The development of new music for One Direction has been
consistent for 5 years. Development is
defined as the stage in the product development process in which a prototype is
developed and a marketing strategy is outlined.
For the release of their new album they released a teaser song when
people pre-ordered the album. This would
be considered test marketing which is defined as the limited introduction of a
product and a marketing program to determine the reactions of potential
customers in a market situation. The
commercialization of albums for One Direction beings once it’s been
announced. They look at which songs will
be singles beforehand and then make billboards that go in well populated areas
like L.A. They sent the physical copies
to places such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. The introductory stage of the album launch is
release the album name and then the song tracks. The growth stage was when Made in the A.M. was
released going head to head with Justin Bieber’s album, Purpose. This is when the band usually in promoting
the album going around doing interviews and shows that contain the new
songs. The maturity stage of the album
released is when it is being toured. The
decline stage would be when a new album comes out and then the cycle begins
again.
Ch 8- Segmenting and Targeting Markets
Geographic segmentation is segmenting markets by a region of
a country or the world, market size, market density, or climate. One Direction have two major labels Syco
Music which takes care of the European side of their music and Columbia Records
which takes care of North America. One
Direction know that the demographics of their fans ranges from 10 year olds to
even mothers of the 10 year olds. One
Direction have a variety of products to fit the varied ages. A 12-year-old girl would like the merchandise
they have while a more mature audience would more likely just want the music
they make. The positioning of the brand
is that they stay out of trouble and are viewed to be regular guys, which is
what they are. After the ex-member of
the band, Zayn Malik, left the band was left to reposition. They had to come back stronger and they
did. They give a vibe that they are much
closer now and that is what people want to see.
Ch. 15- Marketing Communications
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| One Direction at a BBC Radio 1 Interview. |
According to the textbook it says that promotion is the
communication by marketers that informs, persuades, and reminds potential
buyers of a product in order to influence an opinion or elicit a response. Promotion seasons is in full swing for One
Direction right now. They just released
their 5th studio album and are spending a few weeks doing promotion
for it. For example, they’ve doing
interviews and special events for the new album.
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| One Direction at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge |
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| The different editions of Made in the A.M |
They released special edition covers of the
album, this is to make fans buy more copies.
They did a very risky move releasing the album the same day as Justin
Bieber’s album, Purpose, comes out.
According to statistics the One Direction albums are leading with
physical album sales, while the Justin Bieber album has an advantage in
streams.
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| madeintheam.com |
Their promotional strategy is
to connect with fans via social media and creating a special website that
unlocked different items a day which included exclusive videos, photos, and
audio messages. Some videos were
snippets of songs in the album as teasers.
They have a lot of events such as the 1D London Session, Ellen, Jimmy
Kimmel, and a performance for Good Morning America. November 13th they performed at
the Royal Variety in London. The
feedback that the band has been receiving towards the album has been really
good. Multiple people taking pictures
with albums they have bought ranging from 1 to 6 albums per person.