The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - can you be baby doll forever

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

ariana grande’s $1 BILLION business gamble✨💡claim your exclusive FREE stan store https://taap.it/freestanstore From Pop Star to Business Mogul: The Economics of Ariana’s Brand* A case study on digital marketing, branding, and business growth from a Gen Z perspectiveariana grande is a branding genius. How did Ariana Grande get MORE famous each time a big cancellation happens?

This episode is brought to you by Tellus Online Security. Oh, tax season is the worst. You mean hack season? Sorry, what? Yeah, cybercriminals love tax forms. But I've got Tellus Online Security. It helps protect against identity theft and financial fraud so I can stress less during tax season or any season.

Plan started just $12 a month. Learn more at tellus.com slash online security. No one can prevent all cybercrime or identity theft. Conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by FedEx. These days, the power move isn't having a big metallic credit card to drop on the check at a corporate launch. The real power move is leveling up your business with FedEx intelligence and accessing one of the biggest data networks powered by one of the biggest delivery networks. Level up your business with FedEx, the new power move.

How long can you play the innocent girl card? Pop-star Ariana Grande, woman of the year. The new artist of the year. Is there anything you wish people knew? About what? Any of it? All of it? You? Arianna Grande doing everything she can to beat these homewreck a home record. Homewreckers.

Allegation. Not a girl's girl. There are several people who defy the laws of physics, Superman, the Powerpuff girls, and Ariana Grande. Not only does she get more famous each time a big cancellation happens, she's also defying gravity now. Her fragrance line has exceeded $1 billion in retail sales. Indeed, Ariana Grande has had at least nine lives and is on the rise to her 10th,

nailing a performance at the Met Gala, releasing yet another chart-hitting album, and on track to have her big musical, Wicked the Movie, premiering this winter. Is it true? No matter how damage the brand is, some people are not cancelable. Or is the end near for Ms. Grande's 10th life? That's exactly the mystery we will uncover today. But not only that, as your marketing bestie, who graduated top 1% UCLA business economics

with a background in marketing, we are going to explore how you can get away with an inconsistent brand, maybe once, twice, or even three times if you have exceptional talent. But talent alone can't save you from being one of the most hate of women. And if all your brands depend on the support of women, then being an anti-girls girl's girl will be the depth of your brand. And by brand, I don't just mean the name on an album cover or a perfume bottle. Branding is not just about how you see yourself, but how your future college, future boss, future boyfriend sees you. And I'm creating the series to analyze pop culture.

girl icons from a marketing perspective because many of whom do not recognize the power of influence they have over a generation of young girls. And this episode is special because the rebranding journey of Ariana Grande chaotically mirrors the growing pains from girlhood to womanhood. Even the sweet innocence card that saved Ms. Grande's nine lives cannot last a lifetime. And despite how the transition from cute cat to dangerous woman to a woman getting a lot of hate was not a smooth one. We will also talk about a few branding tweaks to help Ari grow back into a brand that young women can aspire to and respect again.

First, how did the brand of Ariana Grande go from the innocent cat to a notorious, not a girl's girl that women dislike? Yeah, like is there anything that you could put out that might help? Yeah. Bold move. Well, if there was one show I was obsessed with as a twin girl, it has to be victorious. That had a stellar cast, fun plot, and most importantly of all, from a marketing perspective, it sold the perfect Star Dream to millions of young girls.

Although not the lead character, Cat Valentine was undoubtedly one of the most memorable characters in the show. Okay, when I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids. and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my out of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams.

Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IGPrivatewealth.com. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like, Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play-O-Joe, the online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws. Hey, I just won. Woo-hoo!

Feel the fun! Play-O-Joe! Honey, forget about the lasagna. Let's celebrate! 19 plus Ontario only, please play responsibly. Concerned about your gambling or that of someone close to you. Call 16-531-260 or visit Connexontera.ca. Amazon Presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa. Whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower.

Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. And a nose, everyone is going to let it's better than fix in the roof, but instead, the crowd will be back and the crowd be singing along. Oh, what a girl, I want to read a face, and this is my song! She was so weird, quirky, and to a degree stupidly innocent, but also has exceptional talent.

And by being not like the other girls, she stood out to me, which is why as a fan of the show, I was pleasantly surprised that Cat Valentine in real life, Ariana Grande, was not only stylish, but also has as cute of a personality, and just debuted her first hit album, Yours Truly. The number of times I repeatedly listened to Baby Eye and The Way, probably gave significant contribution to the album topping Billboard 200. And thanks to this deep dive, I re-listened to 10 hours of all of Ari's albums on these prettiest Raycon everyday earbuds

with the same audio quality I expect from the big guys, but at half the price. So excited to partner up with Raycon again because I've been wanting their upgraded blush violet earbuds forever. They're ergonomically designed to be extremely, comfortable with active noise cancellation. I personally love using them to listen to my favorite music and podcast while researching for the series. With zero earaches, where earbuds falling out. It's perfect for everyday use by holding eight hours of playtime with 30-day happiness guarantee,

and 3 million happy customers like me who love their comfort. And now you can get 15% off your Racon purchase plus free shipping by clicking the link in the description or go to buyrackon.com Speaking of Ariana's albums, I was just listening to all my earbuds. It was the perfect start to build a solid brand. There was already a super engaged fan base who knew the persona of Ariana in Victorious that naturally felt like they knew Ariana Grande. And that Cat Valentine persona will forever remain a staple in her brand that will both help and harm her. Okay.

Following by her second album, My Everything in 2014, with Worldwide Sucing, success hits like Problem, Break Free, and Bang Bang. This was when the brand of Ariana Grande evolved from Clueless Cat to a quote-unquote bad girl to blow your mind, a son in Bang Bang, with a more matured image from the outfits to the dance. But this maturity was still arguably manufactured and juvenile at the time. However, Ariana Grande was determined to grow out of cats. and into a mysterious alluring woman with her next album, Dangerous Woman.

With increasingly mature themes and appearing as a femme fatale type of character, with songs like side to side, being more suggestive than ever and breaking out of the innocent cat character. But while appearing mature and seductive on screen, the personal brand of Ariana Grande seems to be a mismatch. One of her early scandals, as you can see in the video, Ariana Grande looks at some donuts on a tray in a shop without buying it before exclaiming, quote, what the fuck is that? I hate Americans, I hate America, that's disgusting. As an American artist with the majority of her fan base in America, this was obviously not received well.

Later, Ariana explained, quote, I sometimes get upset by how freely we as Americans eat and consume things without giving any thought to the consequences that it has on our health and society as a whole. This is understandable and given the context that although appearing as a dangerous woman in her music, a big part of her brand was still the quirky, giggly cat image. She was forgiven. She's just young and not careful with what she says. No harm's being done. And this begins the cycle of whenever something goes wrong,

playing dumb and tapping into the giggly cat Valentine persona would usually get Ariana out of hot waters. The question is for how long? The problematic brand of being an alleged home wrecker began with one of Ariana Grande's first public relationships with Big Sean. Naya Rivera Big Sean's ex-fiance wrote in her 2016 book, Sorry Not Sorry, Quote, on the one day he was back in LA, Sean said he didn't want to see me, but since she had a key, she let herself into his house. I walk in, go downstairs, and guess what little girl is sitting cross-legged on the couch listening to music? It rhymes with Smariana Schmande, which many suspect to be Ariana Grande.

While just like Cat Valentine, Ariana Grande at this point could be seen as a bit problematic, but her overall sweet demeanor and appearance protected her from any speculations that she was behaving at it will. If anything, it just adds on to the girl image of her being young and reckless. Especially when her concert in the UK was targeted by a terrorist attack in 2017, Ariana did do so much to help raise money, to help the victims and their families. Her actions did support that she has a kind heart and probably doesn't intend harm, and her brand remained relatively strong with continuous streaks of success. In her next album's Sweetener and a huge hit, Thank You Next.

Now, Thank You Next was a pivotal era for two reasons. First, as number one on Billboard Hot 100 for seven non-consecutive weeks atop, the song broke records as the most watched music video on YouTube within 24 hours for a reason. For the longest time, a huge part of Ariana Grande's successful brand was rooted in this parisocial type of relatability that she created since her early day victorious TV appearance and the lyrics to the song further helped her achieve an unprecedented level of relatability. With a bad bitch attitude of letting go of an ex and moving on to big better things, Ariana Grande sang to the hearts of millions and millions of girls all around the world

who relate and aspire to her through the song. In other words, she became the girl's girl. However, the album did come with its own backlashes, specifically to how Ariana Grande appeared, such as in the Seven Rings music video, where she was accused of black fishing, whereas a white woman, she appeared even shades darker than Nicki Minaj. Blackfishing is a phenomenon of non-black people who, through the use of makeup, tanning, and hairstyles appear to be black or mixed-race. That is a form of cultural appropriation by treating blackness as a costume. Thus, in attempt to appeal more to that ethnic group, as R&B and hip-hop were popular genres at the time. Since the victorious days, Arianna Grande has been accused of writing the waves of quote-unquote racial ambiguity, where many

including myself, thought she was Latina. But she is in fact of Italian descent and played her racial ambiguity to her vantage. When K-pop was booming, Ariana Grande was called out for race bending again by letting go of her excessive tan for a super pale complexion, straight eyebrows, and tilted eye makeup.

That makes her almost unrecognizable from her Seven Rings days. She even got a tattoo in Japanese that was supposed to meet Seven Rings. but in actuality translated to barbecue grill, showing little to no understanding of the culture she's trying to rebrand to. Now, there's nothing wrong with experimenting with aesthetics, but these shifts in brand image came in genuine as black and Asian fishing because when she got married in 2021, she appeared neither ambiguously black, Asian, nor Latina. Because it is not a persona getting married.

It is her true self. true self. But as the giggly girl who absorbed every controversy with a sweet innocent brand, surely no controversy is too big for the I'm just a girl card, right? Before talking about the biggest controversy yet, that will cause a scratch in her rather platinum record. We need to talk about how Ariana Grande humbly grew to giant successful brands off of her iconic brand. Arium beauty and her one billion dollar perfume empire. Don't let the clueless girl image fool you. The power of Ariana's brand is that she hit the sweet market of all the teenage girls who grew up with her music now gaining more and more financial power, as well as a new generation of girlies as new fans.

R&M Beauty, her makeup line, hit 88.7 million US dollars in revenue in 2023, which is not as Estrone is Selena Gomez's rare beauty at $300 million, but nevertheless a sizable amount, especially as a celebrity makeup brand. Associated with someone who doesn't have a strong presence in makeup as, for instance, Kylie Jenner, whose makeup line slumped in sales the very same year at $30 million. While Ariana's glittery and fun makeup might be a selling point to her makeup line, her true strength in branding is her personality. Brush, brush.

What do I say? Thus, with twice as many perfumes as she has number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, Ari has quietly become one of the biggest celebrity players in the global fragrance market. That's impressive as far. Her perfume, Cloud, has logged over 1.8 million searches up to date. And each perfume release has been geniusly tied

to her iconic song releases, such as Thank You Next, REM, Goddess woman that fans love. What further the success of her perfumes is Ariane's understanding of her audiences. To appeal to a younger fan base, she added notes that mirrored her poppy, sassy, sweet personality in her perfume by opting for sweeter notes of grommonde, fruity, and floral scents. With its reasonable price point between $45 and $68, she's not trying to compete with Baccarat or Chanel. She's appealing to a loyal team fan base who would otherwise doubt themselves in Victoria's Secret Body Mist. While the margins might be lower, the global

teenage girls is a giant, giant market. perfume and sense are something extremely personal and represent a huge part of someone's identity. To spray the Ariana perfume is to symbolically identify with her, which is why the last and biggest scandal would really hurt the brand of Ariana Grande, not just in her music, film, but also in her perfume. Always adored as a girl's girl that young girls aspire to be when Ariana Grande was exposed as an alleged home wrecker with Mr. SpongeBob, Ethan Slater, who was alleged to leave his wife and firstborn child for this affair right there. The girl's girl image of Ari was burned. into ashes. No matter how true or untrue the allegations are, whether they were together

before or after Ethan divorced his wife, as I said before, a brand exists in people's minds. And when Ethan's ex-wife said in a page 6 interview, quote, Ariana's story is really not a girl's girl. My family is just collateral damage. And Ariana became one of the most hated women on the internet. For Ariana Grande, she has almost made every controversy in the past as the spring to pull her into the conversation. With conversation equaling record sales, streaming numbers, and ticket sales. But as an artist with a fan base of girls who related to her as the girl's girl, even though in the past, every time something goes wrong, she could giggle and play dumb as an innocent girl. It won't work this time.

because eventually all girls need to grow up. Is it possible to separate the art from the artist? In Ariana Grande's case, because so much of her influence derived from her personality, it's a no. As she explicitly addressed rumors in a bold and satirical way in her new song, Yes and, the album garnered an impressive 58.1 million streams globally. But it's all press really good press. Yes and no. On the surface,

Ariana Grande appears unscathed from yet another controversy. Sure, she lost 350,000 Instagram followers, but that is minuscule compared to the 378 million she has grown to since then. But why is this going to create collateral damage? Because a brand cannot simply survive on a 10. It lives on through connection. For Ariana Grande's core fan base, the connection to her as a girl's girl they look up to is severely damaged, where it is hard for them to identify with her any longer. And if you have two brands of makeup and perfume that depend on people identifying with your personal brand, they will quickly go out of business if the personal brand is not fixed ASAP.

Because what separates a $15 Victoria's Secret Body Mist from a $70, Ariana perfume is the value of branding in Ariana Grande's name. Ariana Grande knows this and has already embarked on her branding recovery journey. But what are some simple things she could do? To prevent further losing the trust of millions of young girls who once saw her as a cool big sister they aspire to be. First, Ariana Grande needs to pick her side. Although it is definitely hurtful to have rumors and trash talks about your personal

relationships mixed with your art, there is also no need to mock the parasycial relationship that fans have with you by singing, why do you care so much who's d'I ride? That comes off as mocking the parasycial relationship people have with her. Most fans just want to relate and connect. And ironically, everything in her brand from the music to the makeup to the perfume are tied to this exact parasycial relationship that she is making fun of. showing up for her girl fan base by showing vulnerability through songs like we can't be friends is raw and beautiful.

But rage baiting might hurt the wrong people who actually care and do want to support her. Second, in the past when scandals arose, Ari could just let the cute and innocent Cat Valentine persona resurface to play off the seriousness of the issue. That's worked well for the last 10 years of her career, but as a fully grown woman in her 30s now, It's no longer cute to play the I'm just a girl card and time to start owning up to womanhood. Because like the tale of Britney Spears, you can only play the high school sweetheart brand for so long before it becomes jarring.

And who doesn't make mistakes whether you're a teen or woman? Sexiness and maturity aren't fabricated through little twerks, mature clothing, and animal mask, but taking accountability for one's actions. That's elegant and hot. And it does seem like Ariana is taking the path to real maturity, starting from details such as her heel size, ditching the insane pumps from back in the day, symbolic of fabricated height of maturity with drama, controversies, to now smaller or no heels,

because the true height of maturity does not need to be shown but owned. With that, I don't think Ariana Grande comes from a place of ill intentions, but more so from neglect that has caused fans to be disappointed times and times again. I really hope that she uses her exceptional talents to inspire more young girls to grow into confident women instead of reckless children, cosplaying as adults. Let me know your thoughts on if you think Ariana Grande

can be a brand people trust again. And comment which pop culture girl icon we should analyze next through a marketing perspective. This is your marketing bestie, Zoe Unlimited. Share this video for Impact and I will see you next week.