She’s been called bawdy, bodacious, craven, obscene, outré, not to mention lewd, lascivious, unconscionable, and fame-seeking. To her fans–the little monsters–she’s Mother Monster, divine, heaven sent, never to be outdone, the love of their lives. But up to now, nobody has called Lady Gaga the marketing master mind that she is. So, I’ll do it. She’s a marketing mastermind.
Once you see beyond the zaniness and outrageous costumes like the meat dress and stage blood, the over-done make up and the bouffant, multi-colored hair, you’ll realize that the Gaga lays down her marketing genius with every performance she gives. She’s truly a stand-alone wizard. For starters, consider these 6.5 marketing lessons she teaches:
1. Occupy the scarce space in your prospects’ and clients’ perceptual map: Moving in the scarce, conceptual space separates Lady Gaga from every other pop singer today. Nobody’s like her.
The marketing lesson: If you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, consultant, or coach and not moving in your scarce space, you’re either moving in someone else’s space or a commodity space. Aargh. That makes it difficult for customers, clients, or prospects to figure what makes you and your business different from your competition. If you’re in the kingdom of commodity, buyers can always get it for cheaper somewhere else.
2. “Step away from the formula”: These are Gaga’s words not mine. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is formulaic about Lady Gaga, her voice, her songs, her costumes, and her acting. She never fails to step away from the formula.
The marketing lesson: If you use hand-me-down ways to describe what you do, you’ll sound like same-ol’ same ol. What’s the point of that? If your marketing reflects formulaic, ho-hum words and concepts, you’re well on the way to becoming well, too predictable. Walking down this path leads right to the like-everybody-else zone, also known as the zone of commodity.
3. “I’m always obsessing about the concept.” Again, these are Lady Gaga’s words not mine in her interview with Debbie Harry in the September 2011 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Read it if you get the chance. With every song Lady Gaga writes, she obsesses about the concept the song will convey to her audiences.
The marketing lesson: Pay keen attention to the concepts you communicate, because the people who purchase your goods and services buy into your concepts first before they buy into what you market and sell. Read more »