After reading Eric’s post on Marshall Mathers,
I completely agree with his statement that Eminem is a marketing genius. Although, I do not personally listen to his music, every time Eminem comes out with a new CD I know about. While I was originally surprised to hear that he was the number one selling artist of the 2000s, the shock subdued when I researched his marketing strategy.
The Album foreshadowed in Eric’s work, “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” came out earlier this month and immediately went platinum. According to a Forbes marketing blog:
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2013/11/15/eminems-marshall-mathers-lp-2-anatomy-of-a-chart-topper/)
This success was due to “a mix of a loyal fan base, clever marketing and smart partnerships.” While both loyal fans and smart partnerships do play a roll in his success, the driving force behind his record sales, which lead to these fans and partners, is his incredible marketing strategies.
Eric’s post does a great job in pointing out how Eminem markets his music as a differential product in comparison to the conventional music of today. For example, his lyrics are very controversial in addition he is a white rapper, which is kind of rare in today’s musical world. In my opinion however the cleverest marketing ploy used by Eminem is his “retirement” ploy. Eminem continues to retire, than come out of retirement only to release a single record, which always hits number one in the music charts. In my opinion this marketing ploy resembles the scarcity principle of consumer purchasing behaviour.
As consumers may believe that every album Eminem releases after he comes out of retirement could possible be his last, as he could go into permanent retirement in the next time he decides to take a step away from music, consumers, especially his biggest fans, perceive that his next album could be his last, thus not only could this be their last chance to experience last songs, but the album could potentially sell out, so they should rush to the store and buy it now.
Through these marketing exploits Eminem was able to net 10 million dollars last year! So don’t be surprised if you find out he retires next year only to come out with a new record at the age of 50.
