Reflections on Website Research

After discussing the website in class we came up with the five key areas of marketing;

• Advertising
• Merchandising
• Social Media
• Endorsement
• Publicity, Promo, Events

Advertising:

Whether it's in a magazine, on the TV, or online, it is crucial to have advertising for a debut artist so that they start to become widely recognised even before their product is released. This is above the line marketing as the record company have to pay other people to get this done. With One Direction they were already well known through their appearance on Primetime TV programme The X Factor. This meant they already had a fanbase as millions of people had followed their story, watching as the boys were put together, moving from 5 solo artists to a 5 member boyband. The boys were carefully chosen for the band by the X Factor Production Company and SyCo (Simon Cowell's record label which the winner of the show has a record deal with) and they deliberately exploited the differences in both ethnicity and age within the boys.

Merchandising:

This is also an 'above the line' form of marketing as the company has to pay to produce the products they're going to sell. On One Direction's website there is a shop with a wide range of merchandise available, directly targeted at their core audience, 7-14 year old girls. Children have a certain thing called ‘pester power’ and so One Direction’s marketing campaign was cleverly organised so that they would bring in lots of money as the parents would be willing to buy their daughter a ‘I Love One Direction’ T-shirt because of their safe and innocent image that’s been portrayed on the X Factor. Young kids and mums like to watch X Factor and so witnessed One Directions journey and so trust them as a family-friendly band. It is through the exploitation of this trust that the record company makes its money. As a young girl it’s all about making consumption choices, which can be defined by the four Uses & Gratifications categories:

·         Social

·         Personal

·         Educational

·         Entertainment

There’s the big decision over who your favourite band member is and often they pick the one most like themselves. You feel like because you decided you like that particular band member most, you now ‘own’ them in some way and that they are yours. This is also why they produce merchandise for each individual band member rather than for the whole group as then the audience can buy the bag with their favourite band member on it. The record company had the choice of making the band all look the same, or make them individual characters, and by making them individuals they managed to increase their profits. Although this is normally with young audiences, One Direction are still popular with slightly older audiences such as 25-35 year olds who see them as their guilty pleasure.

Social Media:

This is one of the most important ways in which One Direction was marketed. Through the use of Web 2.0 they created a viral campaign, by utilising social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook which allow fans to interact with the band  themselves, seeing new photos and information about their everyday lives. The website has lots of competitions for the fans to get involved in which include voting, or submitting something of your own. One of the biggest competitions they’ve done is ‘Bring 1D To Me’ in which other countries had to build up ‘air miles’ and if that country managed to click enough times to get those air miles then One Direction would visit their country. In the end 1D visited Holland, Sweden and Italy, but as Germany didn’t manage to get enough votes, they lost out. This was a clever way for the record company to work out who their secondary audience was, and see where else they have a fanbase.

Endorsement:

Endorsement is the most mutually beneficial and advantageous form of marketing. It creates a symbiosis between company and artist, or even artist and artist. One Direction are linked with Nintendo (Pokémon) and Nokia, featuring in TV adverts and appearing at events for the company’s new product. There is endorsement between different artists, and in One Directions case it is often via Twitter. Artists such as Olly Murs follow One Direction on Twitter and although it is probably someone from the record company who tweets for him, a tweet to One Direction means that Olly’s fans perhaps will listen to their music because the artists are friends. The band may also be sponsored by companies in order to promote both at the same time.

In this advert the boys talk about why they like Pokemon, which means a lot of their fans may then go out and buy the game as it seems cool. This is also a great opportunity for Nintendo to widen their market, as One Directions target audience are a) girls and b) between 7-16 and both these categories often aren't particuarly interested in video games. It also means slightly older boys will want to buy their product as well because One Direction may be considered idols to them, or they might think that if One Direction play it and are cool, they might also be cool by playing it.

Also for Nokia, they made videos of 'Find The Phone' in which the boys pass round the phone and then you have to guess which member then has it at the end. This is a great way to promote both the band and phone as both are very popular brands, meaning it's mutually beneficial. Not only is the game interactive but it allows the audience a chance to meet the band if they are able to get 2 or more of the rounds correct. This incentive means more people will play the game and will then find out about the phone.

Publicity, Promo & Events:

One Direction have been doing lots of signings and appearances lately in order to get publicity for their singles coming out. They appeared on Alan Carr Chatty Man, The Alan Titchmarsh Show and This Morning. By going on a show such as Alan Carr they widen their market and exposure as the show has an older target audience who may not normally watch One Directions interviews, and by appearing on such a popular morning programme they have a large audience watching them. We discussed the role of a PR person in controlling the public image of the band, and to make sure no stories of their past get out and ruin their career. They also might do free concerts in order to increase their popularity and to get people who weren’t fans before on board. There are also launch parties which industry moguls and other artists are invited to, so that photos are released to the press of other famous people arriving at the event or having a good time inside. This is also a form of endorsement as one artist is promoting another; synergy. If there is a story which presents a band member in a negative light, the PR team might offer the press who have the story, an exclusive interview or photoshoot with the band in exchange for keeping the other story quiet, and this helps keep the bands brand consistent which is a key thing in marketing a debut artist.

Whilst MARKETING a DEBUT artist you must:

• Have a 360 degree marketing campaign
• Be consistent throughout the five key areas of marketing
• Release product - get a single and music video out there for the audience to consume
• Have a website! - The website is the heart of the marketing campaign as it has everything the audience needs for uses & gratifications and is both informative and interactive.