How to make a number one.

Another excellent example of mass marketing is the Spice Girls who created an entire phenomenon of ‘Girl Power’ just to sell records; in fact 75% of the Spice Girls promotion was based on merchandise. Creating a mass market of teenage girls who as well as the ‘tacky’ merchandise, also bought all of the Spice Girls music, rocketing them to number one on several occasions.

However, nowadays, sales as low as 60,000 can make a major impact on the singles chart, through just cult interest and slick marketing. This was the case for Iron Maiden in 1991, the band had a cult fan base of around 30,000, but to reach number one required higher sales than this. So as a marketing ploy to raise the sales to a level where they could reach number one the single was released on several different formats, including varying collectable picture discs. This method meant that a cult fan base of 30,000 bought nearly 90,000 records and sent Iron Maiden to the number one spot.

Another tried and tested way to reach number one is to attach a song to a major event, be it Band Aid, Euro 96 or the funeral of Princess Diana, the songs associated with these events pulled massive record sales. This marketing technique follows the lines of associating a song with something of mass interest to the public and getting the song noticed, thus producing record sales. For example Elton John’s ‘Candle In the Wind’, a song widely associated with the death of Princess Diana sold over 33million3 records in the 3 months after her death. Similarly The Lightning Seeds ‘Three Lions’ sold 12million3 records during Euro 96. This proves the marketing ploy of associating a song with a mass market appealing event means large sales.

Marketing a single release is largely about capturing the attention of the record buying public. A common marketing strategy is to capture the public’s imagination through absurd, sometimes shocking music, lyrics and behaviour. This technique of ‘shock tactics’ is regularly used; in recent years artists such as Eminem have used shocking lyrics and behaviour to market themselves.

A perfect example of ‘shock tactics’ was Serge Gainsbourg back in 1969, his song dubbed ‘the orgasm song’ provoked outcry from the establishment and was banned from radio stations because it was deemed too taboo. However this only served to get the song noticed in the newspapers and talked about and so actually served to make it very popular.

Finally, when all else fails, record companies can just be plain devious. A famous example of devious record marketing was during 1995, when two big name artists, Blur and Oasis released singles on the same day. An instant marketing situation was created with mass media interest in the two bands rivalry. Both records were expected to sell well, and so devious tactics were used to get to the number one spot. Blur successfully used a technique known as format selling, whereby the single is sold cheaply during its first week to maximise sales. This is a regularly used technique to boost sales just enough to reach number one.

Almost since the creation of the charts marketing has played a hugely important role in artists reaching number one. It is more than just a few adverts that markets a band, it is mass media attention through whatever means possible. The music charts are a dog eat dog world where only the best marketing departments win and get their artist to number one.