An Australian Rock Band the Eskimo Joe - Recommended Product, Target Market, Promotion, Distribution - Example

Marketing mix plan 1.0 Executive Summary Eskimo Joe is an Australian rock band that writes and produces rock music. This marketing mix plan illustrates its target market and the strategies they are currently employing to get customers and create a revenue stream that is solid. Its current product is concert and CD/DVD and current market is women and men between age 25 and 35. Its current promotion objective is to increase sales and market share. The organization uses internet to advertise; websites and social networks as well as tours. The current pricing is to the market standards and use both skimming and penetration strategies depending on the pricing objectives. The current pricing objectives are to maximize profits, maximize sales and revenue and increase market share. The current distribution intensity used is intensive distribution of the CDs and DVDs and selective distribution for concerts. There are however, recommended marketing strategies for the organization. The recommended marketing objectives are to increase enquiries, profits and revenue by 10% yearly and increase market share by 8%. The product recommended is the music school targeting upcoming musicians who would like to improve on the quality of their music and those who would like to take a career in music. The recommended promotion strategies are creating the school websites, advertising through radio and TV stations, local newspapers, social network sites, flyers and school magazines. Selective and intensive distribution approaches are the recommended distribution approaches to be used. The recommended pricing strategies are price skimming, price penetration and promotional pricing with objectives of maximizing revenues and profits and increasing market share. 2.0 Situation Analysis Current Product The product of the organization is concerts and CDs/DVDs for rock music. The music is in audio as well as in video form. The CD/DVDs are packaged in casings that are easy to carry and cannot be tampered with easily. The concert takes place in strategic places in the country or abroad with a target to sell the music, create awareness or increase market share, increase the revenue and profits. 2.4 Current Promotion: The objective of the organization for promotion of their concerts and CD/DVDs is to increase sales and market share. They create awareness of their every new album that comes up. Promotion is through advertising in media houses, Eskimo Joe’s websites and other websites. It also has a fun websites where the group meets its fans and gets feedback as well as post news and events. Social sites like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace are used to advertise about the group’s CDs and DVDs. Eskimo Joe uses videos as an essential tool to reach its fans through YouTube and social network sites as well as TV channels. Eskimo Joe also go for national and international music tours in several countries to promote their music internationally thus winning fans as well as stepping over their rivals. Concerts are advertised online in websites and social sites, newspapers, radio and TV stations and flyers and posters distributed to customers in the area. During the week of release of an album, the organization plays a limited access for a certain number of fans as part. They also play special preview concerts which coincide with an album launch for fans and tickets given as a competition. Current Pricing The current price of CD/DVD is reasonable for top artists as it ranges from as low as $14.99 to $ 24.99 depending on the album. The objectives of the organizations’ prices are To maximize profits To maximize on sales and revenues Increase market share The organization uses promotional pricing strategies when selling tickets for their concerts. It offers discounts for tickets bought in advance and allow payment in full for tickets bought on the concert day. Another way to get customers to attend their concerts is by selling their CD/DVDs for a certain price and whoever buys those CD/DVDs enters the concert free. Depending on customers’ rating a certain music album of the organization, it uses price skimming to increase the sales, revenues and maximize on profits by setting the prices very high on the CDs/DVDs and concerts. The organization also price penetration to increase market share and sales by setting the price low. Current Distribution The organization uses intensive distribution for its CDs/DVDs. The music is online in almost every downloading music site making it accessible to every customer. The organization has its own website where customers can buy its music. Sites like Amazon and music websites are easy areas customers can download Eskimo Joe’s music. Music shops in malls and supermarkets sell the CDs and DVDs of the organization. Selective distribution for concerts where the organizations identify the location and the venue in which these concerts will take place. Customers are forced to come to these places if they would like to access these services. Recommended marketing objective The marketing objectives are as follows; (a) to increase enquiries by 10% yearly, (b) to increase market share by 8%, (c) to increase the organization revenue by 10% yearly, (d) to increase profits by 10% yearly. For any sales to take place for the school enquiries must be generated. Generation of enquiries depends on the marketing activities (promotion mix). Sales increases when enquiries are converted to sales and thus increasing revenue and profits. The urge to increase profits, sales, and revenue will push generation of enquiries. Recommended product With the increase of market opportunities for music and new musicians coming up, there is need for quality music. The product therefore should be a music school to help upcoming musicians produce quality music as well as those who would like to take up a career in music be able to train in that area. Since the Eskimo Joe is widely known for their excellent music, it has strong goodwill to have customers believe in the music school. The courses to be offered will include guitar lessons, piano lessons, flute lessons, drum lessons and singing lessons. The courses will be in levels. A certificate in music will take three months, a Diploma will take one year, higher diploma one year, a degree will take three years and Masters degree will take one year. The course will be taught both online and in-house in order to accommodate both those whose schedule is consistent and those whose schedule is inconsistent. The online course will include a video where a student can learn and practice. Private lessons will also be held in-house or at the student’s home according to their preferences. Recommended Target market The target market for the music school will be upcoming musicians and high school leavers. Upcoming musicians are those individuals who are still at a lower level in the music industry and would like to improve the quality of their music. Some will need to be trained on vocals, others on instruments like piano, violence, and guitar and so on. Upcoming musicians will be of all ages and all individuals regardless of their gender will be encouraged to enroll for classes. High school leavers are those who took music in school and would like to take up a career in music. They will choose the course they would like to pursue in music be it in vocals, instruments or production. These individuals are very important as they form the foundation of the school, as they will be in the institution for a long time graduating from one level to another level. Recommended promotion The organization will create its own website; create a strategy for search engine to beef up keywords in order to enhance its positioning with Google, Yahoo and other directories. This will be inviting and showing pictures of students enjoying their time at the music schools. An informational flyer and mails to parents and upcoming musicians in the local area will be created inviting them to the school informational meeting to describe the curriculum and meet the music teachers. An annual carnival will be created and the events publicized and invite the community to attend. Advertisements in local papers, websites, and radio and TV stations will be done to create awareness of the school and invite them to join. An inviting ad which will create interest in the music school will be created. Those joining the school will be asked to blog about the school and post various reasons why they chose it and how upcoming musicians have improved by going through the school. Digital technology should be used to develop a relationship between the organization and customers. This could be by showing the customers what is happening backstage in the classroom. This is one of the marketing campaign channels. The organization should also start a talent competition show where individuals will compete among each other and the winners sponsored to the music school. This will make the music school popular as well as the good will of the school as the community will appreciate the initiative. The organization should also sponsor music festivals in schools and colleges. Posters and flyers giving information about the school should be distributed in schools and colleges as well as student gathering areas like sports and music venues. Advertisements regarding intakes of the schools and information about it should be placed in school magazines and notice boards. Personal selling can be used to sell the course directly to music students while in schools. PowerPoint and multimedia presentations with information about the school can be presented to music students in various schools. This will create awareness and provide a direct question and answer sessions and may lead to closing a sale immediately. Public relations can be used to create the organizations good image to the public. The organization can create a long term relationship with students in various schools by sending each student a success card during their exams and congratulation cards during their graduations. These cards contain information about the organization and its products. Students feel excited when they receive a success card from an organization. This will entice them to enroll for classes in order to be part and parcel of an organization that cares. The organization should also set open days for the public. During open days the public will visit the institutions to get more information about it, get a chance to interact with ongoing students and the music teachers, see projects developed by students, have a mock class on music in several courses in order to experience how the real class is and join in the fun of the day. Open days can provide instant sales besides enquiries. Recommended Distribution The organization should have selective distribution where customers can access the school in certain areas in the country. This can be for the sake of the in-house training where customers access the services onsite. However intensive distribution can also be used where customers can access the services from wherever they are or offsite. This can be done through online mechanism. The organization should set up a website where online enquiry and registrations can be done. Online live chat should be included in order to answer questions and tackle any issues being raised up by customers. Online classes can also be set up in order for customers who are far away from the school locations can access as well as those customers whose schedules are different. Mentored learning classes can also be set up in several cities where students use available videos to learn and practices. Recommended Pricing The organization can use price skimming at the launch stage by setting the prices high then lowering it slowly as it moves along the PLC to maturity. This is because the music school will have high demand in the early stage of the life cycle. This strategy will lead to profit and revenue maximization for the organization as well as position its services as a product leader in that industry. The organization can also use price penetration by setting lower prices at the early stage of the PLC in order to maximize sales and market share for the organization. Price penetration can take place where the customers are not sure of whether the school is viable and are very concerned with the quality of the services. The organization can also use promotional pricing at the initial launch stage to stimulate demand for the school with lagging demand. The prices charged are low to attract customers. Coupons can be attached on flyers distributed indicating that whoever brings the coupon to the school will receive a certain discount on the fee paid for a particular course. Conclusion The Eskimo Joe having been using their music CDs/DVDs and concerts to sell their music as well as increase sales and revenue. The organization has targeted customers of age 25 to 35 years. Advertising in media and websites have boosted their sales. Prices have been more of the market standards and distributed of CDs and DVDs have been intensive while for concerts have been selective. However there is a recommendation of the organization to start a music school to boost the quality of music of upcoming musicians and develop those who would like to take up music career. The school can be advertised through the organization’s websites, search engines, other websites and local newspapers, TV and radio stations. The recommended pricing strategies are price skimming to increase sales, revenues and maximize profits by setting the prices very high. Price penetration can be used to increase market share and increase sells by setting the prices low. The distribution approaches that can be used are intensive and selective. Intensive distribution is availing the services in all outlets to allow easy access by all. This is through internet and online learning where customers can access services at their own flexible time. Selective distribution will take place where the organization sets up specific places where in-house training will take place. Chicago Referencing Style Andreas, Papastamou. Social Marketing and Music Schools. (accessed May 15, 2010) Home Grown Events. 2010. Eskimo Joe. (accessed May 15, 2010) IFPI. Investing Music. How Music Companies Discover, Develop and Promote Talent. (accessed May 15, 2010) Read More