Research: Brand Identity, Synergy and Cross Media Convergence

Iron Maiden are a Metal band from London, England. This band are known for particular synergy and brand identity throughout their 38 albums. The most notable part of their synergy is their mascot who has appeared on every album, Eddie was originally a papier-mâché mask used in Iron Maiden's stage backdrop, the band transferred the name "Eddie" from the mask to an illustration by Derek Riggs, which was used as the band's debut album cover. Although he is occasionally described as "zombie-like" in the press, Eddie assumes a different guise relating to the themes of individual albums and their corresponding world tours, and has appeared as a cyborg, an Egyptian mummy and a mental patient as well as many others. Pictured left is their third studio album "the Number of the Beast" from 1982, the tall character using the devil as a puppet is Eddie, he can also be seen on their 2010 album "The Final Frontier" attacking an astronaut. 

The font of their album title is always the same and it always positioned at the top of the album cover. This is their house style and this has become their brand identity as it is so iconic to their band.

Iron Maiden are also heavy users of cross-media convergence as they market products for many different media platforms, including print media (Kerrang, Classic Rock Magazine, NME), Television as their music videos are often on a music channel called Scuzz, they have a website including gig dates, ticket prices and exclusive videos as well as links to music videos, they even have their own video game "Legacy of the Beast". Iron Maiden originally had a mainly male following from ages 20-40 in the 80s and they still attract that audience now by playing similar music to how they did when they first started out and using the same designs and fonts which has become their house style, this has satisfied their existing audience however in more recent years it seems they are trying to also attract a younger audience as they now use a lot of social media and they have even created a game for phones, PCs and tablets, these electronics are now a huge part of youth culture and younger people are stereotypically glued to their phones and social media and now Iron Maiden are using this to their advantage by attracting the younger audience via social media and electronics. Iron still clearly aim to satisfy a male audience no matter what age, most colours they use are deemed as stereotypically masculine colours and aggressive gory art they use is stereotypically aimed to satisfy men as it is 'too scary' for women.