Six of the Best: Going GaGa edition ~ Brand Mix

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Six of the Best: Going GaGa edition

Photo: LADY GAGA! by Joãomagagnin on Flickr

Other CDs may come and go. But Lady GaGa has remained for months in its #6 slot in our car radio. The kids, in the back but in complete control, may tire of listening to Garbage, U2, Phoenix and the Grateful Dead (after one listen) but Lady GaGa remains in solid rotation. Her popularity extends from the backseat of our car to a global audience. She's won two Grammys, and has sold 8 million albums and 15 million singles digitally worldwide. What to think about this global phenom?

1) Loyalty lessons from Lady Gaga: Church of the Customer
Jackie Huba takes a look at Lady GaGa from a loyalty marketing program perspective. She looks at five things that have helped build the passion and loyalty of her fans that also could be/have been used by companies to help build customer loyalty. These include: Giving your fans a name (GaGa's "Little Monsters"/ Fiskar's Fiskateers), developing shared symbols (GaGa's "Monster claw"/ Livestrong's yellow wristbands) and making your customers feel like rock stars (GaGa calls a fan in the audience for a drink after the show/ eBay's Live Conferences have attendees pass a line of cheering eBay staff).

2) Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster Best Buy In-Store: Vevo
All these elements combine to create fans like these:



3) Lady Gaga: 10 things we can learn: Daily Speculations
How exactly did Lady GaGa go "from an also-ran performer in the Lower East Side techno-rock clubs a few years ago to number one selling recording artist in five countries"? Victor Niederhoffer's list includes: A core group of admirers (in her case, the gay community), her Haus of Gaga team that designs all her clothes and shows, technical proficiency (she can really sing) and a vision which she was living well before she became famous.

4) Lady GaGa Pushes The Limits... Of Her Brand: Brandchannel
But is she about to ruin everything? Abe Sauer took a look at the things that GaGa's management has trade marked--everything from headbands to bras to "gift certificates which may then be redeemed for goods and services." He worries that she may be risking over extending her brand: "The lure of profits is powerful, but it can be destructive if the brand becomes too diluted. So the GaGa brand, which communicates severe individuality and near-absolute uniqueness, is particularly at risk."

5) Sumsing Turbo 3000 English Version: Groen Brothers (via SmartMobs)
While we're on the subject of over-extension, lets go off-GaGa for a minute and look at this video that explores the versatility of cell phones (in case you are not one of the almost 4 million people who've watched this already):



6) Radio Gaga with Prisoners: byronfgarcia



How did Stefani Germanotta become Lady GaGa? At the beginning of her career, she was looking for a stage name. Music producer Rob Fusari thought her vocal style was similar to Freddie Mercury so he suggested GaGa from the Queen song. And that was it. (The video is of inmates of CPDRC Philippines dancing the Radio Gaga by the Queen. They did Thriller too. More info here.)

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy (and vaguely related areas). More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Posted by Martin Bishop at 7:57 AM

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice digest !
I blogged a french version of all these articles. For french readers (I'm sure i'm not alone), take a glance here : http://notrelienquotidien.com/2010/02/23/ce-que-lady-gaga-enseigne-aux-marques/

March 1, 2010 at 3:30 AM
Martin Bishop said...

@barbonouille: I like your post too!

March 1, 2010 at 8:17 AM

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