Marketing and its Importance for a Business
Question:
Discuss About The Journal Internet Marketing And Advertising?
Marketing is one of the important functions of a business which not only advertises the products and the services of the company but also interconnects all the other functions of a business as well. The difference in the position of an organisation in market is largely influenced by the strategic decisions of marketing department. This paper provides a report regarding the marketing efficiency of Spotify compared to the marketing activities of the rival players of the market.
The report collects the data and the information of the company and its rival from their respective websites. The data and information regarding the marketing operation of the companies are collected from the annual reports of each of the companies. Additional data and information required for the analysis of the paper is also collected from different journals and articles related to the topic of the paper.
The paper finds out that Spotify uses the internet marketing portfolios and activities in the most effective way.
Spottily is an online and app-based music, video and podcast streaming and sharing platform headquarter of which is based in Stockholm, Sweden. However, Spotify Ltd works as the parent company which is based in London, UK. It provides free services to the customers against advertisements of other brands and companies in their space. Although Spotify is not the first company to have online music streaming services, its uniqueness and innovation in terms of marketing and use of technology have led to becoming one of the best players in the market (Ding and Liu, 2015). The main competitor of Spotify is the apple music which is owned by the Apple Inc. However, in terms of the number of the subscriber, Spotify is the undisputed leader of the market. The competitors of Spotify such as apple music have the strength in terms of exclusive music releases and unique services. However, the user base of that company is low due to the limited user base of apple Ios. Another prime rival of Spotify is the Google play music, the parent company of which is the renewed Google Inc. All these companies use the marketing tools in different ways which have resulted in the current market share and the online presence of the respective company.
There are a number of criteria which needs to be identified before the imitation of the evaluation of the use of internet marketing by Spotify and its rivals. First and the foremost criteria is the marketing goal as per the situation of the company. Rangan (2017) stated that articulation of the goal in terms of marketing is important so as to channelize and manage the resources of the company. The next criteria are the examination of the profile of the customers so that accounting service or product can be delivered to them. Apart from that, the management of the company also needs to be aware of the current online situation of the company at each point of time in order to use the tools of internet marking in the best way. According to Valaei et al. (2016) online presence of any company is vital in the modern situation and company’s needs to keep an eye on their relative activeness on internet compared to their rivals in order to use the tools of internet marketing in an effective way.
Data Collection and Analysis
In terms of goals of internet marketing, Spotify and all its competitors have their specific marketing goal which allows them to assign and use resources in a planned way. They carry out marketing analysis in order to understand the different external factors that can affect the marketing of the company. This also helps them to understand the needs of the customers of the market accurately. According to Isa and Wong (2015), these are the basic functions of the marketing department of any organisation and hence present in almost all the operating companies of the world. This is also the case in the music industry where the chosen company of the paper operates and hence there is no difference in terms of the marketing analysis carried out by the companies.
The difference is created between the position of the company due to the marketing operation and the presence of the companies on the internet. One of the features of the marketing activities of Spotify is the use of low budget actions such as the mouth of words, PR, co-marketing with other brands and many more. Bianchi and Mathews (2016) highlighted that unlike the earlier companies, these companies spend less on the marketing of the brand through TV channels. Initially, the company invited the users privately to use the services of the company. In order to use word of mouth of as a marketing channel, a post was shared in the user’s social network so that others can see them as ads. Compared to the marketing strategies of Spotify, apple music used premium services straight away since the launch of the services. Medina et al. (2017) noted that the free invites and the revenue through advertisements in Spotify’s website failed to generate enough revenues for the company. This is also the reason, Spotify had to attract a lot of investment in the initial phase of time. Again, co-marketing strategies have also been used by the management of Spotify in order to increase the reach of the services of the company. For instance, the company collaborated with different music blogs that connect their user with the service of Spotify. In addition to that the management of Spotify also collaborated with a magazine called NME in order to increase awareness among the potential customers of the market. Furthermore, the company also used engagement through sponsorship in many of the events and targeting their audiences. Armstrong et al. (2015) pointed out that this is a great method to attract new customers to the market however the total number of customers attracted through it remains very low. On the contrary, the Apple music spent a lot of resources in the direct marketing of the services of the company. Apple music has a parent company that has its own brand image which has helped the company to gain its own loyal customers. Apple music targets the upper segment of the customers just like the products of the parent company and hence does not put in the effort to trigger marketing through word of mouth of the people. Another marketing strategy which is unique and allowed Spotify to expand the subscriber base of the company is the by campaigning which attracted a lot of young subscriber for the company.
Spotify and its Competitors
Another company that is also a close competitor is the Google music play whose parent company is the Google INC. This company has some of the similar characteristics of apple music in terms of the marketing and use of technology for the purpose of marketing. However, the main difference that set the marketing activities of Google to play apart from the other companies in the market is the search engine optimisation. Isa and Wong (2015) highlighted that this method is used by the company as they have their own Google play store which they use for their own benefit. Although Apple also has a search engine just like that of Google, the user of Apple and Mac Ios is much lower compared to that of Android users. In this context, there is a disadvantage for Spotify as they cannot use the search engine optimisation as a form of internet marketing in order to reach out to the customers of the market.
Internet marketing through the social network is a popular tool used by most of the organisation nowadays. It is obvious that all the three companies, chosen for the analysis of the paper use the social media in order to reach out to the potential customers of the market. However, Bagautdinova et al. (2016) highlighted that each of these companies uses the social media in different ways. While apple music and Spotify is highly active on the social media, Google play music is not much active. Spottily and apple music posts a number of updates on different social media platforms in a day. In addition to that Spotify and apple music also uses the social media to collect information regarding the choices and the preferences of the customers of the market. However, the use of contents and different types of the contest in order to engage more customers of the market is more in the case of apple music compared to that of Spotify. Whereas, Google music play only uses the app and their websites to collect feedback regarding their service and the needs of the customers of the market.
Therefore, the way to use the internet marketing is different for different companies in the market. While Spotify uses cheaper and low-cost means to put across the content of the company and improve the recognition of the brand through word of mouth, the other two brands discussed in the paper spends heavily on the internet marketing through search engine optimization, online ads and many more. Therefore, based on the study of the paper and the facts gathered from different sources regarding the marketing operations of Spotify and its rivals, Spotify is much ahead in terms of effectiveness. It regularly analyses its online presence and keeps an uninterrupted contact with the customers of the market. In addition to that, the company also uses all the tools under the internet marketing procedures which have reflected in the number of subscribers they have.
Despite having an effective internet marking activities, there are some of the loopholes which exist in a portfolio of Spotify and needs to be fixed in order to be the leader in the field. First and the foremost recommendation to the company are to use direct marketing through ads in different commercial websites which is accessed by millions of visitors. Apart from that, it is also recommended to the management of Spotify to invest money in different gatherings which will provide the company insight about the different genres of songs that are a demand by people of different age group.
Criteria for Evaluating Internet Marketing Strategies
Conclusion
Therefore the paper talks about the marketing and one its segment called internet marketing. The paper has been analyzed in two parts having different scenarios. In the first part of the paper, it presents an analysis based on the case study of a company called Tesco.com. Again in the second part of the paper, it takes a B2C company and some of its competitors and discusses the effectiveness of internet marketing of the respective company to find out that the chosen company has the most effective internet marketing portfolio and activity which has allowed it to attract the highest number of subscriber among the top players of the market.
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