POSITION PAPER 1

 Demographics

    Demographics can refer to a wide range of specifics when it comes to a company’s, business’, or person’s media strategy. Most of the time, when demographics is mentioned or spoken about, it refers to one of two things: age and gender. However, it can also refer to race, economic class, and social status. One person who has established themselves as a brand and who I personally think has done a great job with their media strategy in terms of marketing to her demographics is Rihanna. 

    I feel as though Rihanna is a personality that does not necessarily need explaining or describing, but if you need a refresher on who she is, Rihanna got her start in the music industry. She is known for her hit songs like Pon de Replay, Umbrella, and Work (just to name a few). Rihanna has also delved into acting and fashion designing. Now, Rihanna’s main form of marketing comes from her entity as a business woman. She owns and manages her three businesses: Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin, and Savage X Fenty.

    There are a few main aspects in Rihanna’s demographics that she specifically markets towards in a genuine way. Those aspects include: race/skin tone, age, gender, and size. One reason I admire Rihanna’s marketing strategy and the way she runs her businesses is because she does it in a sincere way with one of her intentions being creating products that are inclusive and high quality. It is easy to see that she is not just in it for the money, and I believe this is what makes her strategy more favorable over her other competition. 



RACE:

    Rihanna disrupted the makeup industry when she launched Fenty Beauty with 40 shades of foundation. Rihanna was not the first person or brand to have this many shades of foundation, but somehow she managed to completely flip the makeup industry upside down with the launch. Some people may say that this happened because she was already an international superstar with music fans who transitioned over into her businesses. However, Rihanna did one small thing that set her slightly above the rest of the competition. While many other brands, like Tarte and Make Up For Ever, who launched this many foundation shades made a point in their marketing to very specifically advertise to black customers or dark skinned customers, Rihanna did not do that. Yes, she advertised to those dark skinned customers seeing as they are often an overlooked demographic in makeup, but she also targeted all skin tones in her marketing. Rihanna said, “There needs to be something for a dark-skinned girl; there needs to be something for a really pale girl; there needs to be something in-between.” She also set herself apart by using models from many different ethnicities in her marketing which led the brand to be known as “the new generation of beauty”. 

AGE:

    This aspect seems a little weird because you may be thinking, “Makeup is for all ages so why is this important?” However, for this section, I want to shift from Fenty Beauty and into Savage X Fenty. This is Rihanna’s lingerie business that launched in 2018. Rihanna has a simple strategy in launching and marketing her lingerie products which is that she makes products for everyone. Many people may think that only young women are shopping for lingerie, but Rihanna believes in letting the consumer decide what they want. She showed this by having 57-year-old Demi Moore walk in one of the recent Savage X Fenty shows.


GENDER: 

    Rihanna made a splash at her Savage X Fenty show by having men walk also. This was surprising because it was a lingerie show that men were now walking in. No, the men were not wearing the lingerie line. However, they were wearing the new product that Rihanna created through Savage X Fenty: men’s underwear. The men modeled the briefs in the show AND Rihanna was praised because one of her models was a plus-size black man. Rihanna explained that she believes big men, just like big women, are often overlooked in the fashion and clothing industry and she is seeking to change that. Moving into her skincare line called Fenty Skin, Rihanna also created it to be a gender neutral skincare line. Rihanna said, “Skin is skin” in response to people asking why she decided to create a gender neutral line. This is a different type of marketing because, typically, skincare brands make it a point to market their products to either specifically male or specifically female, so it definitely changed the game a little bit. 

SIZE:

    Perhaps her biggest breakthrough in the fashion industry is in the size inclusivity of Savage X Fenty. One of the most common controversies in clothing is the lack of choices in the bigger sizes. Oftentimes, once you get past the size large in clothes, the choices get more and more scarce. From the very first launch of her lingerie brand, Rihanna made sure to have a wide range of sizes. In the first launch, her bras ranged in size from 30A to 44DDD and the underwear from XS to 3X. Not only are the products themselves inclusive to plus size people, the brand also makes sure to show this inclusivity in the fashion shows and marketing. The fashion shows often include plus size, pregnant, and older models throughout the show. This is a huge contrast to brands such as Victoria’s Secret where oftentimes the largest size is XL.

    In addition to practicing what they preach, Rihanna’s brands also have a very practical and beneficial media strategy in terms of social media. Instagram and Twitter are just two main forms of social media that Rihanna and her team take advantage of to make fans and consumers feel included as well as widening the variety of her demographics. Both men and women follow these accounts to get behind the scenes photos and videos, updates on launches, and even enter giveaways to win some of the merchandise. Rihanna does a great job at playing into our age of social media while marketing herself and her brand.

The Instagrams include:

FENTY SKIN FENTY BEAUTY SAVAGE X FENTY

    Overall, I am a huge fan of Rihanna in pretty much every way. I love her music, her acting, and her businesses. It can be really easy for already A-list celebrities to move into new ventures, such as clothing or skincare lines, and take their fans with them to make “easy money”. However, Rihanna went above and beyond with her businesses and brand and was able to develop a media and marketing strategy that targets her demographic while working to bring new demographics in. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

POSITION PAPER 2

Image
CASETiFY       Positive publicity is already something that is well known in the advertising industry and marketing sphere. However, it seems like this type of advertising skyrockets to higher percentage after a tragedy or shocking event takes place around the world. In terms of our society today, COVID, racial tensions, and now the war in Ukraine are all recent events that have affected people all over the world and that have pushed marketing to exuberate positivity.      While researching for this paper and topic, I wanted to write about a brand or entity that I have personally seen in the media spotlight consistently and whose branding is often built on positivity. The brand that I chose is CASETiFY. CASETiFY is a phone case brand that often collaborates with businesses, companies, and influencers on their case collections. In their " About Us " section on their website, CASETiFY says, "What started as a simple idea--to make your Instagram photos in...
Read more

POSITION PAPER 4

Image
  Publicity Stunts: Worth it or a Waste of Time?     As someone who is very interested in pop culture and entertainment, publicity stunts are not uncommon for me to hear about or read about. Oftentimes, there is a clear divide between publicity stunts. Sometimes you can clearly see when someone or a group of people are faking something for the sake of attention and raves. However, other times it may be hard to tell if something is real or fake until after the stunt has been revealed. When I think of publicity stunts, I think of four major categories in which publicity stunts are most often created. Those categories are relationships (often between A-list celebrities), tragedies, and celebrity feuds. In most of these categories, there are main stories that come to my mind at first thought, so I thought it would be interesting if I looked in detail at these publicity stunts and see how they benefit or harm people in terms of publicity and media. 1. Relationships   ...
Read more