Huba - Monster loyalty : how Lady Gaga turns followers into fanatics

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Copyright Jackie Huba, 2013

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Illustration credits

: Forrester Research, Inc.

: Jackie Huba (designed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.)

: Simon Sinek, Inc.

: Millward Brown Optimor and The Jim Stengel Company

: AP Photo / Matt Sayles

: Jason Reeves

: Jay Directo / AFP / Getty Images

: Courtesy of Joel Diaz

: Jackie Huba

: Courtesy of Gary Sim

: Rod Brooks and Sean McDonald

: Krista Kennell / Sipa Press / AP Images

: Innocent Drinks

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Huba, Jackie.

Monster loyalty : how Lady Gaga turns followers into fanatics / Jackie Huba.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-101-63099-0

1. Customer loyaltyCase studies. 2. Customer relations. 3. MarketingSocial aspects. 4. Lady Gaga. I. Title.

HF5415.5.H83 2013

658.8'343dc23

2013006819

For Little Monsters

Your bravery in the face of societys pressures inspires us all.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Dear Mama Monster,

No one has been here for me like you have for the last few years. You change millions of peoples [sic] lives and for that and so many other reasons, you are a true inspiration... You show that it is ok to be different and that if you have a dream, you should not stop until you reach it. I not only see you as a singer, Gaga, I see you as a way of life...

love, your little monster, Bree <3

W ith fan letters like this pouring in every day, its no wonder Lady Gaga is one of the most well-known pop artists in the world. A fan base that spans the globe and an estimated 23 million albums and 64 million singles sold worldwide also make her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Her achievements include five Grammy Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, consecutive appearances on Billboard magazines Artists of the Year (scoring the definitive Best Artist overall title in 2010), a ranking of fourth on VH1s list of 100 Greatest Women in Music, and a spot on Time magazines 2010 list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2011, she was ranked No. 1 on Billboards list of top moneymakers, grossing more than $30 million. That same year Forbes named her the worlds most powerful celebrity, ahead of Oprah Winfrey. When you overtake Oprah Winfrey on any list, clearly you have a large amount of power and influence.

But Lady Gaga didnt become the success she is solely based on talent, which she certainly has in spades. She did so by engendering immense loyalty in fans, not just through her music, but with the message she inspires and the community she has built around it. To anyone in the business community, this sounds like a classic case of loyalty marketing and customer cultivationand it is. Lady Gaga is not just a pop star; she is an incredible businessperson.

I first became a Gaga fan in 2009 when I was drawn in by the addictive dance beats of her first album The Fame. Yet the more I watched how she interacted with her fans, the more impressed I became with how she methodically created her passionate fan base. I saw her relate to her fans on a much more intimate level than most of her ego-driven contemporaries did. Fans were pouring their hearts out online, not just about how much they loved Gagas music and fashion, but also about how she had inspired them to be better people. I wanted to know how she was inspiring such devotion. I read every article I could find about her and pored through interviews she had given to print and television outlets. I started following her on Facebook, where she has the third-highest number of fans with 55 million, and on Twitter, where she is the most followed with more than 33 million followers, as well as on Tumblr and other social sites. I watched grainy, tinny-sounding videos of her performances and concerts uploaded to YouTube by fans around the world. I visited the top Gaga fan sites daily to see what they were reporting and what fans were saying on the forums. Ive even been to three of her concerts. What I began to see amazed me. Lady Gaga is doing something casual observers and many business professionals may not really comprehend. While creating a buzz with her wild outfits and crazy performance art, she is methodically building a grassroots base of passionate fans for the long term. The more I observed, the more I began to realize that there is a lot she could teach the business world about how to generate customer loyalty.

I first wrote about this topic in February 2010 for my blog, Church of the Customer, with a post entitled Loyalty Lessons from Lady Gaga. It was the most retweeted and passed-along post I had ever written in my seven years of blogging. When celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton retweeted it, I realized that I was on to something big. I began adding Lady Gaga as a case study in my keynote speaking and got a terrific response from my audiences. People told me they hadnt realized all of the things she was doing to engage fans and that learning about her as a person and what she has accomplished helps them think about their own customers in a different way. The largest consumer packaged-good companies in the world, such as Coca-Cola, benchmark Gaga instead of their competitors for how she engages her fans on social media. Technology companies, like Austin, Texasbased Bazaarvoice, have looked for inspiration by inviting Gagas manager to speak to their entire workforce about how she connects with fans. After I became well versed in Gagas fan loyalty, BBC Radio in London interviewed me about her marketing abilities when her third album, Born This Way, was released in May 2011. It was then that the idea for this book was born. I call it Monster Loyalty because I want to detail the business of how to create Little Monster-like customers (as Ill explain more about later, Little Monsters is the name Lady Gaga has given her fans). And I want to encourage readers to create Monster Loyalty within their own businesses and organizations.

Lady Gagas business sense impresses me, but her passion for changing the world for the better through any means possible is what truly inspired me to study her. She is influencing an entire generation of young people to stand up for one another, to be more tolerant of differences, and to be brave in the face of difficulty. I have spent hours and hours reading fan comments about how she has changed lives for the better. I have cried watching YouTube videos of kids saying they thought about hurting themselves or ending their lives, but that her belief in them, a woman they dont even know, kept them from doing it. They listen to her music, especially Born This Way, and they feel better about themselves. You will learn more about what she is doing by reading this book. But part of why I wanted to write it is that I am compelled to share all of the things she is doing, not just her business acumen. I believe that if there was ever a candidate to continue Oprahs legacy of inspiring people to live their best lives, its this five-foot-one, twenty-six-year-old in a studded bikini.