DEEZER
MARKETING PLAN
Hult International Business School
Team 9
1
2
Deezer Marketing Plan
Market Summary
Deezer is a France-based online music broadcasting platform that allows users to listen to music
content from record labels.
Market Share: Even though Spotify is one of the most significant music streaming services globally,
despite its arguably immense popularity and an impressive number of subscribers, it has not reached
global domination just yet. Deezer has more than tripled its worldwide subscriber base in the last few
years.
Leadership: Spotify maintains the leadership of the market, but Amazon, Tencent and Google have
made big gains in the first quarter of 2021.
Streaming Music Subscriber Market Shares
Q1 2021, Global
Pandora
1%
Yandex
Deezer 2%
2%
Others
9%
Netease
4%
Spotify
32%
Google Music
8%
Tencent
13%
Amazon Music
13%
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Tencent
Google Music
Apple Music
16%
Netease
Deezer
Yandex
Pandora
Others
Players: Some of the prominent players in the music streaming market include Spotify, Apple,
Amazon Music, Google Music, Deezer, Pandora Media, SoundCloud, and Tidal.
Market Shifts: As of 2020, the outlook for the music industry hadn’t looked so good in decades.
Streaming not only changed the music industry, but it was also its salvation. When COVID-19 came,
the music streaming market was placed at over $20 billion.
Deezer.com
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Costs: Streaming services pay record labels, songwriters, music publishers, artists, and others per
stream.
Pay per Click
Music Streaming Service
Spotify
Tidal
Napster
Apple Music
Deezer
Amazon Music
Pandora
YouTube
Avg. Pay Per Stream
$0.00437
$0.01284
$0.019
$0.00783
$0.0064
$0.00402
$0.00133
$0.002
Pricing: Although Deezer can be used for free, and no payment is required, for customers to enjoy an
ads-free experience, a premium is offered at $9.99 a month. In addition, Deezer presents HiFi Fidelity
sound experience and Family plan at $14.99 per month. Lastly, an annual premium can be purchased
with a 25% discount for $89.91.
Competition: Deezer’s top competitors include SoundCloud, Spotify and Tidal.
Company
Employees
Funding
Estimated Annual
Revenue per Year
Tidal
238
NIL
$166.9M
SoundCloud
1262
$542.8M
$165.7M
Spotify
7085
$11.3B
$10.8B
Pandora
1930
$921.2M
$1.7B
Apple Music
65
$50M
$4.1B
Deezer.com
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Customer Experience
Deezer’s audience can be described as enthusiastic, engaged, and curious. They share a real passion for
music, have very eclectic listening habits, and seek out new things. Some positive reviews of Deezer
reference their good UI, the flow of songs, how quickly it recognizes the music you like, its sound
quality controls are easy to understand. Also, The Equalizer is built into the app. However, Deezer is
not as user-friendly as customers would like; 59% of customers who accessed and used the services of
Deezer recorded negative feedback about the quality of services. The high percentage of customer
experience was attributed to technical issues, billing issues, and limited podcasts options for the
customers. A high score of bad customers experience proves that the organization needs to relook into
its strategies and develop strategies to improve customer experience. 80% of customers are under the
age of 35, and 93% of customers prefer local music as per their region.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The best way to deal with bad customer experience is by focusing on complaints and implementing
strategies that help deal with the issues raised by customers.
1st Allow customers to select the playlist of their liking during trial period.
2nd Upgrade system to ensure it is accurately charging subscribers.
3rd Introduce different billing approach and include trial plan.
Competition
It is common knowledge in every industry that competition is inevitable. As a brand grows, it attracts
excellent minds with better ideas who seek to either provide the same services as your
brand, provide better services than your brand, or even do lesser than your brand, but the bottom line
is, there would always be competitions. “Competition is part of life, and especially of business. You
can constructively harness competition for teams, but it can also be incredibly damaging and
detrimental to a team or company’s culture.” Robins (2021)
KEY INSIGHTS ABOUT D EEZER’S COMPETITORS, IN NO ORDER.
Spotify
Strengths: It offers songs, podcasts, and channels. Spotify features targets artists who have more
streams and give them exclusive features on most streamed playlists. It also has a free trial available
and over 30 million songs.
Weaknesses: Free version does not allow offline music; it has lower quality and ads.
Tidal
Strengths: It offers its subscribers exclusive content from Jay-Z friends, it includes standard and highquality, plus HD music videos, has over 50 million songs and 190k music videos.
Weaknesses: It is the most expensive, and it does not offer a free option.
Soundcloud
Strengths: Artists are allowed to upload, record, and promote their music. They include a free option,
and a free trial is available. Its database is 120-150 million songs. There is a constant stream of new
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music, and new music is released before elsewhere. No login or sign-up is required to use the
platform.
Weaknesses: It has poor product design and lacks focus on its strength. It also does not allow the
creation of albums.
Pandora
Strengths: It is integrated into many vehicles and devices, it creates channels right off the bat,
recommends based on Music Genome Project information, it also has versatile ways to make stations –
songs, artists, playlists, genre, moods, etc. It also includes Offline music playback.
Weaknesses: It only has 1.5 million songs; it is only available in the United States, New Zealand, and
Australia. It also has one of the lowest qualities in music.
Brand Positioning
Deezer is identified as the premium online music streaming application positioning itself in the
premium segment. The advantage is "the unique flow independently selects the user's favorite music
for his preferences based on the previous search queries on the platform and makes new
recommendations that do use of service by much more comfortable." The tariff policy of Deezer for
subscribers is thought of well over and differentiated. Deezer considers the solvency of the population
and the prospect of the development of services in this territory.
Company:
Deezer
Overview:
Deezer is a provider of
music streaming
services designed to
offer personalized
music tracks
Founding Date:
Type:
2007
Private
Tags:
Music
Valuation:
1.2B
Soundcloud
SoundCloud is an
online audio
distribution platform
that enables its users
to upload, record,
promote, and share
their originally
created sounds.
2007
Private
Application software,
audio, distribution,
music, platform,
social networks.
700M
Spotify
Tidal
Pandora
TIDAL is a
music
streaming
service
with music
videos and
curated
editorial
Pandora is a
music streaming
and automated
music
recommendation
service.
2014
Subsidiary
2000
Subsidiary
Music,
Streaming.
Music,
platform,
video.
Consumer
Software, music,
radio, streaming.
55.3B
N/A
N/A
Spotify is a
provider of
commercial
music streaming
service that offers
restricted digital
content from a
range of record
labels and artists.
2006
Public
RECOMMENDATIONS
1st Align itself with the local market to increase its subscriber base.
2nd Increase artist’s revenue, by doing so, they will be more willing to collaborate and promote Deezer.
3rd Invest significantly in US-based live music streaming start-ups.
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Communication Strategies
CUSTOMER JOURNEY THR OUGH THE STAGES
Awareness
Online Ads: Deezer currently does not do enough Online Ads.
Search Engine Marketing and PPC: Deezer currently is placed 6th on the list of Search Engines.
Influencers: Deezer does not currently use influences to create awareness of its platform.
Consider
Social: Deezer currently only uses Facebook and Twitter, and their Instagram is poorly managed.
Online Reviews: Deezer positions #94 in the Chart of Apps for Music Streaming, it is rated 4.7 in the
App Store and 4.4 on Google Play.
Evaluate
Apps: Easy to download and crashes easily
Website and SEO: There is a live chat for customer service
Direct Emails:
Buy
Promotions: Deezer’s promotions are: one month free, 25% off for annual subscriptions, no
commitment cancel anytime.
Enjoy
Social Experience: Users can receive tailormade suggestions, artist can create playlist to receive more
click, Deezer’s also partnered with companies like Sonos to expand its service in the U.S., in that case
taking the high road by offering a paid, high-definition service to Sonos’ audiophile users for $19.99.
Collaboration with the Deezer app on Fitbit Ionic, Fitbit Sense, and Fitbit Versa series, you can
download your Deezer playlists and Flow directly to your watch. After you download music, connect
Bluetooth headphones or speakers to listen to your music
Advocate and Bond
Membership: Deezer has a premium membership and Hifi for a better experience.
Forums: Deezer has an online community for subscribers to stay connected.
Tactics by Target Audience
Deezer targets more growth with local focus by working with local artist to advertise the local
audience.
Public Relations Plan
Deezer is partnering with companies across telecommunication, media finance, retail, cable TV,
mobile telephony, and e-commerce industries.
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Brief Outline of the Plan
Pricing
Hifi will be the next premium – most superior music experience
Three months free trial period
Student Discount
Special discount with festival tickets (which Deezer sponsors)
Code for discount given by social influencers
Special discount with local artist code (EG. “OJO2104” TO GET 10 DAYS PREMIUM FREE)
Distribution
Channels of distribution
All online streaming, they source their content through digital distribution provider, to where they
deliver the track to the music streaming companies, and they verify they are available online in the
platforms they have selected. In current scenario, independent artist or label cannot directly
approach Deezer for them to distribute their music.
 Increase social media interaction. Only 281k on Instagram, sponsor posts and ads on Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, and Amazon with specific target.
 Improve Online support. Create a real live chat to support customers.
 Invest in integrating the software to increase the quality of sound. Hifi is not available on the
phone.
Success Metrics
First year goals:
increase tie up with local artist and this will help you increasing the market share that helps us in
penetrating new markets
Increase social media reach including tie up with influences and artists
Reach 20% increase of subscriber base (Actual: 60M – Goal: 72M)
Additional year goals:
Start sponsoring local events with local artists
Use Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to improve the customer experience and increase
online ratings by .1 points.
Measures of success/failure:
Number of subscribers
Improvement of sound quality
Reach new markets
Number of artists on the platform
Number of tracks on the platform
Time subscribers spend on the app
Requirements for success:
Keep up with music trends
Technologically driven innovation
Original content
Personalization
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Localization
Content creation
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