American singer-songwriter and businesswoman Madonna has received coverage in business journalism. Madonna started some enterprises, including Maverick and its subdivision Maverick Records, making her one of the first female artists to establish an entertainment company and a record label. Maverick Records later became the highest-grossing artist-run label of its time. She received a favorable media reception in her role as a businesswoman, becoming the first solo female entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes in 1990.
Throughout her career, academics and the media have discussed Madonna in relation to marketing strategies, as well as broader social themes, attracting both positive commentaries and criticism. Nicknamed the "Material Girl", Madonna is interpreted by some critics as embodying the materialism and consumer-oriented ethos of the 1980s. In addition, Madonna was described as a model of continual reinvention by others, while her career has also been marked by various controversies, and critics viewed her primarily as a marketing product.
Madonna set various earnings records in her industry. Madonna became the richest woman in music, before being surpassed in 2019. She recorded the highest earnings for a female pop star at that time (2013) and is the first female artist to earn more than $100 million in a single year (2009).
Profile Background and media coverage Madonna's career has been examined from business and marketing perspectives. A 2013 issue of the journal Celebrity Studies noted that various scholars with academic interest in Madonna, focused their research on marketing strategies and consumer culture. According to authors of The Madonna Companion: Two Decades of Commentary (1999), Madonna became a "central image" in the studies of commercialism. Ann Power from The New York Times (1998) noted that she embodied capitalism to intellectuals, while professor Suzanna Danuta Walters (1995) argues that she was often represented as a "personification of commodity capitalism". The authors of The Madonna Connection (1993) wrote that scholars had detailed her "business practices", as well as her relations to the records, video, film and book industries.
Biographer Andrew Morton commented in Madonna (2001) that her "success has certainly impressed the business community". In NATO Review (2008), Peter van Ham wrote that various businesses have used Madonna as a role model of self-reinvention. University of Ulster marketing professor Stephen Brown described her case as "relevant" to the consumer research community, and noted that various commentators, from entertainers to academicians acknowledged her "promotional genius". The Kelley School of Business, in the early 2000s, referred to her as more than a "pop cult icon", suggesting "she is someone everyone can learn from", although outside the conventional framework of the 4Ps.
Author Jennifer Egan wrote in 2002 that a "popular answer" offered by her critics to define Madonna is that "she's done it through sheer business savvy". In Financial Times (2008), Ludovic Hunter-Tilney similarly noted that, in the view of her critics, she is right to describe herself as a businesswoman but wrong to call herself an artist. In From Hegel to Madonna: Towards a General Economy of Commodity Fetishism (1998), Robert Miklitsch describes Madonna as "largely a story about publicity and marketing", while professor Ann Cvetkovich similarly characterized her as a product of "intense marketing and public relations campaigns". Cvetkovich, however, suggested that the relationship between Madonna and her reception by global audiences "must be articulated". Media scholar Douglas Kellner has argued that "one cannot fully grasp the Madonna phenomenon without analyzing her marketing and publicity strategies".
Business ventures
According to biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, Madonna started various enterprises, and became one of the first female celebrities to establish both an entertainment company and a record label (Maverick and Maverick Records). She is one of the first female musicians to become a CEO according to authors of Controversies of the Music Industry (2001). Robert Miklitsch (1998), Cranfield School of Management visiting scholar Colin Barrow (2004), and Kevin Sessums (c. 1993) similarly described her as a diverse "corporation" or "organization" unto herself.
Madonna has endorsed various campaigns and signed major commercial deals, including a $5 million endorsement agreement with Pepsi in 1989. Madonna also signed two of the largest music deals: a recording agreement with Warner Music in 1992, and a 360 deal with tour promoter Live Nation in 2007. According to the BBC, Madonna was the first major recording artist to choose such a deal with a touring company over a traditional record deal. Billboard reported that she became the inaugural artist signed to Live Nation's "Artist Nation" division.
Associated enterprises
Madonna fashion brands: Truth or Dare by Madonna Hard Candy Fitness Maverick Maverick Films Maverick Records Boy Toy Inc. Siren Films Music Tours Inc. Slutco Webo Girl Publishing Inc. Tidal Raising Malawi (non-profit organization) Ray of Light Foundation (non-profit organization)
Reputation Billboard (2007) noted that Madonna as CEO, had "a reputation as being a tenacious executive as ubiquitous as her music". Early in her career, publications such as Forbes (1990) and The Canberra Times (1992), described Madonna as a "calculating businesswoman", and explained entertainers like her, avoided labels such as "manager" and "businesswoman". American political analyst Matt Towery in 1998, noted she did not portray herself as a "corporate manager or captain of industry".
According to writer Warren Allen Smith in 2000, many people in the 1990s spoke of Madonna as "the lady who works". Others referred to her as a workaholic, including critics Camille Paglia and Gina Arnold. Some publications referred to her as one of the hardest working and disciplined performers, including The Guardian (2023) and The Straits Times (2001). A few others deemed Madonna as an example of the American Dream or a female version of the self-made man.
Marketing tactics and publicity have been identified as central to Madonna's career, with some academics, including Brown, describing her as a "marketing genius". Madonna's first nationwide performance at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 has been characterized by The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History (2006), as establishing her as a self-made star. Bitch magazine (2003) described the appearance as both a marketing strategy and a defining moment for women in rock music.
Madonna earned a reputation as a trendsetter, described by Rashod Ollison of The Baltimore Sun (2008) as a "career hallmark". Authors of Emotionally Intelligent Leadership (2009) noted that she was widely perceived as being "on the cutting edge". Business scholar Roger Blackwell wrote that she functioned as a "conduit" for the "introduction" and "acceptance" of trends in fashion, dance, and lifestyle. Business theorists Jamie Anderson and Martin Kupp described her as "one of the first artists to bring this approach to the music industry". However, following the release of Hard Candy (2008), media outlets characterized her instead as a follower of trends.
Reception
Madonna's business acumen received a positive response both within and outside the music industry. In 2007, Billboard included Madonna in their Power Players list, which recognizes women who "have made an important mark on the music business". In 2004, Colin Barrow of the Cranfield School of Management noted that Madonna was referred to as "America's smartest businesswoman". In 2013, Dan Bigman from Forbes recalled that the magazine viewed her as one of the "shrewdest businesswomen we'd ever seen" in the early 1990s, a remark that author of Profiles of Female Genius (1994) described as unusual by a female figure at that time. In 1990, Madonna became the first solo female entrepreneur to appear on a Forbes cover. A contributor of The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing described Madonna in 1992, as a signifier of changing "world's views" of the boundaries between "music, entertainment, and business". Her approach of continual reinvention was later cited as a model by other businesses and corporations, as cited by an author in NATO Review (2008). In 2007, Alfons Cornella from Deusto Business School wrote that node used the phrase "this is a Madonna company" to define a company capable of reinventing successively. At some point of her career, media publications such as The Daily Telegraph (1998) and Deutsche Welle (2018), similarly referred to her as arguably "music business' most successful woman".
The Irish Examiner wrote in 2018, "she broke new ground, harnessing and marketing herself". Similarly, in 1986, The Sunday Times argued with Madonna's spurt to fame, "new heights have been scaled or new depths plumbed". According to Brown (2014), she is credited with helping transform "self-reinvention" and "multiple identities" into a business strategy in her industry. Ohio State University scholar David Bruenger said that "she pioneered brand management strategies". Different publications and authors commented positively on Madonna's brand. She is called a "quintessential brand" in The Experience Effect (2010), and the author suggested that she was perhaps the epitome of celebrity marketing and branding. Publicist Michael Levine made similar remarks in discussing her 20-years plus career. In The End of Advertising as We Know It (2003), authors Sergio Zyman and Armin Brott, referred to her "uncanny ability to retool" her brand. Academics from Warwick Murray (2006) to business theorists such as Michael Czinkota and Ilkka Ronkainen (2013), once called her a "global brand".
Expressions coined
Madonna effect: Business professor Oren Harari used the phrase inspired by her business tactics and changes (reinventions). In Information Today's Event DV (2008), the "Madonna effect" is described as "all about reinventing yourself to keep yourself and your business to the culture of that demographic". Madonna-curve: According to Peter van Ham of the Clingendael Institute, writing in NATO Review (2008), the "Madonna curve" is a phrase used by some business analysts to describe "adapting to new tasks whilst staying true to one's own principles". The usage for NATO was not well received by analyst Robin Shepherd from Chatham House who argued that "an ageing pop diva is not an excellent analogy for NATO". Canadian educator and designer Bruce Mau, referred to it, saying "it's named after the pop star for her capacity to alter her image and stay popular. However radical the visual difference, she is always Madonna".
Commercial impact Commentary According to Theodore Koutsobinas in The Political Economy of Status (2014), media celebrities like Madonna were "widely seen as symbols" of the Great Moderation period. In the early 1990s, Madonna was seen as "a valuable property in the world of international capital". Madonna ranked among U.S. leading exports of 1992, with American political scientist Walter Berns describing her as one of the biggest American export items, while Spanish newspaper ABC referred to her as the "most prolific, profitable and universal consumer object since the commercialization of Coca-Cola". American business editor Robert J. Samuelson wrote in 1991 for The New York Times, an article titled "Madonna and the New Economic Order", describing the growing aspects of a global economy. American business writer Tom Peters reported in 1993 that she ran a "positive trade balance" overseas leading him to describe it as part of a "new soft economy".