Beyonce Case Study PDF

Preview

Summary

brand marketing assignment...

Description

We e k6As s i g n me n t :Be y o n c éCa s eSt u d y Ol i v i aCo x& J o eMa r a c i c J o hn s on& Wa l e sUn i v e r s i t y MRKT6 5 43 Pr o f e s s o rRe g i n e t h Oc t o be r1 0 , 2 0 21

Beyoncé Case Study 1. Situational Analysis a. Beyoncé has been at the forefront of the music industry for over two decades, beginning as the leader of the group ‘Destiny’s Child’ before deciding to go solo. She has been able to gain a massive and loyal following of fans who have supported her thoroughly throughout the years. In 2013, Beyoncé was set to release an album but took a unique and unorthodox way of promoting her album. As oppose to a traditional prerelease promotion plan, Beyoncé took an alternate route. Beyoncé posted on her Instagram, Facebook and YouTube pages “Surprise” while releasing her album as a pre-release on iTunes. The pre-release was only available on iTunes and you could only purchase the full album as oppose to solely singles off the album. The idea was that Beyoncé’s fans would do the marketing by talking about her album on social media and in person. Despite the different approach to marketing her album, Beyoncé saw great success in album sales and publicity. “In the ensuing hours (after her Surprise post), social media was talking about Beyoncé and nothing but Beyoncé” (Watercutter, 2013). The results speak for themselves. “Mentions of her Beyness on Twitter hit somewhere between 500,000 and 1.2 million in the hours after Beyoncé landed. iTunes reportedly crashed as people rushed to download the album in a frantic "shut up and take my money!" frenzy. It sold 80,000 copies in three hours” (Watercutter, 2013). Beyoncé’s surprise release resulted better than her team could have imagined it would.

2. SWOT Analysis a. Strengths i. Icon Status  Beyoncé has an advantage over many of her peers in the industry since she is one of the highest selling artists in the history of music. She had flexibility in her marketing ploy due to her status. ii. Social Media following  At the time of her release, Beyoncé had 8 million followers on Instagram and about 54 million fans on Facebook. This allowed for her marketing plan to thrive. iii. Loyal Fans  Beyoncé’s loyal fan base was the driving force in publicity for her album. b. Weaknesses i. iTunes only  Some companies, such as Target, decided to not sell Beyoncé’s album due to the one-week prerelease of the album only available on iTunes. ii. Album only  Beyoncé only allowed fans to purchase the complete album as oppose to singles. This could limit sales of people who only wanted to purchase singles during the prerelease.

c. Opportunities i. Future album release  Beyoncé’s team could use the analytics found on her 2013 album release to formulate either a similar or different plan. ii. Social media presence  Beyoncé could employ similar tactics to increase her social media following, which would in turn increase fans, sales and her overall following. d. Threats i. Companies outside of iTunes  Target was irritated by Beyoncé’s pre-release exclusivity with iTunes. This could hurt their relationship for future album sales. ii. Pushing the limits of limited marketing  If Beyoncé’s team chooses to go with a similar route, there might not be as much excitement since she has already done a surprise release. 3. Problem Statement a. Beyoncé’s surprise album was a major success but emulating a limited marketing plan in the future might not prove to be as successful. 4. Alternatives a. There are many different marketing structures that are planned for musicians, and Beyoncé took an unique path that worked in her benefit, some alternatives

to this marketing path would be to continue on with the normal prerelease “teasers” that most artist are known for, this allows for fans to be engaged and their emotion’s heightened in anticipation for the upcoming album, another alternative is to portray these “surprise” social media postings but not limit the sales to albums only, doing this does limit the market field and limits those who actual buy! 5. Solutions a. The solution that works best for this case study is to continue the “surpise: social media postings but incorporate those additional demographics and allow singles and albums to be purchased. That way word of mouth marketing is still utilized but also there is a larger playing field of who is buying.

Works Cited

Watercutter, A. (2013, December). Beyoncé's surprise album was the year's most brilliant release. Wired. Retrieved October 2021, from https://www.wired.com/2013/12/beyoncealbum-social-media/....