Madonna

Madonna Case Study Group Case One STMT 500 Herrick Cheung, Iuliana Vintila, Leah Farrell, Leif Olson, Loyde Henriques, Peter Chan, Sudesh Kent Word Count: 1993 October 28, 2012 Lee Ann Keple Table of Contents Introduction 3 1A: Assessment of capabilities 3 1B: Achieved and sustained success 3 2A: Corporate and business strategies 4 Corporate strategy 5 Business strategy 5 2B: Common elements in successful strategies 5 Simple, consistent long-term goal 6 Profound understanding of the competitive environment 6 Simple, consistent long-term goal 6 Effective implementation 6 2C: Lessons Learned 7 Conclusion 7 Bibliography 8 Introduction Madonna Louise Ciccone is the best-selling female recording artist in history. She won a Golden Globe Award for best actress for her role in Evita. She is a best-selling author of both children’s and adult literature and she received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan. Despite these achievements, she would unlikely get a mention in conversations of the world’s great singers, dancers songwriters, or actresses. Many may not think of Madonna as the conventional strategist. However, she has come from humble beginnings to achieve superstardom in the entertainment industry. The explanation for Madonna’s unparalleled success in the world of entertainment can best be understood by examining her corporate and business strategies to achieve her goals. Assessment of capabilities Although Madonna is an accomplished singer, songwriter, dancer and actress, those skills are not her actual strengths: Her acting career only garnered critical acclaim in films with roles that either mirrored her own life (Evita, and Desperately Seeking Susan) or used her “natural talents for style and seductiveness” (Dick Tracy), (Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2010). As such, these roles did not require the use of great acting skills. “Apart from her training in dance, she had little musical background and no contacts”. (Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2010). Unlike many performers who traditionally have outstanding talent in their specific craft, Madonna’s capabilities draw from a variety of other sources. Madonna possesses drive, ambition and dedication, as demonstrated by the release of 6 albums in a five year period. She has the ability to continuously re-invent herself, and self-market that image using a combination of provocative and contentious themes, including sexuality, nudity, and spirituality, “The Justify My Love video released in November, 1990,…it was banned … for its portrayal of homosexuality, voyeurism, nudity…Again, Madonna was quick to turn controversy into profit: the Justify My Love video was rush-released for retail sale”.(Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2010, p. 5 She had the ability to recognize and acknowledge her own limitations. In doing so, she actively and aggressively developed and surrounded herself with people who had the talent and skills to help offset those limitations. Madonna also possesses a strong business acumen and the ability to carry that successfully across a wide range of industries, from performer to producer (Maverick label), author, actress, film director, fashion designer), fitness centre owner and publicist. Achieved and Sustained Success Madonna has achieved stardom and has been able to sustain that success in a number of ways. Her relentless drive, ambition and dedication to a single goal to be a superstar has allowed her to rapidly achieve success such as releasing 6 albums between 1986 and 1990, including seven #1 hits. Knowing sex and controversy sells, Madonna has continuously reinvented herself and ensured that she is in tune with current trends and societal norms; As a result, she always remained in the public eye and growing in both fame and fan base. Throughout her career, Madonna has sought out and surrounded herself with talented or connected people to further her career, or to access new opportunities. She maintained a high responsiveness and flexibility through identifying and exploiting strategic partners and opportunities that helped her advance her career. She focused her efforts on night club DJs in order to get increased playtime for her music which was critical to her successful beginnings as a rock star. She would also not hesitate to change relationships if it would further her career, such as when she then dropped plans to have long-time music collaborator and a DJ in favour of the wider reach and power of Warner Records for her producer. (Grant, Madonna, 2010 p. 3) Even her personal relationships were used to achieve and sustain her success. Among other notable relationships, short lived marriage to celebrities Sean Penn and later Guy Ritchie, helped her attain Hollywood connections and further expanded her celebrity status with new fan bases. Her success continued as she expanded into other segments of the Entertainment industry. Madonna had successfully integrated both vertically into the production and distribution aspects of the music industry (through her Maverick label), thereby increasing her power and fame, as well as into complementary industries including film direction, fashion design, author and film producer. “Sex also provided the basis for Madonna’s entry into book publishing. Her photographic “art” book, Sex, featured Madonna in an array of sexual poses.” (Grant. Her exploitation of the shock factor has been a focused strategy that has worked well for her career “Despite its high price ($49.95 for 120 pages) the book sold half a million copies in its first week.” , (Grant. Madonna, 2010, p. 5). Corporate and business strategies Corporate Strategy Corporate strategy focuses on where the organization will compete (Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2010, p. 19). In pursuing her goal to rule the entertainment world, Madonna’s corporate strategy evolved as new trends and opportunities emerged. From her early start as a singer/dancer, Madonna expanded vertically into music production and distribution, taking advantage of the high profitability and power those market players possessed. As her career continued, Madonna’s corporate strategy developed to a pattern of diversification into other entertainment industry segments including acting, writing, fashion design, production, film director and philanthropy; always maintaining a strategic fit between her goals and capabilities, and the markets and external environment. Business Strategy Business strategy focuses on how to compete within the entertainment industry in order to gain competitive advantage over the other competitors, (Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2010). Madonna’s business strategy is to dominate the entertainment industry by using her ability to recognize emerging trends to consistently reinvent her image and music style along with the changing social trends to stay relevant and attract new fans. She thereby created a competitive advantage over more contemporary artists who “stuck with what worked”. (Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2010). Madonna used sexuality, controversy and shock factor to challenge society’s values and norms, push boundaries, and differentiate herself in the industry. Her strategy could be seen in her over the top concert tours, outfit choices, props or even what she says both on and off stage. This combined marketing approach of “sex sells” with the shock factor generate revenues and synergies that would not be achieved by either factor as a stand-alone, thereby creating a competitive advantage that was effective throughout her career. Her business strategy also includes drawing on the talents of others, and developing powerful, and unique strategic alliances and personal relationships that she could exploit to achieve her goals. Once they cease to be beneficial in supporting the strategy, she moves on. “Her co-writers, meanwhile have been talented unknowns, as soon as their asking price has consequently risen—she drops them and hires somebody new, and usually cheaper”. (Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2010, p. 6 please check cannot find on pg 6). All her efforts were consistently coordinated to ensure and maintain hyperawareness among her audience of her self-projected image as a superstar. The shock value provided her career the constant publicity it needed to keep her image and her name in the mainstream, and to outlast and outshine any other performer. Common Elements in Successful Strategies When reviewing Madonna’s success in terms of Grant’s elements of successful strategies diagram, (Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2010, p. 10), it is quite easy to see how the elements resulted in the development of her strategy and the success it brought: Simple, consistent long-term goal Madonna’s simple, long-term goal of ruling the entertainment world (Grant, Madonna, 2010) dominated all aspects of her life, ensuring her actions maintained a clear and consistent direction. In fact Madonna’s focus on her career goal was so great that its success resulted in failures in per personal life, as illustrated in her multiple failed marriages and relationships and her reputation for using others to move up in the ranks; a potential downside to such a one-sided focus. Profound understanding of the competitive environment Madonna launched her career with the basic understanding that sex sells. In her entertainment beginnings she worked hard to establish her brand – her look – and a tag line “boy toy” that she would display prominently on her belt. With a low budget, she managed to make a low budget, grungy style popular. :”Her trademark look of messy, badly dyed hair, neon rubber bracelets…would soon be seen on teenage girls throughout the world”. (Grant, Madonna, 2010, p 2) Any one person can dress this way but one may not be able to influence the world like her. Madonna manipulated her competitive environment which is ever seeking new, different, drama etc. and maintained a steady stream to feed the entertainment media cravings. Objective appraisal of resources Aware of her limitations as a performer, Madonna instead leveraged her ability to cultivate relationships to surround herself with highly skilled dancers, choreographers and songwriters. She focused her efforts on using her competitive advantages to recreate and self-promote herself, and develop opportunities to expand her success in other markets and industries, such as acting, fashion, and production. She used her persuasive skills and seductive nature to partner with managers, support staff and love interests that could educate her or that she could leverage in order to further her business. She took a hands-on approach to everything; creative material and content, hiring, choreography, and managing distribution. She was also quick to understand business shifts; from rock and roll to dance/pop, as well as being an early adapter who recognized the effect that digital music would have on concerts as the emerging dominant revenue stream for artists. Effective implementation Madonna’s relentless drive, ambition and dedication were keys for the effective implementation of her strategy. With talented people at her command combined with an aggressive eye on the emerging trends in the music and entertainment industry, Madonna was able execute her strategy successfully to achieve and maintain her continued success. Lessons learned * Don’t be too narrow in scope when setting strategy. Come up with a strategic brand. And live that brand every day. * Comprehensive understanding of the business environment. Keep a close eye on the market, to remain flexible and agile in business so as to change with the market. * The need for objective evaluation of one’s capabilities, and the importance of focusing on the strengths while offsetting weaknesses with external resources. Talent and ability is essential, but it does not guarantee success in the long run. Conclusion Madonna’s success is the real life realization of a successful strategy. It all began with a clearly defined goal “Rule the world” the entertainment world (Grant, Madonna, 2010, p. 3). She maintained a vigilant eye on the changing trends in the music industry and adapted her style and music to be at the cusp of a new trend thus lead versus follow. Her conscience allowed her to strategically and objectively manipulate people in her personal and professional life to further her interests. Understanding that real success was earned in the media, she ensured that her name stayed in the newspapers using controversial tactics regarding whatever was relevant at the time, sex, religion, marriage, adoption. Madonna’s systematic and relentless execution of her strategy for success certainly has paid off. She is, by all accounts, “the most famous woman on the planet”. Bibliography Grant, R. M. (2010). Contemporary Strategy Analysis. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Grant, R. M. (2010). Madonna. In R. M. Grant, Cases to Accompany Contemporary Strategy Analysis (7th ed., pp. 1-8). West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |