Branding of the Spice Girls and Katy Perry

The Spice Girls

Formation of the Spice Girls

• In the mid-1990s, family management team Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert and Lindsey Casbon set about creating a girl group to compete with popular boy bands that dominated the pop music scene in the mid- to late-1990s.
• In February 1994, Heart Management  placed an advertisement in The Stage trade magazine asking; "WANTED: R.U. 18–23 with the ability to sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated?

Spice girls in their signature outfits that match their personality

Clothing
Their clothes were "carefully chosen for their first appearance on American TV. :

• Victoria in a sophisticated slinky black number,
• Emma in a baby-pink dress,
• Mel B in her leopard-skin trousers,
• Geri in red hot pants, top and bra,
• Mel C in her favourite Liverpool shirt and tracksuit bottoms

"Selling" the Spice Girls

• The Spice Girls were sold to us as a group of friends, just goofing off and making top-selling singles together. This is the main theme and idea for "Wannabe"

• They were actually a carefully selected group of strangers chosen, after hundreds of auditions.

• They had endless merchandising and sponsorship deals, and were involved with everything from Pepsi ads to Polaroid ads to Barbie-style Spice Girls dolls.

• 

  Spice Girls Barbie dolls

  Everything about them—including their Scary/Posh/Sporty/etc. nicknames was under the control of men or corporations. Geri Halliwell.

• (“Ginger Spice”) almost didn’t make it into the group, because she looked older than the other girls; when they asked her age, she reportedly said, “I’m as old as you want me to be. I’ll be 10 with big boobs if you want".”

Katy Perry

Katy Perry's target audience is young girls aged 14-17. In order to appeal to this group Katy Perry has to be like an ideal older sister and friend. She has to be an idealised version of them. Her songs and her videos have to reflect many of the fears and anxieties young girls have. When Katy Perry appears "sexy" it has to be in a safe and non-threatening way. So firstly we have "Firework" which is the perfect video for her target age as its all about self confidence for a range of issues and how to love yourself. This appeals to her target audience as 14 - 17 year old have many insecurities. This video reflects that her personal life is average and she is making music to help and support her audience.

"Firework"

Interestingly her "Brand" suffered when she married the womanising Russell Brand. Suddenly her videos became more sexual and knowing. Because of this change her young audience became disinterested. Her image of "Sexy" in this video was completely changed which seemed to frighten her audience more as Katy was in less clothing and bright colours. This video represent ho her personal life was changing as she was maturing for Russell. Therefore she became for sexual but attempted to stay connected with her target audience by making the theme candy.

"California Gurls"

Following a messy divorce from Brand, Perry needed to use her videos to apologise and explain to her fans and to state she was still the same person she was before she met him. To do this she made "Wide Awake" which showed a journey of Katy finding her inner child to reconnect with her audience, she goes through some trials and a maze to get to her happy ending which is back before Russell came into her life. To show this at the very beginning we see her leave to set of California Gurls which is clearly a metaphor.

"Wide Awake"

After her successful attempt to reconnect with her audience, Katy has started making music fit for her audience where she is not threatening. A good example of this is in "Roar" where Katy becomes a self sufficient woman and doesn't need a man to survive which is a strong message for her audience.This reflects her personal life as we can see she is back to her original self and has gotten over Russell.

"Roar"