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Like a Virgin – Is Your Marketing As Fresh As Madonna’s?

‘Touched for the very first time’

Call it what you want, but few pop stars and fewer businesses have understood the intricacies of Madonna’s genius of reinvention and the inevitable end of the business cycle. Learn from the branding expert.

While Madonna soars, everyone else seems to stumble, bumble and disappear down a deep, dark hole.

So, what is it about Madonna Incorporated that has allowed it to consistently reap profits for over 18 years on the trot? And is there something we in business can learn about branding from the chameleon of pop music?

What Madonna Learned from Houdini

Gasp! That’s what the audience would do, every time Harry Houdini cheated apparent death. Except that death was a deliberate stroke of genius to keep the name of Houdini alive forever.

Madonna seems to have used the same bag of tricks. Reinventing herself in almost clockwork fashion, she has transmogrified herself successfully into virgin, material girl, boy toy, dominatrix, media maven to working mom. And made big bucks all the way.

Out with the Cabbage, In with the Tomatoes!

EDIT: I pasted the entire thing but it lost formatting. It's better to read on the site itself.

http://www.psychotactics.com/marketing/like-a-virgin-is-your-marketing-as-fresh-as-madonnas/

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The funny thing is if "Madonna" is simply a marketing plan then why does everyone who tries to copy her fail? She's a marketing genius for sure, but there is more to her than just that. There is something inherent to being Madonna - her creative talent - that is responsible for her success.

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The article is not dissing her at all.

An excerpt:

At the end of the day, the calories are the proof of the pudding. If you don’t stand and deliver, you can reinvent to death without any change in your bottom line whatsoever.

Another one:

Are we suggesting you reinvent the wheel? Madonna doesn’t think so. Like a hardcore brand specialist, Madonna has actually stuck to her brand like glue.

If you look carefully, she stands for RADICALISM. Everything she’s done has taken her one step higher on that scale. Every time someone screamed blue murder, Madonna was in the thick of it. She hacked the lawn, and replanted all the flowers choosing shocking pinks and bright orange, understanding all the time that it stayed in line with her true brand image.

There's no denying the quality of her catalogue. We ALL KNOW that. But we can't deny the genius of the business side of her career. While a "product" will not have longevity without the quality, there's also another side where good "products" will not be successful without the proper business push.

If you read the article, you'll find it's in favour of her.

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Marketing only gets you so far. If you are selling a shit product at some point people will wake up.

Surly after 33 years people need to quit with the tired line that she is good a "marketing herself" and just admit the reason she is still around is because she is the greatest female recording ARTIST that ever lived who is as driven as they come and continues to produce a great "product" that appeals to millions.

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The article is not dissing her at all.

An excerpt:

At the end of the day, the calories are the proof of the pudding. If you don’t stand and deliver, you can reinvent to death without any change in your bottom line whatsoever.

Another one:

Are we suggesting you reinvent the wheel? Madonna doesn’t think so. Like a hardcore brand specialist, Madonna has actually stuck to her brand like glue.

If you look carefully, she stands for RADICALISM. Everything she’s done has taken her one step higher on that scale. Every time someone screamed blue murder, Madonna was in the thick of it. She hacked the lawn, and replanted all the flowers choosing shocking pinks and bright orange, understanding all the time that it stayed in line with her true brand image.

There's no denying the quality of her catalogue. We ALL KNOW that. But we can't deny the genius of the business side of her career. While a "product" will not have longevity without the quality, there's also another side where good "products" will not be successful without the proper business push.

If you read the article, you'll find it's in favour of her.

I mean you no offense, as I do believe her business acumen should be celebrated, but this article is basically talking about how businesses should do what Madonna does and then they can be just as successful. I am disagreeing with that point. Madonna's marketing is certainly great, but it's a lovely window dressing for something that is truly valuable. And therein lies the real message: you cannot use replication in place of talent. The article also says that Madonna's brand was so associated with music that she couldn't make the leap to film convincingly. I would argue that she didn't really have the proper chops to keep it up in the acting world (Evita, nonwithstanding). It wasn't because she was a great actress that people refused to take seriously. Lots of her films sucked, and so did her acting (in some of them).

Also, I might add that refreshing your image/communication periodically wasn't really Madonna's idea. Marketing people have been doing that for years. She was just the first major female pop star to do it and maintain her longevity.

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I mean you no offense, as I do believe her business acumen should be celebrated, but this article is basically talking about how businesses should do what Madonna does and then they can be just as successful. I am disagreeing with that point. Madonna's marketing is certainly great, but it's a lovely window dressing for something that is truly valuable. And therein lies the real message: you cannot use replication in place of talent. The article also says that Madonna's brand was so associated with music that she couldn't make the leap to film convincingly. I would argue that she didn't really have the proper chops to keep it up in the acting world (Evita, nonwithstanding). It wasn't because she was a great actress that people refused to take seriously. Lots of her films sucked, and so did her acting (in some of them).

Also, I might add that refreshing your image/communication periodically wasn't really Madonna's idea. Marketing people have been doing that for years. She was just the first major female pop star to do it and maintain her longevity.

None taken. But I see it differently. It's a marketing article that highlights her great sense of reinvention in image marketing, so of course they're going to highlight that, not a music article that claims Madonna is only a marketing product with no substance at all. Besides, the article mentions nothing on dissing Madonna's music. In fact this part below states "reinvention" is not the end-all-be-all and that the quality of the product itself is crucial, which is a nod that while Madonna has refreshed her image over the years it's not at all shallow.

At the end of the day, the calories are the proof of the pudding. If you don’t stand and deliver, you can reinvent to death without any change in your bottom line whatsoever.

While it did mention briefly her movie career, I can't talk about that as I'm not very familiar with her filmography.

Yes the article mentions nothing of Madonna pioneering the "image reinvention" strategy. It just decided to pick her as an example.

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and there's this wonderful man Santiago Fouz-Hermandez's book: Madonna's Drowned Worlds

http://www.amazon.com/Madonnas-Drowned-Worlds-Approaches-Transformations/dp/0754633713

for the sociological studies, he helped me a lot

i should check this out. Thanks for posting
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None taken. But I see it differently. It's a marketing article that highlights her great sense of reinvention in image marketing, so of course they're going to highlight that, not a music article that claims Madonna is only a marketing product with no substance at all. Besides, the article mentions nothing on dissing Madonna's music. In fact this part below states "reinvention" is not the end-all-be-all and that the quality of the product itself is crucial, which is a nod that while Madonna has refreshed her image over the years it's not at all shallow.

At the end of the day, the calories are the proof of the pudding. If you don’t stand and deliver, you can reinvent to death without any change in your bottom line whatsoever.

While it did mention briefly her movie career, I can't talk about that as I'm not very familiar with her filmography.

Yes the article mentions nothing of Madonna pioneering the "image reinvention" strategy. It just decided to pick her as an example.

Since when marketing your brand means you have no substance?

It's widely known her business skills and nothing to be ashamed of

:thumbsup:

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