Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

The fiasco that was Britney Spears at the MTV VMAs revealed a marketing nightmare.

When the announcement that you're making a comeback is part of your marketing plan, it has to be considered one of the most important times of your career. To not be absolutely prepared for the event is inexcusable. Britney wasn't prepared - not even close.

The problem with marketing is it's going to draw attention to whatever you are as a brand. What you represent as a brand will come out for better or worse, as I talked about here.

What this shows us is your brand has to be consistent and your marketing campaigns built around that consistency of your brand.

Another thing is we must care about our brand. If we don't care about it, who will? Britney obviously didn't have any concern about herself as a brand, as her performance revealed.

So marketing herself as being ready to perform in a comeback mode was so far from the reality that the performance is a joke across all the media.

In this case the marketing worked, as far as getting people to take a look at Britney's performance. On the other hand the marketing was a failure, because Britney as a brand has become a disaster.

Branding and marketing work together. Both have to be on top of their game if it's going to work for you. Marketing can do nothing for you if your brand isn't vibrant and represent who you are. All it does is call attention to negatives if your brand isn't strong.
 
No matter how great we market, if the brand isn't solid, it isn't going to work.

As far as Britney goes, my colleague at thebizofknowledge get it right saying: "Britney! Listen to someone who genuinely cares about you."

Her handlers should never have encouraged her to take the stage in the state she's in. It'll now be extremely difficult to gain back what she lost with her performance.