Case Background and Introduction
Gone are the days when an artist could
solely thrive on his/her artistic prowess to win the hearts of the audiences.
Modern artists have to go the extra mile in addition to their artistic
abilities to reach out to potential fans and appreciators. This paper focuses
on analysing the role of strategic management in kick starting the career of an
artist, in the age of ever changing technology and ever growing clutter of
choices available to people.
We will consider the case of musician, Lady
Gaga for the purpose of this paper; and try to trace key events in the artist’s
life and study probable outcomes of alternatives available at that particular
juncture in Gaga’s career.
The event of choice here took place in
2009, when Lady Gaga was gearing up for a multi month tour with rapper Kanye
West. The tour was a big ticket event and a first of its kind in Gaga’s musical
journey. The artist aimed at jump starting her career with such an event by
associating with a popular name as Kanye West thus, assuring returns and
getting leverage for her promotional efforts by banking on the image of someone
already popular.
Problem struck Gaga camp when West withdrew
from participating in the tour, a month short of the release due date for the
event. And although Lady Gaga and her manager Tony Carter were aware of the
unprofessional behaviour sported by West at events such as MTV music awards,
they could do little in winning West back to favour.
Tony
Carter and other associates of Lady Gaga team such as, Steve Berman (Vice
Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M), Arthur Fogel (CEO of Live Nation’s
Global Touring), William Morris (of Endeavor), producer Vincent Herbert,
organisations such as L.A. Reid (Lady Gaga’s record producer), Atom Factory,
Live Nation and Coalition Media, came together to mitigate a solution to the
sudden problem. The problem was of choice that is, choosing the best possible
alternative in the situation, as a damage control (loss minimising) measure,
which least sacrifices the artist’s potential for stardom.
Situation Analysis
In September, 2009 the problem facing team
Lady Gaga, had only three obvious alternative solutions;
1.
Flat out cancellation of the
event
This was the simplest alternative available
to Tony Carter. Cancelling any performances would kill the prospects of any
losses that were to be made on the failure of a multimillion tour. However,
this would have also meant quitting chances of any probable profit. Also,
cancelling shows and not performing isn’t healthy for an artist’s career; an
artist must continually strive to reach out to newer audiences.
2.
Resizing to smaller venues
Lady Gaga had already been performing in
night clubs and for smaller audiences; it was more in her comfort zone and the
risk appetite required for such performances is low. For a team if it has,
lower risk propensity, it suited well to scale down the event to smaller venues
for solo performances by the artist.
3.
Giving ‘it’ a shot
The last and the most risky option
available with team Lady Gaga was to let Lady Gaga perform solo on the big
ticket arena tour. This would have been a first for the singer, and had high
chances of making her the star she yearned to be. Also, if the event failed, it
could bring along multimillion losses and a tarnished brand image.
Making a choice from the three alternatives
available required a structured and detailed analysis of the situation to make
the best decision. In the following section we will undertake a brief SWOT
analysis to best determine the factors influencing the situation and how it
could lead to the best possible alternative.
Strength
The pop star’s strength lies in three core
areas:
1.
Musical connect
With three chart topping numbers in her
first album ‘The Fame’, Gaga had easily developed connect with her audience. Moreover
her musical prowess was established by her winning various prestigious awards
in the music fraternity.
2.
Fashion Statement
Lady Gaga created a buzz around her image
in the media and among the audiences, with her outré fashion sense. Her
dressing up in a dress made of red meat earned her the title of top fashion
statement of 2010 (TIME magazine).
3.
Professional backing
Lady Gaga is backed by producer such as
Vincent Herbert and record labels such as streamline records. Good professional
backing has ensured a sound music career and promotion for the artist.
Weakness
There were two points of weakness manifest
in team Gaga:
1.
Lack of experience
Gaga had just started making her mark on
the musical scene. It had only been a year for Lady Gaga performing at night
clubs and for private audiences; and opening tour for reunion of band ‘New kids
on the block’. She lacked exposure to big crowds as against lot of establish
stars.
2.
Still evolving fan base
As lady Gaga was very new to the music
scene, her fan base was still developing. There was no surety in terms of
estimated of numbers, of how many people would turn up for the scheduled event.
Opportunities
Lady Gaga has done a commendable job at
creating an opportunity for her brand, herself.
1.
Social media
Gaga is among the few celebrities who have
been articulate to use the social media to their advantage. Gaga personally
manages her facebook and twitter accounts to develop a personal connect with
her fans.
2.
Digital team
Lady Gaga employs a special digital team to
maintain a repository of her online feeds and to synchronise promotional,
publicity and outreach efforts across all digital platforms. Efforts to arrange
interviews by media bloggers, videos on Youtube, Cross linking and cross
promotion are some of the remarkable achievements of the digital team, in
building brand Lady Gaga.
Threats
Threats to the singer come from two corners
(and these threats are common to the entire music industry):
1.
Other artists
The rise of new pop artists and the
popularity of already established ones have the prospect of eating into the fan
base of Lady Gaga. The team needs to stay ahead both in music quality and
promotion to fight against such a threat.
2.
Dynamic Technology
Technology in the past decade has evolved
faster than the speed of thought and developing still faster than ever. This
has however, adversely affected the artists in the music industry. Ever
changing technology has left less means to the artists to earn. Music listeners
these days directly download a song from the internet (for free), eating into
the artists commission (which would otherwise come had the listener bought a CD
or a cassette).
Recommendation
A study of the strengths of the brand, its
weakness, opportunities available and the threats facing the singer have given
a clearer picture of the situation enabling a sound decision making process.
In my view, Tony Carter should advise Lady
Gaga to perform solo at the multimillion tour about to kick off in a month.
Reason being:
1.
Lady Gaga’s musical prowess is
already established among her fans and music fraternity. She has even won quite
many prestigious awards giving further proof of the same.
2.
Lady Gaga has been able to
develop a personal connect with the audience through her music and her unusual
fashion sense. She has been able to attract ever growing number of fans due to
her eccentric attitude.
3.
This opportunity can be a once
in a lifetime opportunity to make it big. Sitting and doing nothing is not
going to do any good to her career; and in the past the team has seen
negligible revenues and futility of small scale events.
In my opinion Lady Gaga has all the
prospects of becoming a star. She is backed by ability, attitude and sound
business principles; therefore, she should take a chance to take a big leap,
the risk is calculated and she has good chances of making the event a total
sold out!
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