Strategy Diamond and Tows Analysis

Miley Cyrus

Strengths

Strong brand

High popularity

Great publicity machine

Pretty and young

String of top hits

International success, including non-English-speaking markets

Weaknesses

Somewhat narrow demographic appeal

Lukewarm critical reception

Some controversy surrounding drugs, twerking, etc.

Opportunities

Many opportunities in pop, and if she wants in country

Acting

Growing up in sound/growing with fans

Overseas growth

Internal brand building (new fans)

Threats

Competition

Controversy

Changing musical tastes

Miley Cyrus has been immensely successful for the past several years and in 2013 has actually improved on her past record. Her new album Bangerz has been commercially successful, outselling her previous release Can't Be Tamed. Cyrus has seemingly transitioned into more adult material successfully. The aggressive marketing of Cyrus has turned off critics, but not fans, which is likely the objective. For future strategies, now that Cyrus has the attention of fans, the marketing machine needs to keep the pressure for six months or so, then take a break from all-out marketing until the next album. Essentially, there is a risk that such high-intensity marketing wears the market out. With breaks, however, Cyrus can maintain momentum with each new release. This does not mean easing off on shock value and high intensity marketing but to do it sparingly and with a sense of purpose beyond mere attention-getting.

Strategy Diamond

The strategy diamond is arenas, staging, vehicles and differentiations. Arenas for Cyrus are most media channels -- the Internet/social media, concerts, television, radio, newspapers and magazines. All outlets are fair game. Market segments tend to be younger, female, sometimes gay men, and especially those who grew up with her as Hannah Montana, but Cyrus is trying to expand to new fans as well, any fan of pop music. Her geography is spreading beyond the English-speaking world to Europe as well. Though she started as an actress, Cyrus is primarily focused on music and should stay that way. The value creation strategy is to use all media to build brand awareness and to create differentiation between Cyrus and the Hannah Montana character, but also between Cyrus and other pop singers.

Differentiation

Cyrus should continue to cultivate an image in line with her current age, but also her own personality. This is a key point of differentiation that makes pop stars stand out from one another, and is particularly improtnat since Cyrus was initially associated more with a character than with her own personality. All elements here -- styling and image -- should be specific to her in order to maximize differentiation because the arenas, vehicles and staging will largely be the same as for her competitors.

Vehicles

In this case, Miley Cyrus will use a few different vehicles. At this point, she needs to focus on building her own brand identity and differentiating herself, so joint ventures (in pop music these are collaborations) should be minimized, and the focus be put on internal development. Distribution can be enhanced through alliances with content distribution networks overseas to build the Miley brand in overseas markets.