If you were one of the billions of people who tuned into Lady Gaga’s Superbowl halftime show yesterday, you witnessed a professional marketer who knows exactly what she’s doing, why and when.
Beyond her stunning aerial acrobatics, fiery costume with matching boots, and dramatic mic drop / football catch, Lady Gaga also showcased why she is so damn successful with a net worth of $275M.
All marketers would be wise to take note.
Outside of the impressive theatrics she puts into every performance, one thing Lady Gaga does better than just about any other performer today is the conscientiousness she shows her fans.
In marketing speak, that means she knows her audience and she gives them what they want.
At first blush, it may seem as if Lady Gaga is all about herself. But look beyond the unique make up, costuming and hair styles and there is a savvy artist-entrepreneur who shows up and outdoes herself time and time again because she makes her work about her fans. Every move she makes is a lesson in marketing mastery.
I can’t think of another top performer who has this locked down the way Lady Gaga does.
It’s Always about Her “Little Monsters”
During Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show, she could have sung songs she was working on that no one knew. She could have talked to the audience (who she lovingly calls her “Little Monsters”) for a minute or two about the current political climate that frightens a good percentage of her fan base who don’t fit the 45th president’s vision for citizenship. (Her one political punch came at the start of her set when he sang “America the Beautiful.”)
Instead, Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show featured a medley of her most popular songs including “Born This Way,” “Poker Face” and “The Edge of Glory” — all for a crowd whose roars and cheers indicated their delight with her choices. Add the cheers coming from homes around the world, and there’s no doubt that Lady Gaga has mastered the marketing game.
If more companies could follow in Lady Gaga’s footsteps and take the time to put the needs of their audiences first over their own agendas, preferences and idiosyncrasies, more business might get done. Fewer misunderstandings or colossal failures might occur. More people might be happy.
No matter how big or small our business may be, when we give our customers what they want, satisfaction ratings fly through the roof, much like Lady Gaga flew through the air after dropping the mic and then catching a football as she leaped off the stage in one symbolic final exclamation point.
Give Them What They Want
Successful marketing is always about serving the audience what it wants, not the other way around. Funny thing is, as Zig Ziglar is famous for saying, “When you give people everything they want, you get everything you want.”
In Lady Gaga’s case, that’s a nice, cool $275M net worth of what her customers want. Not too shabby for putting others before herself.
Now that’s a mic drop.
