Lessons In Brand Marketing: The Life Of Prince

Signature Super Moment

First things first; I'm a lifelong fan of the late and very great artist, going back to high school days with cassette tapes played until the music warped in my car's deck. Since the news came out on Thursday, I've been alternating between joy in viewing so much unearthed archival footage, and reliving all of those hits, and coming to grips with the loss. But you read me for marketing and advertising, and how the man handled his affairs has some lessons for and against our field.

First off, the easy stuff; his uncanny discipline in creating, and success in exploiting, his personal brand. From a signature color to the symbol he used when he became TAFKAP (The Artist Formerly Known As...), he always gave the media what they needed to write about him consistently... and then he gave them reams and reams of content, through a tireless work ethic, an ability to reinvent design looks, and more. From feuds with his label to scandals with any number of people who were convinced that he symbolized the downfall of the culture (and to be fair, that ventilated outfit at the MTV Awards while performing "Gett Off" is as red meat as it gets to goad the goad-able), there was a very long period of time when the sizzle nearly drowned out the steak. Like David Bowie before him and Madonna concurrently, Prince reinvented himself while not losing his core audience, and never limited himself to a single market. This was a global business, and one that ran with a relatively minimal amount of scandal, considering his field and subject matter.

That's not to say that everything was a Gold Experience. Most of his attempts to make it in film, or to recreate the "Purple Rain" success, were bad misses. His relentlessly prolific output exhausted casual fans, and the label battles meant an eventual saturation release experience, with good materials lost in the clutter. He never really adapted to the Internet age of music, and lost relevance and reach by staying away from streaming services. Litigation efforts that prevented his catalog from gaining new fans, and an old-school attitude towards not using his music in commercials, cut back on his relevance to newer audiences. While no one ever doubted his genius, pop music changed, and he, well, didn't.

Here's the thing, though... very little of that did any long-term damage to the brand. Because the plain and simple of marketing is that the quality of the work will overwhelm matters like last-mile creative failures, delivery and distribution mistakes, pricing issues, personal foibles and the other flotsam and jetsam of a real life.

What we do for our clients is important for the success of the enterprise, especially when it comes to finding new markets, monetizing to proper levels, positioning for the future, and so on, and so on. But this isn't alchemy, or the reverse. If you've got the goods, the marketing and advertising can succeed, even if it's sub-optimal. If you don't, all of the tap dancing in the world won't keep the curtain up.

And, well, with a catalog of dozens of hits in a variety of tempos and instrumentation, and a signature sound and acumen that's unmatched by anyone in his field or era, Prince's legacy is secure.

But, sadly, just not as long as it should have been.

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