Some Of The Best "Brand Marketers" May Surprise You...

Now, when you think "Kim Kardashian", I'm sure the last thing you think of is a marketing genius. But she, and many other women in Hollywood, are creating business empires as well as global brand awareness of themselves and their hocks all while proving to be quite savvy when it comes to marketing.

Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, and Britney Spears are dominating their specialized fields (i.e. acting, singing, dancing, etc.) as well as the retail market place. And their strategies including multi-channel and brand marketing.

Of course one can’t leave out the “queen of all media” when discussing marketing brilliance. Oprah truly exemplifies “multi-channel marketing” with her print, web, radio and television efforts culminating to die-hard fans that span the globe. In addition to her popular TV show, her webpage (OprahStore) generates sales from clothing and other items for pets, baby, and home. In addition, her show transcripts and DVDs are for sale. The later, which is repurposing her “content”, is something I discuss in my SONAR Content Distribution Model TM.

A recent article in Life & Style cited that Jessica Simpson’s business is projected to hit the “billions” by 2011-12 between her record and ticket sales, clothing, shoes, handbags, fragrances, skin care, hair extension line, and endorsements.

And a recent panel discussion on ShowBiz Tonight addressed how some of these women use their brand management power to go from obscurity to household names. Case in point: Kim Kardashian, who after a salacious sex tape leak had turned an unfortunate situation into a very fortunate situation.

Ms. Kardashian is not only drop dead gorgeous but also one of the most searched women on the Internet – with 49 million search results and 4.6 million Twitter followers. Ms. K’s skincare line, Perfect Skin, even has 7,000+ followers on Twitter … all showing how the Internet (social media, SEM, SEO) has been used to capitalize on her fame. “Brand management” has helped Ms. K obtain lucrative endorsement deals for bathing suits, diet products as well as compensation for personal appearances, modeling, and more.

So how did they do it?

No doubt these mavens have some smart business people around them complementing their own gut intuitions.

But what has also helped was their ability to create and distribute their “brand message” and their “USP” (unique selling proposition) through multi-channel marketing platforms.

They also, either by their own vision or with the aid from their marketing "team" work on product development and product “funneling” (i.e. apparel, fragrances, endorsements) to make sure they cover a variety of selection and price points (another critical key to success, if you read my July 27 Blog Post, Give Your Customers What They Want: The Importance of Product Development, Front-Ends and Back-Ends).

Finally, they deliver their “brand message” through multi-channel marketing platforms, such as infomercials, print ads, TV ads, radio ads, and Web (social media and search engine marketing).

So the next time you think Hollywood is full of vapid, plastic people. Just remember that although some of these folks aren’t MBAs or marketing junkies, they have demonstrated some innate marketing insight to help increase market reach, generate social awareness, increase website visibility, and encourage both sales and lead generation ... ironically the same goals as “genuine” marketers.