Let me speculate a little about our future.
I have never been a big consumer of art or entertainment. I have never been a professional entertainment marketer. But I have executed complicated projects as a scientist, engineer, software developer and manager. I only mention these things so you can put my words in the proper context.
Looking at the Alizée BUSINESS, one first has to recognize that the United States has never been an important source of revenue for it. For example, to date, none of Alizée's recordings have even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliz%C3%A9e_discography">charted</a> here. No doubt the insanity which has racked the United States during this century would have been an impediment, even if no others existed, but failure here remains a fact.
The rollout of broadband Internet access in the developed world has done a lot to alter the logic of entertainment promotion. Along with the plummeting cost of digital storage, it enabled the rise of video hosting firms like YouTube and Hulu that can narrowcast specialty acts which never would have even gotten their toe in the door during the era when we watched almost all our television by broadcast. I discovered Alizée through YouTube - perhaps you did too.
Yet even though Alizée could get a ready audition in the US through YouTube in 2006 and 2007, when <i>Psychédélices</i> was released, it was Mexico, and NOT the United States which sustained the Corsican girl's musical career through sale of the new CD. And this so, even though French is no more Mexico's first language than it is that of the United States. (As for France itself, well...)
Note the Internet also provides a rich new tool for doing marketing research at low cost. One can extract useful demographics from things like Google and YouTube searches and traffic to individual Websites. Let me examine the latter.
When I looked at the national origin of hits on Alizée's official Website on <a href="http://Alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=151335&postcount=12">12 February</a>, just before the release of <i>Limelight</i>, you would not know the United States even existed.
Although its population has tripled in the last three decades, the French department in South America called French Guiana still falls short of a quarter million residents. Yet it was responsible for more hits (2.7% of the total) on Alizée's Web site than a nation with over a THOUSAND times as many residents - the USA.
Happily, by the time I looked again on <a href="http://Alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=154177&postcount=16">11 March</a>, the US accounted for a 10.2% share of the site hits. AT LAST there was some evidence that substantial album sales in the United States were a possibility. This is something I suspect Alizée's marketing people knew without my intervention, but I made a point to tell the Virgin store in Paris anyway.
Alizée can be kind and polite to everyone, but a business cannot waste time coddling a tiny handful of fans in some country that will not make purchases. Alizée America can only be important to her if America is a plausible market. Otherwise, it does not matter how sincere, dedicated, bright or talented its members are.
As regards the private audience with Alizée, I think it was important that the emissary come from another continent, rather than just across the French border, from say, Switzerland. This is a grand (and EXPENSIVE) gesture which pays Alizée great court as a significant entertainer. I had some nerve calling our friend Scruffy our Ambassador, because we damn well are not PAYING his expenses. He is kind not to rebuke me.
In case you are curious, Alexa reports traffic to
http://Alizée-officiel.com/ continues to grow, with France expanding its share lead, the US holding its own, and Mexico faltering.<table cellpadding="10"><tr><td></td><td>11 March</td><td>28 March</td></tr><tr><td>Reach (%)<br>(one month)</td><td>0.00036</td><td>0.00056</td></tr><tr><td>National<br>shares</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>France</td><td>32.6%</td><td>43.1%</td></tr><tr><td>Mexico</td><td>21.0%</td><td>12.4%</td></tr><tr><td>United States</td><td>10.2%</td><td>9.7%</td></tr><tr><td>Switzerland</td><td></td><td>4.8%</td></tr><tr><td>Germany</td><td></td><td>4.0%</td></tr><tr><td>Spain</td><td></td><td>2.6%</td></tr><tr><td>Poland</td><td></td><td>2.3%</td></tr><tr><td>Hungary</td><td></td><td>1.4%</td></tr><tr><td>other</td><td></td><td>19.9%</td></tr></table>
I have no idea what role a "fan club" like Alizée America might play in helping Alizée succeed in the US market. We should not feel hurt if the Alizée people thank us for the offer tendered in the Open Letter, say they will let us know, and then never contact us again. They have to budget their time and effort in the most productive way. They are not being rude or ungrateful. They must succeed.
But if we are asked to do something, it will be very important that we execute well, because any first task would be a TEST of our talent and sincerity. If we drop the ball, don't count on playing another game.
Sadly, I have often found that outside of professional societies where reputations are important, people who serve in volunteer efforts tend to talk a much bigger game than they are ever willing to play.
If there is a marketing professional among us who would volunteer to lead us if we get tapped as helpers, now would be a great time to step forward and tell us you are here. I get the impression that half the people who take part here are males 18-25 who are either in school or gaining work experience at their first adult jobs. The <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=155938&postcount=203">methodology</a> I used to nucleate the <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=155926&postcount=164">happy result</a> of an audience with Alizée didn't require any entertainment industry smarts. I suspect helping her sell CDs in America would.
If I wanted to use some sort of classy, intimate event to jump-start a sales effort for <i>UEdS</i> in the US, I guess I would try to book Alizée for a performance at <a href="http://www.fiaf.org/about/index.shtml">French Institute Alliance Française</a> on the Upper East Side in New York City. Their 400-seat Florence Gould Hall Theater hosts live events, such as one by French actor <a href="http://www.fiaf.org/calendar/calendar.asp?vw=2&evt=PA">Sami Frey</a> (reserved seats $50). Because the album is set in the city, this venue would be particularly appropriate. It would not only interest francophiles, but people from institutions which had relationships with the Factory crowd. This might lead to articles or interviews in the local arts press and maybe some air play on radio. It's too bad The Andy Warhol Museum is in his hometown of Pittsburgh, rather than New York City, where it might have co-sponsored something like this.
In any event, it is no easy task to sell non-English songs in the US! Who can name any well-known examples of success? The single <i>Dominique</i> by the Belgian <i>Sœur Sourire</i> pops into my head - and that was half a century ago! It took a decade for another foreign-language single to chart in the US, <i>Eres tú</i> in 1973.
Anyway, that's my amateur suggestion. Good luck, Alizée!