Marketing Case Study: Kanye West

Kanye West has been stirring up quite a bit of controversy lately. This has gone past his rant at the MTV Music Awards in 2009. Ye dropped a song called “Lift Yourself” that confused many listeners with the lyrics “Poopity Scoop”. Then he started publicly supporting Donald Trump on Twitter while wearing a “M.A.G.A” hat. Yeezy went on TMZ and said, “400 years of slavery sounded like a choice”. He was recently on SNL and did an interesting rendition of his song “I Love It”, then went into a rant about supporting Trump. The rapper just deleted his Twitter and Instagram on Saturday.

Kanye West is a famous rapper.  He was respected on earlier in his career for his production work on “The Blueprint” by Jay-Z. Eventually he got enough of a following to drop an album called “The College Dropout”. His material shifted over the years from a raw and hungry rapper, to a more experimental approach. A few years into his career, Kanye started acting out and having multiple controversial moments.

Kanye’s value proposition is focused on his own image. That image is focused on innovation and glorification. Kanye has called himself a genius, an innovator, and a God. People respect him and his brand. His clothes and shoes sell for absurd amounts of cash, and his fans feel like he can do no wrong.

The issue facing Kanye at the moment is that nobody knows what’s going on in his mind. I honestly can’t tell if this is to gather attention before his new album drops, or if he’s losing his mind. His singles have been doing well on the charts, and his fans still think he’s a creative genius. Honestly, if he releases his album (and it’s actually good), it will be LEGENDARY. All of my friends are talking about Kanye, and this is just free publicity. If his album is a dud, then this could be the end of his musical career.

If I were his marketing manager I would stick to traditional marketing methods. I think his actions are just too risky. People literally think that he is crazy, that he is truly off his rocker. I would definitely try to control what he says during his interviews, because if he just says what people want him to say I think he’d be universally loved.

Do you think Kanye has lost his mind? Do you still respect him after everything he has said? How would you try to market after all of this controversy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanye_West

https://footwearnews.com/2018/focus/athletic-outdoor/kanye-west-deletes-social-media-twitter-instagram-1202692514/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuhl6Ji5zHM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rJfSHnOZeY