Understanding how PR works!

The main types of research that is conducted by a company or brand when trying to market a product is primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative data research. Primary research involves gathering and collecting new data directly from the source, making it reliable information that supports your secondary research. Primary research is based on consumer’s thoughts and opinions by using surveys, questioners or interviews on a particular focus group. Secondary research can collected easily as it is data already been produced. The main resource to collect the data from is by researching from the Internet, data agencies, newspapers and reports. It is important to conduct market research to discover whether any existing products and competitors, plus to identify the key requirements and preferences of the potential consumers in the market.

Using the music artists One Direction boy band brand as an example, I would conduct primary and secondary research. For my research, I would collect my research directly from the audience by using surveys and questionnaires finding out what people’s views are about the band and how many people listen to them, by doing this I will obtain qualitative and quantitative research as well. Additionally, for my secondary research, I would use data agencies to find out profits and views, plus how they achieved them. By doing this will help me learn about the treats towards the brand plus will allow me to analyze the data.

Understanding clients and their requirements

One Direction consists of five music artists represented as a brand that’s main requirement was to produce music for millions of fans and to claim success in the UK then internationally. The band have done this by releasing successful singles and albums, plus actively communicating with their fans on social media sites. One Direction promote their music through live appearances on several talk shows notably on Celebrity Juice, The X Factor and The Today Show, also with online and print advertisements plus by sponsoring other products using themselves as celebrity endorsement. An example of this was when the group was releasing the single “Live While Were Young” they featured in a Pepsi television advertisement in the US which was broadcasted on the Fox Network.

These are all powerful marketing techniques that would be seen by a range of different audiences of all ages. Using the band as celebrity endorsement spreads the message that drinking Pepsi is ‘cool’ and t that it is trendy and youthful, creating a generic connotation. At the same time, the commercial will promote their single to youths. As a result, One Direction have charted number one in almost every country around the world selling over a million copies of their album within its first week being released.

Understanding markets

My chosen brand belongs to the entertainment market; I recognize this as One Direction is owned by the music label Columbia Records, and previously by Syco Music Records.

SWOT – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats

Strength

The success of One Direction had made a global impact and had successful advertising techniques, they have sold over eight million singles, three million albums and one million DVD’s. This made them the second most successful music artists before Elton John in 1997. In 2012, the CEO of Sony Music Entertainment stated that One Direction represent a $100 million business empire. Not only did they increase the competition in the music industry, but also changed the face of bands forever.

One Direction have also received several awards due to their music and films, including two BRIT Awards, three NME awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, plus a shocking nineteen Teens’ Choice Awards.

Weaknesses

The iconic and successful boy band is always being heavily monitored in the media, invading their personal lives, commonly their relationships, in which could reflect on their sales in the future. Evidence of this is in 2012, Harry Styles, a member from the band started a relationship with Xtra Factor presenter Caroline Flack, which triggered international controversy and criticism due to their 15 year age gap. There has also been recent rumors that Styles hinted he could be bisexual in an interview.

One Direction’s audience is mainly millions of young female teenagers, with these accusations of Styles being publicized over the media could damage the look and reputation of the band. Many young ‘directioners’ could stop buying and listening to their music and purchasing merchandise, due to them not having the idea of the ‘single boy next door’ in which the fans can fantasize over as a form of ‘escapism’.

Opportunities

As the band has a very successful marketing and advertising team, I don’t believe there are many other marketing opportunities, as they have a very successful and well-known brand that has been marketed on several other products such as perfume and beauty products. However, they could branch out even further creating a clothing line, charity, social media site, or even a reality show

Threats

For One Directions competition and threats in the industry have been very slim for the past few years due to how successful they are and their strong, secure fandom, however there have been many up and coming bands also with strong supportive fanbases, which are also starting to come under the spotlight such as 5 Seconds of Summer, Union J and The Vamps. None of these bands have as much international success as One Direction, but if they are marketed similarly to how One Direction is, the other bands could pose as a threat in the future. In my opinion I believe this will unlikely be the case as One Direction is highly respected with a dedicated fanbase to support them, also including several awards under their belts.

Profiling

One Direction has a very cute, British, and friendly image. This was first created on the talent show X Factor when Simon Cowell grouped them together and managed them, deciding how they should act, dress, and what songs to sing. Though after leaving the show, they stuck with the similar friendly image, but more mature and follow their own styles, which occasionally match. Horan commented in an interview about the band stating

Horan commented on One Direction as a boy band, "People think that a boy band is about being dressed in all one color and We're boys in a band. We're trying to do something different from what people would think is the typical kind of boy band. We're trying to do different kinds of music and we're just trying to be ourselves, not squeaky clean