Services Marketing CRM and the Music Industry Essay Example For Students

Services Marketing: CRM and the Music Industry Essay Introduction Not many industries have seen such a dramatic change and decline in their traditional business model like the music industry has seen it in the last 15 years. The internet hugely damaged CD sales, along with the rise of AMP Players that allow consumers to store entire record collections into a device the size of their pockets. If you look at the industry in 2013, one can clearly see that the traditional business model of record labels is about to vanish and market analysts even predict a further decline. Subsequently record labels begin to redevelop their role as a service revived that sells emotions instead of only planning the logistics behind the delivery of physical discs. The labels now try to move their customers from Cads to other products. L. CD and Digital Music Sales with forecast (Mulligan, 2012) The answer on how to do this seems to be in customer relationships between labels/artists and their customers and selling their content as an experience through their web outlets and remaining serviceable, hence broadening their range of products from only music to merchandise and concerts. They hereby acknowledge the fact that they are selling costly intangible products (excitement, pleasure etc. ), sometimes using tangible products such as T-shirts and concert tickets as a means to deliver and are therefore more on the intangible dominant side of the service spectrum (Wilson et al, 2012). After all, fans buy a band shirt not because it is a T-shirt, but rather because it is from the musicians they admire and because they want to belong to and be identified as a member of a social circle. Universal Music Group (from here on referred to as JIMS) is the biggest music company in the world, having a market hare of 32,8% (Christmas, 2013) of all music sold worldwide. They have been investing heavily in digital content delivery and 360 degree deals, which means they sell the entire artist experience from concert tickets to merchandise to music and video streaming. MUG relies increasingly on digital marketing in order to sell their products as well as concerts as one of the few chances left where they can invite customers into a serviceable. During my research I gathered information on how MUG could behave even better in those areas. I will try to interest the Marketing Manager of MUG UK in my Job interview for these concepts, which originate from the following articles published in the Journal of Services Marketing: Services Marketing: CRM and the Music Industry By Nymphomaniac relationships Ronald of Marketing Services Volume 26 Issue 6) This article investigates how interpersonal experiences with frontline staff affect customers. 2. Service convenience and social serviceable: retail vs. hedonistic setting Ronald of Services Marketing Volume 26 Issue 4) This paper shows that managers need to apply different tactics in different service tenting as consumers expectations differ in each setting. 3. ) Frequency of CRM implementation activities: a customer-centric view Ronald of Services Marketing Volume 26 Issue 2) This study focuses on CRM activities and how companies can avoid that such schemes drive customers awa y instead of the desired outcome. 4. The role of emotions in online consumer behavior: a comparison of search, experience, and credence services Ronald of Services Marketing Volume 26 Issue 7) The paper compare consumers online shopping behavior and how their emotions hanged their perception soft the website across three different service types. All 4 deliver new insights on how MUG could relate to customers. Paper 1 is interesting as more attention on frontline staffs behavior at concerts is needed. 2. ), shows how companies need to further understand concert venues as serviceable. 3. Is important as there seems to be room for improvement in CRM implementation in many companies. 4. ) could shed light on how consumers view Mugs web services. In the end the papers number 2. ) and 3. ) were chosen as they both will have the most immediate effect on business. Building customer relations through CRM and serviceable When most of the music industry went digital, so did the marketing. But as the internet is an overcrowded sp ace where hundreds of mails and headlines fight for the customers attention, companies have to find a way to communicate with their customers in a manner that they accept. Film Marketing In Australia EssayBy applying so called dark side behaviors for example spamming or even tying customers to the company via questionable legal practices they create asymmetric relationships. (From et al, 2012). There is a need for more personalized marketing as the effectiveness of mass marketing seems to be further decreasing in the age of social media, (Barb, 2011). Also, the importance of understanding CRM properly cannot be understated as even though CRM is a time consuming and costly process that needs constant monitoring, it is very likely that improvements in this field will lead to higher revenue and ensue from a financial point of view. The main focus of the study is timing and this is a really innovative point of view. Here the study delivers insights that havent been delivered in comparable studies before. A potential shortcoming of the paper though is that Kim et al only tested their hypotheses on a very specific kind of customer group: bank customers are more likely to be in contact with their banks as financial markets are an ever changing business and therefore more personal support is needed. One can assume that due to this, bank customers are in general more favorable of CRM as other consumer groups, where a phone call often would be perceived to be very intruding. Also results that were gathered in South Korea might not be fully transferable to other cultures (Schaeffer, 2013). Kim et al. Also only distinguish between two customer groups. In reality further differentiation might be needed to truly offer CRM that aligns with peoples expectations. A flaw of the paper is the case that it only focuses on push marketing techniques and completely neglects pull marketing. The authors dont look closer at the fact that there are customers who dont want to be part of active CRM implementation at all. The solution of contacting this group within a longer frequency range therefore seems inappropriate. Here companies should also implement pull marketing (Sodden, 2000). The findings on how call centers apply this strategy should be easily applicable to websites and e-mail contact as well. The findings of the authors work are relevant for MUG in many ways. First, MUG needs to collect more data about their customers in order be able to put customers in different groups. The results clearly show that miming is the key for success with CRM and the more Mugs databases are accurate, the more effectively can MUG time the implementation. Only this will allow MUG to develop a CRM strategy that then suits each group. As mentioned in the study, there is certain reluctance among consumers to share their data. A way to overcome this for MUG is to remember that CRM only works if dual value and trust is created. They could for example give out songs for fans e-mail addresses and postcodes, offer prices if customers fill out questionnaires or can set up local fan clubs that they then look after. There always needs to be an incentive. The closer the dialogue, the more MUG will understand the customer, the more specific data MUG will receive. The postcodes for example are important in order to deliver further valuable CRM content. There is no use in advertising concert tickets for a show in New York to customers based in London. Having more data like age, gender etc. Will then allow MUG to further target their products at consumers. Furthermore dual value doesnt necessarily mean that MUG should try to sell every time they make a CRM effort, as this might create the asymmetric relationships marketers should try to avoid. A dialogue and the insights gained can be of value for the company as well. Especially in the music business, avid fans can be seen as talent scouts. They often spot trends sooner than the mass market. If MUG has identified avid fans and is in a close dialogue with them, this will give them a huge competitive advantage. If MUG is in doubt of how often to contact customers, the study has shown that in those cases less is more, as both favorable undo unfavorable customer groups are more likely to stay in the relationship when the frequency between efforts is too long.