MARKETING CASE STUDY OF JUSTIN BIEBER
Justin Bieber is signed by Island, Island Teen, RBMG, schoolboy and def jam record label. They are all universal music groups. One of the main record labels Justin Bieber was signed by is Island record. Island record is a major record label, which operates as a division of Universal Music Group. Island records was found by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica and has been located in the UK since 1962. The record brand consists of three brands in the world; Island UK, Island US and Island Australia. This is mainly due to the labels significant legacy. Over the years, the company have managed a wide selection of popular musicians such as Demi Lovato, Tiao Cruz, Avicii and many more other famous singers. Furthermore, Island Record also own subsidiary labels such as: Apollo Recordings, Teen Island, Mercury Records and many other labels. Island Record market their bands and artists mainly through websites, by updating regularly on band and artists.
Justin Bieber is a songwriter and singer. He produces pop, teen pop and R&B music. His target audience is teenage girls between the ages of 12-19 year old; this is because most of his songs contain cheesy pop lyrics, which attract the attention of girls. Also, he produces songs that are deep and many teenage girls are able to relate to: e.g. most of his songs are related to heartbreaks. Justin Bieber became famous through YouTube. In early 2007, Justin Bieber was aged 12 and he sang ‘Neyo’s ‘So Sick’ for a local singing competition and he came 2nd place in the competition. His mother Pattie Mallete posted this on YouTube including various other covers of him singing to R&B music, this resulted in his videos obtaining millions of views. Moreover, he used to sing on the streets of Ontario Stratford in order to give to his single parent mother money. He was found by Scooter Braun in 2007 and was signed to ‘Raymond Braun Media Group’, a joint venture between Braun and Usher. He was later signed to ‘Island Records’ in October 2008 by L.A. Reid of the Island Def Jam.

Justin Biebers star persona is seen to be sexy, attractive, charming and stunning. For example, in most of his pictures his either topless or wearing attractive clothing or posing in a sexual way in order to look attractive. This conveys that his obsessed with his body figure. He is also, a model for Calvin Klein. This suggests that he likes showing off his body. Moreover, in the pictures of his albums his looking away from the camera, this connotes that his vain.
Justin Biebers star persona is seen is through his new album ‘Purpose’, which is his 11th album released. For example the mise en scene of what his wearing is topless and has his hands are hold together almost as if his praying. This illustrates his obsession with body, also; maybe he used a topless picture in order to grab the attention of teenage girls. Nonetheless, he the cover of his album is black and white, this portrays that this album is based on his past, as using black and white is a stereotypical way of saying something is old. This album includes various genres of music such as: teen pop, electronic dance music and acoustic R&B. Most of the songs in this album are based on heartbreak. The albums front cover says ‘purpose’ in a signature form, however the name of the album does stand out as much as he is. Suggesting, that he sees himself and dominant. However, him topless may appeal to his target audience, therefore that may be the reason why he chose to be topless. Also, his album ‘my world’ is aimed at teenagers between the ages of 13-17. His CD cover for ‘My Word’, contains a warm peachy colour, which is eye-catching to younger girls due to the tone being seen as stereotypically feminine.
Justin Biebers audience are young teenage girls between the age of 12-17 years old. His target audience are most likely to be teenage girls who are easily entertained by materialistic things such as: social media and maybe even media and the Internet. In order for Bieber to gain fans he tweets and posts pictures on social media. This enables him to gain fans as well as update his fans about upcoming events and his personal life. His fans are called ‘ Belieber’, this conveys to his target audience that he cares about them therefore; he created them a fan base name. His primary audience are obsessive fans that engage in all types of activities like: his book signing, film premiers and concerts. Nonetheless, his secondary audience are older females between the age of 20-25 year olds, who may find his music interesting and may even find him attractive. They may like the content of his because they might have gone through heartbreak or they just like the context of the lyrics in general.
Marketing within the music industry is when an individual, band or company promote their music through three strands promotion, advertising and publicity. Promotion is sponsorships between artists and other companies. Advertising is by selling albums, concert tickets etc in order to make money. Lastly, publicity is raising awareness of the singer or band.
Promotion is when an artist works with another company in order to promote the companies’ product. The used of celebrity impacts the companies business positively and it also, allows the celebrity to be known by a wider audience. For example, Justin Bieber is a ‘Calvin Klein’ mode; for the underwear department, this allows the business to target Justin Biebers boy fans to buy the product. As well as it promotes himself to Calvin Klein customers, allowing them to research about who he. Also, in the Calvin Klein advert Justin Bieber is playing drums, reinforces his musical personality. He is also, presented in a seductive way, through mise en scene and lighting. For example I denote that he is topless and the lighting used is low-key lighting. This further appeals and attracts to his female audience.
Justin Bieber also, has three perfumes called: ‘Girlfriend’, ‘The Key’ and ‘Someday’. In both perfumes ‘Girlfriend’ and ‘The Key’ he advertises his perfume in a seductive way he also, promotes his music in the video, this is because it is heard in the background. This enables people who don’t know Justin Bieber to know about his perfume as well as his music; through this it enables him to widen his audience.
All his record labels via TV advertisements, poster and billboards advertise Justin Biebers music. This allowed Justin Bieber to be recognized universally. For example, Justin Bieber has 3 perfume adverts ‘someday’,’ girlfriend’ and ‘the key’. This enabled Justin Bieber to be known by wider audience, as adverts cannot be skipped on TV. Moreover, advertisements allow fans e.g. Beliebers to have an emotional connection with him.
Publicity is very common with artists and bands and one of the major ways is through social media. For example, Justin Bieber has over 71.5 million followers on Twitter; this suggests that Justin Bieber has a massive fan base. This also, conveys that through his commitment in advertising he enabled with a large fan base. Justin Bieber interacts with his followers by tweeting them back or following, this demonstrated his love and passion for music and his fans. Moreover, he tweets about his life and upcoming events such as releasing an album or about concerts. For example, when he was releasing his album ‘journals’, he released a song every Monday; this provided one-week time for each song to be heard precisely by his fans. This also, reinforces their star persona caring and obsessed with image and fans. However, not only do they use twitter, they also have Instagram, Facebook and individual Snap chats. This allows them to further connect with their fans. In addition, to promote Justin Biebers new album ‘purpose’ he released two songs ‘ where are you now?’ and ‘sorry’, first before he released his whole album, the two songs hit millions of views within a day. This was a significant marketing skill, as it gave fans and the general public an insight of what will be included in the album. The two songs he released enabled him to grow his fan base further, as non-fans were amazed by the two songs and may have been influenced to buy or check out Justin Biebers new album.
In a nutshell, marketing is such an important feature of the music industry; advertisements, interviews etc, it will empower artists and musicians to gain popularity and this will further enable people to but the artists music. Also the more popularity you have the more likely you are to be successful in the music industry. As well as this Marketing increases your chances that consumers will make a purchase of a singer’s album. It also draws attention to the everyday life of people who often end up buying a product to try it out.