Comparing the bands - HADOUKEN! and Gallows.

How does the band's typography and visual appearance differ?

Both the bands have very distinctive appearances and typography.

As you can see, both logos have very different typography. Gallows has a lot more of a dark, rock and horror look about it where as HADOUKEN! has a more bold, powerful and comic-style look to it. This is because they both convey their band's and target audience's through the style o

f typography. The Gallows one is giving us an insight into the dark culture of their band and audience while the HADOUKEN! logo is conveying a indie, bold and uniquely in-your-face style about the band and audience.

According to the music videos i have watched of both Gallows and HADOUKEN!, i saw that both the band's have a lot of differences in their visual appearances during their performance music videos. Gallows follows an aggressive, tattoo-ed and powerful look whilst HADOUKEN! follows the more subtle, stylish pretty-boy look.

How doe's the band's merchandising differ?

Gallows and HADOUKEN! both have an online store where they sell merchandise. HADOUKEN! sell a lot of apparel including t-shirts, badges, cds and bags. Along with this, they sell bundles for 'Guys' and 'Girls', meaning they have a segment of their audience being female, aswell as just males, therefore reaching out to a wider audience range than Gallows.

In the Gallows UK Store they have different items such as T-shirts, DVD's and Skinnies. But the main way the two band's differ in merchandising is that Gallows have an appeal to the US aswell, therefore they have a seperate store for the US which includes merchandise which would appeal to their target audience in the US, whereas HADOUKEN! only has one store which is based for the UK, but sells more of a range of merchandise than the Gallows UK store.

How do these differences increase their appeal to their differing niche audiences?

The differences between Gallows and HADOUKEN! are significant and that is why it has such a massive effect on the niche audiences. This appeal comes from the audience feeling like they are uniquely different from any other audience because they like their band, and because their band is so original to any others of the mainstream sort, they believe they have their own appeal, making them want to get even closer to their band to become even more unique. The audiences allow themselves to believe they feel a sense of escapism from listening to and following these bands, and it is only with this band, not with any others such as mainstream ones.

The merchandise of both bands increase the appeal of being different by giving them a physical item such as a T-shirt to wear, to advertise their uniqueness in comparison to other niche audiences.

Considering the range of ancillary products available for both brands identify three other products you would develop to help each bands brand.

I have seen both the band's brands and ancillary products they have to offer. I have a few ideas of some products which could further develop the brands they have already created a success with to make it even bigger and more appealing to their target audience as one of both the band's ethos would be to surpass the satisfaction levels of the target audience keeping them happy at all times.

Gallows should develop a signature tattoo design for their main extreme fans to follow, this design would be seen as a template of image aiding the design, so that the fans can then themselves edit the design by changing the name within the logo to their own, making them feel more appeal to the band. This would obviously come from the bands lead singer, Frank Carter as he is the designer for all the brand. This design should be put up on the internet and advertised by word of mouth so that they can allow people to view it on the internet, free of charge, making the audience feel appreciated and grateful, along with being closer to the band as they would be wearing the tattoo also.

Another ancillary product which could be developed should be a custom designed skateboard for fans of HADOUKEN!, this would have a design on the back of the skateboard for their fans of the HADOUKEN! logo, making the fans feel like they are enjoying themselves at the skate park thanks to the band's design, and allowing them to show-off their appeal to the band to anyone that see's it.

The last product i would develop for HADOUKEN! would have to be a MP3 Player which could be custom designed from the website to have an default colour scheme and typography of the HADOUKEN! logo style, whilst allowing the fans to edit on their name by putting it into the website design and then it is manufactured and delivered. This again would make the fans feel appreciated thanks to what the band have developed for them, and allow them to show off their massive appeal for the band, making them more unique as a target audience as they're the niche audience for HADOUKEN!