December | 2017 | Digital Marketing

Background

Starting “between the walls of a New England dorm room” (RFCR, 2017), Run For Cover Records is eclectic alternative rock and punk record label. They compete in the ever-changing music industry and inhabit a fairly niché corner of marketing and releasing music. Current artists on their roster include the likes of Turnover, Basement and Modern Baseball (pictures from left to right); all of which are popular in their specific ‘scenes’.

Record labels remain to be a favoured guise for artists releasing music and “marketing is one of a record label’s most important functions” (Mcdonald, 2017). Marketing and now digital marketing plays an essential role in the music industry; a musicians release is often surrounded by online content that promotes artist’s individual brand.

Value Offering?

Under some analysis of Run For Cover Records social media accounts and websites, there was no indication of them using a value offering to entice potential customers. Simply stating on their Facebook bio “Record Label in Boston, Massachusetts”. On first thought, this could encapsulate the punk nature of their target market, the anti-establishment tendencies of their audience may not react well to basic ‘catchy’ straplines and value offerings. The roster is generally what attracts potential customers to their online pages as it is often the artist’s merchandise, music and concert tickets that are being sold. Current Roster is shown below:

The Competition?

Record labels broadly tend to be genre specific, meaning that all the artists signed to them will loosely produce a similar style of music. As a result, a partially fragmented market is produced. This is not an all-encompassing model that every label follows, but is certainly the most popular. Topshelf Records, No Sleep Recording, and No Idea Records appear to be in direct competition with Run For Cover Records. These labels operate in a similar genre to RFCR and have represented a proportion of their previous artists.

New market entrants into this sector of the industry are often DIY small businesses. Their scope and influence are normally far smaller than the likes of Run For Cover Records. An example of which Honeypot Records work with smaller artists promoting and releasing punk records in a plethora of formats.

Digital Marketing Strategies?

Daily (2004) states that the “conscious designing of a website to create a positive effect” can be implemented as a marketing strategy. From a pronominal analysis of Run For Cover Records website, Facebook page, and Twitter the branding follows a distinct red, white and black colour scheme. The website in this context could be simply described as a brand-building tool, but it is far more usable and clear than expected, landing on an effective revolving photo reel showing artists they represent. Fans have the ability to delve deeper into their favorite artists through the content provided, thus the marketing material includes interviews, merchandise shots, artist biographies, descriptive reviews of releases and artist photo/video shoots. Similar layouts and strategies can be seen in the direct competition mentioned previously, but they differentiate themselves through the logo, font, and colour-way.

Social Media Marketing Strategies?

Currently, in the music industry, social media is arguably one of the most powerful tools for identifying and reaching a target market. Focusing on Facebook, with over 72,000 likes, Run For Cover Records attract a substantial amount of online attention. A rational use of pinned posts and always adding a picture/video element to every post engages the reader. Also incorporating their logo to some of the content produces a strong brand image, this can be seen below:

Differing from the website format, social media encourages direct communication between company and consumer, through the commenting aspect. The nature of the material being produced makes a constructing an audit far more difficult, this is because an artists own popularity will have a direct link to the number of comments and likes a post receives. Run For Cover Records are also avid ‘sharers’ of other companies content relating to them or their artists. For a creative based industry, gaining and retaining fans can come with working in collaboration with other media forms. One such example can be seen in Run For Cover Records stream of a band Citizen through the Audiotree live sessions.

Finally, creating promotional offers on merchandise and marketing records in an aesthetically pleasing format likely increases revenue. This marketing strategy is imperative for success in an industry that revenue was cut by up to 40% through the use of music streaming services legal and illegal (Ellis-Peterson, 2017). Run For Cover Records will undoubtedly have a prosperous future as they continue to sign an array of exceptionally talented artists. Thier digital marketing presence is to be applauded for its creativity, the branding throughout is coherent and individualistic.

tl189 – The University of Brighton

References

Dailey, L., 2004. Navigational web atmospherics: Explaining the influence of restrictive navigation cues. Journal of Business Research. 57, 7, 795-803

Ellis-Petersen, H. (2017). How streaming saved the music: global industry revenues hit £12bn. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/25/2016-marks-tipping-point-for-music-industry-with-revenues-of-15bn [Accessed 13 Dec. 2017].

Mcdonald, Heather (2017). Why Record Labels Have Such Tremendous Influence on the Music Industry. [online] Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-a-record-label-2460614 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2017]

Chaffey (2011) describes how social media is a fundamental part of digital marketing in his description of modern marketing channels. The nature of social media makes it one of the most important modern marketing channels for a plethora of businesses. Not only are a whole generation now glued to their phones and laptops, but with over 2 billion users on Facebook (Constine, 2017) out of the worlds 7.6 billion residents (United Nations, 2017), it is fast becoming a marketplace in its own right. As a result, it has become more and more imperative to audit these channels, to examine the ways in which social media can be used effectively.

Chaffeys Digital Marketing Channels

The first and possibly most important way to audit a social media channel is to regularly check it. It sounds simple, but the beauty of social media is that it is all in real time and constantly changing with your audience. Lee (2014) also describes how consistently maintaining social media presence is like having a “full-time job”, so much so, it must remain a continuous area of examination and inspection especially in the business environment.

With the combination of regular checks, one could use a series of templates to identify key performance indicators. This model was developed by Quesenberry (2015) and was developed by building off ideas from a journalistic framework, which outlines “Who”, “Where”, “What”, “When” and “Why” in communication channels (an example of which is shown below).

In this case, even though it has been simplified one can see that the focus is on the companies own posting, the consumers posting tendencies and finally their competitor’s online habits. As well as, a challenge and opportunity rating has been incorporated to clearly define areas that need attention. This can be a useful tool in trying to understand areas of improvement for any business with a social media presence.

Once the audit template has been completed a meticulous study of said social media platforms must be undertaken. With this next area of study, one will focus on the complete branding of a page i.e. a Twitter profile or a Facebook page. The general aim of social media marketing is to promote a brand, to do this there must be a high level of consistency in marketing material and content (Bigcommerce, 2017). Marketing material and content in this sense includes promotional photos, videos, links etc.. that are posted by that account. The music industry is one of the clearest examples of this – The Red Hot Chili Peppers Facebook page has masses of consistent branding as shown below. In this instance they are promoting a new selection of download offers for black Friday sales – one can easily see the consistent graphics and branding throughout their page.

Finally, identify where and what kind of post are getting the best reaction from an intended audience. If for example, your Instagram page gets constantly more likes on a photo compared to the same one posted on Facebook, but far fewer views on videos. One can change the strategy for posting to accommodate the consumer preference, this will ensure that posts in the future will reach the intended audience in the most effective manner. Many companies will look for new intuitive ways to share content instead of through text, these can include video, pictures, infographics, memes etc… as they tend to be more engaging. This strategy is no different for multi-national corporations who use social media. A company called Sprout Social offers this analytical service with a membership fee, but this can be replicated through diligent site analysis. As a result, an analysis like this will give you an insight into the kind of people viewing the page their posting habits.

So to recap; check social media regularly, create and use an audit template, focus on branding and measure reactions and see if any strategies have been created. In reality, it can seem very daunting to be focusing on these all the same time. Setting goals and breaking down tasks is the easiest way to tackle a social media audit. Remember it is a continuous process! Happy Auditing!

tl189 – Brighton University

Refences

Bigcommerce. 2017 ” Whats is a social media audit? Optimize your social media for ecommerce success” [Access Date: 27th Nov 2017] Weblink: https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/ecommerce-answers/what-is-a-social-media-audit-how-to-do-it/

Constine, Josh. 2017 “Facebook now has 2 billion users… and responsibility” [Access Date: 29th Nov 2017] Tech Crunch. Weblink: https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/

Chaffey, David. 2011 “Digital Marketing Channels” Smart Site [Access Date: 29th Nov 2017] Weblink: https://www.smartinsights.com/reach/attachment/digital-marketing-channels/

Lee , Kevin. 2017 “15 Minute Social Media Audit Everyone can do” Buffer Blogs [Access Date: 29th Nov 2017] Weblink: https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-audit

Quesenberry, Kieth A. 2015 ” Conducting a social media audit” Harvard Business Review. [Access Date: 27th Nov 2017] Weblink: https://hbr.org/2015/11/conducting-a-social-media-audit

Sprout Social 2015 “Social Media Audit” [Access Date: 29th Nov 2017] Weblink: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-audit/

The United Nations, 2017 “Total Population, Both Sexes” [Access Date: 29th Nov 2017] Weblink: https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/

Digital Marketing

Month: December 2017

A Brief Marketing Background – Run For Cover Records

A How To Guide – Social Media Marketing Audit