The Marketing Practice For Unsigned Independent Artists And Their Music - Essay Example

Discuss the best marketing practice for unsigned independent artists and their music McCarthy’s 4Ps and Lauterborn’s 4Cs both can be best marketing practice for unsigned independent artists and their music. According to McDonald and Dunbar (1998), the marketing mix is the term used to describe the tools and techniques an organization uses to implement the marketing concept. For unsigned independent artists and their music online marketing models and a mix οf 4Ps and 4Cs can produce excellent results. Kotler et al (2001) recognize "4 Ps" that encompass an organizations entire competitive marketing strategy: product, price, promotion, and place. However, McCarthy (1987) prefers a more explicit explanation οf the marketing mix, suggesting that the mix is "a set οf controllable variables which the organization puts together to satisfy a target group." A representative marketing mix involves a product provided at a price, combined with some level οf promotion to attract potential customers, along with a way (a "place") to meet those customers (McCarthy, 1987). In service marketing, McColl-Kennedy and Kiel (2003) identify three extended elements for marketers. In addition to the traditional 4 Ps, McColl-Kennedy and Kiel (2003) stress the core role οf people in a service industry, including both employees and customers or potential customers. Additionally, the service process and physical evidence take on additional importance in service industries. All process can produce best results for the marketing of unsigned independent artists and their music. Kotler defines the product as a combination οf goods and services (Kotler et al, 2001). Given the service focus οf their work, McColl-Kennedy, and Kiel (2003) define a product more generally. They term a product merely as a bundle οf attributes--some tangible, some intangible--offered to a buyer by a seller. Marketing and management theorists agree on the simple concept οf price. But, fixing price for the products of unsigned independent artists would definitely be a difficult task. The price is simply the amount οf money buyers pay to gain the benefit οf the product. The final price reflects both the customers perceived value οf the products and the competitive atmosphere in the market for those products (Barnes et al, 1997). The third P in Kotlers definition, promotion, is the tool used to communicate the value οf the product to potential customers. The goal οf promotion is to create demand and persuade targeted customers to purchase the product (Kotler et al, 2001). Generally, promotional activities include advertising, direct/personal sales, sales promotion and publicity (McColl-Kennedy and Kiel, 2003). Marketers often refer to the fourth P, place, as placement, logistics or distribution. Marketers must create a place or a way for logistics and physical delivery to get a product to market and into the hands οf target consumers (McColl-Kennedy and Kiel, 2003). The distribution step incorporates various distribution channels, intermediaries, importers and exporters, as well as the locations οf stores, store hours and more (McCarthy, 1987). McColl-Kennedy and Kiels expanded marketing mix includes people, process and physical evidence. Primarily used in consumer marketing, these additional mix attributes stress the importance οf service alongside the products purchased by consumers for personal consumption. The first expanded attribute is people. As Barnes et al (1997) describe, "the people involved in every transaction have a major role to play, and can be a major force in the customers decision processes." McColl-Kennedy and Kiel (2003) point out that all people, including customers themselves, factor into the marketing mix. The sixth P in the expanded mix is process. The processes consist οf standard operating procedures, mechanisms and relationship flows used by the organization to perform a service or manufacturing activity (McColl-Kennedy and Kiel, 2003). From a consumer standpoint, this process refers to actual documentation from invoices to terms οf sale involved in the purchase, the various stages οf negotiation and the order flow through the seller organization. Barnes et al (1997) define process as the simplicity or complexity οf making product delivery happen. The last P is physical evidence, or environment. McColl-Kennedy and Kiel (2003) define this final attribute as the environment in which a service is delivered in which the seller and buyer interact before, during and after the sale. For example, brochures, reports, letterhead, business cards, facilities, and even colors used in the decor οf the service area factor into the environment in which an organization carries out a service activity (McColl-Kennedy and Kiel, 2003). IKEA, a furniture retailer and franchisor, provides an excellent case study in the application οf the 7 Ps in the expanded marketing mix. The companys core product is furniture retailing, including decorations for the home and home office under its "Work IKEA" concept (IKEA.com, 2004). IKEA takes a unique approach, focusing on convincing customers to buy furniture to improve their "environment." IKEA offers a wide range οf home furnishings with good aesthetic design and functionality at lower prices than traditional furniture retailers. Based in the Netherlands, IKEA has a presence in 186 through its franchisees. In an attempt to capture an entire room worth οf furniture, IKEA leverages seamless integration and ergonomics οf their line οf furniture. The products for the "Work IKEA" concept include computer tables, home office chairs, home office desks, organizational tools, storage boxes and work lamps (IKEA.com, 2004). All the parts are in one unit and can fit snugly in a rooms corner. IKEA work chairs have easy height adjustments and castors. The organizational tools include letter tray, pen holder, magnet board and cable reel. IKEA storage boxes come in many sizes, materials and colors for easier organization (IKEA.com, 2004). In addition to its integrated product concept, IKEA seeks price leadership in each market. For example, the company offers price guarantees in every market. Prices listed in their catalog are guaranteed to be no higher than the price in the catalog for one year from the publishing date (IKEA.com, 2004). In Australia, the catalog boasts that if the customer finds a lower price at other retailer within 30 days on an item they purchase at IKEA, IKEA will refund the difference and provide a free meal in the IKEA store restaurant (IKEA.com.au, 2004). Over its history, IKEA has mastered successful promotions in building a globally recognized brand. The most well-known promotion is the IKEA Catalog. Every year, IKEA prints and mass mails a catalog to consumers near its locations, introducing the latest products. IKEA has numerous Web sites tailored to the consumers home country, giving potential customers access to on-demand pricing and product specifications. IKEA advertises heavily on consumer-focused television outlets worldwide to promote its environment-focused store and product concept (IKEA.com, 2004). As mentioned above, the place refers to the marketing channel and distribution used to get products into the hands οf consumers. IKEA has 186 stores strategically placed in 31 countries, with 20 located in U.S. markets including Chicago, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. IKEA ensures that its stores and its franchisees remain fully stocked, with 27 distribution centers in 16 different countries. IKEA recognizes the Internet as a growing distribution channel, with over 75 million visitors to its global sites last year alone (IKEA.com, 2004). IKEA not only concentrates on creating a "partnership with the customer", but also pays attention to its employees and business structure. The company keeps its management structure flat, boasting on its Web site that "there are no barriers between management and co-workers" (IKEA.com, 2004). From buyers seeking more and more cost-effective designs to store personnel trained extensively and given initiative to serve customers, IKEA has a focus on the service aspect οf their highly competitive business. A second component in the total service approach used by IKEA is a focus on process. IKEA offers a convenient self-serve shopping method that allows customers to see furniture set up in the store environment and flow through the store to a central hall for the actual purchase. After checking out, IKEA provides simple home delivery for consumers that cannot or do not carry purchased items out themselves. Creating a streamlined shopping experience, along with the focus on delivering the lowest cost products possible, ensures that IKEA customers are satisfied with the both the products and the experience οf buying them. The final expanded component, physical evidence, consists οf all οf the tangible items used in association with the products and services offered by IKEA. In addition to the catalogs and brochures, IKEA maintains a simple, modern look in all οf the stores with ample showroom space to view furniture as it might look in a home or home office. These physical items lead customers to readily identify the IKEA brand and associate the company with quality products and purchasing experiences. Lauterborn’s 4Cs Many companies held up as exemplars οf IMC, fail to uphold IMC standards on a company-wide basis as evidenced in an examination οf Nike and Proctor & Gamble in 2002 revealing neither company had comprehensively or effectively integrated its many communications functions seamlessly or spoken to their stakeholders with one voice (Pettigrew 2002). The question remains, how do great companies like these miss the IMC mark? The answer to this important question lies, to a great extent, in their respective organizational structures; both Nike and Procter & Gamble are marketing organizations, organized around product marketing (Pettegrew 2000). There are three organizational issues that must be resolved before IMC can be implemented: marketing planning systems and basic marketing thinking, organizational structure, and capabilities and control. They believe that because functional specialists within an organization try to keep the various communications programs separate, they are a major hindrance to IMC implementation (Schultz, Tannenbaum and Lauterborn 1992). One οf the most apparent conceptual barriers is the lack οf strategic objectives in communications planning; even though most communication functions or activities are planned and executed in a professional manner, they lack strategic vision and clear positioning at the corporate level (1997). Fully integrated marketing requires a very high level οf clarity in the articulation οf brand strategies; the more understood and clear a brand strategy is, the easier it is to get people from distant areas οf the company to work from the same game plan (Yastrow 2000, p. 4). Another cardinal problem in IMC implementation is: large companies employ several communication specialists to work under their brand managers (Kettler 2002). Each specialist knows little about the other communication tools. Also, they usually have outside favorite outside agencies and opposed turning responsibilities over to one super agency (Kettler 2002). The analysis οf the main barriers led to the definition οf a number οf requirements for IMC: Employees willing to cooperate in the field οf communications; employees with a comprehensive understanding οf the communication system and οf integration; the full support οf top management; strategic positioning and objectives; new methods for planning and analyzing communications activities; radical changes in the way communication functions are structured; new methods οf budgeting applying integration principles (Bruhn 1997). For IMC to be effective it must tear down the traditional departmental walls that create information silos and management fiefdoms; all departments must work together as a unified team to carry out the strategic plan in total unison -one aim, one mission, one message and one experience (Sprague 2004). IMC must be designed around the people who have to make it work, and has to take account οf the prevailing traditions, skills, resource availability and organizational constraints (McDonald 2003, p. 81) Furthermore, for IMC to be a reality in a corporation, adoption must precede implementation; existing IMC theory gives considerably more emphasis to implementation than adoption οf IMC (Pettegrew 2000). Something McDonald agrees: "although writings on IMC explain the problem, there is little practical help for organizations on how to solve it" (2003, p. 360). Works Cited Barnes, E., Meyer, R., McClelland, B., Wieseholfer, H., and Worsam, M. (1997). Marketing: An Active Learning Approach. 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