Content area
Full Text
by Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew
Some 30 years after Beatlemania gave the canny entrepreneur small- scale merchandising opportunities, the Fab Five cracked the immense marketing potential of Brand Spice. From Walkers Crisps to Pepsi Cola, if it sold, it was a potential partner. Music Week investigates the phenomenal marketing power of the Spice Girls and how their ethos reverberates in today's pop climate
It seemed in the mid to late Nineties that one could not enter a supermarket without running into the Spice Girls. From lollipops to Polaroid cameras, they sold it all.
This, of course, was nothing new. As far back as 1963, Beatles fans eagerly snapped up a range of branded goods - from Beatles wigs to birthday cards - as Beatlemania swept the world.
But with the Spice Girls it was different. For fans of the Fab Four, the merchandise was an extra - the icing on the cake. For supporters of girl power, though, the goods represented the key to Spiceworld itself.
"The first deal that we did was the Pepsi deal. They were smart in believing in the girls and we initially did a deal that covered the UK and Europe. They got in early," explains 19 Entertainment president Robert Dodds, who was a consultant to 19 when the Spice Girls launched.
"This was probably October 1996 and, by the time they actually wanted to run the activity, the girls were the biggest thing on the planet. It genuinely built their business globally. It ran around the world.
"Their commitment to the girls encouraged Simon [Fuller] who, right from the start, said the Spice Girls were going to be the biggest pop band on the planet. He said that if they are as big as we think they are going to be, why can't we link with other brands in exactly the same way as the Olympics works with a number of partners?"
Such thinking was,...