You are all superstars!

by: Petra Despot, brand consultant

 

I have never been a fan of Lady Gaga nor have I ever truly understood all the hustle revolving around her phenomenon. I have been skeptical about her provocative appearance and the so-called controversy she’s been causing. For example, she put on a couple of dead animals instead of a dress. Even though this is shocking, Madonna’s been there and done that (or something similar) two decades ago. 

For me, Lady Gaga was all extravaganza and controversy just for the sake of extravaganza and controversy; she was never the real thing. I have always believed that she was doing a great marketing and PR job, but somehow the real authentic feeling was missing.

A couple of weeks ago, during an episode of Glee, I was suddenly enlightened because I realized that maybe “the real thing” was missing since I was never the real target group. She was after the little monsters all along and they were the ones who embraced and believed in “the Gagaism”.

All this time we were talking about the importance of the consumer psychographics and targeted communication, and there it was, one of the strongest new examples of both. Lady Gaga is targeting a group called the little monsters. They are all the different or insecure yet beautiful and amazing people wanting to be recognized as unique rather than freaks. And their mother monster is trying to evoke his or her inner beauty and self-esteem with each song, blog post or public appearance. When Lady Gaga sings “there’s nothing wrong with loving who you are” or tweets to her fans that they are all superstars, the target group truly embraces that message.

Lady Gaga has all the ingredients that build a strong and unique brand, whether we like her or not. From the relevant emotional associations and differentiation to targeted communication and the form of self-expression. And she has impressing statistics that back this up. Besides five Grammy awards (that certainly prove her value), she has over 10 million Twitter followers, close to 35 million Facebook fans and the last year’s earnings of approximately US$90 million.

I would say that Lady Gaga has taught us a valuable lesson, that you can’t be everything to everyone, but rather to choose wisely whom you will target. You can all be superstars if you stay true to yourself and deliver on your brand promise to your real target group.