The document discusses how The Spice Girls were carefully branded and marketed as individuals and as a group to achieve commercial success. Their branding involved giving each member a distinct image incorporated into their music videos. This helped sell their debut single "Wannabe" and brand them as fun and relatable to young girls while also appealing to males. Their branding was highly controlled and commercial but proved very successful, generating huge sales and making them a global phenomenon through merchandising and sponsorship deals.

1. The Power of
Branding
Blog 5
Branding in Pop Videos
Blog 5

2. Lesson Objectives
• To understand why branding is
important
• How to sell a brand with artists
such as The Spice Girls

3. What are the purposes of Pop
Videos?
-Markets an image
-Helps to creates a brand
 “a name/term/design
that distinguishes one
product from another”
-Encourages people to
buy the record…buy into
the brand ‘Viva Forever’

4. Who’s who?!

5. Formation of The Spice Girls
• In the mid-1990s, family management team Bob Herbert,
Chris Herbert and Lindsey Casbon set about creating a girl
group to compete with popular boy bands that dominated the
pop music scene in the mid- to late-1990s.
• In February 1994, Heart Management placed an
advertisement in The Stage trade magazine
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/7075850

6. Introducing The Brand
• After the girls were put together, they quickly begged for a
showcase. At the showcase, they were noticed by Simon
Fuller.
• He became their manager, but the girls had only written 6
songs. One of these was “Wannabe” How long did it take to
write?
• The song was a real contrast to anything out in the charts. It
went in straight to number three and within a couple of days
went to number one.
• The branding of The Spice Girls was instant. Each group
member was given a branded image.

7. Image of The Spice Girls
As the branding was innovative for a
girl group, it became their image and
was incorporated within each music
video.
Their clothes were carefully chosen
for their first appearance on
American TV:
•Victoria in a sophisticated slinky
black number
•Emma in a bunchies
•Mel B in her leopard-skin trousers
•Geri in tight dress
•Mel C in her favourite Liverpool shirt
bottoms

8. Wannabe

9. Selling The Spice Girls
• The Spice Girls were sold to us as a group of good friends, having fun and making
top-selling singles. They were actually a carefully selected group of strangers
chosen, from hundreds of girls. Everything about them was under the control of
men or corporations.
• ‘Ginger Spice’ almost didn’t make it into the group, because she looked older
than the other girls and had ginger hair. She became a role model for the
stereotyped ginger haired girls.
• Spice World (1997) “Why do people stereotype us all the time?”
• Target audience were young girls. The band were relatable to this audience and
introduced ‘girl power’ http://www.tubechop.com/watch/7075947
• They quickly appealed to the male market by introducing sex appeal. “Say You’ll
Be There”
• Marketing brand was referred to a ‘phenomenon’ on the news and made £100
million pounds in less than a year.

10. Creating a Brand
• Often artists or groups are sold as a brand and the music video
acts as a product of the brand, in the hope that the audience will
be inspired to “buy into the brand”.
• For some artists the ‘image’ is of greater importance than the
quality of the product. The Spice Girls and JLS are a good
examples of this. The Spice Girls had endless merchandising and
sponsorship deals. The were involved with Pepsi and Walkers
advertisements and even Barbie-style Spice Girls dolls.
• Other times it is the song and the meaning of the song that is
sold, and the artists ‘image’ has little to do with the sale of the
song. Adele is a good example of this.

11. Selling The Brand on TV

12. Spice Girl Documentary
Spice Girls: Giving You Everything Documentary
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c2y2xEZjUs
Piers Morgan interview with Geri Halliwell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1g-49itJBE

13. Blog 5
• Write a blog that discusses why branding is important
and how music videos (Wannabe) are used as a platform
to sell the brand
• Critically analyse a second Spice Girls video or a video
from a different artist. How has the branding been
successful?

14. Blog Checklist
• Define the term branding. What does it mean?
• Why is branding important?
• Brief background on The Spice Girls
• How were The Spice Girls branded? Was it successful? Why?
• Would the girl group have been as successful without the
heavy branding? Why?
• How did it relate to the target audience?
• How was their brand marketed within their first single
Wannabe?
• Analyse a second music video – focus on the branding.