The Secret of Madonna’s success according to Professor Brown
Price, product, promotion, place – the four P’s of marketing – are old school and should be set aside, a marketing research professor said yesterday at the Global Retailing Conference in Tucson.
Instead, look to the concepts of MINI-marketing and perhaps adopt some of Madonna’s tactics – yes, pop diva Madonna – said Stephen Brown, a draw-outside-the-box professor at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland.
MINI stands for mediability (“getting people talking”), inclusion, nostalgia and irony – marketing techniques used by leading companies such as Harley-Davidson, Versace, Levi’s, and Nokia.
Brown said Madonna uses the seven S‘s: secrecy, scandal, storytelling, subversion, scarcity, sex and sublimity – but there’s something to be learned from them, Brown insists.
“I think the key is to go against the flow,” said Brown, who wore black shades for his talk to more than 100 retailers gathered at The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa for the conference, hosted by the University of Arizona Southwest Retail Center.
“We tend to run with the herd. In today’s overstored world, so many products are identical. So how do I stand out from the crowd?”
Brown suggested the secret to business success is not being customer savvy, but rather, leading the customer down a new path.
“Madonna in my opinion is a marketing genius on the line of P.T. Barnum,” Brown said. “Anybody who strides the market for 20 years is a marketing genius. The fact of the matter is she has been a marketing empire from day one.”
Madonna goes against the flow in almost every regard – and succeeds because of it. Turns down magazine cover spreads, rarely tours, keeps concerts short, refuses to play her most popular songs and flaunts alternative sexuality.
“She’s a serial controversialist,” Brown said, adding that this adds up to a net worth of perhaps $300 million.
He acknowledges Madonna‘s extreme approach won’t work for everyone, but said retailers must find a way to be creative with today’s sophisticated shopper.
“Everybody’s a marketing expert these days.” Brown said.
Experience
has made me rich and now they´re after me.
For the more traditional minded, Brown proposes a way to market to the marketing savvy consumer. How marketing savvy is the public?
An immigration officer once grilled Brown in Philadelphia: “What is the secret of marketing success?”
“The customer is always right, officer,” Brown ventured.
“Wrong. The customer is king. The customer is K-I-N-G.”
But the traditional four P’s of marketing no longer work as well as Brown’s new MINI system, he said.
Mediability: Janet Jackson bares her breast. That gets coverage, then the coverage gets coverage and the subject stays alive.
Inclusion: Make customers feel they are an insider. “Harley-Davidson is the Alpha Omega of inclusion marketing,” Brown said. The company does this by hosting large gatherings for owners.
Nostalgia is in. The older folks like the reminder of the good old days and the young generation finds it “cool, radical, extreme,” he said.
Ironic marketing is anti-marketing and it’s popular. “Aquafina promises no promises,” Brown said. “Campbell’s soup now has ‘Just like my mother used to hate it.'”
Creativity and imagination is necessary for great success, but it’s also a risk, he acknowledged.
“It’s not a guarantee.” Brown said. “It’s having the guts to take a chance.”
What’s to lose, he reasoned, noting that 60 percent of small businesses fail within three years.
Source: tucsoncitizen.com