If you havent heard of Lady Gaga by now, you are living under a rock. This pop-star in the last Year has escalated into being one of the music industry’s most important celebrities. From the eyes of manyLady Gaga has exceeded their expectations.

Her first album, The Fame, is the best-selling debut album of 2009. Her single Just Dance has been viewed 87 million times on YouTube. Gaga’s tracks have clocked 20 million downloads this year. Poker Face, is the most downloaded track in the history of U.K. digital music.

With that stated, I’m no interested in giving you Lady Gaga’s  background, I want to define what a “Monster” in Marketing she is.

After seeing  footage and analyzing many of the stunts she gets away with, its necesary to remark that Lady Gaga directs and envisions every step of her life and career, before it is executed.  Her understanding of marketing integrates well with her  form of doing things making her effective in social media channels . A good example is the dress she used for the 2010 VMA Awards the infamous meat dress, she might have  made it look conservative , but in reality she was literally wearing a meat dress. The meat dress became a #trending Topic online and generated a lot of buzz.

We also see why in 2010, 11,500 mainstream media articles mentioned her. This is impresive considering that she is still consider a new artist to many.

Her marketing is fueled by her fans, which have decided to fall in line with what she represents. Her fans or “Little Monsters” are responsible for carrying her brand. Last year in november Gaga posted a link to one of her own videos on fashion icon Alexander McQueen’s Web site.After a single tweet by Gaga, her rabid fans streamed in and crashed the site’s servers. Not many  brands can acquire this influence over it’s fans in such a short period of time. Lady Gaga has manage to prove other that it can be done.

Her maketing translates into pure harvested loyalty, a few examples of how she does this are:

a) Give fans a name. Gaga actually doesn’t like the word fan so she calls them “little monsters” after her debut album “The Fame Monster” this way fans have a way to relate to each other, and feel special, like joining an exclusive club.

b) Making it something bigger than herself. Last year during a Tour, in the middle of a concert she stopped everything and recited a “Manifesto of Little Monsters” many of the fans see this as a dedication getting the point across that she is there because of them.

c) Establishing a connection. She connects with her “Little Monsters” with a signature stretch out “monster hand claw” its also the Little Monsters greeting.

d) She puts the spotlight on her fans making them feel like rock stars, one of the things she does on tour is to call a fan in the audience during the show, the fan screams out then cameras focus on him, and after being on the big screen, she invites him to have a drink after the show.

e) Social Media Influence , right now Gaga has around 7.5 million followers on her Twitter account and countless more on her requisite Facebook Page. She shares her personal life and connects with her fans, she tweeted before opening the Grammy Awards. She has also tweeted to her fans , about buying them pizza, for staying all night at line waiting for an alum signing.

These things show a good understanding in marketing. One great example is how she does not allow professional photographers to her concerts, but her fans are allow to capture pictures, and video so they can later upload via youtube. In my opinion that is just brilliant.

For the moment Gaga’s staying power is yet to be seen. But she is making a Tsunami in the music business, and showing a few the power of fandom, and how to sculpt a successful brand.

What other brands can we compare to Lady Gaga?

What can you do to get closer to your clients or fan base that would be unique to them?