The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - how to turn your weakness into brand

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

how to turn your weakness into brand💡claim your exclusive FREE stan store https://taap.it/freestanstore💡FREE 7-day branding challenge: Early Bonus Access👉🏻 https://tapx.it/unlimitedyou-challenge5 years of social media and marketing knowledge How did a small “weakness” in branding delay rose’s success for 7 years?Learn & Grow with me.💖 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoeunlimited/💜 TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@zoeunlimited🖤 Listen on Apple & Spotify: http://apple.co/zoeunlimited https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZReedpR6Bf1kvHeKBuWY1🪭 All my outfits https://www.shopltk.com/explore/zoeunlimited👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/zoeunlimited🛒 Essentials https://www.amazon.com/shop/zoeunlimited👉use code ZOEUNLIMITED for 10% off ALL travels on Klook https://t.ly/aA76T📧 Business inquiries: [e-mail] //🕙Timestamps: 0:00 Intro3:28 Rosé 1.05:37 Rosé 2.06:07 factor 1 8:43 factor 210:42 factor 3 13:27 factor 4 14:33 Branding Pitfall

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify.

Hey y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Everything that I did was wrong. Lucky and pretty privilege expired. Roseet. Roseet. Roseet. Roseae. But brand is timeless. How did a small weakness in brand. delay Rose's success for seven years. Idols? Yes?

That's a lie. Ha ha ha. Oh, I would have a regret. If there was one person born with side character syndrome, it must be Rosei. Despite a high following, a powerful vocal, angelic face, and the rest of Black Pink as her bestie. For years, Rose had everything except the plot.

She was talented, but not the face of Black Pink. She was beloved, but not the most viral. She had a distinct voice, but it was just another layer in Black Pink's powerhouse production. Rosey wasn't forgotten, but she was only known for Black Pink for K-pop. The alluring dark place of wonders where beauty and youth expire faster than milk. And even the hottest girls get replaced by an endless supply of more hot girls. But the Rose 2.0, as we know today, is the face of Wise-Al Tiffany's, Skims, Puma, Billboard 100, broke, size 12-year record for the fastest K-pop music video to ever hit 700 million views.

You're big, you're big. I mean, I'll go into the numbers, but yeah. It's a Pinterest moveboard for hair, lips, luxury fashion, the number one girl, not just in K-pop now, but everywhere. Who got everyone from your ex to your neighbor's third aunt saying Apat-Soo. Can I think for you? All you gotta do is jappas hapastafas That's the Rosei effect.

How does she do it? More importantly, can she escape the K-pop expiration curse? Just wait and see, I will show you. Oh, I'll show you. As your marketing bestie, who graduated top 1% UCLA business economics with a background in marketing, we're going to explore how Rosei successfully use for marketing techniques to go from one of the girls to the number one girl.

And how you can take things from her story and apply them to your dreams. Because Brandy is not just about putting your name on a t-shirt. A brand is how your dream college, dream job, dream boyfriend sees you. And yes, you have one. And I'm creating this series to analyze pop culture girl icons from a marketing perspective. because of the power of influence they have over a generation of young girls. I'm starting an email list and if you want early access to this exclusive community of trends, deeper dives, insights, make sure to pre-send up in the link in the description. It's completely free.

But what was not free was the prize to pay for Rose's fame. Are they waiting for me right now? Yeah. Rosei 1.0. Hi, Jerusalem boys. Roseanne Park, Pachey-Jon, began singing and learned to play games. guitar and piano as a child. At 15, she went to an audition as a joke that would change her life. Coming first in 700 participants, she signed with YG Entertainment, moved from Sydney to Seoul,

and four years later was revealed as the final member of the girl group Black Pink. In Australia, I dropped out of school. I had never even imagined myself living apart from my family. I hadn't even slept more than two weeks out of home. It was a really hard And this began the streak of Rose's lucky and unlucky girl syndrome. Everything that I did was wrong. On one hand, the appeal of Black Pink was phenomenal. Just branding alone, it created this powerhouse group that is hard not to like. Jenny, with her effortless, a girl energy, Lisa's dance appeal, Jisu's traditional elegance, and Rose's great vocals.

The more successful the group, the more successful the individual artists. It's a no-brainer that the power of associations elevated each member's brand. However, this association was so powerful that it eroded Rosey's personal brand. I'm kind of scared. Rosey was often perceived as the quiet, sweet black pink member. I'm chaggy, all know. Lacking a standout personality compared to Jenny, the cool it girl, Lisa. the charismatic performer or Gisu the elegant classic beauty and often stood in the back in interviews.

I'm sitting on Rosie. Uh, hello. So how did she go from shy girl to number one girl in the world? You're international. Yeah, well, no, I mean, I don't even know what to say. I've been listening to BlackBink since they debuted it and I'm so impressed by how Rose, who didn't initially catch my attention. slowly but surely built this robust sustainable brand for herself, where she no longer needs to compete to be an it girl of Black Pink,

but is the it girl. If you don't like it, then you don't like it. Exactly. Period. There we go. And all of this began with how she turned her quote-unquote weakness into a signature trait. Hence success marketing factor won.

Playing the mysterious and exclusive game. Rather than forcing herself to be louder or a batty like Jenny and Lisa, Rose fully tapped into her nature of being. Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high-interest savings account.

Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest. Conditions apply. Visit Scotiabank.com slash H-I. ISA to learn more. Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. Being the quiet, sweet Black Pink member, lacking a standout personality. I'm a human's a man.

Instead of fighting this, Rosey leaned into her softness and made it aspirational. She doesn't demand attention. She naturally holds it. The marketing lesson here is, if people think you lack a standout trait, own it. and refine it into something desirable. Instead of playing someone else's game,

Rose created her own game. You are working really hard back there. She is playing the long game and began pivoting away from just a K-pop idol because as we know, the massive fame of K-pop fandom also has a very fast expiration date. So many groups and idols with fans that will literally break loss for them get washed out of people's memories

as newer groups keep debuting and topping the old, and even the most successful girl groups. Often cannot stay active for more than 10 years, which means all the individual brands will fade with a group. Whereas if you look at artists like Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Lana Dorei, they are as relevant as ever and have long paths ahead of them. In fact, Beyonce is clearly thriving, but Destiny's child was long gone. This is why in order to escape the K-pop curse, Rose needed to rebrand from a girl in Black Pink to an artist fast. Instead of sticking to Black Pink's dance heavy, high-energy sound, Rosey pivoted hard. Her solo music sounds like on the ground and gone aren't Black Pink-style anthems.

The stripped-down acoustic performances with a genius move of always having a guitar on stage, differentiate her. The guitar that became part of her core visual identity now reminds people that she's becoming a a true musician rather than just a performer. Rose's social media presence is also not very saturated. She keeps a quiet luxury energy. Fans don't know everything about her, which makes her more intriguing.

This strategy is straight out of the luxury marketing handbook. The less you see, the more valuable it feels, which ties to the second key marketing strategy for the rebrand of side to main character. Second, visual branding. From cute and soft to edgy and ethereal. In an industry where visuals are everything, signature looks equal brand recognition. Like every other idol, Rosei used to switch in between styles,

which is important for experimentation. But while BlackBings members continue frequently switching up their styles, Roseate decided to stay with one timeless high fashion aesthetic. Since 2018, when Rosei returned to blonde, she began making platinum blonde hair her seat. signature identity. This works so well that even fans joke about how Rosei can't return to her darker hair because it will quote unquote ruin her brand. I wish my hair was a bit more blonde then. Eh. It completely elevated her girl-next-door

visual to a more high-fashioned editorial artsy styling, feeling more mature, cinematic, and timeless rather than trendy. Now some may argue, wait wait, didn't Rose just recently change up her visual brand again? Ditching her iconic straight hair for a soft or playful look with curls as we see in this new chapter of her solos especially with the Apatzuka lab with Bruno Mars with over one billion views on YouTube correct and this rebranded visual ties to her change in her audio brand as well but notice how she earned the ability to shift and experiment freely after six years of a consistent visual brand and did not go 180 like Jojo Siwa but instead expanded her already

strong visual brand with minor tweaks. In other words, this is a natural extension, not a conflict in branding. And it was needed for the introduction of a more playful brand to her voice. As her prior solos are more ethereal with a stronger sense of distance, this new visual of curls and shorter her updews, more casual outfits and more masculine cuts serve to expand her brand for additional variety. Thus, we of course have to talk about the major third key marketing factor. associations. The Bruno Mars Brose collaboration was one that no one really saw coming, but made so much sense. What do we know about the Bruno Mars brand?

Grammy winning, critically acclaimed, and chart-topping artists with huge respect in the industry. Now why should Bruno's brand be associated with Rose's brand? Because undoubtedly as a key member of Black Pink and a notable voice in K-pop, she can in return help Bruno tap into the massive Asian. In other words, a win, win. Rosie, let's rock! The key personal branding of elevating associations isn't about how to force upon a positive association on yourself. It is to elevate your own brand to attract many other positive brands to create a synergy that is great for all parties.

This is why Rosie didn't just do this collaboration seven years ago, but took the time to really establish herself through her years in Blackpink with the same. pink with a soft power unique brand. Rose and Bruno Mars had probably not a huge overlap in audiences. But with their diverse audiences from the West and East combined, the results were phenomenal. It's huge. It's gone everywhere. Yeah. It's number one in 25 countries, everybody.

Number one. That pre-chorus is one of the most addicting pre-choruses I have heard. I'm dead ass serious this decade. It's like pop perfection. He's crazy. In my head, I envisioned it completely. I was like, yeah, it'd be crazy if he jumps on APT. And instantly, he's texting.

He's like, what does APT mean? And I'm like, it's a Korean drinking game. He's like, this is crazy. And he jumped on it and the rest is history. Rosey proved that she isn't just another K-pop idol trying to go solo. She's a legitimate artist who can hold her own among music's elite. And through the format of a collaboration, she de-risk alienating her fans while stepping

beyond her Blackpink's image, especially through a new stylistic direction that follows Bruno's R&B, soul, pop, and old school influences, establishing that she is an artist who can not only stand alone in K-pop, but now popped the K-pop bubble and is on her way to be a global artist. But more than a global artist, how do Rose become the number one girl? And that has to do with factor 4, the luxury crossover. Rosie's team did a really good job in building her identity beyond just another K-pop idol. And this was a multi-step play, with step one being redefining her image with YS.L. And Tiffany & Co. Now this in itself is not out of the ordinary, as we see Jenny with Chanel, Lisa with Celine, J-Sou with Dior.

It is a crucial step to bring the artist to cross-neach away from just K-pop into a whole. high fashion into pulp culture. And with Rose being the global face of Saint Laurent, she began embodying Parisian cool girl energy rather than just Korean idol glam. So naturally, the second step was to be seen at carpets like the Met Gala, Cam Lion, dressed head to toe in YSL. Now to be seen in the light of an established global artist, surrounded by other established global celebrities. How do you say, hey everybody, I hope you enjoy APT. APT, many

love you. But this also brings up a major branding pitfall of creating too much distance with Rosey's fandom because if we take a step back, who are Rose's main audiences? It's teen girls and young adult women who aren't casually browsing gowns from YSL or switching between collections from Tiffany's

while still worrying about midterms or hustling to pay rent. Even though Rose's brand of aspiration is becoming more and more elevated, the previously bubbly and relatable girl next door that long-term fans fell in love with will start to lose that special connection, which makes her brand lose a huge unique advantage and just become one of the many pretty faces in Hollywood, which is why the third step is the most strategic in my view. While having the luxury crossover in step one, a notable carpet appearances in step two, created a globally recognized elevated brand to avoid falling out of touch with her young, female demographic is to start having more crossovers with more accessible brands like skims and puma

this valentine's day everybody's great skims and this is genius in three ways a it expands the association of rosé to an even bigger and broader universe of sports and street wear beyond just luxury and b what is skims known for guys it in itself has done an exceptional job and elevating its brand cachet. And working with all the it girls from Sabrina Carpenter to Charlie X-E-X before they blew up even bigger to become the next cultural movement. In other words, to have the skimps stamp of approval

is to have the crown to be the next it girl. Not just in Korea, not just in Asia, but globally. Which brings up C. The completion of a global expansion campaign. The existing massive global fans of these brands are now aware of and will start paying more attention to Rose. That makes this quiet, shy girl who used to be in the background, the number one girl, that blew the internet up with Bruno Mars that is adored by the world of fashion, beauty, and more.

Rose's transformation is proof that even if you start in the background, you can rewrite your narrative. She turned her softness into status, her quietness into exclusivity, and her visuals, into branding gold. Once again, it just shows how lucky and pretty privileged can get you a head start. But brand dictates how far you go. This is your marketing bestie Zoe Unlimited. Episodes are available on all podcast networks,

Apple Spotify, YouTube. Share this episode with someone to grow your brands together. Have a beautiful and amazing day and see you next week.