TOWARDS A GLOBAL, HOLISTIC MARKETING FUTURE

TOWARDS A GLOBAL, HOLISTIC MARKETING FUTURE

Holistic Market

The current changes in the business environment have affected the marketing sector of the economy largely. Traditionally, business organizations could achieve the market goals with minimal or no efforts at all. For instance, a company producing quality products could maintain consumer loyalty for long. This was the case probably because the numbers of business supplying same or similar commodities were less; in fact some of the businesses could enjoy the monopoly power for long before other organizations could join the market. Slowly by slowly more businesses were established and the market started to experience the forces of overcrowding. The comfortable zone climate which was being experienced by most veteran companies and corporates followed the law of jungle “survival for the fittest”, a point where for a business to thrive had to go an extra mile because the common market strategies were no longer enough as many businesses were producing similar commodities. This paper scrutinizes the Holistic market approaches in Apple Music Company (Choi, KO, Kim &Mattila 2015, p.233).

Apple Music is both a video and music streaming service platform established currently under Apple Inc. where users can choose any music or video of choice to stream on their devices on demand or listen to the existing and curated playlists. Also, the platform has an internet radio station beats that broadcasts live to a scope of over 100 countries. This platform was launched on June 30, 2015 just the other day but its expansion can be used to depict the power of calculated moves when it comes to marketing strategies (Felix, Rauschnabel &Hinsch, 2017, p.118). As a new company into the entertainment industry where there were giants like Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Independent Labels just but a few to mention, it was expected that this company would face a lot of challenges before it could gain stability. However, that was not the case, guess because of the experience drawn its mother company, Apple Inc. in regard to marketing strategies (Rakic &Rakic, 2015).

The very first wise decision which the company made was to allow their new subscribers to enjoy the first three months for free before they could start paying for the service. First of all, this was a new company and getting a new subscriber start to pay for the streaming service directly would have scared many potential customers because of the fear of first encounter and therefore the company came up with the decision of free trial approach to make sure that the potential customers gets to experience the quality of the services without any fear of unknown. As a result many subscribed into the service because after all it was free and most of them ended up renewing the contract after the three month trial expired (Johansson, Christiernin & Pejryd, 2016, p.659). It was indeed a great approach towards relationship marketing as described by Kotler and Keller’s on their schematic overview of the four main components towards holistic marketing.

This wise decision was however accompanied by its own consequences. Before the company was publicly launched, Taylor Swift drafted an open letter to the public opinion criticizing the decision of the company not to reimburse the artists during the so called three months free trial period by announcing that she will be holding back her new album “1989” from the company’s service (Vernuccio &Ceccotti, 2015, p.438). She argued that the policy would be unfair because the company would be striving to acquire customers at the expense of writers, artists and producers who have incurred huge costs to see the albums out for the period of those three months of free trial. This was going to be a huge setback for the company as more other artists would have withdrawn from the deal as well. Also, this was against what Kotler and Keller advocated on their schematic overview of the four main components towards holistic marketing because suppliers have been underlined to be among the key contributors towards relationship marketing (Gonzalez, 2016).

Back to the drawing board, the following day after Swift’s open letter, the senior vice president of the company announced that the company had considered the issue and change the policy and that the artists were to be paid even during the three months period of free customer trial. Following the consideration on the other hand, swift responded by withdrawing his statement of holding back her album and assuring the public that she would put it in the company’s service (Hanson, Puplampu & Shaw, 2017, p.157).

Having gotten a firm base, the company made its second step, customizing the IOS version of Apple music to improve usability which had been criticized of being messy and not intuitive.  In response, the app was redesigned significantly receiving positive reviews as the interface had been updated into improved navigation, more emphasis on user libraries and less clutter (Van et al, 2015, p.585). Criticism did not stop there as the company’s iCloud technology was later on accused of matching the uploaded songs to those already on the service leading to duplicate songs, synchronization and missing tracks to which the company responded by promising to look into the matter.

In order to achieve customer satisfaction, the company devised various methods which would enable it have close connection to its customers as possible. Among the methods was conducting online surveys which enabled the company to know the opinions of its customers and areas which needed to be revisited or improved in regard to the services (Vernuccio &Ceccotti, 2015, p.438). Also, the company devised a very active customer support where any issues to do with consumer complaints would be attended to fast and professionally as possible. Through this diversified customer interaction, the company was in a position to gather customer views and reactions which enabled it to provide quality services. For instance, the complains on user interface triggered the company to come up with an Apple Music app that contained well elaborate tabs like “Library” which showed the users music collection and options to navigate by “playlists”, “Artists”, “Albums”, “Songs” or “Downloaded  music”. As advocated by Kotler and Keller’s, this integrated marketing approach enabled the company to deliver value to its consumers (Johansson, Christiernin & Pejryd, 2016, p.665).

As the company continued to expand, it started to hire its employees through public advertisements and without discrimination on any basis. It could also held employee training regularly to ensure that its employees were well equipped and in line with its market oriented approach. Specifically, the workers dealing with customers like in the customer care unit were well equipped to handle the company consumers in a professional manner (Hanson, Puplampu & Shaw, 2017, p.157). The company could reward the best performing employees on a yearly basis which made everyone in the company to embrace the appropriate marketing principles of the company willingly.

Considering the decision of the company to allow the new subscribers to enjoy free three months trial and also its decision after the Swift’s open letter to the public, the company demonstrated a clear understanding of both the financial and nonfinancial returns to its future success (Rakic &Rakic, 2015). The management had gone beyond the sales revenue to examine its marketing scorecard by allowing free three months free trial to the new subscribers who were able to experience the company services during the period and later on became loyal to the services of the company. On the side of the suppliers, sacrificing the company resources to pay them despite of the service being free on the side of consumers saved the company reputation highly and as a result, the company gained popularity at an alarming rate to pass the milestone of ten million subscribers within its six months of operation. A milestone which took its competing company in music streaming, Spotify, six good years. Therefore from the discussion, it is clear that Apple Music Company can be described as a holistic marketing organization (Rakic &Rakic, 2015).

Factors in the Global Environment

One of the main of objectives of the Apple Music Company is to become a global organization and to be serving all the countries worldwide. Looking at the objective, it is clear that the objective will expand the organizations market. However, there are a number of factors which are likely to operate against the progress of this company in the global business environment (Hanson, Puplampu & Shaw, 2017, p.160). To begin with, the aspect of culture as it expands globally with pose a great challenge to this company because much of its music comprises of the international genres which may not be embraced locally compared to how they have been embraced internationally.

For instance, a country like Somalia where the illiteracy level is very high compared to other countries, embracing the genres under the Apple Music’s ITunes and which are commonly English genres will be not an easy task. In other countries, although the illiteracy aspect may not be a big issue, the attitude towards foreign genres will definitely make it hard to embrace the services offered by the company. A good example under this category is Uganda where the communities there have kept their culture intact to an extent that they can only embrace music from their local musicians compared to foreign music.

Most of foreign music videos are performed by characters in styles and appearances which may not be embraced in many of the traditional cultures. Women in most of cultures are taken as special beings whose body parts are not supposed to be exposed publicly and openly and when it happens, they are branded as immoral. This is not the case however in many of the European nations and other developed countries (Rakic &Rakic, 2015). Therefore, considering that most of the genres which have been incorporated in Apple Music’s iTunes are mostly from the European countries and other developed countries, most of their videos have been performed by half-naked women and others whose attires largely expose their body parts publicly. The probability of these genres being embraced in many third world countries is minimal because they will be perceived as immorality oriented.

Secondly, the technology challenge is likely to face the company especially in third world countries where population of those who own mobile phones is low compared to developed countries. Again in most of third world countries, the types of mobile phones owned by majority of people are not capable of accessing the services offered by this music company (Hanson, Puplampu & Shaw, 2017, p.166). Those with phones which can’t access the internet won’t be part of the company’s market since to access the services of the company like the iTunes, connectivity of the device to the internet is very crucial. Considerably, there are those who may have mobile phones with the ability to access the internet but can’t support the version of most video services by the Apple Music. Again, the category would be isolated because of their devices which are still using the old technology (Rakic &Rakic, 2015).

Just on the technological aspect, in most third world countries the internet connectivity has not attained the reliable level. Most of the citizens are still struggling with low internet connectivity speeds which will definitely make it hard for them to access the Apple Music Company’s services. This will be a challenge because most of them may end up exhausting the three months free trial given by the company before fully experiencing the services of this company and fail to subscribe (Rakic &Rakic, 2015).

Lastly, the legislative aspect in different countries is also likely to have great impacts on the company as it widens its market coverability. Every company wishes to operate under favorable climates which enables the organization attain its goals as an organization. However, some of the regulations put in place by different countries in order to control the economic structure may not favor the company. For instance, with an aim of promoting the local artists, strict regulations have been implemented by different governments to prevent easy entrance of foreign genres (Rakic &Rakic, 2015).

One of the approaches used in this case is heavily taxing the organizations which deal with foreign genres. Apple Music Company can be classified as one of those organizations dealing with foreign genres and therefore will be on the receiving end. Such legislatives measures combined with other drawbacks like culture and technological aspects will make it very hard for this company to meet its operational costs which are the foundation of any business in progress (Hanson, Puplampu & Shaw, 2017, p.162).

Strategic Marketing

With the expansion of Apple Music Company into different markets overseas, it has kept its growth phase just like it has been the case in its domestic market. The trend has not just emerged out of blues but because of its strategies in marketing. Among many markets the company has launched its services, in Nigeria the company has been recorded a higher rate of growth compared to the other countries in Africa with services of the company like Ghana and Botswana. One of the approaches the company has used to capture the attention of its consumers is the segmentation of the market.

Apple Music Company has launched several new plans with an aim of boosting subscription to its music streaming services and ensuring favorably competition with its main competitor in the country, Simfy Africa. It has introduced an Apple Music student subscription plan enabling the subscribers, those enrolled in eligible colleges and universities enjoy a discount of 50% for the service. This is one of the calculated moves made by this company to win the market against Simfy Africa which lacks such like offers. In addition, youths are the main consumers of music services and therefore, its decision of capturing their loyalty has been the main reason behind its high growth rate within the country (Rakic &Rakic, 2015).

The launch of this plan meant that where the individual membership plan to Apple Music was $9.99 monthly, student membership would be $4.99 monthly instead. Considerably, this is cheaper and has attracted more subscribers. It is an option that the company has not only implemented in this market but also in other countries where it has recently entered their markets like Israel, Botswana, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland and Australia (Rakic &Rakic, 2015).

In Nigeria, the membership tier became available immediately on its entrance into the market with both the new subscribers and the existing subscribers either signing up or changing their membership plans from the company website or its mobile applications for Android and iOS. The discount was to be enjoyed for up to 4 years after the sign-up, and not a must that those years had to be continuous (Felix, Rauschnabel &Hinsch, 2017, p.120). This was to imply that the students could take some breaks between semesters and still sign up for the membership on resuming their studies. In addition, those under Master’s program were also allowed to sign up for this membership plan because it targeted all those who were attending colleges and universities regardless of the level of studies.

Just as its normal with new markets, the company has of course been afflicted with complaints about its mixed-up and unintuitive iTunes user interface but through its customer expertise it has been able to restore its reputation by assuring the consumers to deal with the complains wherever they arise. Some of the glitches it faced were associated with its services causing songs to disappear from the user’s hard drives, which the company management respondent quickly and assured the consumers of restoring it (Felix, Rauschnabel &Hinsch, 2017, p.127). Due to their fast responses on such like complains, the company growth rate has not been impacted largely because it has continually reported high expansion rate of user subscription than its close competitor Simfy Africa. Recently, its subscription has been reported at 4 million subscribers, up from 2.5 million in January this year.

The company’s competitive pricing approach has been associated with its fast growth rate. While it’s individual membership plan at par-for-the-course is $9.99 monthly, its Family Plan, and which allows a maximum of 6 people to stream is $14.99 monthly making it more affordable option on the market compared to its main competitor which can only allow 2 users to share a plan. Such and other membership plans have had similar impacts on the subscription growth rate considering the fact that most of the students are budget conscious and definitely prefer services which comfortably suite their financial ability (Felix, Rauschnabel &Hinsch, 2017, p.138). For instance, when the Family plan was launched, the subscription rate grew by 40% because most of the students could form groups of 6 and contribute towards the plan. This was considered as the best deal of the year as many students and who are the main consumers of music services reported their high satisfaction and gratitude through the company twitter platform.

Compared to its main competitor in Nigerian market Simfy Africa, Apple Music has provided the users with best deals ever. For example, Simfy Africa streaming services are given to its new users freely for only two weeks while in the case of Apple Music they are allowed for full two months (Choi, KO, Kim &Mattila 2015, p.239). Critically looking at the two companies, they were aiming at winning their customer loyalty but Simfy Africa’s can be considered as a short period of time to be able to allow the users fully test and experience the service for decision making purposes. This is in consideration to the fact that customers have other daily activities to do and may only get 1-2 hours to log in and experience the services. Assuming that other factors like disruptions and connectivity issues play their part in the 1-2 hours period, the users may end up having an experience of less than 24 hours before the subscription expires. This is not enough for users to make sound decisions on the services and may end up not subscribing after the free trial period.

            In regard to Apple Music Company, the new subscribers are given full two months as free trial to enjoy the streaming services. This has attracted many subscribers because they are assured of experiencing the service adequately before the free trial period expires. Two months are logically enough for a new user to make decision on whether to subscribe or not, first considering the commitment of users to their daily activities and allocating them a maximum of 1-2 hours of experiencing the service, before the two months free subscription expires they will have more than 100 hours of experience with the service and can clearly identify the faults and strong edges of the service for sound decision making (Choi, KO, Kim &Mattila 2015, p.243).

            The other sector where the company has played its cards wisely is on the introduction of student subscription plan. The reason why this can be considered as a wise decision it’s because students are the major consumers of the music services and winning them will definitely translate to winning the entire market (Choi, KO, Kim &Mattila 2015, p.252). Apart from introducing the plan, it also attached a discount of 50% which would be enjoyed for full four years which were not subject to continuity by time. So the transition has been considerably favorable for the main consumers because after the first two months of free trial, entering the payment plan would be accompanied by another package of discount making it cheaper than any other provider in the market. As a result, many young people have been enticed into the company’s streaming services than any other music streaming company in the market.

            As another marketing strategy, Apple Music was aware that not all people are music oriented and for that matter, limiting itself on music streaming would scare away some of their potential customers. They introduced TV shows and Movies to cater for those who may be favored by these two (Choi, KO, Kim &Mattila 2015, p.260). This was another competitive advantage over their main competitors, Simfy Africa who only offered music streaming services. This saw the company attract more subscribers from ORIN Company which had similar services but without any offers as far as user subscriptions were concerned.

            The implementation of iTunes Match service was another great milestone by the company in capturing the local artists in the market. ITunes Match was launched as part of company’s iCloud suite of web-based services. Through the service local artists were able to upload their entire collection of music genres into iCloud Music Library from where they could share their music with different devices provided that they used same Apple ID and that could access their iCloud account (Choi, KO, Kim &Mattila 2015, p.235). This service saw the company start being appreciated in the domestic market further since local genres could be accessed through the company’s streaming services. For those who wished to receive global news, the company incorporated Radio service on its initial streaming service which could be accessed through different membership plans just like the music service. This was another new milestone attracting new subscriptions especially for those working abroad when on holidays in Nigeria and would wish to know the current progress in their working environments.

Recommendations

The cultural aspect in different countries has been identified to be among the major challenges facing the Apple Music in the global business environment. This is because most of the citizens especially in third world countries are so much into their traditional cultures to an extent that appreciating foreign genres is a taboo (Choi, KO, Kim &Mattila 2015, p.265). This can be an obstacle to the company’s potential customers and therefore to bridge the gap, the company should consider incorporating local genres into their music list. This will widen its market because those confiscated by their cultural beliefs will have a chance of accessing the platform and subscribing specifically to listen to the local genres.

Making thorough research to gain the understanding of new markets will also be of much help because through it, the company can be able to filter the kind of genres to fit the consumers in the country. For instance, in countries with rigid cultures on female gender exposure, some of the genres which have been performed by characters dressed half naked can be factored out to protect the company’s reputation on those markets. Additionally, there are some genres which are more embraced in certain countries than others, for instance country music preferred than hip hops. For this case, more of those genres which are appreciated should be given the first priorities than the less preferred ones (Choi, KO, Kim &Mattila 2015, p.261).

The legislative aspect in different countries was also identified as a major challenge faced by the company in the global market. However, the main reason behind most of the strict legislative measures put in place by the governments aimed at protecting the local artists. To avoid these restrictions, the company should consider supporting the local artists into its streaming services and through the approach will comfortably bargain for less strict legislatives which will enable it to compete favorably with the local companies.

Conclusion

            Conclusively, the paper has scrutinized the approaches towards global Holistic market and proved that the approach is worthy to be embraced. Using the Apple Music company as the case study, its approaches in line with the global holistic market have enabled it to have competitive advantage over other companies providing the same services. Additionally, the approach has enabled the company grow at fast rates even under new global markets as it has been seen in the Nigerian market where it took over the market shortly after being launched and bypassed the veterans of music streaming industry like Simfy Africa and ORIN . This is therefore an encouragement for all the other companies struggling with marketing strategies, holistic marketing is the deal.

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