"So tell me what you want, what you really, really want" — So goes the refrain of the Spice Girls’ smash hit song Wannabe. What they really wanted and what they have gotten is runaway success, becoming the hottest new band in the UK and around the world. The Spice Girls are a pop group from England. They hit the scene in August of 1996, with their single Wannabe. The single rocketed immediately to No.1 in the charts not only in their home country, but in 29 others as well. Contrary to many critics’ predictions, they followed up their initial success with two more No.1 singles and a chart-topping album. Despite being initially deemed one-hit wonders, they have won over fans and critics alike. Early in ‘97 they attempted to enter where all British musicians have tried to and most have been denied — the American market. America proved to be just as crazy for the Spice Girls as the rest of the world as it became the 31st country where Wannabe reached the pinnacle of the charts. The band is talented to be sure, but becoming such international superstars, making a huge, immediate impact, requires more than a good beat and some dance moves. The Spice Girls have marketed themselves (or been marketed) brilliantly, using a business acumen that is needed for the launch of any new product.

The Spice Girls began their music career with a clear, well-defined goal. Their ideas were simple, but expansive and ambitious. The first objective was to secure a beachhead by concentrating on an ecological niche. From that position of strength, they aimed to launch a widespread assault on the music world using the notions of creative imitation and entrepreneurial judo. Their mastery of delivering value from the customers’ point of view, as well as their comprehension and identification of their target market differentiates them from other pop groups. Crucially, their acute positional sense translated into their great potential. This paper shall only lightly brush upon the musical element of the Spice Girls’ success. The hypothesis is that their success is directly attributable to their marketing and industry savvy, not their lyrical talents. As I possess only a layman’s knowledge of music, I shall analyze what I do understand — the business element of their story using Peter Drucker’s terms and notions from his Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Furthermore, since I live in England and it is there that the Spice Girls have been around for the longest and have been most successful, the majority of this paper refers to the English music scene.

Young girls (6-16 yrs. old) in the UK used to fervently follow the teen band Take That. These lads were the English version of The New Kids on the Block (a huge success across the globe in the late ‘80s) and resurrected the English boy band. The band, however, broke up in 1995 leaving behind a host of pretenders. Despite the general lack of talent in subsequent boy bands such as Boyzone and the Backstreet Boys, these groups became popular. Their popularity can be strictly linked to their mimicry of Take That and the vacuum left by Take That’s departure. The Spice Girls took advantage of the boy band phenomena. Unlike Boyzone (the closest and most successful approximation of Take That), the Spice Girls fulfilled these girls’ need for role models. The Spice Girls used the strategy of creative imitation beautifully. They recognized that the boy bands had come across a fantastic idea and a lucrative market. Yet, the boy bands lacked something vital that the Spice Girls were able to provide — femininity. As the theory of creative imitation suggests, they were able to take the original idea from another and add a special spin, making the idea tremendously more successful. As Drucker decrees, the idea must be simple for it to catch on, as the Spice Girls’ was, "Indeed, the greatest praise an innovation can receive is for people to say: "This is obvious. Why didn’t I think of it." That they were women made them more rather than less appealing to young ladies. Industry insiders had previously believed that young girls wanted to follow male bands. They thought that cute boys would be more appealing to girls. Take That’s popularity had been wholly attributed to their appearance. Puppy love sold records, so record executives thought. According to that logic, a female band would not appeal to young girls. While they were stuck in their ways, the Spice Girls came out of nowhere and became the biggest names in the English music industry. The Spice Girls’ conquering of the market can be termed an example of entrepreneurial judo. The Spice Girls passed other acts because of rival record producers’ pride and obstinate determination to continue with what was working and not try to innovate. While the boy bands were respectably successful, it was thought to be fruitless and too risky to innovate and offer the young consumers something different. While these producers focused on growth in the music market, the Spice Girls sought development.

Young girls experienced a dearth of role models in music. Nearly all women artists are geared to the adult contemporary crowd. Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston are all wildly popular, but their music has mature themes and is ballad-based. The young cohort is a very important part of the music-buying population for they not only buy many albums, but also ancillary products. Girls of the 6-16 year age range get infatuated with their favorite musicians and demand to have every and any product associated with the stars. Posters and magazines are the primary but by no means only products that fly off the shelf when plastered with the faces of pop stars. Initially, the Spice Girls geared their promotion to these young girls. Appearances on children’s TV programs proved to be very valuable. Children frequently feel left out of pop culture, so when these young ladies embraced them, they were bound to become popular. When doing public appearances, the Spice Girls seemed to be very friendly, bouncy, cute personalities. Once the Spice Girls felt they had secured this beachhead, they proceeded to move to the older set.

Young girls constitute a fickle market. If their older siblings or friends disapprove of their choices, they then abandon them. Hence, if the Spice Girls only tried to be young girls’ favorites, they would soon be out of the public eye if teenagers deemed them "uncool" or "unfashionable". The Spice Girls’ appeal to older girls centered around their attitude. The Spice Girls are not only about their music, they contend. Rather, they are a whole attitude, a lifestyle. Girl power is the catch-phrase they coined to describe their essence. Their lyrics, but more importantly, their interviews and demeanor promote independence and self-esteem. The Girls hold themselves up as role models, highlighting their intelligence and self-confidence, while maintaining their femininity. Teenage girls watch these women being pretty and bouncy, yet not being subordinate to males. Although it may not seem to be the territory of pop stars to promote such ideals, in the age of MTV, image is more important than music. The Spice Girls’ ideology is a boon to girls and parents alike. Most women are depicted as sex objects in music videos. They exist to prance around in scanty outfits for the male musicians. The Spice Girls, however, are the stars of their videos and dress as they please. Their fun, bouncy approach draws the audience in, but their strength retains them. Interviews, which are plentiful due to the bountiful teen magazine market, revealed that the Spice Girls have their own ideas and thoughts ranging from the battle of the sexes to politics and social mores. They aren’t as mild and deferential as the boy bands. The Girls don’t mind, they in fact thrive on stepping on some toes once in a while. They look to shake up the establishment. Girl power is about changing the norm and raising the status of women. They preach that girls should take care of themselves and be proud of themselves in lieu of looking to men for approval and security. These feminist ideas are coming from a far different source than usual. The stereotype of a feminist is a dowdy, boring, serious woman who is not in touch with her sexuality. The Spice Girls, while espousing feminist views, have been able to dispel this negative stereotype. Young ladies recognize that girls can have fun and be sexy, while being on equal footing with men. The Spice Girls recount tales of turning the tables on boys by becoming the pursuers, the aggressors. Their sex appeal is a part of them, but does not define them. From this attitude, parents see many encouraging messages and are pleased to buy the albums for their daughters.

Mastery of the charts requires a wide fan base. The Spice Girls reached diverse girls by mirroring their target audience. The five ladies have distinct personalities. Mel B. is black, urban, and funky. She raps and dances more than the other girls and represents the wild, untamed side of the band. Mel C. has been dubbed Sporty Spice for she wears athletic clothing and does backflips in their videos. Her tomboyishness in is juxtaposed with her prettiness. Class and serenity is embodied by Victoria. Geri is the eldest of the Girls and the most mature. She has posed topless and appears to be the most worldly. Emma, Baby Spice is not yet 20, and is the sweet, innocent face of the group. Furthermore, they all hail from different parts of England. The country is very regionalized in its culture and the girls’ geographic diversity enables them to represent all ends of the country. In many ways, their personality reflects their hometown (ex. Mel B.’s sassiness is very Londonish, and Mel C.’s down-to-earthness can be traced to her Essex upbringing). England is still consumed by regional accents and the Girls’ accents further underline their regional appeal. Their multi-faceted personality appeals to diverse age groups. The Girls’ unique looks reflect their personalities. The Spice Girls have managed to entice some male listeners to widen their audience. Men are drawn to the Spice Girls’ sexiness; in their various looks, they appeal to numerous distinct tastes. Men are principally fond of the mature Geri and the elegant Victoria, while young girls are mainly drawn to Emma and Mel C. The salient issue in their multi-culturality is that despite their differences, they all stand together for the same ideals.

The Spice Girls used a clever positional style to attain their objective of a strong position in the pop market. They took into account the structural and attribute parameters, while maintaining their goal in perspective. A comprehension of the targeted demographic audiences and a successful outreach program was crucial. Different tactics worked on the different markets — young girls (role models), teenage girls (girl power ideas), men (fun and sexy). The geographic variable was deftly handled in the assemblage of the group. Furthermore, in marketing themselves to international audiences, they were wise to keep their music and message simple. Their appeal does not lie in complicated lyrics which would be lost on non-English speakers. The songs on their album aren’t difficult to comprehend and the harmony of the song is so catchy that the lyrics become secondary. Sometimes the lyrics do not make sense even in English, as evidenced by the refrain of Wannabe, "I really want a ‘zigazig-ah"’. The beachead analogy appears again when analyzing their international notoriety. They secured their beachead at home in the UK and then proceeded to enter Australia, then Europe, and finally Asia. This progression mirrors the order of nations whose musical tastes approximate England’s. The timing parameter was not ignored. Wannabe, the first release, came out in August. The song has a light, fun, summery feel about it. The timely release took advantage of the nice weather and capriciousness that accompany the end of summer. Their third single, and third straight Number 1, was released in late December. Its slow, sweet sound taps into the holiday spirit. The timing of the release aided its rise to the lucrative and prestigious Christmas number one position. The album as well was brought out right in time for the holiday season shopping spree. It became the hot Christmas present and flew off the shelves of music stores throughout England.

Gaining a strong position was crucial in creating a potential for a profitable, long-lasting future for the group in the here-today, gone-tomorrow environment of pop music. The Spice Girls were well aware that an appeal based only on pretty faces and peppy lyrics would result in their demise and categorize them as one-hit wonders. For them to remain on top of, or even relevant in, the music world, a positional rather than combinational style was essential. Their building blocks towards success consisted of girl power; a fun, happy facade; and a pleasing sound. This nucleus was carefully developed, so the Girls enjoy a secure, robust position. They understood relational parameters such as the ethnic diversity of the group’s makeup and their product diversity. The interaction of the Girls remains at the center of their appeal and success. This harmonious inter-relation of the group members is an important semi-conditional value. Not only are they trying to sell records, they are branching out and are involved in clothing and television and movies. Their widespread appeal has encouraged and enabled them to develop a clothing line Spice-wear, a TV cartoon, and a movie. Their patient approach to record sales, first securing the geographical and demographic beacheads, and intense development, studying their target audience and tailoring their look and message for them, can be evaluated as positional sacrifices, relegating monetary profit to a secondary objective. It is acknowledged that only grandmasters can efficiently use positional style. Undeniably, the Spice Girls are grandmasters of the music business. They possess an impressively high potential for future development, something which is incredibly rare considering the disposable nature of the modern music scene.

The Spice Girls are not only a music quintet. Rather, they have developed into a cultural phenomenon. Their popularity has grown so tremendously that these five girls, who eight months ago were virtual unknowns in their respective hometowns, are now mobbed wherever they appear around the world. Their appearance on any television show or magazine captures a mass audience. They have inspired millions of girls to use their girl power. Their naughty-but-nice temperament, personal charisma, and group unity combine to present a group of fun, sultry young ladies that girls want to be like and guys want to be with. Their brand of bubble-gum pop casts a wide net and has caught a tremendously large audience. Their non-threatening, bouncy sound will no doubt engender many copycat acts. Future bands can learn vast amounts from the Spice Girls, especially their understanding of today’s MTV-influenced, global music world. The Spice Girls comprehended the structural and attribute parameters. By using creative imitation, entrepreneurial judo, deep knowledge of their target market, and strong positional tactics, they took a simple idea, a succinct goal, and basic material parameters (five pretty girls and a catchy tune), and became the most celebrated and best-selling band in pop music of the past 10 months.

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