Signaling Theory and Brand Management. Part 2: Negative Signaling

Into the Groovey, Ciccone Youth’s first release. Art by Kim Gordon.

Sonic Youth is a band known for a do it yourself (DIY) public relations style. They did DIY when that meant no help from the social media tools we take for granted today. To promote their band they only had a limited amount of media exposure. They maximized this exposure by using signal marketing theory – identifying and communicating with an existing audience to leverage psychological aspirations already put in place by another artist.

Sonic Youth conjured the popular singer Madonna to associate themselves against. You know what she stands for, we stand for the opposite. This messaging was well played considering their target audience was 14-24 years old. Like me, Sonic Youth must have found it easier to talk with teenagers about what they don’t like, rather than what they do like. You can see this backwards approach to signal marketing in the tour documentary “1991: The Year Punk Broke” when Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth's only female band member parodies Madonna’s tour documentary “Truth or Dare.” 

Taken in the context of The Year Punk Broke, the slights are mildly funny if not a bit tortured.  The group had been going out of their way to ironically evoke Madonna as far back as 1986 and to still be doing her shtick five years later felt stale.

In 1986 Madonna had a lot of fans; indeed, the only people who seemed not to like her were fully grown adults and just born babies. That year Sonic Youth recorded “Expressway to Yr Skull” which was alternately titled “Madonna, Sean and Me.” Gordon explained why, “I keep hearing these rumors that they're like, breaking up and stuff...it's a continual (New York) Post headline.” Although her comments are sarcastic, they are philosophically problematic. Gordon reasons with the press that she is targeting Madonna because Madonna gets press? At best Gordon comes off hypocritical, at worst a mean spirited wannabe.

Consider Madonna’s pluck when she comes on the national scene with one name, the name most often used to describe the virginal mother of Christ, and introduces herself as a “Boy Toy.” There were critics, but she handled them head on by pushing the concept even further with the release of “Like a Virgin.” Her message was honest and clear: Madonna humorously flouts conventional mores.
 
In response, Sonic Youth created a band called Ciccone Youth (Ciccone being Madonna’s surname) and salaciously placed a Post headline on the record’s cover. This prank wasn’t flattering. Even so, it was a weak statement that didn’t comment any further on the very strong, tongue-in-cheek statement Madonna had already crafted for herself. Years later Ciccone Youth’s message still isn’t clear; in 2004 a Belgium reporter asked Gordon if “there (will) ever be a Spears or Aguilera Youth?”

Ultimately, the facetious parodying of Madonna wasn’t something that worked. Sonic Youth’s cryptic communications garnered attention but the message lacked clarity. Did the band love her? Did the band hate her? When asked to elaborate on these ideas they were reluctant to comment further and when they did, their responses weren’t authentic leaving fans to wonder why is Sonic Youth fucking with us?

Signaling Theory and Brand Management. Part 1: Signaling Theory Marketing Explained for Artists

Modern Punk Loner in Burma. (Soe Than Win/AFP/Getty Images)

A high school kid once asked me how to become a punk rocker. “What’s the secret handshake?”

I replied off the hip, “Start listening to punk rock music.” My thinking was if you like the music, you’ll like the culture. If it’s a match, you’re not going to sit on the sidelines to wax philosophical about the bands. It’s much more fun to participate in the genre’s rebellious attention seeking and sometimes physically punishing aspects.

A Marketing Plan is Always Needed

Ke$ha says "Stop! Is a snake really part of the plan?"

After my last blog post, “A Finely-Tuned Target More Successful with Brand Alliance Marketing”, a friend emailed to ask, “Who is the target market for Two-Way Listen?” I was incredulous thinking Chuck had the nerve to ask me this. I thought, “Isn’t it obvious?” Not to him it wasn’t and when I thought about it, I knew I hadn’t taken the time to define my audience or create a marketing plan.