The Office Turntable Puts a New Spin on Music Promotion

It’s the age old question for rock bands everywhere: how do you get jaded, hardened music critics and advertisers to listen to your jams when many (in fact, most) CDs and MP3s submitted will immediately be allocated to the circular file (a.k.a the trash can)?
In a brilliant play to persuade the taste makers to take a listen, the German electronic music label Kontor Records utilized mobile technology and a whole lot of groove to promote one of their artist’s latest singles.
In 2015 Electronic music artist Boris Dlougosch’s single arrived in offices as a vinyl album, which in itself gets high marks on the cool scale. But it gets better. The album arrived with its own 2-D cardboard player and instructions for downloading an app that allows the listener to play the album with their smartphone. Yes, you read that correctly…the vinyl album is played with a smartphone! A virtual needle allows listeners to skip through the track just like on a real turntable.
Check out the video…

As the Office Turntable shows, mobile apps can be used in highly creative ways. But mobile apps of varying creativity levels and other personal devices are a large part of a company’s digital marketing strategy.
Digital Marketing, book 2 in the SMstudy Guide® states that since an increasing percentage of consumers use the Internet on-the-go, having a mobile version of a website helps a business reach out to consumers across all devices connected to the Internet.
Novelty in marketing is a tried and true way to grab attention and create interest in a company’s product or service. The SMstudy Guide®, Digital Marketing book supports this idea when discussing innovative internet-enabled business models.  It says, “The growing popularity of the Internet, smartphones and digital media provides opportunities for a company to not only use fragmented new-age marketing effectively to promote existing products, but also to come up with innovative business models where product demo, customer acquisition, and order fulfillment can also take place online.”
 In the case of Back to Vinyl: The Office Turntable marketing campaign, old school vinyl and new school technology come together to give a truly novel music experience that also allows for careful tracking on engagement. According to Kontor, of the 900 mailers sent out, they’ve had a 71 percent activation rate, which they claim is a 64 percent increase above their average. Sounds like they’re on a roll.
(Spring Eselgroth, SMstudy staff writer, contributed to this article.) 

This article has been borrowed from http://www.smstudy.com/Article/the-office-turntable-puts-a-new-spin-on-music-promotion

Analyzing market opportunity using the Product Portfolio Analysis

Portfolio analysis is a way to systematically analyze products and services that make up an organizations business portfolio.  Unless an organization is really small size; most companies are involved in more than one business or at least sell more than one product. For any typical organization, the internal and external businesses include publishing, staff training, public expos and events, government representation, research and development, public relations, etc.  Each such business consists of a portfolio of products and services.  For example, an association's publishing business might include a professional journal, a lay magazine, specialized newsletters geared to different member segments, CDs, a website, social networking sites, etc.
Portfolio analysis helps you decide which of these products and services should be emphasized and which should be phased out, based on objective criteria.  Portfolio analysis consists of subjecting each of the association's products and services through a progression of finer screens.  During a time of cutbacks and scarce resources, it is essential to screen out programs and services that are not essential to most members.  Those that appeal to a more limited segment can be funded by those desiring the product or service rather than by dues.
Understanding the overall product portfolio of a company, and evaluating the current and future product lines is an important component of the Marketing Strategy. Peter Drucker (1973)[1] proposed a classification method for analyzing a company’s product portfolio based on each product’s current and expected profitability. After the classification exercise, the marketing team is able to pinpoint products that contribute to the company’s strengths and those that do not. Accordingly, support and investment for each product can be decided.
Using Drucker’s method, products are classified into seven categories—

1. Today’s Breadwinners—These products are contributing the most to current profits. The company should support these products and, at the very least, maintain current investment levels.
2. Tomorrow’s Breadwinners—These products represent investments in the company’s future. They are not currently contributing significantly to profits, but they have the potential to do so in the future. The company should support these products and perhaps increase investments in them.
3. Yesterday’s Breadwinners—These products have supported the company in the past but do not currently contribute significantly to profits. A minimum level of support and investment should be maintained for these products until the time they resume generating substantial profits. Alternately, a decision may be made to discontinue such products.
4. Developments—These products are currently in development and may generate profits in the future, but greater investment is needed to achieve those profits. A decision on whether to invest more resources needs to be made after a thorough analysis of the market potential and Return on Investment (ROI) for these products.
5. Sleepers—These products have been around for some time but have failed to establish themselves. The company needs to analyze the reasons for their poor performance and then decide on a future course of action.
6. Investments in Managerial Ego—These products, backed by influential managers, have little proven demand in the market and typically waste many functional resources. It is up to senior management to ensure that all products created are viable and fulfill the demands of customers; otherwise such products should be discontinued.
7. Failures—These products have failed in the past and have no future in their current form. They should ideally be discontinued unless there is a way to successfully reposition them.

Products in the first three categories, “Today’s Breadwinners,” “Tomorrow’s Breadwinners,” and “Yesterday’s Breadwinners,” are strengths of the company while those in the last two categories, “Investments in Managerial Ego” and “Failures,” are weaknesses. The “Developments” and “Sleepers” need to be analyzed in greater detail to classify them as either strengths or weaknesses.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Portfolio Analysis
Portfolio analysis offers the following advantages:
1.      It encourages management to evaluate each of the organization's businesses individually and to set objectives and allocate resources for each.
2.      It stimulates the use of externally oriented data to supplement management's intuitive judgment.
3.      It raises the issue of cash flow availability for use in expansion and growth.
Portfolio analysis does, however, have some limitations.
1.      It is not easy to define product/market segments.
2.      It provides an illusion of scientific rigor when some subjective judgments are involved.
Categorizing all its products using product portfolio analysis helps a company identify its strengths and weaknesses, and in turn plan its Marketing Strategy.


Acknowledgement: The content borrowed from www.smstudy.com (Original url: http://www.smstudy.com/Article/Analyzing-market-opportunity-using-the-Product-Portfolio-Analysis)

Identifying Competition: An Essential Element of Marketing

All industries are growing at a rapid pace with emergence of more and more companies. For a company to exist in this race, it needs to mark its presence and grow at the same time. Knowing competition for a company and accordingly positioning the products is something businesses are concerned with today.


Listing Competitors

 To get a clear idea of the differentiated positioning the company needs to identify its potential competitors. A thorough analysis of the competitive products, their features, strengths and operational excellence would give the company a clear picture of the market operations and the trends. Understanding the value proposition provide companies a sustainable competitive advantage which can be utilized in attracting customers from the competitors.

In the process of identifying competitors the company should consider the product, substitutes, technological challenges, new entrants, old established brands. Future competitor analysis also plays an important role in creating a brand presence in the market for a product.

 

How to Identify Competition?

With the help of senior management direction and insights the company can have a better picture of the competition in the market existing for its products and services. Also from the market research reports and information published by the competitors help in identifying the details of the competitors and their ways of operation.

In order to understand the competitor in the market for a particular product the several analysis are to be carried out such as future competitive analysis, marketing research and meetings and discussions with industry leaders and experts. Understanding the emerging technologies, new entrants and actively scanning the industry gives a complete idea of the competitors and their structure and functioning. A SWOT analysis of the available list of competitors also gives a fair idea of the trends the competitors following and can help in improvising the products of the company and expand the customer base.

Every business that we see today is part of one or the either industry. With the moving pace and increasing consumer demand the business are expanding. Competition is something which has always been there and shall exist till ever. To find a way out and present the product in a better way in comparison to the competitor’s product is every business’s requirement and they should be focused towards it. Identifying competition empowers the business and gives scope for improvement, which enables it to prosper.

Acknowledgement: The content is borrowed from www.smstudy.com (original blog url: http://www.smstudy.com/Article/Identifying-Competition-An-Essential-Element-of-Marketing)