Appealing to teens today
Content Saturation
2% of a brand’s consumers make up 20% of revenue and drive 80% of sales
BROCKHAMPTON understands its audience — teenagers today spend most of their time on social media and are looking for more content to engage with online. The group keeps up with their fans' ability to consume, churning out 3 albums in 2017 and hundreds of videos and lookbooks per year. Their work is full of "golden nuggets" for their fans to find: each song title on each album increases one letter per new album in the SATURATION trilogy, for example. Teenagers today are on the hunt for connection online, and BROCKHAMPTON provides many an escape from the reality of their mostly average existence. Each member does this through their individual social media platforms as well as the BROCKHAMPTON social media — the many members only increases the group's reach.
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Their fans also get more invested in group's rise to fame by buying merch. BROCKHAMPTON releases its merch in "drops" that immediately sell out after they go live. If you go to their website, everything is sold out which only makes fans want to buy it even more. This is an example of Veblen goods and the snob effect: as price increases, demand increases and people buy things because they think they are exclusive. Many of their fans buy their merch because they want "clout" or to show others that they were able to get it, not necessarily because they like the t-shirt itself. BROCKHAMPTON is smart in this way — they match their audience's demand with more and more to consume, simultaneously making money and creating deeper connections with their fans.
Honesty & Raw Emotion
BROCKHAMPTON appeals to teen angst: teens want honesty, to be a part of something and to feel special. In a way that is similar to the mold formed by MTV with Limp Bizkit and Total Request Live, fans today are obsessive because they feel connected to the artist counter to society. Unlike the molds formed for artists in the music industry, BROCKHAMPTON does not shy away from their emotions: the promotion for SATURATION III featured different members crying as seen to the right. This strikes something in their audience — the teens who follow them do so because they want to feel something new, to feel as though they are a part of something revolutionary.
As mention on previous pages, the band does not conform to stereotypes. Teenagers today want to feel like they go against the grain with their music and their fashion, but many are actually just like thousands of their peers who are trying to do the same thing.
[BROCKHAMPTON] “aims to celebrate each members’ individuality, building an inclusive community for those who feel like they don’t quite fit in”
AMEER VANN CONTROVERSY
How do these themes play into the Ameer Vann issue that came up in early 2018?
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In May, a group of women came forward with allegations that Ameer Vann, one of the founding members of BROCKHAMPTON, had sexually and emotionally abused them. The band responded by kicking him out of the group, saying that they "were lied to" and issuing statements that they were canceling the rest of the smaller shows to respect the women who were his victims. This response quelled their diehard fans because it played right into their image as raw, unfiltered and emotional as men.
At their next show after the incident, the Boston Calling Music Festival, the band stopped during "BLEACH", leaning on each other and crying onstage as Bearface repeated the hook "tell me why". Most artists in the music industry are not as blatant with their emotions but, for BROCKHAMPTON, this is their brand. Whether it is calculated or not, this rawness of emotion creates more connections with their fans and ultimately allows their fanbase to grow. In the tweet above, the fan says that the band "broke her heart" that day, only furthering her own engagement in their music, merchandise, and videos.