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Beyoncé is powerful.  F*cking powerful. 2013 will be all about Beyoncé.

We now live in Beyonce’s world, well at least this year we will…

If you need a definition for Brand-Person Image to my opinion just look at Beyoncé Branding. She and her hubby represents the American dream of our time. They give us a  mix of authenticity, business, entertainment and intimacy 2.0.

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So how does Beyoncé creates such a powerful mediapersona? As my dearest teacher Marie-Agnès Parmentier says, gaining media exposure isn’t sufficient, to be a successful brand-person the celebrity has to create intriguing stories and build a fascinating media persona. The brand-person should constantly provide publicly personal cues to market it to a broader audience [1].

Beyoncé is, after all, talented, successful, and fearsomely hardworking; she’s rich, beautiful, and comports herself in a manner that’s about as dignified as pop stars can manage. She’s married a covetable partner, Jay-Z, and birthed the most famous baby in the hemisphere. _Vulture 

Beyoncé has been re-sparking her story over and over again the past years. She has been creating three distinct and symbolic personas with different appealing discourses.

• Beyonce is authentic,intimacy, and real. She’s Jay-z’s wife, a mother and a friend.
• Beyonce is a feminist/empowered woman. She is an entertainer and she has tell compelling stories  around “WOMAN”. She largely publicized in her songs and performances.
• Beyonce is a business shark and a true bling-blinger.

The two are reigning royalty of the music world, in part because of their tremendous talent, but also because of their substantial media savvy. _ celebrity gossip, academic style A.H Petersen

Those three different personas reveal a mix of public and private details about the celebrity through media coverage and discourses. What makes her stronger is that she now strongly control the conversation. Her communication and PR team doesn’t let any mistake to shadow her light. This is why she choose to expose her baby by posting the very first shoot on her Tumblr either than in a Gossip magazine like any of other celebrities. So that how she think she has complete control of her image.

1) The illusion of intimacy on Internet

As Anne Helen Petersen doctor in Celebrity & Gossip Says : “No one performs authenticity quite like Jay and Bey”.

Authenticity is a very complex and powerful discourse and is one of the major dimension of the construction of the contemporary celebrity brand. Our fascination with celebrities, as well as power as cultural symbols is rooted in the ‘‘illusion of intimacy’’ constructed between the audience and the celebrity figure. The notion of “real” or “true celebrity” is the element that build an authentic image. [2]. 

Remember this video of little grand-ma asking Jay-z if he is famous while he was taking the subway (oh and by surprise every paparazzi of New York was at the stop at the same time !)

But telling an authentic story is a very complex and risky thing to do for a celebrity that doesn’t want to be perceived as common and boring. Here’s how the Queen Carter does it :

• Intimacy on Tumblr : Beyoncé gives us private cues of her story.

Doctor Anne Helen Petersen asked the question: Why Bey decided to go on the internet? If Beyoncé wants to truly start a conversation about herself, she has to release information digitally. On Tumblr  Bey’s refining and reinvigorating her image. Her Tumblr is a brilliant strategy for reactivating yet controlling the conversation about her between albums/tours [3]. Some photos show Beyoncé in a private moment and her team tested the audience responses to it. The response was extremely good so they decided to go futher.

• A reveal-all documentary on HBO : behind the scene.

Life Is But A Dream by Beyonce airs on HBO Canada and HBO this Saturday (See the trailer here). “If I were the Dean of the Faculty of Celebrity Studies at a liberal arts university somewhere in New England, this would be required viewing every year until graduation.“_ [4]

“Life Is But a Dream” is many things, but again it’s a very strategic authentic message that she wants to deliver. There are views into Beyoncé’s life that feel personal. Here what she says in a recent interview in Vogue : “This movie has healed me in so many ways. It makes me want to cry”[Vogue]. So deep. So Narcissist. But we buy it.” [via Lainey Gossip].

According to Lainey who had the privileged to watch the film before everyone in this planet:

“I promise you, if you love celebrity, if you love gossip, you won’t be able to look away. Sometimes you’ll be riveted by her perfect “natural” skin. Sometimes you’ll shout at her on your tv because she’s so full of sh-t (all the time, actually). The entire movie is one giant GIF “_[5]

You may want to read the complete article.  Lainey describes the Beyoncé film with great irony.

• The Carters : A branded Family. 

This is the Carters: JAY, BEY and BLUE IVY. Couple branding and family branding is a very powerful skill. The phenomenon of branded families is more and more in vogue in Hollywood, for example The Beckhams is one of the most successful family who build a massive brand with this assets [6].  The Carters hang-out with other very selected branded family from different artistic field and that they live the same success.

The Obama,Gwynelth Paltrow & Chris Martin, Kanye West and Kim Kardashin. Are Jessica Biel & Justin Timberlake next BFF of the couple?

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[1] Parmentier , Marie-Agnès et Eileen Fischer (2012). « How athletes build their brands », Journal sport Management and marketing, vol.?,no?, p. 19.

[2] Erin Meyers ( 2009). « Can You Handle My Truth?: Authenticity and the Celebrity Star Image », The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 42, no 5, p. 17.

[3] Anne Helen petersen. "Decoding the Beyoncé Tumblr", Gawker.com. 9 Avril 2012. http://gawker.com/5900397/decoding-the-beyonce-tumblr

[4] Elaine Lui. "Beyonce’s Life & Dreams", Lainey Gossip. 12 fevrier 2013. http://www.laineygossip.com/Beyonce-covers-Vogue-talks-about-her-HBO-documentary-Life-Is-But-A-Dream/25939?celebrityId=19

[5] Ibid.

[6] Parmentier , Marie-Agnès (2011). « When David Met Victoria », Family Business Review, vol. 24, no 3, p. 217-232.