Running Head: Group Final Project
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IMC Plan for Sony Music Entertainment on Sony My Play Campaign
Lorenzo J. Jordan, Joyce Conner-Boyd, and Ocean Stokes
Walden University
(MRKT-4511-1)
Instructor: Denise Gandy
October 10, 2010
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Abstract
In this new day in age, companies are changing their approach relative to the way they market
for campaigns. This new approach is called Integrated Marketing Communication or short for
(IMC). IMC allows organizations to deliver marketing campaigns while addressing advertising,
sales, public relations, or any other type of relations with consumers. To have a successful IMC
there are elements that must be addressed and incorporated. These important elements are the
descriptions of the organization, objective for the campaign, goal, traditional and nontraditional
tools, creative briefing, budgeting, and evaluations. While one may not be more important than
the other, with a campaign like Sony Music Play from Sony Music Entertainment, each element
is essential.
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IMC Plan for Sony Music Entertainment on Sony My Play Campaign
Situation Analysis
Sony Music Entertainment (SME) is a global organization that is headquartered in New
York City. Sony Music is home to premier record labels producing music from several types of
genres from both domestic and international artists on their roster. Over the next several weeks
our group will be developing an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan for SME. According
to Shimp (2010), all firms employ marcom to a degree. Our group’s objective will be to integrate
this process. The products and services SME provides are recorded music and videos that is
distributed in several different mediums such as compact disc, digital video disk, MP3, CDROM, and many more digital mediums.
Sony Music has been promoting its services through their record labels such as Arista,
Arista Nashville, BNA Records Label, Columbia, Columbia Nashville, and much more (20 in
total) . Sony has been using their record labels to promote artists and also have been featuring
profiles and pictures on their major website on their most popular artists. Although it is not clear
in specifics on Sony Music Mission statement, it seems as if it is to market and promote high
quality music globally to their audiences. I do believe their mission statement lines up with how
it sells its products or provided services.
A problem that Sony Music Entertainment has been occurring in the recent past is the
declining numbers of sales. Even though SME currently communicate with their audience
through web medium via interactive communication, social networking, advertising, promotions
and events which is effective, there is still a major problem. This financial decline that Sony
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Music Entertainment is experiencing needs to be addressed. This can be accomplished by
building better relations with consumers through IMC and by reinforcing and reestablishing
public confidence, that Sony is an affordable and high value product.
Measurable Objectives
Over the next several weeks our group will be developing an Integrated Marketing
Communication Plan for Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and this campaign is expected to last
through the 4th Quarter of 2011. Our target audiences will be the music lovers from various
genres in the New York Metropolitan area and we will be introducing this campaign to increase
awareness and revenue within the Sony My Play (SMP). SME wants My Play to be the one stop
resource to purchase, download, and get updated on your favor artists. SME is expecting a 5%
increase in market share of the d0069gital mediums from this campaign. SME is also expecting
to see a surge in the global economy by 2012 to assist in meeting market share expectations.
Target Audience
The target audience for Sony Music Entertainment (SME) will be the music lovers within
the New York Metropolitan area. From Rhythm and Blue, Rock-n-Roll, Hip Hop, Country,
Alternative, etc. if you love music Sony has indicated you as their target audience and wants to
increase your awareness of Sony My Play (SMP). According to Sony Corporation (2009), sales
have dropped and losses were recorded due to factors including the deceleration of the global
economy, the appreciation of the yen and the decline of the Japanese stock market. It is forecast
for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, Sony expects to reduce its losses while undertaking
further restructuring initiatives. As stated this can be contributed to the economic downfall;
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nevertheless with innovative ways of getting your favor music from SMP that is more affordable,
accessible, and transferable, SME believe that sales and a better appreciation for these services
will increase.
According to Museum of Learning (2010), The New York metropolitan area is the most
populous metropolitan area in the United States and is also one of the most populous in the
world. The metropolitan area is defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget as the
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania Metropolitan
Statistical Area MSA, with an estimated population of 19,069,796 as of 2009. During this
campaign SME will be focusing on these three states within this area in hope of the target
geographic local spreading throughout the Southern States then eventually out West. Typically
speaking news and event messages spread rapidly within these geographic areas domestically
and internationally. SME focus is to use all the resources to ensure awareness of SMP increase
both domestically and internationally.
Within these geographic areas, the demographics will be essential to ensure the right
audiences are being addressed. Social networking will have a tremendous contribution to the
efforts and success to this campaign. Age, ethnicity, financial status, economical status, political
viewpoint, education will also be the guideline to researching the demographics. SME is looking
for audiences that are accustomed to using the internet and surfing the web through mobile
media, personal computer, or traditional desktop. SME believes most people enjoy listening to
music, now it is just a matter of getting the audience to change the way they obtain such music.
In New York city along According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2010) there is a estimate
population of 8,214,426 in 2006.
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SME is looking to target the age group of 12 – 49 years old both male and female. The
financial status of our target audience will be lower middle, middle, upper middle, and upper
class citizens. Through our marcom efforts, SME is looking to target the SMP campaign to
college undergraduates and graduate student. Even thought high school students will still be a
primary target as well, it has been determined that college students will have a better financial
support than a high school student. The social networking audience will be essential to the
promotion and awareness of this campaign. SMP understands that with social networking users,
the tools have already been provided to the audiences. For example, they will already have
internet access and computer competence. The already is accustom to communicating new trends
to other friends. It would be a matter of configuring their likeness and interest to SMP.
Evaluation
The legacy of measurement techniques from marketing communication disciplines of
advertising, marketing publicity, personal selling, and sales promotion are an obstacle to new
thinking on integration and evaluation. How can we account for the presence of synergy? The
measurement of an integrated campaign should begin with its component parts. Their
contribution should be defined and objectives measured. However, such measurement must take
account for the difficulty of isolating the individual parts and in estimating synergistic effect.
In order to strategically measure the aggressive measures that are to be taken and to
capitalize synergistic initiatives, we will need to leverage five marcom metrics to measure the
overall success of our integrated marketing campaign. These metrics are as follows:
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1. Increase in brand awareness by 25%
We plan to gain the customer from the target market by more than 3% per month
We expect that we can gain a 45% increase in overall awareness from the target market
by using advertising, public relations, personal selling, event marketing, sponsorship,
mass media publications and sales promotions.
2. Changes in consumer attitudes of the brand
30% increase brand adoption by promoting sample downloads, trade shows, advertising,
and personal selling in the B2B and B2C arenas.
5% increase in the repeater class via product satisfaction surveys, distribution reporting,
and price comparison.
3. Incremental Sales Revenue increase by 15%
Utilize market growth strategy which focuses on higher market potential that will
increase the market share and sales volume to meet the market objective
Increase the level of the brand to a higher level
4. 5% increase in the market share of digital mediums globally
Gross profit margin increases
Net profit margin increases
Return On Investment analysis
The key objective is to maintain the integrity of the metrics and measurements utilized
throughout our Integrated Marketing Campaign. Tainted data will not only skew the results but it
will negatively affect the overall corporate culture and public perception.
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Behavioral Outcome
The behavioral outcomes that SME wishes to see from the SMP campaign are as follows;
increase in website awareness, consumer purchasing, online interaction, and social networking
within Sony My Play, and fan clubs with specific favorite artist. This will be the one stop
resource to purchase, download, and get updated on your favor artists. SME want the consumer
to be in touch with the website linking and incorporate it into their everyday life.
The increase of social networking has revolutionized the way consumers are being
marketed to. The way they are marketed to generally determines the behavioral outcomes. One
of the goals SME will set for the SMP campaign is the awareness or acknowledgement to our
website. We expect the audience to become more familiar with the web site and understanding
the entire navigational path. The more accustom audience becomes with a website, the more time
and money is spent on that site. Becoming a “pro” with SMP website will provide a sense of
ownership with our audience which will build their confidence with SMP and the products
associated with it.
The increase of revenue will be determined off of the behavioral outcomes from the
clients. As mention earlier, a more accustomed audience becomes an audience more willing to
spend. With this campaign SME what to increase the value of our product to audience. The more
the audience sees, realize, and understands the value of SMP then their behavior will be willing
to spend on products. Generally speaking, when someone purchases something, they tell a friend
about their experience on purchasing that product more than just the product itself. This is the
type of positive attention SMP will look to achieve from their target market. A storyline of the
great experience they had with SMP.
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SMP has provided an online interaction feature that allows the user/fan to interaction with
other users/fans. This feature also provides updates on who is currently online as well. SMP
wants to increase the participation with this feature with domestic and international customers.
The user/fan is allowed to create a profile and upload photos of his or her liking. Favorite videos
and music can also be uploaded and shared with other users/fans. By creating a community, the
user/fan feels as if they are a part of something special. This campaign will emphasize on the
capabilities within this feature and encourage the audience to become a part of this community.
With so many other social networking that is available outside of SMP, SME has a great
opportunity to tap into this market and construct the behaviors of their clients. To be a part of the
SMP online interaction, you first have to be aware of this website. Unlike Face book, Twitter,
MySpace, and LinkedIn; SMP has yet to establish the type of social networking cliental as these
famous sites. However to use these millions of audiences to become educated on our site will be
monumental. SMP wants to create a behavior that will adapt or integrate these popular social
networking with ours. This behavior will be consistent to what the audience is already
accustomed to. For example, MySpace was the leading social networking site, then the MySpace
customer integrated to Face book once they became aware of it and seen the value. This
happened for Twitter and LinkedIn as well. Most importantly the majority of these clients did not
leave their original social networking site, but simply just added an additional site to
communicate with friends. According to Shimp, T. A. (2010), prudent marketing campaign will
unquestionably find ways to utilize universal networks. Encouraging our audience to allow SMP
to be a part of their social networking list will be a reasonable outcome behavior.
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Time Frame
Production time will vary depending on the service and marketing material that will be
utilized. Time period estimations will be defined through the planning process. Sony will be
leveraging multiple resources within our Integrated Marketing Campaign to achieve our success
to increase the market share of digital mediums globally by 5%. Sony Corporation is preparing
for a surge among the global economy for 2012 based on the recession recovery. Targeted time
frame is 4th QTR of 2011.
The following marketing services will be leveraged along with anticipated time frames:
1. Social Media Platforms: Q4 2011 – Q3 2012
2. Sony Music Box Survey: Q3 2011 – Q4 2011
3. Sony New On The Streets: Q4 2011- Q3 2012
4. Web Site Redesign: Q4 2011-Q4 2011
5. Event Marketing: Q4 2011- Q2 2012
6. Trade Shows: Q4 2011- Q4 2012
7. Sales Promotions: Q4 2011- Q3 2012
8. Public Relations: Q4 2011- Q4 2012
By strategically beginning our marketing campaign at the onset of Q3 of 2011 the IMC will be
afforded the ability to gain market recognition in preparation for increased sales and market
share by Q2-Q4 or 2012.
Articulated Goal for Sony Music Entertainment
At SME, our goal for this quarter’s IMC campaign is to boost sales, create a new buzz,
encourage participation and beat the competition. Sony Music Entertainment is music reaching
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across boundaries, borders and ages, introducing the new to the old and the old to the new. SME
is a company focused on reinventing how music is heard, seen and sold. Our focus is to maintain
our consumer base by exciting our loyal consumers while capturing the attention of our
perspective consumers and increase awareness of the new and improved Sony My Play. Music
enthusiasts will be able to enjoy a wide variety of music at their fingertips. In this campaign we
will introduce "My Play" which will increase SME market share 5%. One Touch will also create
the new buzz among music listeners everywhere. We will launch events sporadically throughout
the city for the fans to try the new Sony My Play. This will spark interest from our leading
competitors.
Here at SME we have a loyal fan base. We want to reward them for standing with during
our recent endeavors. So we will choose them to try the Sony My Play. My Play is a database of
every artist you can name or think of from today, yesterday and the newest artist of tomorrow.
You will be able touch your favorite artist name and everything about the artist comes up. New
Album releases. Bio. Tour dates. News Articles. New Singles. Collaborations. Voting. Latest
Tweet status. (etc) This is how the campaign will work. Each fan will log in to Sony My Play to
complete a survey and upon completion they will receive information of a date, time and location
to participate in the launching of this new technology. The fans will be grouped by their favorite
artists not knowing that they are invited to a mini concert for their continued support. Example:
if 30 loyal fans love Madonna they will all meet on the same date, time and location. As they are
each learning about “My Play”, they will be surprised when Madonna comes out to sing a couple
of favorites that the fans picked in the survey.
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SME believes in the artist, we believe in the music and we believe in their fans. We want
to add new dimension to the Sony My Play. The Sony My Play will have a new attractive edge.
It will have clarity and continual rotation of the artist and songs you choose. Sony My Play not
only holds millions of your favorite songs and artist it will be easy user friendly and easy to
navigate. This industry is a changing process and SME wants to be ahead of the changes by
allowing the consumers to have control over what they listen to. The My Play gives the
consumer the choice to choose what they like and what they do not like. They are able to
purchase the type of entertainment they want.
The My Play will conduct surveys and
questionnaires to remain informed about where and how we could do better.
This campaign will begin in the music capital of the world NYC also our headquarters.
That is where we will begin to build better relationships with our staff and consumers to keep us
on the frontier for competition. Once we boost sales through My Play, create a new buzz of
technology and participation is increased we will be the front runners. Our staff will update
SME of the news on the street, our surveys and questionnaires will give us information that is
invaluable and that will keep us up to date. Soon the competition will look to SME for the latest
and newest technology. SME will touch the world through the sound of music. Life combined
with music makes memories. Here at SME we want to make memories that last a lifetime.
Strategy and Creative Brief
Strategy
The strategy for the SMP campaign will be to increase the audience’s awareness on SMP
website. By increasing the awareness of our website, we believe the product will sell and
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promote itself. SME is confident that this is something the public will adapt to and love. Through
our target audience, the SMP campaign will want to make the consumer anxious to test our
product and hopefully join our fan club. Each city within the New York metropolitan area will
have well organized event for the running campaign. This message has to be delivery to each city
to increase the urgency within the community. According to Shimp, et al. (2010), an advertising
strategy formulation involves setting objectives, devising budgets, message creation, and media
strategy. Implementing these steps to increase audience awareness will be essential in achieving
our strategy. It will be important for our audience to hear about our product in various ways, this
will also be accomplished by using several of well known, accomplished, and famous artists.
Typically, consumer value what their role models say, feel, and also enjoy. Making these
services enjoyable through the very people consumer’s admire will be a valuable resource to
increase audience awareness.
IMC Creative Brief
Executive Summary
Sony My Play is a multifaceted database that enables the music enthusiast to retrieve
your favorite artist information from yesterday, and tomorrow. SMP will become the leader in
electronic music downloads, leveraging the technology of today to surpass the dreams of
tomorrow. Life combined with music makes memories; at Sony we make memories that last a
lifetime. This product will be capable of recording all of the hottest music data and engraving it
onto a digital hard drive that is compatible with all electronic music formats.
General
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The purpose of our IMC Creative Brief is to set forth the guidelines and insights into the
desired end product for the Sony My Play; to gain a 5% increase in the global market share.
By combining our marcom tools, Sony is looking to maximize the synergistic effect that
a combined communications plan will afford us. It is our intention and request to maintain that
the consumer and business customer represent the starting point for all of our marketing
communications activities going forward.
Positioning
Sony My Play would like to leverage the slogan “Life combined with music makes
memories; at Sony we make memories that last a lifetime”. The client would like the advertising
agency to play an active role in creating and developing a visual image to promote a form of
connectedness between the brand slogan and the client’s perspective.
This is a global initiative therefore the need to develop an IMC campaign that not only
suites the needs of a global community but also clearly stipulate the meaning without the
message being lost in translation as it crosses over global borders.
It is the request of Sony that our product be positioned as a multi-personality brand
although it appeals more to the symbolic needs of our consumers. By positioning our product as
a generic multipersonality brand our consumers can read into the product what they are seeking
instead of dictating our perceptions of the product.
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Message
The overall desire for our marketing message is that with our innovative technology and
unsurpassed data bank we believe in the consumer’s investment in the music, not in the software
that plays the music. With that said, the Sony My Play is the only technology platform that is
compatible with all music software packages. By leveraging traditional and non-traditional
marketing campaigns strategically, all aspects of the integrated marketing campaign will align to
target our core audience.
It is critical that the message created via the marcom message be dictated by our desired
brand’s positioning strategy and aligns with our overall communication objective that is created
for the designated target audience.
Creative
Our desire is to have a campaign that is highly integrated that combines the creation and
formation of brand positioning that stands out in the mind of our target audience. It is the request
of Sony to focus on enhancing the functional, symbolic, and experiential categories of brand
positioning.
Medium
It is our desire to combine both traditional and non-traditional forms of marketing
perspectives to leverage our global initiative to gain an increase of 5% of the marketplace. More
specifically we would like to be provided with analysis on the following campaigns; radio,
television, magazines, direct marketing via P-mail, website, blogs, email campaigns, and social
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networking. Additional focused research is needed by the advertising agency to provide which
medium formats will be best leveraged to reach our target audience.
Budget
By leveraging both traditional and non-traditional IMC tools we feel we will be able to
offset some of the overall expense by engaging in marketing tools that are of little monetary
expense outside of headcount cost and market analysis. The overall goal is to maximize profits
by equalizing marginal revenue and marginal costs (MR = MC). For every dollar spent
throughout the marketing campaign the anticipated profit yielded will be expected at a
percentage rate of 1.5%.
The method of budgeting that is requested for the Sony My Play is defined as the “objectiveand-task method” (Shimp, 2010). In keeping in line with an aggressive marketing campaign that
is within the confines of sensibility this method will allow for us to concentrate cross
functionally among the B2B and B2C client base. There are four clear cut steps that we request
further research on as it relates to the scope of objective-and-task budgeting:
1. Market Share – 5% increase globally
Sales volume – 500,000K increase in customer base recognized in Q2 of 2012
Market Share – 5% global increase by Q4 of 2012
Profit Contribution – 20% gross profit
2. Communication functions – goal is to increase overall marketing objectives
Increase consumer awareness of Sony My Play.
Establish an image as the leader in electronic music downloads, leveraging the
technology of today to surpass the dreams of tomorrow.
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3. Define advertisings role in overall communication – strict role of each component
for
the IMC plan.
4. Define measurable communication responses – data must be specific, quantitative and
measurable.
5. Establish Overall Marketing Budget in $$’s and Cents – create an overall breakdown of
the expenditures for the marketing campaign.
Conclusion for Creative Brief
Sony’s proposed new product is unique and highly marketable in every aspect. What may
be termed a point of difference is that by investing in the SMP, money is saved by not having to
purchase music redundantly as technology changes.
We feel that the initial pricing true to the psychographics population in that although the
SMP will be reasonably priced, technology is an industry that often demands high prices for
high-end goods and high quality.
Given our wide target market and efficient catering to specialized demographic and
psychographic groups, the introduction of the SMP will generate more sales for the company,
resulting in a high profit margin. This product is expected to more than satisfy the needs and
wants of the consumer markets involved, as it will be innovative in style, function, and quality. It
has always been the goal of Sony to develop high-end products that will elicit enjoyment from
the general public, which this product certainly aims to achieve.
Evaluation
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At SME you are not only providing your consumers with the music they are looking for
but a complete database of information to create a sense of awareness and superior knowledge
for their listening pleasure. Our company believes that you should be committed to building a
reputation with your customers by engaging in customer feedback, surveys, providing excellent
customer service and full circle live communication with all consumers.
In 2009 your sales dropped tremendously and losses were due to new technology lapse
along with the deceleration of global economy. SME in the past has had declining numbers in
sales. Even though SME currently communicates with the audience through web medium, via
interactive communication, social networking, advertising, promotions and events there has still
been a problem. This financial decline that SME is experience needs to be addressed. The key
objective is to maintain the integrity of the metrics and measurements utilized throughout the
Integrated Marketing Campaign our company will provide. We will help them build better
relations with consumers by reinforcing and reestablishing public confidence that Sony is an
affordable and high value product.
Our company provides accuracy and strategic planning that we will leverage five marcom
metrics for the overall success of our integrated marketing campaign. In our Creative Brief
approved by you mid June we set the guidelines and insights to your new product “My Play”. In
this Brief we advised you of a new advertising campaign and tagline that will help your
customers relate to you and the product.
We will promote that SMP is the only technology
platform that is compatible with all music software packages.
For your review we have
developed a plan to boost your sales, create a new buzz, encourage consumer participation and
beat the competition.
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In this spreadsheet we have set goals and objectives, evaluation measures and a projected
chart as to what the increase will look like for the 4th quarter. You will also see from the chart
which tool works best. Our company believes that by leveraging traditional and non-traditional
marketing campaigns strategically, all aspects of the integrated marketing campaign will align to
target your core audience.
Our desire is to have a campaign that is highly integrated that combines the creation and
formation of brand positioning that stands out in the mind of your target audience. It is the
request of Sony to focus on enhancing the functional, symbolic, and experiential categories or
brand positioning.
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Projected Increase for 4th Quarter
Face to Face
Radio Shows
Festivals
Concerts
Record Stores
School Functions
Award Shows
0.25
0.38
0.65
0.15
0.83
0.97
Advertising
Flyers
Newspaper
Magazines
Bulletin Boards
Billboards
Commercials
0.45
0.15
0.56
0.27
0.65
0.89
Mobile Phones
Commercials
Downloads
0.89
0.95
Face to Face
Advertising
Downloads
Commercials
Commercials
Billboards
Bulletin Boards
Magazines
Newspaper
Flyers
Award Shows
School Functions
Record Stores
Concerts
Festivals
Radio Shows
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Mobile
Phones
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References
Shimp, T. A. (2010). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing
communications (8th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Sony Corporation (2009) Consolidate Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31,
2009. News and Information.
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/08q4_sony.pdf
Sony Corporation (2010). Sony Music Entertainment. http://www.sonymusic.com/
Sony Corporation (2010). Sony Music Entertainment. Sony My Play. http://myplay.com/
http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/New_York_metropolitan_area
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/3651000.html