No. 008: the 2024 summer brand playbook of female pop stars
plus, viral water boys, Truff's new launch, and millennial yachts
Welcome to Volume 8 of my newsletter, Brandiose! This week has been chaotic so I apologize that I’m a day late!!!
🧲 OBSESSION OF THE WEEK
Rhode’s NYC popup (launched Monday) has been a huge success which is not surprising. The brand is only available online so fans are freaking out that they can stock up on all their favorites (and take cute mirror selfies).
But my obsession isn’t that. It’s the brand that activated without the Rhode marketing budget!!!! It’s SO SMART!
Australian clothing brand Venroy sent a bunch of hot shirtless male models to hand out branded water to all the dehydrated girls waiting in line for their “Sleepy Girl” blush and peptide lip treatments. It feels very Abercrombie & Fitch coded.
The point is, Venroy got their name out there with their ideal target market for the lowest CAC possible (like $2?) using a product that they don’t actually make and got hundreds of thousands of social media impressions from the viral TikToks that resulted.
Guys, this is the type of guerrilla marketing we need to see more of.
🍿 BRAND NEWS
Lindsay Lohan is the new face of Pure Leaf for its Tea Break campaign “inspired by data that workers are in need of a break”; definitely not revolutionary (could we have leaned into spilling the tea perhaps?!) but her hair looks great and we love that she’s fully back in the spotlight
Shopify just announced a major new partnership with Target, where Shopify brands can apply for a chance to be carried in Target’s physical retail stores via its Marketplace. Caden Lane and True Classic are part of the pilot.
Amazon is launching a Shein & Temu competitor featuring discount products shipped from China
Netflix launched a popcorn line with Popcorn Indiana; the two flavors are “Cult Classic Cheddar Kettle” and “Swoonworthy Cinnamon Kettle.”
Purely Elizabeth has been having a busy year — they’re growing like crazy, launched their first major ad campaign last month, and just launched a collab with both Alfred (a yogurt parfait) and Goop Kitchen (banana bread)
Toys R Us made a cringey ad using AI and the creative community is not thrilled about it
Pinterest just rolled out a feature that lets users share their boards via video. I think this will be a gamechanger for them as Gen Zs are spending more and more time on Pinterest without a good way to share
Andreessen Horowitz is launching a PE fund, maybe
Chipotle, in need of some positive PR, is extending it’s “Celebrity Card” program to non-celebrities with a social media campaign; cardholders get a free meal every single day for 1 year. I wonder if guac is still extra?!
Truff launched buffalo sauced, called TRUFFALO. A nice way for them to stay hot sauce adjacent but to move more into the dips category. Feels like a missed opportunity not to do a collab with Shake Shack or some other iconic chicken sandwich, but maybe that’s coming…
🎯 DEEP DIVE: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE NEW “FEMALE POP STAR” BRAND
Context
It’s no secret that Taylor Swift invented the female pop star brand playbook. I don’t need to belabor the point here as we all know the facts. With years and years of strategic chess moves, she’s: staged a comeback in her Reputation era, sold out stadiums on her Eras tour, rerecorded her masters in the name of feminism, dropped a double album, become a billionaire through music alone, and every other accolade there possibly is (and I love that for her).
Just yesterday, it was announced that there’s a Hallmark movie underway that will detail her and Travis Kelce’s romance. Hallmark? The NFL? Does it get more American capitalism? She’s the ultimate brand.
But if she’s the Coca-Cola, Apple, or Hermès of female pop stars, I think it’s more interesting to look at the brands of smaller female pop stars, clearly inspired by Swift but paving their own way — and what we can learn.
Why Now?
Now more than ever before, building a brand around stardom is key:
attention economy: attention is fragmented and we as consumers have endless options of what to read, watch, and listen to. Musicians need to do more to keep us interested.
“celebrity” status: with the rise of influencers who reach icon status (in terms of cultural relevancy and followers), celebrities don’t hold the same cache as they once did. To cement their icon status, they need to create a compelling, consistent narrative on why you should care about them (more on positioning below).
revenue streams: the calculus is changing on potential revenue streams for musicians. There are so many different ways to make money (streaming, tours, digital downloads, merch, brand collabs, owned brands), and savvy stars know that they need to be diversifying to get that bag.
longevity: pop stars, like brands, know that they’re playing the long game when it comes to building success. Sure, your launch has to be big to put you in the spotlight, but everything that comes after will keep you there.
The Main Characters
While there are a plethora of established & up-and-coming female pop stars out there and I love to see it, for the purposes of this case study let’s focus on just three: Sabrina Carpenter, Gracie Abrams, and Charli XCX. They’ve been booked and busy this year, so let’s dive in.
Sabrina Carpenter | the ultra-feminine, dreamy "it girl”
Performed at Coachella in a “Jesus Was a Carpenter” shirt that inspired a bunch of merch on Etsy and elsewhere
Launched an “Espresso” ice cream collab with Van Leeuwen
Was the face of a recent SKIMs campaign (who isn’t tbh?)
Did a collab drink with Alfred, “Sabrina’s Vanilla Rose Cold Foam Latte”
Gracie Abrams | the down-to-earth, relatable girl’s girl
promoted her album with a scavenger hunt of “Gracie’s Secret Spots” with challenges for fans around her favorite spots in LA
launched her collab with Taylor Swift and started a casual kitchen fire with her (but of course, got it all on video)
has been openly discussing having “hard-core stage fright”
Charli XCX | the cooler, snarkier, self-effacing older sister
created a highly meme-worthy album cover (see here) with an equally iconic “slim green” color that screams DGAF
the creator of BRAT summer and aesthetic, which is basically doing whatever you want because you want to and being unapologetic about it
is intentional with the songs on her album starting a conversation, like “I think about it all the time” about the decision to have kids, as detailed in this article from the Cut
has been strategic with her song collaborators: Addison Rae, Robyn, Yung Lean
teased her song with Lorde via an intentionally branded billboard, leveraging the “BRAT” branding
Hot Take 🌶️
I promised you a playbook, and here it is.
Identify the whitespace: I guarantee you that each of these stars’ management teams drew a perceptual map at some point to find an area of opportunity for their clients to capitalize on. If someone is already owning “healthy, but delicious,” you’ll need to do something different. There’s room for everyone, but brands have got to own a whitespace.
Nail your positioning: I outlined each stars’ positioning above in a way that feels reductive, but that’s actually a great thing. If you can’t reduce a star (or a brand) into a single line, then their marketing isn’t clear enough. Of course, there is always nuance — but in an attention overloaded world, ain’t nobody got time.
Create a distinctive ‘look and feel’: This is branding 101, but it’s often overlooked. Visuals are so powerful. Looking at the imagery that accompanies each of these stars, there are clear distinctions between their hair, makeup, clothing, album artwork… anything that lets them tell a story outside of their songs. Brands should not think of look and feel as a logo and a font since it’s so much more than that.
Build fans, not followers: each of these stars knows how to make their fans feel like they’re part of a special club. Whether it’s exclusive albums, drops, merch, events, or channels, it’s all about getting access. Brands can do the same by treating their best customers like VIPs and giving them perks that are bragworthy.
Create an omnichannel strategy: each star is everywhere all at once, between interviews, appearances, brand collabs, and of course, performing. Your brand should think the same way, keeping a steady drumbeat of content, distribution, collaborations, and social clout to keep your audience consistently engaged and excited.
Keep ‘em guessing: perfection is not the goal here. There is undoubtedly a secret sauce that each of these stars has that is a bit hard to pin down. There’s a bit of unpredictability that doesn’t feel totally orchestrated. Your brand should be the same — a living breathing thing with a personality that sometimes goes off script (we love an unhinged brand Twitter).
While the brand marketing playbook is essential, there is one fundamental truth that underscores everything: creating a quality product. These ladies are putting out bangers and that’s what makes any of the promotion work. Your brand needs to do the same. Without a great product, there is no chance of success.
✨ MUSINGS
I read an interesting article in the NYT about millennials not wanting to go on cruises but being fine with yachts (lol). Honestly, it makes sense. I think cruises have had some bad PR in our day and if we’re going to use our disposable income to travel, we’d rather do it in a way that feels premium. The craziest part is that it’s still incredibly expensive ($5-$10k/night) so do with that what you will.
AdWeek put out a report full of interesting facts about Gen Zs; one that stood out to me is that the average Gen Z participates in 20 fandoms and interest-based communities and 65% consider themselves a superfan of something. I love this and want to know more about what fandoms these are (other than Swifities bc that one is a given). If you’re a Gen Z please clue me in (this isn’t sarcasm I really do want to know).
Several hair brands are now leveraging fermented ingredients to “balance out oil levels in the scalp”. I don’t know how I feel about this. I’ve been thinking a lot about how consumerism is built on the idea that there’s always something better/faster/stronger/prettier, and I think beauty is built on the exact same idea, positioned as “innovation” to make it seem a little less money grabby.
🎲 ONE LAST THING
Why do we feel the need to label everything as an “aesthetic"? From cottagecore to coastal grandma to strawberry girl to “office siren” (if you don’t know, read this), the TikTok girlies love a label.
This article from The Cut defends the practice of categorizing, labeling, and giving things a name, saying that it makes us “art historians of the mundane” and I personally love that POV.
Beyond that, I think “aesthetics” make us feel more intentional with our choices, provide a more specific way to engage with our communities, and also mark moments in time with a high degree of specificity. It’s another form of curation in a very chaotic world.
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That’s all for now!
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have a great week.
- Sabena
love the deep dive here on the rise of female pop stars!
Beautifully written!!!