Marketing Strategies Analysis for the Edmonton Folk Music Festival

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of event marketing strategies, focusing on the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. It begins with an introduction to event marketing and its increasing importance, followed by a description of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, an annual four-day outdoor music event. The report then delves into a detailed target market profile, utilizing demographic, psychographic, and geographic segmentation to identify the event's audience. A thorough SWOT analysis is conducted to assess the event's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report proposes specific marketing objectives, including increasing event awareness and expanding the event portfolio with folk dance events. Finally, it outlines a detailed marketing mix, including product, price, place, and promotion strategies, to achieve the stated objectives. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and recommendations for enhancing the festival's marketing effectiveness.

Running head: EVENT MARKETING
Event Marketing
4/3/2019

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Introduction
In the present scenario, the numbers of events are increasing which needs effective marketing
strategies. The event marketing refers to as the promotion of the product, brand or services
through in-person interactions (Chernev, 2018). In the present era, there are different forms of
event marketing and such event catered to acknowledge the specific goals linked to the marketers
(David, 2011). The aim of the report is to conduct the research, interpretation the information as
well as to apply the appropriate event marketing strategies based on the Edmonton folk music
festival. The report will not include what the event already doing but it majorly focuses on new
strategies for the event. The marketing concepts, which are majorly used for the interpretation,
include target market, SWOT analysis, marketing objectives, as well as marketing mix.

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About event
Edmonton folk music festival is an annual four-day outdoor music event that is held on every
second weekend of August in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada that was established in 1980 by Don
Whalen (10 Times, 2019). The festival continues with the motive to draw many people across
the world that includes both the performers as well as the spectators. This has been found that
this event has hosted musicians for the six continents that majorly include Cuba, Mexico, Brazil,
South Africa, China, and India. The people can get involved in the event by simply attending and
enjoying the music for which they can take a more active role by volunteering (Edmonton folk
Festival, 2019a).

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Target Market Profile
The target market includes the group of customers that are serviceable in the market with the aim
of its marketing efforts as well as resources. The target market is decided by the event after
decided the appropriate segments (Frynas and Mellahi, 2015). The segmentation is done before
targeting the audience for the event. The target profiling is done with the effective use of
demographic, psychographics as well as geographic profiling (Grant, 2016).
Market segmentation Attitudes
Demographic segmentation Demographic segmentation is the market
segmentation in which the market is segmented
based on age, race, religion, income and many
other factors.
Psychographics segmentation In this, the market is segmented based on
beliefs, values, lifestyle, and many others.
Geographic segmentation The geographic segmentation includes a
segment that is on the bases of the particular
area, region, and many others.
Considering the above segmentation available, the event generally makes use of the multi-
segment targeting strategy that helps in targeting the maximum audience for the event. This
segmentation is classified which are clearly mentioned in target segment profiling.

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Target market profile Description
Demographic segmentation
Age The event targets people generally at the age of 18-25
years, 25 years and more are also welcomed.
Gender Both male and female are targeted by event
Income Middle and high-income group
Occupation Majorly singers, musicians, bachelors, professionals, and
other voluntary participation
Psychographics segmentation
Lifestyle Most of the artist and people who value the music maintain
the lifestyle and appraise such events are majorly targeted.
Interests The event targets humans who have an interest in attending
music events.
Geographic segmentation
Area The event targets the customers from the different areas,
which majorly include Canada and other six continents
from where they get the musicians as well as the audience.
S.W.O.T. Analysis
It is essential to undertake the SWOT analysis, which is one of the marketing concepts as it,
supports in determining the internal strength and weaknesses with the external opportunities and
threats that are associated with the event (Sarsby, 2016).

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Strengths
 International presence: - One of the major strengths of the event is that it has an
international presence in the market. This has been found that the event is hosted at the
Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, China, and India that shows that it is not limited to
one location but it is extended (Edmonton folk Festival, 2019e). The event is outdoor
music that allows the participation by the different musicians who want to display their
talent in front of the audience. Thus, this strength provides the platform to the participants
to display their talent in front of numerous audiences.
 Voluntary contribution: - Volunteering is one of the effective ways to assist and
contribute to the festival that is the strength of the event. The volunteers of the event
share a passion for the festival as well as folk music. It is believed that the voluntary in
the event continuously inspire the growth and engagement of a thriving community
which we sometimes refer to as our Festival family (Edmonton folk Festival, 2019b).
This is evident that voluntary contribution works as an add-on to the value in the event.
 Forever-Folk Fest: - In every event, there is a need for funding which helps in achieving
the success and this is one of the strengths of this event. Edmonton Folk Music Festival
Society Fund is an essential part of the event that shows the long-term financial stability
plan (Edmonton folk Festival, 2019d). This funding of the event allows maintaining the
prices of tickets easily accessible for all the patrons at the time of increasing costs
majorly for world-calibre artists. This is evidence that the festival is able to receive a
yearly income of 3.5% every year (Edmonton folk Festival, 2019c). This helps in
achieving the marketing goal that is linked with the event.

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Weaknesses
 Employee training: - Training of the employees is one of the weaknesses that are linked
with the event. The event takes place every second weekend of August which means it
occurs once in a year. Thus, this is considered as one of the events, which required the
effective, but somewhere the lack of planning due to employees might affect the event
success.
 Lack of resources: - The lack of resources is one of the weaknesses of the event due to
which the event might get affected. The event needs a huge place where a numerous
number of people appear which include some as the participants and some audience. This
is evidence that the list of performers is prepared by the company according to which the
audience visits the event. Thus, the high number of visitors affects the management of the
event which might occurs due to a lack of appropriate resources that can be employees,
voluntary people, and many others.
Opportunities
 Widespread Operations: - The event has opportunities to spread awareness across the
world by increasing hosting places and increasing number of performers in the event. The
responsible department can increase awareness regarding the event by organizing the
Edmonton folk music festival in different countries and locations that could also lead to
increased sales and number of followers for the event. According to the reports, the event
invites musicians from the six continents that majorly include Cuba, Mexico, Brazil,
South Africa, China, and India (Edmonton folk Festival, 2019e). Considering this, the
management can organize the event in these countries

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 Promotion of event: - Increasing the intensity of the promotion help business in
increasing brand awareness, customer traffic, building profits, and sales, reinforce the
focus on marketing (Belch and Belch, 2009). The marketing department of the Edmonton
folk music festival needs to increase the intensity of its promotion at the international
level in order to increase customer traffic and awareness. Besides this, it will support it in
attracting different talented music artist to perform at the event. The promotional tools
that could be adopted for the marketing of the event are digital marketing, personal
selling, public relations, etc.
Threats
 Other events – One of the major threat for the Edmonton folk music festival are other
famous events like Bill Lynch Show, Boots and Hearts Music Festival, Cavendish Beach
Music Festival, etc. that are raising the intensity of competition in Canada. These events
are celebrated at an international level and possess high customer traffic.
 Government Regulations – The government regulations of the country has a major
influence on the successful operation of events. The regulations regarding environmental
protection and legal protection rights have a major influence on the smooth continuation
of the event.
Marketing Objectives
The marketing objective of Edmonton folk music festival is to include more events such as the
Folk Dance event. The Edmonton folk music will be reintroduced as the folk music and dance
event that will majorly target music and dance lovers at an international level. The organizers of
the event will invite different well-known artists with expertise in dance and music from

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different countries like India, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, China, Spain, Philippines,
Japan, and Irish. Adopting this objective will help the owners in increasing the number of
followers and customers along with increase profit margin.
Increasing Event Awareness is another marketing objective for the Edmonton folk music
festival. Since it will result in increasing the customer traffic at the event and improving the
image of the event at the international level. The awareness regarding the event can be increased
by adopting effective means of promotional tools like digital marketing, personal selling, public
relations, etc. Besides this, the awareness of the event can also be increased by adding more
events to the festival.
Marketing Mix
Product
The marketing objective of increasing the awareness of the event could be attained by adding
more events into the entire portfolio. The festival includes events for folk music, but to increase
the awareness the management Edmonton folk music festival of the festival can plan to add folk
dance events too in order to have increased number of customers and artists across the world,
which will eventually support in increasing the awareness. Besides this, the objective of adding
the number of events into the festival requires hiring employees in the management team, wide-
spread area for organizing the festival.
Price
The marketing objective of increasing festival awareness will result in increased business cost
because it will incorporate different promotional tools. Besides this, the marketing objective of

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adding more events in the portfolio of the festival will also increase the cost of the business,
which will be balanced by increasing the ticket cost for the customers.
Place
The marketing objective of increasing event awareness, the festival has to be introduced and
conducted in different countries like India, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, China, Spain,
Philippines, Japan, and Irish. By introducing the festival at these locations, the management will
be able to grab the knowledge regarding different competitive events and famous arts present in
different nations (Shenkar, Luo & Chi, 2014). This will also support in attaining the marketing
objective of adding more events in the portfolio of the festival.
Promotion
The promotional tools that can be adopted by the management of the festival to increase the
awareness regarding the festival and added an event into the portfolio are:
Digital Marketing – Under this the festival can be promoted at different social media sites using
the internet (Dodson, 2016). In addition to this, a website can also be created with the help IT
team to inform the visitors regarding the event more clearly.
Advertising – The festival can be promoted by advertising events on television, radio,
pamphlets, billboards, and hoardings.
Physical Evidence
The physical evidence that will be used to entice customers is pamphlets, well-trained staff that
will directly deal with the customers and an attractive website.

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Conclusion
The above report has provided a brief analysis of the Edmonton folk music festival that is
organized from which is organized in Canada for four days. From the above analysis, it has been
identified that the event has an international presence but is not able to manage effective
promotional strategies which leads to a minimum number of visitors to the festival. Hence, the
report has presented two marketing objectives for the festival i.e. adding more events into the
festival like folk dance events and increasing the festival awareness. From the analysis, it has
been analyzed that the element ‘promotion' of marketing mix will be the best suit for the festival
owners as it will support them in increasing the awareness regarding the existing festival and
also can support in increasing customer traffic on the added events in the festivals.

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References
Edmonton folk Festival. (2019a). Apply to Volunter. Retrieved from
https://edmontonfolkfest.org/volunteers/volunteer/
10 Times. (2019). Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Retrieved from https://10times.com/folk-
music-festival
Belch, G.E., and Belch, M.A. (2009). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing
Communications Perspective 8th ed. U.S: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Chernev, A. (2018). Strategic marketing management 2nd ed. Chicago:Cerebellum Press.
David, F.R. (2011). Strategic management: Concepts and cases 1st ed. India: Pearson/Prentice
Hall.
Dodson, I. (2016). The Art of Digital Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Creating Strategic,
Targeted, and Measurable Online Campaigns 1st ed. .
Edmonton folk Festival. (2019b). Current Volunteer. Retrieved from
https://edmontonfolkfest.org/volunteers/current-volunteers/
Edmonton folk Festival. (2019c). Forever Folk Fest. Retrieved from
https://edmontonfolkfest.org/about-us/endowment-fund/
Edmonton folk Festival. (2019d). Ticket information. Retrieved from
https://edmontonfolkfest.org/festival-info/ticket-info/

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Edmonton folk Festival. (2019e). About us. Retrieved from https://edmontonfolkfest.org/about-
us/
Frynas, J.G. and Mellahi, K. (2015). Global strategic management 3rd ed. USA: Oxford
University Press.
Grant, R.M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. New Jersey: John
Wiley & Sons.
Sarsby, A. (2016). SWOT Analysis 1st ed. U.S: Lulu.
Shenkar, O., Luo, Y., & Chi, T. (2014). International Business 3rd ed. U.S: Routledge.