Lady Gaga - Marketing and Promotion Case Study

1. Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.

Having initially focused on avant-garde and electronic dance music, Gaga found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the vintage glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into the mix. She made this change to put a twist on the music and differentiate herself from the underground rockers of New York. She has been primarily influenced by glam rockers such as David Bowie and Queen, pop singers Michael Jackson and Madonna, artist Andy Warhol, poet Rainer Maria Rilke, fashion icon and entertainer Grace Jones, and fashion as a whole. Her vocals have drawn frequent comparison to Madonna and Gwen Stefani, while the structure of her music is said to be reminiscent of classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop.

Her image is unique and extremely extravagant. Her interest came from initially being inspired by her mother and her later work in burlesque shows. Gaga has stated that she is “very into fashion” and that it is “everything” to her. She claims that: “When I'm writing music, I'm thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It's all about everything altogether — performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it's everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us.” She was called Lady Gaga early in her career after the Queen song ‘Radio GaGa,’ as her vocal style was similar to Freddie Mercury and these comparisons still continue.

She has also her own creative production team called the Haus of Gaga, which she handles personally. This team creates many of her clothes, stage props, and hairdos, as well as collaborating with her on her clothing, stage sets, and sounds. Gaga says that she considers Donatella Versace her muse. Her fashions have also been compared to that of Christina Aguilera, noting similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up.

2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

Lady Gaga’s fans are primarily the gay community as she had support from them from the start with some of her first major performances at events related to gay culture, including early performances at the San Francisco Pride event where she sung ‘Just Dance,’ as well as later on when she performed on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. These are two highly rated events by the gay community and she is gradually being considered by some as a rising gay icon. She claimed difficulty in the early stages of her career in getting her songs to receive radio airplay and stated, “The turning point for me was the gay community. I've got so many gay fans and they're so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They'll always stand by me and I'll always stand by them. It's not an easy thing to create a fan base.” She also said that “every time I go to cities to play, even in arenas, I always make sure I play a second show at a gay club,” this maintains loyalty from the fans.

As well as this, Gaga’s outrageous clothing, make-up, hair and overall image are appealing to the gay community. Her lyrics often have underlying bisexual meaning which the marketing companies draw on in the videos, such as her song "Poker Face" which lyrically discusses fantasizing about a woman while being in bed with a man and therefore this appeals to the gay community. Other fans include younger people as the genre of pop appeals to them, as well as males due to her provocative clothing and females due to her upbeat, dancing songs with entertaining music videos.

3. What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of stategies can you list?(above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.

Lady Gaga has her own official website (http://www.ladygaga.com/) which helps promote her as an artist, with information, news, a chance for fans to join, her music videos, events/tour dates, photos, biography etc. The style of the website reflects Gaga’s image with eye grabbing photos and an overall bold image, which is also reflective of her album cover image.

There is also advertising for Lady Gaga headphones (www.ladygaga.com/heartbeats/) where she works in synergy with ‘Heartbeats’ to promote ‘the latest high resolution headphones.')She also has her own MySpace page (www.myspace.com/ladygaga) which advertises her album, provides information on upcoming shows, a chance for fans to sign up for a Lady Gaga regular newsletter, advertisements for Lady Gaga products such as jackets, notebooks etc., as well as samples of her songs for fans to listen to and be made aware of.

Lady Gaga’s live performances, such as on television on the Ellen DeGeneres Show also promotes her as an artist.

4. Add any relevant links to your blog, especially Myspace page/music vids/official websites etc. A couple of illustrations (e.g key web design graphics/album cover photography) would also be useful to add to your blogs.

http://www.ladygaga.com/
www.myspace.com/ladygaga