Oprah may be deemed as success personified. Her phenomenon is huge. Everything about her comes in superlative proportions: her earnings, hairdo wealth, mansions, gift of gab, heart, TV show, magazine, body mass index, global influence, etc. ‘She moves entire industries. Twitter’s traffic surged 43% after she tweeted for the first time. A recommendation from her turns obscure authors and products into best-sellers.’ Oprah does have a huge recipe for success.
Her biggest ace in marketing her thoughts, ideas, opinions, suggestions, and recommendations through media is her ability ‘to understand and relate to her core target market.’ She belongs with her audience group- ordinary people with common struggles and aspirations. Because of this, her audience sees her as real. What she has with the people who watch her and listen to what she says is pure, unadulterated shared pain. And because the objective of what she does along with her audience is betterment, they find a comrade in conquest.
All these result in trust. Oprah’s audience trusts her. For them, she is beyond an entertaining talk show host; she can be anyone – their friend, brother, sister, colleague, etc. That is why what she slams, praises, and recommends considerably affects the decisions and choices of the people who listen to her. She does not have fans. She has followers – literally.
Oprah does know her core competencies, and uses them to the hilt.
She’s also big into personal ties (another core competency). It is said that she just might be the only one to snag a personal interview with Tiger Woods post-scandal, largely because of her personal friendship with the beleagured golfer.
Oprah is what she is – a media product. And if she is skillful at marketing through media, the number one commodity she has been effectively selling all these decades is herself.
Via Forbes.com
