may find that, for your concerto playing product, your Strengths are that you are a hard worker, have a good reputation, have a lot of performing experience, know the core concerto repertoire and can learn works very quickly. Your Weaknesses are that you have little concerto performance exposure, you do not know works outside of the core repertoire and your musical memory often lets you down. The Opportunities are that there is a new orchestra recently set up to champion newly composed concertos, the local youth orchestra is auditioning soloists for a future tour and your local concert hall has just set up a new concert series that will include concerto concerts. The Threats are that there are a lot of young artists looking for concerto performances, every year fewer and fewer large concerts are taking place and many orchestras tend to use soloists that they know.

Don't fix what ain't broke, so you can leave the Strengths alone. You know what they are and merely have to keep them that way. Equally, there is little you can do about the Threats, for these are external issues that you, as an individual, can't really change. However, it is vital that you are aware that they exist. What you can change are the Weaknesses and, by doing so, take advantage of the Opportunities. Therefore, following the example detailed above, if you learn more 20th century concertos, then you may be able take advantage of possible performances with the new orchestra. Only by conducting this SWOT Analysis will you be able to discover which Weaknesses you need to rectify in order to take advantage of specific Opportunities.

Which finally brings me back to features versus benefits. To remind you: every consumer buys the benefits of a product, not the features. You buy a can of Coke because it is refreshing, looks cool, cheap, traditional, iconic or merely just because it is available and convenient. You buy it in a can because it is small and easy to use. You buy it in a bottle because it is resealable. You buy diet Coke because it looks after your figure and sugar intake and you buy caffeine free because it makes you less irritable. Whatever the reason, you are buying the benefits of all these feature. Music consumers, in the same way, buy the benefits of musicians rather than their feature. However, knowing this information is not going to transform your business progress. All you currently have is an understanding of what you are doing and which elements of your product/service portfolio are worth expending effort on. In addition, you have identified your perfect customer for each product/service (the marketing mix), however, what you have not done is found out why that customer or consumer would want to use your product/service in the first place. This leads us to the topic of features versus benefits.

A little while ago Burger King and McDonalds were in fierce competition. Both organisations were selling meat and lettuce between two round pieces of bread with a side order of fried, chopped up potatoes and a sweet fizzy drink. Their advertising represented this with pictures of burgers, fries and cola made to look tantalisingly appetising by photographers and advertising executives alike. Then McDonalds decided to investigate what their customers actually wanted from their restaurants. And so began an even greater battle between the two companies.

The error that Burger King made was that they actually believed that they were in business to sell food. McDonalds, however, realised that in fact people did not go to their outlets to purchase food but, instead, to buy an experience. McDonlands' marketing efforts led them to understand that their customers wanted a place where they could have a good meal at a reasonable price, provide entertainment for the kids, have a clean and safe environment, and know that no matter which McDonalds outlet they go to in the country, the food will taste the same. From this, McDonalds created their guiding mission of QSCV (Quality, Service, Cleanliness & Value). Not a mention of food insight. However, following this research McDonalds introduced high chairs for infants, play areas for kids, party areas for birthdays, happy meals with toys included, swings and slides outside and consistent food that kids and parents could rely on. And in due course, their marketing, advertising and promotion began to reflect this.

Burger King on the other hand remained steadfast in their belief that customers came to their restaurants in order to buy that flame-grilled taste (not the fried version found at McDonalds). In fact their advertising slogan was "We're flamed broiled, not fried". What Burger King didn't tell the consumer was why flame grilled was better that fried. Their advertising was 100% feature led. No benefits mentioned at all. As a result, the consumer wasn't given an incentive to eat flame grilled Burger King burgers but they were given a reason to go to McDonalds.

Unfortunately for Burger King they were wrong and McDonalds was right. Customers wanted an experience. They wanted reliable food, value added elements, a place to entertain the kids and a safe, clean and cheap meal out for the whole family. The food was a pleasant addition to the whole experience and (no pun intended) one facet of their product literally fed the other. The moral of the above case study is that it is vital to discover exactly what the customer wants and why they buy your particular product or service. And this brings us back to features versus benefits.

As stated in last month's article, all consumers buy the benefits of a product/service, not the features. As an anonymous poem goes, "You don't buy coal/you buy heat; You don't buy circus tickets/you buy thrills; You don't buy a paper/you buy news; You don't buy spectacles; you buy vision". Taking all this into account, there are two very important aspects to remember: first, one feature may produce numerous and varied benefits and, second, one feature will create different benefits for each consumer.

Let us look at a musician. Assume the features of this musician are that she is a pianist who can sight-read well, is always on time and can speak three European languages fluently. If we analyse these features a little further and list all their associated benefits we find that there is quite a comprehensive inventory of benefits available to the end user:

Feature: Sight read well Benefits: Learns new repertoire quickly, can be called into service at short notice, puts other musicians at ease, will never let other musicians down, requires fewer rehearsals, can take on more jobs, can play newly composed works without fuss, etc.

Feature: Is always on time Benefits: Puts others at ease, doesn't waste rehearsal time, is reliable and dependable, can accomplish more due to good time management, etc.

Feature: Can speak three European languages fluently Benefits: Can work easily in other countries, can save time and confusion during rehearsals, can negotiate term and conditions well, can help singers learn new repertoire (which in turns saves time and puts others at ease), can travel independently, etc

As you can see from the chart above, from three features we have identified 16 benefits (and there are many more). However, not all these benefits will suit everyone. Each person is looking for different benefits from the same features. An agent may want reliability where as a concert promoter wants professionalism and ease of use. An orchestral fixer could be looking for versatility and a fast learning curve while an opera company wants dependability and good time management. In order to cut down on rehearsal time, a chamber ensemble may require smooth running rehearsals and schools generally want variety and security.

To find out what your features are as musician, you first need to conduct a SWOT analysis for each one of your products. By looking at what is in the "Strengths" box, you will begin to be able to identify the main features of that particular product. Once you know your features, it is now important to identify whom your customer is and what particular benefits they are looking for.

Your customers are numerous and do not just include the "end user" i.e. the paying public who come and listen to a concert. While the listening audience is a vital and large customer base, your consumers also include agents, promoters, composers, other musicians, fixers, orchestras, teachers, students, etc. Each one of these distinct groups of consumers will require unique benefits from your product features. However, you may be wondering how you find out what benefits each unique consumer group is looking for. The best way to find out what the customer wants from your product/service is to ask them.

For example, if you are trying to find an agent, speak to as many agents as you can in order to ascertain which features and resultant benefits of your product/service they find the most important. If you run a concert society and are trying to develop your audience, ask them why they come to concerts and what benefits they are looking for when they book tickets for your series of musical events. It may be, just like McDonalds, that the music is only one aspect of the attraction of your concert series with other benefits residing at a social and psychographic level. Once you know what your customer is looking for, you can match your benefits to their needs. However, there is another reason why the analysis of your features versus benefits is important.

In the 1980s, FedEx (the courier service) wanted to expand its business. So instead of merely buying more aircraft, purchasing more trucks and training more people to deliver parcels, they decided to look at what their business actually does and, more importantly, what it does well. FedEx realised that what did better than anyone else was to understand the complex and intricate function of distribution logistics. On the basis this they expanded their company by creating a logistics consulting company that serviced the needs of a brand new market: organisations who had to move a lot of inventory around the country but didn't know how to.

As a musician, if you look at your features (time management, varied repertoire, good musical memory, speak foreign languages, etc.) and analyse the benefits of these features to various end users, this will allow you expand your focus on other market areas. Understanding your market and understanding what benefits you have to offer that market will, in the end, allow you to provide a product that the consumer wants. As a pianist you may have some other very key features. One feature may be good public speaking with the direct benefit that you can communicate well with an audience thereby involving them in the performance and putting the concert promoter at ease. By understanding what you do well, you may be able to diversify into lecture recitals, music workshops or informal lunchtime recitals.

To summarise, when you promote your product it is vital to remember that you are promoting the benefits not the features of the product. Open up any computer magazine and I am sure you will see adverts that read "Now with Intel Pentium 4 M Processor". While this feature may be very important, it gives the consumer no resultant benefits and, therefore, no reason to buy this computer at all. Rather it should read, "The fastest processor around". This will immediately allow the consumer to draw his/her own benefits from that statement such as quick boot-up time, run larger programmes, less time wasted waiting for computations to happen, play more advanced games, etc. Ultimately the main benefit of all of the above is more work for you and greater use of your musical products and services.

Getting the "benefits" message across should be one of your marketing priorities. In your brochure to agents it is important to stress the fact that you are reliable or versatile and why that will help them. In letters to orchestras, contactability and repertoire need to be highlighted and shown how this will benefit fixers. Your brochure to music society organisers needs to draw attention to your ability to communicate with an audience while letters to schools need to show that you are reliable and trustworthy and how this will benefit the students and other teachers. Concert promoters need to draw the audience to an event, not merely through a description of the programme, but also through various benefits the consumer has attending this concert rather than another one. Agents need to highlight the benefits of their service to potential clients and teachers need to show the student what benefits what benefits there are from their teaching service. This is what Harry Beckwith in his book Selling the Invisible terms your "contact points". Looking at every aspect of your contact points with your customer (whether that be letters, brochures, concert leaflets, e-mails, phone calls or CVs), you need to identify which benefits listed on each of these contact points attracts the consumer to your service or product.

Liam Abramson 2003

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