Charlie Puth is an American songwriter and producer who is known for his versatile musical capability. He produces and writes his own hits, several of which hit Billboard 100s. He has perfect pitch and is capable in music production, which he frequently uses as content on social media and talk shows.
To give a brief history of Charlie Puth, he gained popularity by uploading covers on Youtube which landed him a record label deal in eleveneleven. He then consistently put out music until he had an opportunity to co-write and produce “See You Again” which came with multiple nominations for various awards. Throughout his career he has also put out multiple hits such as “Attention” and “We don’t talk anymore” and he is consistently co-writing and co-producing tracks with other artists such as with the hit “STAY”.
Charlie Puth’s branding is based around the connection with his listeners. In this essay I will discuss how the audiovisual and written elements in Charlie Puth’s brand identity, alongside how different market theories make these elements effective by promoting audience engagement and differentiating himself from the market.
The first notable aspect of Charlie Puth’s branding can be observed in his live performances. In almost every show he is always playing a piano, whether it is a keyboard or a grand piano. This helps to establish a visual image of himself to fans that “he is the artist that is known for his piano”. Early fans would also relate this to his early youtube covers where he would usually cover songs with a piano, on top of the fact that he was trained in jazz piano.
Another visual element of note is that Charlie Puth dresses the way he usually does even on stage. This is an indicator that Charlie Puth wishes to display his real personality as his artist persona. It plays a big part in his visual image since his songwriting is often based upon anecdotal experiences and it helps to increase the connection and relatability with his audience. Simple casual attire also strengthen Charlie Puth’s “Lover” brand archetype as the topic of his songs are usually relatable to most of his demographic and wearing everyday smart casual clothes helps to further build that connection between him and his audience. This kind of visual consistency also makes Charlie Puth instantly recognisable at a first glance. For the same reason, this is also why Charlie Puth dresses the same way in his social media content. Building a visual brand consistency helps to implement a strong visual image in his fans and helps new fans to instantly recognise his content in a second.
His music videos also play a part in his brand image. He appears in most of his music videos and this is due to a number of reasons. Firstly he wants his brand’s visual image to be himself. Most of the “Lover” brand archetype follow this trend of including themselves in their own music videos such as Ed Sheeran and John Legend. The songs released by Charlie Puth are mostly relatable songs and him being present singing in his own music videos helps to increase that connection between him and his audience. The direction of his music videos also usually heavily follow alongside the narrative of his songs. For example in “Attention”. The song is about an ex partner who seeks attention from their former partner. The music video also follows as such where it depicts a female actress constantly in conflict with Charlie Puth. It achieves a clearer image of what the song is about to a wider range of listeners and it strengthens the connection of both the song to the listener and the song to Charlie as an artist.
Another element of branding to note is his website. As of November 2025, his website has an older computer style of user interface to promote his new lead single “Changes” for his upcoming album. The song “Changes” is about reminiscing about the past after a big change and the user interface of Charlie Puth’s website helps to put further emphasis on the topic of change by having a much older style of user interface. In this case, both the visual element and branding message of the new album support each other. His website includes links to his music, upcoming live shows, the music video of “Changes”, a link to his merchandise and an option to sign up for a newsletter. This leans into Relation Marketing theory as these website hyperlinks allow his fans to be up to date with Charlie Puth’s activities and new content, furthering a connection between audience and artist.
Any artist can have a website, music videos and live shows. The aspect of Charlie’s branding that differentiates him from other artists is his content on social media platforms. Charlie Puth’s content on social media, especially tiktok, usually features behind the scenes of making his tracks or showcasing his music production capabilities by using a sound in his environment and turning it into music.
I will first be analysing his behind the scenes content. One example of Charlie Puth uploading numerous behind the scenes content is with his hit single “Light Switch”. Even before the song was fully released, Charlie would often post the process of making the song as each stage was finished. This allows the audience to feel like they were involved in the song as it was being made and allowed transparency in the songwriting process. Listeners and fans will have a greater sense of appreciation for the track when it is eventually released because of a feeling of involvement into the production of the song, even if they were not directly involved in the creative process. This content further extends to profiles and channels outside of Charlie Puth’s ownership. In a youtube documentary on the channel “Rolling Stone”, Charlie Puth walks through the process of how he developed his hit “Attention”. He talks about how each part of the song came to be and the original seeds that spark the inspiration for the track. He also answers common questions like “how did the bass sound come about, who played the famous bassline?”. Just like his content on “Light Switch”, documentaries like these similarly make his listeners and fans feel more involved in his creative process. This is an example of the use of the AIDA model, Charlie Puth is generating interest by showing behind the scenes content and creating desire by giving his listeners a deeper dive into the process and meaning behind his songs. By giving insights to how his inspiration comes about and how he crafts the sounds that he uses, his audience will feel a greater sense of connection to not just Charlie Puth, but his music as well.
Besides behind the scenes content, Charlie Puth frequently uploads content where he makes beats or even whole songs based on sounds around his environment. In one example, he recorded the sound of door creaking as he was opening it. He then used the audio file as the intro in his song “No More Drama”. He also appears on talk shows to do similar bits. In a Jimmy Fallon show, he made his song “Loser” with most of the sounds coming from a mug. One of his skills is production, and it is known that he produces his own songs. Having media content that shows off his production skills endorses the fact that he is a skilled music producer and puts emphasis on his production capability as part of his brand. Similarly to his “behind the scenes” content, Charlie Puth is showcasing a skill that not many artists will have, differentiating himself from other pop artists in the industry. This is also another example of the use of the AIDA model as Charlie Puth is grabbing attention and creating interest by uploading these kinds of “behind the scenes” content. He also follows up with TikTok posts that promote these songs and content that reveals the release dates, which prompts action.
Charlie Puth has perfect pitch and it is sometimes the main topic of his guest appearances on talk shows such as iHeartRadio and Jimmy Kimmel. On his appearance in Jimmy Kimmel, he demonstrates his perfect pitch and at the same time gives interesting educational information. During his bit, he talks about how fire alarms use a minor second interval as dissonance to get people to get out and move in contrast to using a perfect fifth which is more pleasant sounding and doesn’t have the same urgency to leave a location. This contributes to his brand image as people will start to know him as the “guy with perfect pitch”, at the same time people will respect him for taking the time to share insightful musical knowledge.
On the topic of sharing musical knowledge, Charlie Puth has recently started a series on TikTok called “Professor Puth” where he shares interesting music facts in pop music. For example in episode nine of his “Professor Puth” series, he talks about a mistake in the recording “Hey Jude” by The Beatles that they left in intentionally. Paul McCartney accidentally swears in the middle of the recording as he played a wrong chord. Charlie Puth then uses this information as a point that AI will never truly replace humanity in terms of creation and as new technology is invented, humans always find a way to work around it and even use it to bolster their creativity even further. This is an example of the use of Relationship Marketing as Charlie Puth is furthering his connection with his audience by sharing his opinions about news in the music industry and knowledge that he has. Doing this reveals more about who he is as a person and what he knows about music.
In conclusion, Charlie Puth’s branding revolves around his visual choices, musical expertise and social media content. Visually, he chooses to dress like how he would dress everyday and his music videos are directly related to the narrative of his songs. This allows him to be relatable to his audience and increases connection. His musical skills play a large part in his branding and he is often demonstrating his production skills, perfect pitch and sharing musical knowledge like in his series “professor puth”. This allows him to have brand differentiation as no other pop artist is doing the exact same style of content that he does and allows him to target his audience specifically. “Professor Puth” is also a form of relationship marketing as he is directly educating and speaking to his fans. Posting behind the scenes content is also a use of the AIDA model as it is both getting attention and generating interest by giving his audience a look into the creative process. There is then a desire to pre-save the songs before they come up as the fans feel like they were part of the process. Charlie Puth usually follows these behind the scenes content up with promotions revealing the release date of the songs. This prompts action to be taken by fans by encouraging them to pre-save songs and to listen to the songs as soon as they are released. This is how the audiovisual and written elements in Charlie Puth’s brand identity, alongside different marketing theories, help to differentiate him from the market and solidify his brand positioning.
ABC News. “Charlie Puth Discusses New Album and the Big Changes He’s Facing Becoming a Father.” YouTube, 24 Oct. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyIHYHi7s9g. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
“CHARLIE PUTH LIGHT SWITCH (5 PARTS COMBINED).” YouTube, 3 Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAb2QnRHcOE. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
Jimmy Kimmel Live. “Jimmy Kimmel Puts Charlie Puth’s Perfect Pitch to the Test.” YouTube, 18 Mar. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw3-k95QkDw. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
PULSE. “Why Music Videos Are Still so Important: Views from inside the Industry | by Pulse | Medium.” Medium, 4 Feb. 2016, medium.com/@pulsefilms/why-music-videos-are-still-so-important-views-from-inside-the-industry-ebaa7d4758d2. Accessed 10 Nov. 2025.
Puth, Charlie. “Charlie Puth & Selena Gomez – We Don’t Talk Anymore [Official Live Performance].” YouTube, 19 July 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_yLpCLMaKk. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
Puth, Charlie. “Professor Puth.” YouTube, 2 Oct. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd5sc1eMABA. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
Rolling Stone. “See Charlie Puth Break Down Emotional Hit Song, ‘Attention.’” YouTube, 4 Oct. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU8BEMi8UyM. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “Charlie Puth Creates an Original Beat on the Spot With a Mug and a Spoon | The Tonight Show.” YouTube, 15 Oct. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gTmyhRM6k0. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
