The unique selling point of the Spice girls was that each of the girls were very different each one targeted a different type of girl meaning each of the Spice girls had their own target audience. This was managed as each of the girls had different styles that reflected different types of girls.
The way in which the girls were shown to be different relied heavily on their clothing.
Baby Spice- Emma was the youngest of the Spice Girls and this is played up in her persona as she is portrayed as the baby of the group this is shown through her outfits she wore a lot of white and pink often wearing her hair up in "childish" styles to symbolize her youth and innocence.
Posh Spice- Victoria was considered the sophisticated one of the group, labeled as "posh" because of her style and smart dress sense. She often wore darker colours and tight fitted clothing.
Ginger spice - Geri was unique as she was the oldest member of the group originally too old to be considered almost didn’t make it into the group and when they asked her age, she allegedly said, “I’m as old as you want me to be. I’ll be 10 with big boobs if you want".” this fiery response branded Geri's defining look was red, she often opted to wear red clothing and she was a red head - the fiery ginger spice.
Scary spice- Mel B her outfits were often more daring and experimental compared to the rest of the group, making her stand out as she wasn't afraid to be dramatic and scare a few people off.
Sporty spice- Mel C helps represent the girls who aren't very girlie, dressed in sport/ work out gear
t-shits and tracksuits, she is the most laid back out of the group.
The Spice Girls were a synthetic (manufactured) group created by a management team of Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert and Lindsey Casbon. The initial recruitment for the Spice Girls happened in February 1994. An advertisement campaign was marketed requesting "18-23 with the ability to sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious and dedicated?" this campaign was specifically detailed to attract the right kind of girls in order to fit the image of the band. The idea behind the spice girls was to have a female version to match the popular boy bands of the 90's .
The group were completely under control of the management team and they were pitched as being a close group of friends that also just happened to be making music together which encouraged a wide female fan base. The Spice girls became huge securing a ton of sponsorship and merchandise even managing to secure their own line of dolls.
The branding of Katy Perry
Katy Perry has a unique appeal among her target audience and a wider audience as well. Her target audience consists of young teenage girls around the ages 14-17. The way that Katy Perry's acts to appeal to this target audience is taking on the role of a relatable slightly older role model like older sister or an older friend, someone they aspire to be like that they feel they can depend on for guidance and advice. She uses her songs as a way to do this commenting on the different issues and insecurities that her teenage audience go through, attempting to convey an inspirational message that they shouldn't let themselves get to down and they should never give up hope. Katy Perry is also able to reach a wider audience due to her certain brand of "sexy" while not compromising her younger audience by appearing "sexy" but in a non threatening way.
"Firework"
In Firework we see her ability to address the insecurities of her target audience showing herself to be someone who understands what they are going through. This is something that is very important in her appeal as it makes her someone that her target audience can rely on for advice with these issues. This song has an overall message that her target audience should love themselves no matter how different they are because their differences make them unique and being unique is beautiful.
"California Gurls"
At the time that "California Gurls" was released
At the time that "California Gurls" was released Katy was struggling with her marriage to Russell Brand which greatly affected her branding as Russell Brand was a well known womaniser. She began to change with her marriage and started becoming more sexual in her music videos. This was off putting for her young audience as and as such she started to loose her original fan base. This is prominent in the music video for "California Gurls" as she begins to appear more sexualised wearing less clothing and appearing nude on a cloud at one point. This is not the representation her brand was aiming for and as such her fan base started to loose interest.
"Wide Awake"
After struggling with her marriage to Russell Brand, Katy ended up getting divorced which was unfortunate for her but allowed her to get back to who she was before she began to change. She took this as an opportunity to make a video in apology to her fans and show that she was no longer being affected but her marriage and that she could still be the same person that she was before Russell Brand. She took it as a chance to reunite with her fans showing she could still be a role model for them showing her journey of how she began to change so that her fans could understand that she didn't abandon them.
"Roar"
In this music video Katy has managed to get back to her "brand" she is back to being who she was before her marriage and is showing how she is now fearlessly fighting back against the influences that changed her. She is showing herself to be ab better role model stronger and more empowered than ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment