QUESTION # 1
Online (digital music) is a means of putting out audio files (usually MP3s) to the internet, which are then provided by means of subscription and automatically downloaded to a computer. Online (digital music) is not intended to be heard on a live feed, but at any time and wherever is most fitting for the listener. Online (digital music) is an automatic mechanism by which multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client which pulls down XML files containing the Internet addresses of the media files (Kushner, 2000). Generally, these files contain audio or video, but could be also images, text, PDF, or any file type.
Along with online (digital music)’s emergence as one of the major new Internet technologies for 2005, it is still yet adopted by most businesses. However, there are several reasons why online (digital music) is the choice of most consumers as compared to traditional music delivery formats. These are:
1) Online (digital music) has lower threshold for publishing audio content
2) Online (digital music) encourages multi-way communication with listeners
3) Online (digital music) extend the reach of Internet sites
4) Online (digital music) can be used to increase the frequency of contact with customers
5) Online (digital music) make audio files easy to find on the Internet
6) Online (digital music) create a new channel for Web sites to communicate with customers. For the reason that Online (digital music) is audio-based, they open up opportunities for companies to deliver audio-specific content, including music, speeches and radio-style shows.
7) Online (digital music) is adopting the version of push technology in the model of publish/subscribe in which the business information provider chooses which files to offer in a feed and the subscriber chooses among available feed channels (Curran, 2001).
8) Online (digital music) is generally analogous to a recorded television or radio series.
According to various researches the effects of emerging technologies on businesses such as travel, tourism and hospitality marketplace found that 71% of respondents indicated that Online (digital music) is currently important to their businesses while technologies chosen least frequently as being currently important to respondents’ organizations were Online (digital music) (4%), hybrid cell phones (8%) and virtual reality (10%). Apparently, Online (digital music) casts the least percentage for the simple reason that this technology is not widely known to travel organizations (Gordon, 2005).
There are wide ranges of potential Online (digital music) investments to help modernize the legacy systems, streamline distribution that will add value for consumers in any industry. The challenge would then lie in identifying which emerging Online (digital music) technologies would have potential to provide a competitive advantage for the industry with due consideration on its long-term potential to transform the industry.
QUESTION # 2
Traditional retailers of music such as Sanity and HMV may use advertising or the paid promotion of goods and services through a sponsoring organization or company to communicate its positioning on online (digital) music to its target market. While marketing has the objective to choose markets that have the capacity to purchase a product, advertising, on the other hand, is the paid communication through which relevant information about the product is conveyed to potential consumers.
In a general sense, advertising can be utilized by traditional retailers of music such as Sanity and HMV to be able to impart to their customers the availability of their music products or services. In a way, advertising will also be able to provide critical information regarding the music products or services of these companies. When an advertising campaign is achieved effectively, this can lead to an increased demand for the product.
There are commonly three main objectives of advertisements: (1) conveying relevant information regarding a particular product or service; (2) persuading consumers to purchase the advertised product; and, (3) keep the company under the watchful eyes of the public (Pricken, 2004). Most successful advertising campaigns usually mix the elements of all three objectives. More often than not, newly established products are supported with informative and persuasive ads, while strongly established products utilize institutional and persuasive ads.
Evaluation of Advertising
1) Advantages
The existence of Internet and the continued revolution in the world of Information Technology are certainly positive signs for the blossoming of many new advertising opportunities. For instance, Popup ads and email ads have started to invade the Internet. Most advertising firms have also started to exert efforts to make their advertisements appealing to the public (Sissors, 2002).
In recent years, the public opinion regarding advertising has become very negative. They view it as a medium that only promotes lies. This is of course contrary to the purpose of advertisements to encourage the target market to patronize a particular product or service. Nowadays, most advertisements are either perceived as merely stating opinions or portraying a product or service in a totally distorted idea away from reality. It is this alarming situation regarding the true objectives of advertising that have led to an increase in the responsibilities that companies and advertising firms face (Corbett, 1999).
QUESTION # 3
Traditional retailers of music such as Sanity and HMV can employ detailed distribution plans and strategies in order to gain several benefits from its competitors such as increased profits and enhanced customer relations as company objectives. The application of distribution strategies directed towards the achievement of these objectives naturally requires the allocation of financial resources. However, while the traditional retailers of music such as Sanity and HMV will be capable of providing a budget, the outcomes should be able to recover these allocations in order to prevent capital losses (Cohen, 2004). Thus, these companies should employ distribution strategies and create objectives that are compatible to the capacity of the company and what it intends to achieve.
The supply chain is traditionally characterized as a stable system in which components and goods move smoothly from supplier to assembly customers. In addition, supply chain refers to the suppliers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers that involved in manufacturing a product and getting it to consumers. Supply chain is also defined as a network of independent or semi-independent corporation bodies collectively accountable for procurement, developing and or manufacturing and distribution scheme connected with one or more groups of related products (Bolstorff, 2003). Supply chain management (SCM) is a modern distribution management concept, the goal of which is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a company’s entire supply chain operations including distribution. The supply chain runs from raw material suppliers at one end, right through all the intermediate processing stages, to the customer at the other. The term supply chain management has been used to denote the integration of logistics and physical distribution activities by wholesalers and retailers and manufacturers' efforts to effectively integrate purchasing and supply with other functions in the firm. The focus of SCM, or logistics management as it is often called, is on adding value and eliminating inefficiencies at each stage of a company’s supply chain (Stadtler, 2004).
QUESTION # 4
A. Personal Selling
Sales are an important part of any commercial transaction. If would be the manager of traditional retailers of music such as Sanity and HMV, I would implement one the most common marketing strategies which is personal selling. Personal selling pertains to a systematic process of continuous yet measurable methods in which the person selling describes his offered online (digital music) products or services in such a way that the buyer will be able to visualize how to benefit from the offered online (digital music) products or services in an economic way. Selling is basically a part of the implementation procedures of marketing. It often forms a particular grouping within a corporate structure, employing independent specialist operatives known as salesmen (Beckwith, 2001).
The continued interrogation in order to understand a consumer’s goal as well as the establishment of a set of feasible solutions by conveying the necessary information that convinces a buyer to achieve his goal at a reasonable cost is the main responsibility of the sales person. On the other hand, the main objective of professional sales is to be able to know the needs and satisfy the wants of consumers effectively, and therefore convert possible customers into actual and reliable ones (Bettger,1992).
Evaluation of Personal Selling
1) Advantages
Some of the distinct advantages of personal selling include the immediate access to feedback, the persuasive nature of the endeavor, the option of choosing a target audience for the sales person, and its capability to give detailed information.
2) Disadvantages
Personal selling may have the tendency to become extremely expensive per exposure, and the gathered information may be different among the sales persons involved. It is a well-known fact that the main objective of selling is to help a consumer achieve his / her goals in a reasonable way. However, this is not always the case. Consumers can easily be persuaded by outside factors to patronize an online (digital music) product or service that normally does not have any interest to them. Some sales people are being commanded by their mother companies to sell to consumers odd products that they don't necessarily need. This anomalous behavior is being supported by incentives of sales personnel to increase their total number of sales, incentives from the companies of service providers to sales personnel to sell their products where other similar products offered by competitors are offered, and the incentive to sell a consumer a product that is in need of being wiped out (Bosworth, 2003).
B. Sales Promotion
Sales promotions pertain to non-personal promotional campaigns that are meant to have an immediate and lasting impact towards sales. Sales promotion is both a media and non-media marketing communications tool utilized for a limited time in order to boost consumer demand and improve product availability. Sales promotions for online (digital music) can be directed to a variety of stakeholders, either to consumers or retailers (Eades, 2003). Sales promotions targeted at consumers are more commonly called consumer sales promotions. On the other hand, sales promotions targeted at retailers and wholesale are more commonly referred to as trade sales promotions. Some sale promotions, however, make use of unorthodox methods and are often not seriously considered by many.
Evaluation of Sales Promotion
1) Advantages
The distinctive advantages of sales promotion include its capability to change behaviors in a limited span of time as well as its flexibility.
2) Disadvantages
The disadvantages of sales promotion include its potential for being abused, which could possibly lead to disputes regarding promotion. Sales promotion can also be easily duplicated.
SYNTHESIS
Traditional retailers of music such as Sanity and HMV have been able to remain one of Australia's leading companies for more than a century now primarily because of the execution of the company’s marketing and positioning strategies to perfection. Add to the mix the company’s dedication to high quality of service and the formula for success is at hand.
Moreover, the utilization of the appropriate IMC tools is necessary for their online (digital music) products to reach out to people even in different cultures. In this case, it is being recommended that a combination of advertising, branding and personal selling be implemented by traditional retailers of music due to its high level of effectiveness.
However, certain points have to be taken into consideration by traditional retailers of music regarding IMC tools. Since their income is relatively higher than most music companies, the time for implementation of their chosen IMC tools would take longer than usual, aside from being expensive. But since the goal of every traditional retailer of music is towards a long-term dominance and stability in the music industry, then the pursuit of these IMC tools will be beneficial for the company in the long run.
REFERENCES
Beckwith, H, 2001. Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing. Texere; 2nd edition
Bettger, F, 1992. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. Fireside; New edition
Bolstorff, P, 2003. Supply Chain Excellence: A Handbook for Dramatic Improvement Using the SCOR Model. AMACOM/American Management Association; 1st edition
Bosworth, M, 2003. CustomerCentric Selling. McGraw-Hill; 1st edition
Cohen, S, 2004. Strategic Supply Chain Management. McGraw-Hill; 1st edition
Corbett, M, 1999. The 33 Ruthless Rules of Local Advertising. SummitView Publishing, Inc.; 2nd Rev edition
Curran, M, 2001. Sell Your Music: How To Profitably Sell Your Own Recordings Online. Nmd Books
Eades, K, 2003. The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell. McGraw-Hill; 2nd edition
Gordon, S, 2005. The Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed with the New Digital Technologies. Backbeat Books; Pap/Com edition
Kushner, D, 2000. Music Online for Dummies. For Dummies; Pap/Cdr edition
Pricken. M, 2004. Creative Advertising: Ideas and Techniques from the World's Best Campaigns. Thames & Hudson
Sissors, J, 2002. Advertising Media Planning. McGraw-Hill; 6th edition
Stadtler, H, 2004. Supply Chain Management and Advanced Planning: Concepts, Models, Software and Case Studies. Springer; 3rd edition
No comments:
Post a Comment