Marketing Strategies

We were given a list of bands/artists to choose from and analyse 5 questions on them.

Me and Arti chose Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, a 24 year old singer, formerly known as Katy Perry:

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.
Katy perry started off much more casually dressed but over time she has turned into a new fashion icon with her uniqueness and her confidence to wear extravagant clothing. When she released her first single 'Ur so gay' in 2003 her outfits still being quite over the top where still not as extrvagent as her styler to this day. It seems nowadays that Katy Perry, Lilly Allen and Lady GaGa seem to be competing in what they choose to wear. Their ourfits are unique and stylized, they tend to be outfits you would wear only if you had the confidence to pull them off. People are now beginning to watch their music videos alot more not only for their music but also to see what new and wild costumes they are wearing. Katy Perry also started of blonde, but over the years began to change her hair colour until now finally stopping at brunette. The new dyed hair makes her look much more sophisticated and more of a pop idol.

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?
I would suggest that her fans base and dominately teenage girls, based on what her official website looks like. Her website has a lot of pink images and some of the links to it are very girly such as 'dear diary'. Also doing along her unique fashion and style we would assume she is trying to target the females. Her website also has a 'store' link which is online shopping of her merchandise- they sell girls tops and underwear- again suggesting her fans are female.
She also draws in all pop music fans in general, her secodnary audience: Gay & lesbian. We can think this from a couple of her singles, 'ur so gay' and 'i kissed a girl'.

Her album covers:
Ur so gay- this could target both boys and girls because she is doing a cheek pose and isn't dressed up in either really girly or boyish clothing.
one of the boys- where as this album cover is much more girlier, with her nice outfits and lots of pink.

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.

• Katy Perry has her own official myspace page and official website(http://www.katyperry.com/)
• She was the female vicalist for The Matrix which is promoting her widely.
• She made cameo appearances in Gym Class Heroes single, along with starring in the ABC family tv serios 'wildfire'- episode 'Life's too short'
• She had reviews on magazines uch as NME and newspapers.
• Her tour starting in January also promoted her as an artist.
  

Her marketing and advertising is above the line strategies because they are things that have to be budgeted, however her below the line strategies are the cameo appearances and reviews in the press, all things in which she doesn't have to pay for.

A quote made by Katy Perry herself, 'some songs are meant to make you cry, but there are others to make youd ance and sing'- This could be focused at girls because they're much more emotinal than boys.