Research Synergy; Coldplay

How do their products appeal to a target audience?

Coldplay are using Mylo Xyloto as their featured ideology, and have created synergy by using the same colour schemes and 'spraypaint' effects. On their webpage, the band are advertising t-shirts and wristbands with the same colour scheme and technique that are featured on the home page as well as live concerts that are decorated in this distinctive style. Also, to support their ideology, they are advertising Mylo Xyloto comic books, some containing signed autographs by the band members. This demonstrates the unity and liveliness of the band and allows the audience to get an insight on how they are as musicians and individuals.

They also have spread across several different networking devices to appeal to audiences of a larger mass, such as Facebook and Twitter; both of which act as unofficial distributers as they spread the word about Coldplay at a fast rate and freely. It also can build (what Blumler and Katz believe) personal relationships, in which the audience can socialise with eachother via fan bases/discussion groups all built around the topic of Coldplay.

What is their ideology?

Mylo Xyloto, at first glance seemed like a comic book or the name of undiscovered fictional character, because they're selling comic books with Mylo Xyloto as the title, one can only assume that thats where it had originated from. However, I did some research into this odd title and found out that actually, Mylo Xyloto is nothing that anyone has ever heard before. To represent a fresh to start, Coldplay decided to publish a new title which was 'un-Googleable', let alone unpronouncable. Acording to Chris Martin (lead singer) - "When you're on your fifth album, you are going to be judged against all your previous work and expectations - in a small way this is us trying to break free of those expectations.” When questioned about the inspiration of the title, he said that "Music comes from a place we don’t know. It sort of comes through the fingers and toes. So we came up with the idea of, what if you had musical digits, like xylo toes." And the 'Mylo' was simply a "great name for anything". Here I can infer that to begin a new era, Coldplay are beginning with a new look and style to create a distintive change and effect.

On Coldplay's homepage they've put breathtaking pictures of their live concerts for the audience to marvel over. The concert itself is decorated with the same motif that they're using to brand their clothes and products, and therefore everything looks proffessional and in sync with eachother. As a way of promoting their concert tickets, they even have a video of the band itself, talking about their live shows, fans and the music industry - all of which grip the audiences interest and encourage them to purchase tickets - which, are found on the second page. The website is easy to navigate and visually striking, the electric blue and bright pink headings and spontanious flashes of colour indicate that Coldplay are advertising for a unisex audience, not just one gender in particular. This indicates that they're pojecting to a mass target audience.

What is the genre and how do you know?

Their genre is alternative rock/indie, as shown from their font, excessive colour pallet, style and motif. For example, their colour scheme of old school 'American graffitti' - but the darker shades of each colour give indication that the musical nature of the band is rock. Also, the font 'EveryTrue Type is a Wisefont' gives off a solid, rock theme to it - but with the cohesion of the excessive primary colours to give it a less 'solid' feel and a 'softer' more Indie look. Their style and motif give a visual statement about their genre and lead the audience to speculate about it. For example, bright colourful spraypaint styles are not stereotypically matched to a rock band, but more likely to a pop/alternative band - which show that Coldplay are placed between the two different catageries. This will give Coldplay a distinctive stance in the music industry as it cuts between two or three different genres, and can be considered 'un-nameable' and unable to fit into one speciffic catagory.