About Melissa Flood Expertise Hi. I LOOVVVEEE the Spice Girls and I have been reading articles, books and anything I can get my hands on about them. I know their birthdays, first boyfriends, families names (and some families birthdays) and much more I run 6 Spice Related websites and I would love to answer any question you have regaurding the biggest girl group of our time.
Question Hi,
Thanks for taking the time to read my question. I have always been totally impressed by the Spice Girls as business women. They had a very good strategic plan in the earliest days that really catapulted them to stardom. I am now writing a paper for one of my business classes (about strategic planning) about the way the Spice Girls went about organizing their plan for stardom and then executed it perfectly to achieve their goals. What I am hoping you may be able to provide me with is background on their earliest plans for exposure, to get contacts in the business, etc. I had heard that they dumped the management company that brought them together, fairly quickly, but was this after they got a demo tape out of them? Also, I have heard that when they finally got their record deal with Virgin, they had already created such a "buzz" about them that they actually had record labels fighting over them, rather than the usual band going after labels. What did they do to accomplish this? What did they do to get news media, etc. to take notice of them? What was the chronology from when they first got together up to becoming number one worldwide? I know these are a lot of questions, but any type of info you can give on the way they went about achieving their dreams in the early days, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Kelly
Answer Hi Kelly.
Wow! You sure need to know a bit!
Firstly the girls answered an ad in the Stage newspaper in March 94. Geri, Victoria, Mel B and Mel C auditioned. They got in and another girl callled Michelle Stephenson also joined.
The group rehersed and had voice and dance lessons for the next couple of months and moved in to a house in Maiden Head, in the UK.
Michelle left due to her mother being sick and was quickly replaced by Emma Bunton in June 94.
For the next year the girls rehersed and had lessons but were unhappy when the manager wanted them to dress alike and not write their own material.
They decided to leave their manager (Bob and Chris Herbert) and make it on their own.
Now due to a contract, the girls were due to meet with big song writer Elliott Kennedy, but since he was set up through their od managers they had to search for him to find him. Mel B and Geri went through the Sheffeild phone book and rang house after house to find him. They found him after a few calls and ended up writing "Say You'll Be There" and "Love Thing" with hime.
The girls were then ready to find a new manager and a record deal. To achieve this, they burst into offices all over the UK and burst into song!
In mid 95, they finally got a new manager in Simon Fuller, and just after that, they signed with record label Virgin.
For the next year they rehersed, wrote, recorded and had lessons until finally in July 96 the girls released "Wannabe". In went into the charts at #3 but it wasn't long before it hit the #1 spot and catipulted them to fame aross the world.
I'd have to say the most important strategy the girls used was trusting their insticts and doing it their way - it certainly proved the right way when Wannabe hit #1 in 32 countries.
