Yesterday, I fell in love with Lady Gaga. I must admit, I initially thought that she was a little too out there for me. Then, I watched a speaker named Jackie Huba who wrote a book about marketing lessons from Lady G speak about why she was a marketing genius who was named the top influencer of our decade by Time Magazine!
Here are the lessons she learned from Lady Gaga about marketing:
Focus On Your 1%
Forget about the 80-20 rule where you concentrate on 20% of the customers who are responsible for 80% of your sales volume. Get even more specific, down to your RAVING crazy-fanatic-would-die-for-you fans that actually make up only 1% of your customers.
Lady Gaga calls them her Little Monsters. She calls herself Mother Monster. She has created clubs and websites for her 1%. She lavishes her love and attention on these people and they love her back and bring other fans to her franchise. What can you do for your 1% that you’re not doing right now?
Create A Community
When Lady Gaga wanted to create an online community for her Monsters, she didn’t like Facebook, she didn’t like Twitter so she paid a software company to create one for her. Littlemonsters.com allows her to directly and deeply connect with her fans. It makes them feel special and different than any other community. What can you do to create a community around what you do?
Lead With Your Values
Did you know that Lady Gaga is a staunch advocate of anti-bullying and LGBT causes, funding and speaking to support these causes with her Born This Way Foundation? Did you know that at her concert, she created colourful buses where fans who are being bullied can get counseling? People are in love with her values. Her music supports her values. Her marketing supports her values. Are you doing enough to talk about your values in your business?
Be Different
When Coty approached Lady Gaga to do a perfume deal, she refused to be like Britney Spears, Justin Bieber or Christina Aguilera. She made Coty go back to their scientists and create a black liquid that sprayed on clear and named it the title of her first album called Black. The name was also a message about her views on how dark fame could be.  She then created a multi-million dollar video to launch it that rivaled the best science fiction movie trailer in history. She captured an enormous market share in a very fragmented and competitive market. The CEO of Coty was quoted as saying that she forced the industry to change because she refused to do the same thing as everyone else. What are you doing differently than your peers in your industry?
Lady Gaga certainly taught an old marketer like me a few lessons and reminded me of the importance of values and community. Now, I’ve gotta think of my next meat-dress-move! What will be yours?
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