Marketing Reflections
Marketing has always played a vital part in every successful business. Taking this class so far has taught me the importance of search engine optimization, and different social media marketing strategies. Including the task in my PDL timeline goals, I’ve come to learn when it comes to marketing; a company’s values play a very important part in planning a successful marketing campaign. A company’s product may change, but the company’s values should always stay the same. In the YouTube video “The Best Marketing Advice Ever” by Steve Jobs, he gives a great example. Nike is one of the greatest company’s known across the globe. We all know they make shoes, but in their commercials they never discuss why their shoes are better, or about the new features in a shoe. In their commercials they honor great athletes, and great athletics. This shows you who they are, and what they are about. Every great marketing campaign should do the same. It should focus on who, and what that company is about.
Marketing in the music industry has drastically changed over the years due to the digital era. Streaming services has made it somewhat easier for artists to gain a fan base, and social networks have played a major part in fan engagement. Fans today have to be looked at different than they were years ago. Will Hope, Spotify’s director of label relations, stated in the past it was a lot easier to think of a fan as a sale. Fans would go and buy it and that’s it, you don’t have to worry about them again. Now a fan equals someone who is going to play something over a long period of time, and Will Hope considers the economic value of each fan variable. I agree with this, and I believe streaming services is the new way to gain more fans.
Marketing in this age has to be more creative than ever though. You have to realize that every fan you gain is different, and can be grouped into its own segment. Once you realize each segment, you can attack them from that angle. Although we are in a digital age, we must not forget about our traditional ways of marketing. If you can master the art of mixing the two, the sky is the limit. One creative example is how Brittney Spears promoted her new single in Uber cabs. Not only were cars painted with her logo on the side of them, there was a blog post encouraging fans to enter a code when requesting a cab between 3pm and 9pm on Sunday. There were surprised gifts including tickets to her concert, and a personal meet and greet. The real aim was to get those riding in the customized vehicles to post their excitement on Facebook and Twitter. Brittney Spears definitely focused her campaign on who and what this single was about, and that is the core of any successful marketing campaign. I will be implementing a lot of these strategies while working with artists, and creating unique marketing plans for them.