The Marketing Bestie Podcast with zoeunlimited - lady gaga is DONE rebranding

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

→͢͢my 5 years of marketing notes (free) ⁠https://tapx.it/unlimitedyou-challenge ⁠🩷✍🏻FREE EMAIL LIST ⁠https://tapx.it/stanzoeunlimited⁠the inevitable 🆘 rebrand of Gaga (3 plans)Learn & Grow with me.💖 Instagram: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedig💜 TikTok: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedtiktok🖤 Listen on Apple & Spotify: https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedapple https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedspotify🪭 All my outfits https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedltk👩🏻‍💻 LinkedIn https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimitedlinkedin🛒 Amazon Essentials https://tapthe.link/zoeunlimited👉use code ZOEUNLIMITED for 10% off ALL travels on Klook https://t.ly/aA76T📸My gear: (Sony A7Siii) [ZOEUNLIMITED15] https://tapx.it/lensrental 📧 Business inquiries: [e-mail] //🕙Timestamps: 0:00 Intro3:35 Gaga 1.09:01 Gaga 2.09:29 branding strategy 110:10 branding strategy 212 branding strategy 3

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 IG Private Wealth.com.

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Let your morning change you. Discover coffee plus on nispresso.com. Imagine you had a mask that made you famous. A mask that makes everyone love you. A mask that prints money. What happens when that mask becomes your skin? Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga! She's in her flop era. Hmm. No! Yes! Hey. What are you doing?

I'm working. Do you feel like there's pressure for you? for you to constantly be on. I don't know. I don't really know what being on means. If there was one person cursed with talent, it must be Lady Gaga. 14 Grammys, ATM TV, 16 Guinness World Records. No big deal.

Billboard's greatest pop star of the 21st century. Countless Vogue covers, in fact, is the modern lookbook of avant-garde. Stared in major films and TV. Let's give the people what they want. Open the Olympics. Created a centi-million dollar brand. House Labs. But somehow, there is still a way to mess.

everything up. Joker 2 flopping. This is a commercial failure. I hated this foundation. Taking my house labs foundation back to Sephora. How exactly is Lady Gaga risking the $900 million brand with the monster of her own creation? I risk my job. That's exactly the mystery we'll uncover today.

But not only that, as your marketing bestie, we graduated top 1% UCLE business economics with a background in marketing. We're going to explore how fame and talent can start still fail you if you have a fragile brand. Don't worry about me. This is about you. And how you, yes you, can build a successful brand to help you down your career.

Because by brand, I don't just mean slapping your name on a foundation. Branding is about how your future client, future boss, future boyfriend sees you. And yes, you have one. I'm creating this series to analyze pop culture brands from a marketing perspective because I want all of us to unlock the potential

to build businesses and personal brands. Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular. This is what I'm really like. Join the free email list in the show notes for additional marketing knowledge. Let us break down the three marketing steps of Lady Gaga. And the three rebrand strategies that will help her sharpen her throne. Because if you Google Lady Gaga's name,

there are quite a few things her team might not be happy to see. Just like if you Google yourself right now, you'll be shocked. How many sites publicly share your full name, city, state, financial, financials, state, financial information, and private information. That's a branding hazard. Spam, identity theft, loss of control over personal data. Incogni's custom removal can put a stop to it. Simply point them to where your data is being exposed.

And their privacy experts will handle the rest. You can remove as much information linked to you as possible. Phone's emails, addresses. Incogni reaches out to the data brokers to request they remove your personal data and handles any of their objections. They will fight for you. They also keep your data off the market by doing repeated removals taking it down if it shows up again.

This makes the yearly subscription logical, which has a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee. So take your personal data back with incognity.com slash ZOIA Limited and get 60% off your annual plan. Invest in your brand and as for Gaga. First, we need to understand how Mother Gaga had every single chance to build a billion dollar empire. Gaga 1.0. I've been writing music since I was 13 and playing in clubs in New York and I just never gave up. In Michelle Fon's terms, Lady Gaga is a true creator. The creator creates her own destiny. The only fomo for the first year of not going to Coachella is missing Lady Gaga.

What are you doing here? Because when telephone came up on my Spotify shelf on my walk, I realized how timeless and iconic her vision was. Stephanie Joanne, Angelina, Germanada began playing the piano at age 4 when her mother insisted that she become quote unquote a cultured young woman and as a teenager she played at open mic nights study method acting then dropped out in second year in yu music school to pursue music and music does she pursue through three marketing wins first she hacked the pop formula then broke it 2008 just dance hit the club scene hard blending infectious synths with fashion forward

visuals she combined brittney level hooks with madonna level shock but added her own Weird. Within just one year, she was dominating every chart and award show. Second, she turned every appearance into performance art. Not just music videos, everything was a stage. Award shows, interviews, paparazzi shots, all curated and theatrical. I love you so much. Oh, thank you. I'm so, thank you. The meat dress at the VMAs? That was not random. It was calculated brand theater that earned global headlines. And as a natural marketer, Gaga learned something valuable.

Test, repeat, replicate. The shock marketing only got more and more shocking. Third, she built a recognizable visual brand. Platinum blonde hair, exaggerated eyeliner, disco futurism. It was a full visual language. Designers and fashion houses couldn't get enough. McQueen's final muse, Mugler Revivalist. Gaga made weird aspirational.

However, was it possible to be cohesive? And what happens when the shock becomes the norm? and boring. Lady Gaga became a monster of her own creation. Every time she tried to show her real self, the world only wanted a meat dress. Hence, branding this step one. Fatigue.

When reinvention becomes exhaustion. Gaga built her brand on constant transformation, but even transformation has diminishing returns. Every album was a new era, a new look of new personality. I wanted to perform inside the The vending machine? That sounds like I might have said that. From glam alien to country cowgirl to German industrial dominatrix,

it was thrilling until it wasn't. Fans were overwhelmed, not engaged. The world didn't know which Gaga they were getting. And neither does she. The problem? When your brand relies on chaos, people stop trusting the message. Thus, the pop culture relevance faded.

She went from the moment to what is she even doing now? Which bleeds into branding misstep number two. lack of focus. I'm so bad at this. I just said yes and no and maybe. This is a common pain point for every entrepreneur and artist because as creative people, we naturally want to innovate and try things new,

but the danger is having no focus. And maybe Gaga's story can resonate with you. Our pop was conceptually ambitious, but lacked emotional clarity. Her brand spoke to critics, but not the actual listeners. She was saying something, but most people couldn't translate it. Then in one breath, She was starring in American Horror Story,

A Star is Born Gucci, then began singing musicals in Joker 2, which got a hefty, 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. I watched a pre-screening of it, and man, I respect the cinematography, but I was so confused as to why they turned a few songs into two hours and 18 minutes. Some of her acting rules were super unbranded, and she is a great actress. But backtrack, just when a star is born in 2016, gave raw stripped down vulnerability, and earned her an Oscar nod for Best Actress.

Immediately in 2019, she launched House Labs, a hyper-colourful beauty brand dripping glitter and chaos echoing her fame monster era from 10 years ago, which leads to branding the step number three. House Labs 1.0 flop. This is some of the worst. Failing to see the hype. I'm very confused.

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. Calculating route to avoid seeing poverty. Turn left to bypass the unhoused youth sleeping on the street. then keep right to skip by the lines of people waiting for food. Steer clear of the crowded shelter turning people away, then take the next exit. Let's stop looking away and get in the way of rising poverty. Your donations help the United Way fight poverty in thousands of ways,

like providing food, shelter, and crisis prevention. Donate today at United WayGT.org. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury. EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19 speaker AKG surround audio system.

This city demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac Canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. When Gaga launched her makeup brand in 2019,

expectations were sky high. The rollout wasn't. It was a prestige icon in a budget aisle. Launch exclusively on Amazon, it instantly stripped it out of luxury credibility. The packaging felt mid and the formulas were fine but forgettable. And the even bigger issue that ties in with Gaga's personal brand, there was no consistent identity tying it all together. She went immediately from soulful and vulnerable to buy this Amazon exclusive neon lip crayon.

It was brand dissonance. in business, dissidents kills trust. Customers didn't know who they were buying from. The series actress, the avant-garde pop star, or the relic of 2010 Gaga from 10 years ago. So how can she turn everything around? And is Lady Gaga ready to rip off the mess that she has outgrown? I don't want to be pretty. I want to be iconic. Gaga 2-0.

Lady Gaga's missteps weren't because she lacked talent. They came from branding without boundaries. I had to project something larger than life because I felt so small. Too many pivots, too little clarity. And a product launch that didn't respect the audience's standards that only hurt her personal brand as an artist. Thus, the first step is to understand who she is underneath the monstrous costumes. Who the hell am I?

Branding strategy number one. Don't ditch the weird, refine it. Dance or die. Gaga stopped chasing virality and started curating. creating legacy. After her star is born, she leaned into a more grounded emotional identity without losing the edge. She distilled everything she fought for into three brand pillars. Art, activism, and authenticity. And having this clear vision is something every artist and entrepreneur needs. Without a clear branding direction, you'll be wasting all the effort going

sideways but never up. It's no longer about doing everything. It's about doing the right things repeatedly. And this ties nicely into branding strategy number two. A pivot in visual branding. If the product is her music and her makeup line, House Labs, then the marketing is the visual brand of both. Let's focus on her personal brand image first. Her public image matured, less gimmick, more timelessness.

Iconic or restrained fashion. Her looks still catch eyes, but the need for outrageousness is gone. It's deliberate, elegant, powerful. A fashion evolution that reflects. Just like how both the sound and visual of abacadabra are so unconventional but hold space for elegance and emotional energy. Beauty in the chaos, something that reflects the time and time again quote unquote recession pop. As a tangent here, timing has actually been on Lady Gaga's side. She practically invented recession pop before it even had a name.

The fame monster was all glam and terror in the shadow of the financial collapse. Born this way, offered self-acceptance during a culture war. culture war. Even Chromatica was dancing through the apocalypse, aka supply demand. The previous issue was an over-reliance on shock marketing that became the brand that overpowered Lady Gaga herself. And now, people pay attention and respect to her, not just the shocking things she does visually. This is something I think got lost in the attention economy. For example, you're in the business of selling lip gloss and if you as a founder punch someone in the face, Yeah, that will get you views, but will that get your brand more trust, hence more people to buy your products?

Exactly. Shock will only get you so far, and as we talked about previously, it fatigues really quickly. But the full rebrand of Lady Gaga would not be complete without the full rebrand of the extension of her brand, House Labs. Brandy Strategy 3. Luxury Repositioning of House Labs. The relaunch. of House Labs mirrors the relaunch of Gaga's brand. House Labs rebranded with clean, colorful, prestige forward packaging,

much like how she simplified her brand. House Labs moved into Sephora, signaling a major status upgrade. The product focus shifted into clean science-backed innovation, reposition as a performance meets boneless beauty brand, hence brand clarity. Groundbreaking, major, totally epic. House Labs, obviously iconic, legendary, honestly, Honestly, Academy Award-winning, Smooth Like Butter, Second Skin, Well Bitch Foundation.

The foundation went viral on TikTok due to real user reviews and makeup artists endorsing the ingredient quality. Won Allure and other editorial awards because, as I always say, product first, market second. It looks really good. Oh my God. House Labs is now A, profitable. B, seen as a credible clean beauty brand. not just celebrity fluff and C. Gaga is no longer the center of the brand, but the origin story. Removing the key men risk.

But the funny thing is, by being the founder of a brand that creates good products, the goodwill of the product will naturally transfer over to the founder too, earning her additional respect beyond just her talent, a double kill. Gaga's genius is also her biggest constraint. She sells transformation, but the market now demands transparency. The challenge is to be both the monster and the muse to stay iconic and human. And she's finally figuring it out. Through first, identifying her core brand pillars.

Second, creating a cohesive visual brand. Third, creating good will. Through both her products, aka her house labs makeup and her music. Lady Gaga's rebrand worked because she chose clarity over chaos, credibility over costume, and purpose over performance. She didn't kill the monster. She just made it human. And for homework, take out your notes app.

First, ask yourself, what part of your brand is a performance? Are you still holding on to an identity that got you attention but no longer feels like you? Gaga built a monster, then had to survive it. What persona did you create that is now caging your growth? Second, run the silent cell test.

Hit your offer without the aesthetics, no branding, no storytelling, just the value. If your audience still says, I want it, you've got product market fit. Third, write your own version of this. I built a brand on blank, but now I am becoming blank. Hope you enjoy this dive into the rebranding arc of Lady Gaga and learned a thing where two you can apply to your own personal or business brand. If this episode helped you, send it to someone you love, give it a five-star review. free email list, resources, all links are below. This is your marketing bestie Zoe Unlimited.

Episodes are available on all podcast networks, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. And if you like this episode, make sure to check out these other two I made just for you. Calculating route to avoid seeing poverty. Turn left to bypass the unhoused youth sleeping on the street. Then keep right to skip by the lines of people waiting for food. Steer clear of the crowded shelter turning people away. Then take the next exit. Let's stop looking away and get in the way of rising poverty.

Your donations help the United Way fight poverty in thousands of ways, like providing food, shelter, and crisis prevention. Donate today at United WayGT.org.