Case Study on Marketing and Distribution

Case Study on Marketing and Distribution

Study on Marketing and Distribution technique by contemporary artist, Rihanna.

MWE
23/12/12

 

Marketing and Distribution- Rihanna

 

The internet had taken the marketing and distribution of music to a whole new level. It has seized every single part of the globe and had become a powerful tool for the music industry to market their product and promote their artists. This can be seen clearer when analysing big record label companies and their marketing strategies. An example of a multinational record label company would be “DefJam” which is subsidiary to Universal Music Group, this is where song artist Rihanna is signed. Although, RIhanna is not just an ordinary artist as she is one of the most iconic musician, a key figure in mainstream music. This makes her DefJam’s priciest musician, taking in the highest income to the company. Her popularity amongst the public is a key element to selling her products, having great fan base across countries. Considering that Def Jam is a multinational industry, they have the money to spend on advertising their products and artists and still make huge profit. Record label companies use vast selection of social media platforms, one of the most well known example would be “YouTube”, a video- sharing website. It is used universally and so millions of people have access to this website, it is commonly used to listen to music. This had been used by record label companies to their advantage.

The screenshot above shows a typical YouTube page after typing a key phrase on the search bar, the website will then look for videos which are relevant to the typed word. In this case, I’ve typed “Rihanna” and immediately the website shows music videos by the artist. If you look carefully, all of the following videos have been uploaded by “RihannaVEVO”. VEVO is a music video website where the 4 leading major record labels (Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and EMI) share music videos of their artists single to advertise them.   

 

This is a video page; observing the YouTube page, all of its functions have been thoroughly used to promote the artist and their songs. In the information box, a web link is presented where people can pre-order the upcoming album of the artist, advertising the album heavily. It is constantly encouraging its audience to purchase the product. Beneath the “like button” two links are present: “Rihanna” leads to Rihanna’s VEVO channel on YouTube where many more of her songs can be found and the user has the option to subscribe to her channel. By subscribing, they are promptly updated about the artist’s latest future debut. “iTunes” is a link which takes the user to iTunes website, another social media platform specializing in music and digitally converged with apple.

iTunes is another social media platform created by Apple, it has its own store where music and videos can be purchased to be used on Apple devices, e.g. iPods, iPhones etc. which are gadgets commonly owned by many. iTunes had completely changed the way we listen to music, becoming the main avenue of sales for record label companies. iTunes enables its clients to purchase music online and advertise its partners products. It has become a key element for record labels companies marketing and distribution. iTunes had developed over the years, enhancing its function which also helped to market products of several artists. Its features such as: “iTunes Match” and “Genius” have helped increase sales and popularity of artists. Genius provides songs which are of similar genre as the recently bought song on iTunes store, or songs which had been done by the same artist. iTunes provides offers to its consumers to encourage them to buy more products.

Small record label companies would not be able to spend as great amount of money advertising their artists unlike elite record label companies who have formed partnership with other companies to increase the company’s sales. Big record label companies also gives freebies which can be picked up from stores. The image below is an example. The card provides free download of one of the artist’s song on iTunes. The marketing doesn’t stop there as clothes had been designed based upon an artist’s single. Which again is encouraging consumers to purchase the artists album?

In conclusion, as consumers we are constantly being bombarded by suggestive messages to buy products whether it’s from TV adverts, freebies, advertisement banner online etc. Due to the wealth multinational record label companies possess, they have the ability to spend great amount on marketing their products globally.



Lesson 09: Media Consumption and Audience behaviour

Lesson 09: Media Consumption and Audience behaviour

Relationship between the Audience and Media Consumption  

MWE
23/12/12

Media Consumption and Audience behaviour

The Internet has changed the relationship between consumers and the media. This is also due to digital convergence and technological convergence. Digital convergence is the merging of 4 main industries into a conglomerate: 

·         IT

·         Consumer Electronics

·         Telecommunication

·         Entertainment

They have all merged into one platform to deliver dynamic experience for users. This also means digitalizing traditional Medias such as the radio and the TV.

Technological convergences are gadgets which apart from its primary purpose, is able to perform other functions- accessing various media platforms. For example: IPhones.

Together, these two elements had completely changed our lifestyle, not just by the way we listen to music but also by watching shows on TV, reading the newspaper etc. Digital convergence has digitalized radio, we can now listen to the radio using the internet and technological convergence has provided us access to this. It has also affected our media consumption, for example; many own gadgets which can perform technological convergence. Prime example would be an iPhone. I myself own one and due to digital convergence and its multiple functions it has allowed me to connect to YouTube and ITunes, which are both iconic media platforms for music. In the past, people would need to go to music stores and buy records; tapes or cd’s of songs to be able to listen to them and would need a music playing device (e.g. cassette player, record player) to listen to them. This limits the opportunity of listening to them, only being able to do so when they’re perhaps at home. Music was not as portable as it is now. Thanks to technological convergence, we are able to listen to music anytime and anywhere which also has allowed us to do multitasking. Purchasing music doesn’t include leaving the house now either, consumers can go on ITunes and buy tracks online or on their gadgets. These new developments, had saved time for many and encouraged sales within music industry.

 

Lesson 08: Marketing and Distribution

Lesson 08: Marketing and Distribution

Recap of lesson on "Marketing and Distribution"

MWE
12/12/12

Marketing and Distribution

For one of our lessons we've started looking at the music industry and the concept of marketing and distribution within the business. We learned new key words such as

Viral Campaign- An advertising method where it uses existing social networks to increase awareness of the product.

Media Platform- Media platforms are social network sites which allows users to integrate one from another. These websites have become a valuable instrument for companies as they work efficiently for advertising.
e.g. YouTube has a function which allows its videos to be embeded on other media platforms such as: Facbook and Twitter.


The following link will take you to our Prezzi which contatins what we've learned.
http://prezi.com/vbp67iqblbsq/marketing-and-distribution/
 

TV Drama Extract- Doctor Who

TV Drama Extract

06/12/12

MWE

Practice essay on TV Drama Extract "Doctor Who", gender representation.

Film Proposal

Film Proposal and Film Pitch Feedback

01/12/12
AB

Coming up with the final idea for our film has been a whole process of trial and error. We struggled to come up with a film that represents our company accurately. Our first idea was called the “Dead Men’s Socks” which belonged to the crime and detective genre.

Dead Men's Socks Proposal

 Summary of "Dead Men’s Socks"

George Goffney is an old school detective. He has worked as a detective all of his working life and a few years earlier, cheated on his wife in order to get evidence for a case. When his wife left him, and took their daughter with her, George was at breaking point and attempted suicide.

Jump forward two years: George is in the morgue talking to his friend Ellie who has worked with him for a number of years. (Opening scene to the film). In conversation, Ellie tells George about the two bodies that were brought into the morgue that morning. One is Simon Stallone, a rich man, recently married to Eva Stallone. The other is Dan Mitchell, a poor boy who lives on the streets and in Oxford’s homeless shelter.

Ellie tells George she believes it is suicide but George becomes suspicious when he notices that they are each wearing one dark blue sock and one grey sock.

George talks to Kelly about the bodies as it is his case. Kelly is a young detective and is new to Oxford. Kelly disagrees with officers interfering with the job of pathologist’s in the forensic department and refuses to look at the bodies or listen; she believes it is best to wait for the paperwork to come through. She is blissfully ignorant, relying on computers and mobile phones.

George takes it upon himself to solve the mystery and visits Stallone’s house. When he arrives, his wife isn’t in but the maid is. She explains that the Stallone’s had recently married. She also points out that Simon Stallone never drove his car around Oxford for fear of it being damaged, so she calls a driver for him.

George goes to the gym to talk to Eva. She tells him her husband had been melancholy lately and she believes it was suicide. She is surrounded by ten large men who attend the gym for boxing. Other than herself, the only woman who works in the gym is a young receptionist.

George goes to the homeless shelter to talk to Dan’s father. The people in the shelter live in poverty, young children playing in tattered clothes with broken toys etc. Dan’s father explains that Dan and he run a small taxi service and his son went out onto a job and didn’t come back (Driving Simon Stallone).

George goes back to the gym but this time Eva is on lunch. He calls all the men into Eva’s office and holds up a grey piece of paper to the men with the word Prison written in blue. He asks if any have been there and they all answer but one, Stephen.

George confronts Sven. He explains that when his daughter was younger, they believed she was colour blind. The nurse told him all about colour blindness including the different types. He explains how he realised that Stephen must have Triranopia, a colour blindness focusing mainly on the colours blue and black. He and Eva planned to kill Simon in the sauna and realised that Dan is in there too. (Dan and Simon had become close from Dan driving Simon around). He killed them both and had to redress them, not noticing the different colour socks, dressing them in each other’s socks.

George has Eva and Stephen arrested and explains to Kelly how he did it. He explains that sometimes it is not enough to just look at paperwork or at a laptop.

The actors and actress we will be choosing to play the roles in the film will be teenagers. The fictional world will be set in a society in which no adults exist. This is to encourage teenagers to take interest in drama and arts and to improve the image of adolescents to balance out the negative portrayals of the media about them. We have based this idea of casting on “Bugsy Malone” by Alan Parker, which was child cast suggested by his eldest son. It was purposely casted with children so his offspring can enjoy the film. Our target audience will be teenagers and over and those who are interested in crime shows. It will be rated "12A" as some scence particularly the ones in the mourge is not suitable for those of young age. The film duration will be 120 mins max.

Below is a podcast of us giving our pitch, however I had to change the format of the file as MPEG is not supported by blogger. The youtube link will take you to our podcast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rCUmCjtLFY&feature=youtu.be


The main criticism which we received was that why did we decided to only open the roles to teenagers?

Part of the reason why we chose to only work with teenagers is that, finding adults to play the roles will be difficult as we don't know anyone who'll willingly help us. If we choose to only work with teenagers, it will be easy to find people to cast as many of our friends do drama and will be willing to help us. However, there's the problem of realism. As at the end of the day, a teenager trying to play a middle aged man will still look like a teenager, making the film lack sophistication and realism. "Bugsy Malone" worked because of the genre: comedy and musical worked with children cast as it emphasised the comedic element within the film. "Dead Mens Sock" however, is strictly a crime based film. Seeing teenagers play roles which are older than them will only make the whole production farfetched and tacky, causeing the film to lose its credibility.