Just wanted to weigh-in on the Rosie O’Donnell  brand/marketing crisis.

First, If Martha Stewart (MS) understands the marketing concept,  Rosie  O’Donnell doesn’t have a clue! 

Celebrities like products can be understood using the marketing model and the concept within marketing— branding.

MS bounced back from her troubles with the Feds because  she understood marketing and the importance of positioning her brand—satisfying her Target Market’s need for “the perfect home” and how best to entertain one’s guests!

Rosie on the other hand confused her target market—females who wanted to be entertained by a woman who was as Time Magazine described the “Queen of Nice,”  by making outlandish statements that most credible commentators (whether from the left or from the right) would describe at best “far out.”

Somewhere she lost her Brand’s position in the mind of her fans and became  an opinionated  celebrity who wanted  to make her  ideas public—and not satisfy her fans need to be entertained by the Queen of Nice—the Rosie Brand.  It’s simple Rosie forgot what her brand was about: entertaining not commentating!

If  Rosie  was attempting to change her brand from Entertainer to Commentator/ Journalist—something  she has no credentials for executing,  even within a light opinion oriented show like “The View, ” I believe she did it incorrectly.  I would have advised her to slowly change her brand from entertainer to responsible commentator   through a mentoring program at a leading news organization that would have initially edited some of her radical ideas so that her target audience would not have been lost!  N.B. Ratings were up for the “View” but Rosie’s Q score (a technique that advertisers use to assess celebrity likeability among consumers) went down! 

Let’s face it.  The “Rosie Brand” is in trouble “big time” and the only question is who will take a chance on this new brand that she has created.    Perhaps I could provide some marketing counsel on how best to reposition the “Rosie Brand”—something closer to what Rosie’s target market  will want to purchase!  When will entertainers learn from the P&G’s  of the world,  that it’s is not only about promoting your brand, it about marketing your brand!