I pondered whether or not to post some comments about the death (and life) of Michael Jackson. Dwelling on the misfortunes of celebrities seems a little ghoulish to me.
However, in this case, we’re dealing with legitimate news that is all over the media (for goodness sake, the story is even in the “Wall Street Journal” and the “Financial Times”!).
And, despite Michael Jackson’s unusual lifestyle and often questionable behaviour, there’s no doubt he was a giant in the world of pop music…
…plus he was a pioneer in the use of video in marketing pop music (more about the “Thriller” video later).
OK, let’s get the utterly cynical marketing observations out of the way first. His death will most likely be a huge boost to the “Michael Jackson” business (think “Elvis”). Look for the inevitable memorial collections, books and whatever. Not to mention a media frenzy over the coming weeks and months.
(I mean let’s face it, the guy’s life provided more than enough material…now that he’s dead the more sordid aspects of his life will be dissected endlessly by the muckrakers in the media.)
For direct response marketers, a news event like this provides a more subtle opportunity. As pretty much everyone in the world knows about the event, there’s an opportunity to “enter the conversation” that’s already going on in their mind.
One example, anyone in the personal development field can use Jackson’s sad tale to promote their product. I’d be pretty sure that shortly marketing maven Harlan Kilstein will be mailing his list (or making a video) about Jackson and then introducing his “Physiology Of Excellence” program.
(The man is a genius at using current events as promotional opportunities.)
It was Tony Robbins who first introduced me to the idea that for each of us our lives are either an example or a warning. Jackson’s life, of course, is the classic story of talent and hard work leading to success and triumph…
…but then followed by hubris and nemesis.
Speaking of which…
…students of Socionomics will recall that Jackson was an icon of the bull market of the 1980s and that his subsequent decline in popularity from its peak was entirely predictable (see chapter 15 of “The Wave Principle Of Human Social Behavior” for more about this).
Finally, the “Thriller” video was a breakthrough in the marketing of pop music. Great article from the UK “Daily Telgraph”…
…“Michael Jackson’s Thriller”…
…covers this in an interview with John Landis, the director.
(Note this was also the start of the “Making of…” genre with “The Making Of Michael Jackson’s Thriller”.)
I was going to put the video up but Youtube seems to have gone into “meltdown” today. I’m guessing that gazillions of people are viewing Michael Jackson videos and this could well be costing Google a ton of moolah in bandwidth use!! I’ll cover this in a separate post.
So, Michael Jackson has “left the building”. I’ll just say…
…”Thanks for the music”.
Personal faves are “Off The Wall” and, of course “Thriller” (to date the biggest selling album ever, over 65 million copies sold).
UPDATE:
The initial marketing bandwagon is already rolling! Take a look at the Amazon sites, for example. Seem to be ads for “Thriller” all over the place as well.
UPDATE 2:
To expand on the Socionomics reference, public figures like Michael Jackson come to be associated with the social mood of the times. To a large extent, their popularity is a reflection of that social mood. When that social mood changes, then so does the popularity of a figure like Jackson.
Looking back, Jackson “peaked” in 1991 when Sony signed him to a $1 billion contract. Since that time, it’s been pretty much downhill.
For other examples from popular music, think of The Beatles and the 1960s and Led Zeppelin and the 1970s (the Zep example being interesting because their success was linked to a negative social mood).