The Career of Beyonce Knowles - Essay Example

Executive Summary Beyonce Knowles is a famous, multiple Grammy-awarded international music star under contract by Sony Music Entertainment Group. She started as a member of the successful music group, Destiny's Child. She later embarked on a very successful solo music career after the group disbanded. Lately, she has expanded her unique talents to cover film acting, fashion house designing and endorsing products such as Pepsi and La O'real cosmetics. To take her musical career to greater heights, Beyonce can focus on preparing more solo hits and coordinated songwriting efforts with Jay Z, Ne-Yo and other famous R & B musicians. Beyonce can also explore an international advocacy on children's rights as a way to further expand her appeal to a wider international audience. 2.0 Situation Analysis Beyonce has set a historical record in the annual 2010 Grammys Music Awards as the first female to win 6 Grammy Awards in a single year. Moreover, she also made history by having won the Best Female Vocal Performance for a single album three times. As of this year, Beyonce has won a total of 16 Grammy Awards. Her other Grammy Awards this year included best contemporary R&B album, best R&B female vocal for Single Ladies and best traditional R&B performance for At Last, which she performed at President Barack Obama's Presidential inauguration. She also won Grammy's Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Halo. She also won the songwriting trophy along with three writers for Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It). The superstar also won best R&B contemporary album for I Am ... Sasha Fierce. Although she has gone solo, Beyonce is still a part of the Destiny's Child music group. Music consumers have purchased more than 15 million of the Destiny's Childs records. Their multiplatinum Survivor, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's music chart and generated the highest first-week total for a female group and the biggest opening sales in Columbia Records' history. Survivor opened at No. 1 in nine other countries as well. It follows the success of the group's second CD, The Writing's On the Wall (1999), which has sold more than 10 million copies. Beyonce Knowles has achieved a phenomenal solo success in film acting, having co-starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember and the highly successful film, the The Fighting Temptations. She shares her personal perspective on success: "When you love and accept yourself, when you know who really cares about you, and when you learn from your mistakes, then you stop caring about what people who don't know you think. Usually the person talking is just jealous or sad about themselves, and it takes going through this to realize that's how life is." Beyonce's parents were instrumental to her success and they continue to manage her singing career. Mathew Knowles, a Fisk University graduate and former corporate marketing and sales star, has built a reputation for being an astute, hands-on manager who engineered Destiny's Child group's success. He manages a music empire that includes a management firm, record label and production studio. Tina Knowles is the style maven who crafted the group's edgy, sassy image. She has received praise for her dazzling, trendsetting costumes and hairstyles for the group. The Knowleses have been supportive from the very beginning, when Beyonce and a group of young girls decided they wanted to be dancers and singers. They helped to train and to rehearse the girls, to select and sew the costumes, and to style hair. The Knowleses booked and helped to transport them to performances. She got her work ethic from her parents. She is a very focused artist. She knows her goals. She does whatever it takes to get the job done. She has come out in Pink Panther with Austin Myers and in Dreamgirls. 2.1 Current Product Beyonce is 27 years old, 5ft 7in, brown-eyed and brown-haired musical star. She has long, muscular legs but is tall, thin and very curvy and hopes to stay that way by looking after her body. To keep herself in top shape, she does swimming, roller-skating, jogging and aerobics. "She tries to run at least 30 minutes at least once a day, no matter where she is. She values exercise highly and does it religiously. She does as many sit-ups a night as sje can, and she spends 45 minutes of cardio work each day (The Journal, April 29, 2004). She is part of Destiny's Child which had three top ten hits within the year: "Jumpin, Jumpin," "Say My Name" and "Bills, Bills, Bills." They became one of the best-selling female groups after this second album sold more than 9 million units worldwide. their single "Independent Women Part 1," off the Charlie's Angels soundtrack, had reached the largest audience ever in the recorded radio airplay -- 140.4 million pairs of ears. At the Grammys, Destiny's Child received two awards, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group, both for "Say My Name." Now a trio, Destiny's Child's third album, Survivor, which debuted in the spring of '01, garnered a whole new set of hits, like "Bootylicious" and the title track. The success of Survivor resulted in another Grammy for the group in February 2002. In fact, the American Music, MTV, Soul Train and Image Awards all showered the group with more praise. She also had a hit with Jay-Z called "Bonnie and Clyde '03" Thisprepared fans for what was to come with Dangerously In Love, released in June 2003. Beyonce displayed a versatile style with this solo effort, creating the club hit "Baby Boy," the pop success "Crazy In Love" and the soulful "The Closer I Get To You" with Luther Vandross. Like her work in Destiny's Child, Beyonce wrote or co-wrote many of the tracks and performed her heart out on award shows to get the word out to a huge audience. She has emerged as a diva, making the best videos, catchiest songs and creating the most headlines. Her new hit song, "If I Was a Boy" reached platinum levels a short time after it was released. Recently, she married her partner, Jay-Z. Tina, her mother and Beyonce who have established a reputation for creating and strutting fabulous cutting-edge fashions opened up a fashion company called the House of Dereon. Beyonce shared her perspective that the main thing is not to judge people. She explained that one does not know how terrible it is to judge somebody until one gets judged. One does not know how terrible gossip is until the gossip is about you. She believed that communication in a group is the key. She has learned the value of loyalty, about the importance of loving and caring about the people in the group, sticking together, how to be a friend, how to apologize when one is wrong wrong, and how to compromise. Sony Music Entertainment Group has hired a whole phalanx of ad agencies, Public Relations experts, publicists, and concert coordinators to push the popularity of Beyonce. Beyonce is aware that the music industry is very competitive, hence she endeavors to come out with new albums every year whether as a solo artist, in a group like DC or in a special collaboration with other R & B musicians. 2.2 Current Pricing: Beyonce's musical records costs at least US $89.99 which is available through Sony Music Entertainment marketing subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. Her complete MP3 album costs US $29.99 at the Amazon MP3 Downloads store. At the Apples iTunes Store, each of her song costs US $1.29 dollars per download. 2.3 Current Distribution: Beyonce is an exclusive artist of Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. Sony owns the full rights to produce, market, record, film and distribute all the songs done by Beyonce. Sony Corporation is an international conglomerate that has dominated the film, entertainment and digital media industries. Its major subsidiaries are Sony Motion Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Financial Services and Sony Electronics. Sony Music Entertainment spends at least US $150 million dollars to promote each of her new album annually. Sony has 1,700 music stores all over the world. Sony also maintains her website where fans can pay and download her songs. Sony has entered into partnership with Apple Tunes so that they can also distribute her songs via the Apple Stores. 2.4 Current Promotion Sony Music Entertainment hopes to promote her album aggressively in many countries worldwide by banking on her previous sales records. As the main vocal artist of Destiny's Child, she was responsible for the group's albums great feat of having sold 15 million copies worldwide. Beyonce's latest two albums, Dangerously In Love and I am Sasha Fierce, has sold 10 million albums worldwide. The main theme of the current promotions is for Beyonce to reach at least 10 million album sales for her singles and album music productions. Promotional elements are very closely integrated to her album launches such as concert performances, guesting at the Ellen de Generes show, Oprah Winfrey Show and guesting at the Jay Leno shows. The current promotion mix tools used include combining her concert performances with album promotions activities. Beyonce's latest single, "If I was a Boy" The single has topped many charts in European countries. "If I Were a Boy" is her best-selling single in the United Kingdom with total sales of 588,000 units. 3.0 Recommended Target Market Beyonce has a young and fiercely loyal fan base for her music career. Thus, she needs to focus on producing the catchiest song and the best R & B music. She also has a huge and young fan base in the US, Asia, Canada, Australia and the UK particularly in Wales and Great Britain. A new target market that Beyonce could explore is Ireland particularly because Beyonce goes to Liverpool and London four times a year to perform. Ireland is close to those two places and it will be cost-efficient to launch a concert there after the London and Liverpool concerts. Ireland boasts of a strong economy and a young English speaking population. This new target market will require aggressive marketing and promotions so that the consumers will know more about her. 4.0 Recommended Marketing Objective S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time frame for completing the objective). For 2010, after her chart-topping performance at the Grammy, Beyonce needs to go on four major concerts worldwide. She can schedule major concerts quarterly in these venues: London, Liverpool, New York and Singapore. London is a smart choice for a concert venue since she has reached the top of the London music Charts with her previous hits, "Say My Name". Liverpool is also a timely choice since she has had a very successful MTV Concert there last year which was well-received by the audience. New York's Carnegie Hall is a timely venue for her since she hopes to cement her mark in the music industry. It will be an honor for her to perform in such a famous music hall. Singapore is an excellent choice of concert venue for her Asian tour. She will be able to gain more Chinese fans from mainland China and Hong Kong. An Asian concert tour will help her gain media mileage that will attract more fans from Southeast Asia. The main objective of the concert tour is to sell 40 million copies each of her most recent albums "Halo", "All the Single Ladies (Put a ring On It) and "If I Was a Boy". 5.0 Product Recommendations There are two recommendations worth noting that can enhance the product characteristics. One needs to consider ways in which her songs can gain more market appeal, explore new consumer markets and obtain a worldwide acceptance. The first recommendation is that Beyonce can continue appearing in various film musicals such as the Fighting Temptations that will serve to support the marketing and distribution aspects of her songs. The second recommendation is that Beyonce can collaborate with foreign musical artists in the UK, Asia and Europe to launch bilingual albums. Although her top hit songs already have a Spanish version, she should explore working with British recording artists such as Elton John so that she can expand her loyal fan base in the UK. She can also collaborate with Sting in a music album so that she can break into the lucrative Russian and Eastern European market where Sting has a loyal fan base. 6.0 Pricing Recommendations In terms of pricing, the main recommendation is that Beyonce's musical and digital records must be sold at the same price as the music albums of other top Americana and British singers. A second recommendation is that she can collaborate with other US artists to come up with a special anthology album of the best pop music. This musical collaboration can help hone her professional singing skills. 7.0 Distribution Recommendations A strong distribution recommendation is that Beyonce should renew her production and distribution contract with Sony Music Entertainment. It must be pointed out that Sony is one of the three largest recording companies in the world with an affiliated contract with Sony Motion Pictures Inc., a film production and distribution company. Sony Motion Pictures has featured family films, drama, action and animation films such as the Oscar Winner in Animation Feature, Up. For example, Beyonce's songs such as Fever has been featured in the movie, Fighting Temptations. This added feature is not available in the two other big recording studios. Sony Music Entertainment has also pioneered in digital music technology with its product, the Blu Ray disc. Sony Corporation can also promote Beyonce's songs to its Sony Walkman and Sony Vaio laptop computers. For instance, Sony Corporation can devote a website for her where her fans download her songs in a digital format similar to the Apple iTunes store. 8.0 Promotion Recommendations Three promotion recommendations are put forward. First, in terms of promotions, Sony Music Entertainment can feature her songs in more regular family films and animation films in the future. Secondly, Beyonce's songs can be incorporated in many computer games for the youth which are by produced and promoted by Sony Corporation. Since most of her songs are catchy tunes, the young people can enjoy listening to them while playing games. In addition, Beyonce's songs can also be featured as the theme song for the newest computer games that will be produced and launched for the Sony Playstation this year. Third, Beyonce can embark on a concert tour worldwide to enable her fans to enjoy her music live. This will also expose her to the numerous talented young musicians around the world. For example, Beyonce's songs can be promoted by her collaboration with different bands and different singing groups all over the world. She can play with an all male band as well as a all female band. The marketing managers can also promote her more to the Asian young consumers of Brazil, China and India which comprise 40% of the world's total population. 9.0 Conclusion Beyonce's musical career is an exceptional story of teen stardom, relentless performing, and a successful crossover from being part of a musical group to establishing a stable solo career enjoying worldwide fame. Her recent entry to the film industry by appearing in Pink Panther with Austin Myers and as an actress in Dreamgirls has complemented her singing career by enabling her fans to see her varied artistry. The next few years are critical in maintaining the strong momentum of her full stardom. She needs to maintain the top-selling volume of her musical records. She also needs to explore ways to enrich her kind of music by experimenting with other artists via artistic collaborations. She can also explore the possibility of being a concert queen by doing four worldwide concerts in a year. Concert tours are reliable marketing tools that support marketing sales of her records. Works Cited Norment, Lynn. "A Family Affair: Beyonce & Tina Knowles Launch Fashion Line House of Dereon." Ebony. Volume: 61. Issue: 2. December 2005, Page 148. Rein, Irving, Philip Kotler, and Martin Stoller High Visibility: The Making and Marketing of Professionals into Celebrities. Illnois: NTC Business Books. Norment, Lynn. Beyonce Heats Up Hollywood!. Ebony. Volume 57, Issue 9. July 2002. Page 36. LIVING THE DREAM; Beyonce Knowles Is One of Music's Brightest Stars .. Now She's about to Dazzle the Silver Screen. Daily Record. June 10, 2006. Page 35. Read More