What the hell has Madonna got to do with marketing you might ask? That sounds like a rhetorical question! Arguably the greatest female entertainer in history with album sales of over 200 million not to mention books, movies, merchandise and a host of other paraphernalia. How did She do it? Read On.....
I don't claim to be Madonna's biggest fan and frankly I've found some of her antics to have been nothing short of the cheapest publicity stunts! But who gives a damn what I think! The fact of the matter is, they have worked!
This is one marketing genius and I'm by no means the only one who claims this either!
I used to be the #1 Globally ranked blogger on Madonna's official website - Madonna.com (Listed in ICON). How did I get to be the best? Easy! I simply followed her lead.... maybe that was a bit cheeky considering that it was Her website!?
What did I do? I teased and titillated, provoked, lampooned Madonna on several occasions and made up endless photo spreads, video collections and some challenging articles to boot! And I even made money from the blog by URL links to some of my sites. I stayed at #1 in the World for months and months and had an absolute ball!
O.K. Great! you might say but how is all this going to benefit my marketing campaigns!? Ever heard of the old saying "success leaves clues?". It's true and if you study Madonna's success secrets you will see that she followed a very well tested formula.
She used popular imagery and a lot of pop culture pizazz! She styled herself on Marilyn Monroe, probably the most famous film star of her age, she pushed the envelope and pushed people's buttons big time!
Madonna's "Sex" book was derided by critics as being an artistic and marketing failure! "Nothing more than a cheap collection of soft porn images"! I can't comment because I didn't buy a copy but what I do know is that this book turned over sales of $20 million and zoomed straight to the top of the New York Times bestseller list! That sound like a pretty successful 'failure' to me!
So how can this knowledge help YOU!? For starters you could begin being a little more creative with your ad campaigns and test people's boundaries a bit more! Ask the hard questions without deliberately offending people (unless you are really brave then GO FOR IT!) Be a bit more edgy and hit a few targets with some of your campaigns. It just might work for you like it has for Madonna!
Remember when Madge pashed Brits at the MTV video music awards show? Many people thought it was tackiness personified! (I was in the minority, I didn't have an opinion!)
This image has reached iconic status and provoked so much publicity and extra sales for the two stars that it isn't funny! And how did they do this? Simple! They chose to go against the grain and touch on a taboo subject in the public consciousness - that being lesbianism!
People were excited by it and outraged by it and appalled and challenged and entertained by it! One Islamic extremist group said they were going to "behead these two wh*#es!!" Talk about a reaction!
Whether You love or loathe Madonna or if you are in the minority like myself and tend to sit on the fence a bit, it is hard to deny that this lady is one hell of a marketing genius!!
If you do a little of what she has in her career, keep changing your image, keep people guessing, dare to press buttons and provoke, challenge the establishment and flash a bit of flesh from time to time, then maybe, just maybe, you will share some of the success and the rewards that she has obtained throughout her illustrious career!
Copy the best (without losing your own individuality and integrity of course!) and you might just end up with this accolade yourself one day!?
No comments:
Post a Comment