Marketing Management Case: Polyphonic HMI Strategy & Analysis

This assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of the Polyphonic HMI case study, focusing on marketing management principles. It includes a detailed consumer, competitor, and company analysis for potential target markets such as artists, record companies, and producers, culminating in the selection of the two strongest target markets and justification for that selection. The assignment also develops positioning statements for each target market and explores branding strategies, including laddering up to enhance brand equity. Furthermore, it outlines pricing and channel decisions, supported by quantitative reasoning, and proposes promotional tactics to increase sales and brand equity. The solution emphasizes practical application of marketing concepts to drive growth and customer loyalty. Desklib offers this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

Running Head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT 1
Marketing Management
Names
Institution

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Part A: Strategy and Positioning
For each potential target market (Artists, Record Companies, and Producers) do a
consumer, competitor, and company analysis. (20 points)
The demand for becoming successful in the music industry has been increasing, with
every player: artist, producers and record companies striving to ensure they attain a substantial
market share. The Hit song science (HSS), could be valuable in making the three target markets
to realize sustainable success in various aspects. From the three targets, polyphonic would
mainly target the artist because they are the ones who determine the existence of the other two
segments. If there is no artist, it means there is no record companies and also the producers will
have no one to serve. Although targeting recording companies may also be important for HSS,
the company should give the artists the highest priorities.
For HSS, this company may also opt to target record companies because they play they
also they also seek to work with companies which will make them realize growth in their
business. The reason why the company may not give a lot of attention on producers is that some
of the artists are already producers and therefore it means they can be combined to form one
segment.
For the artists segment,
Consumer
The primary reason why polyphonic target this segment is that the growing demand for
companies which can make the consumer to attain full satisfaction has been increasing and
therefore it can make the company to realize sustainable growth. When the demand is too high

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and supply is too low, it implies that there is a gap that need to be filled and this may be a
positive factor to HSS and other companies that operate in that niche.
Competitor
From the case, the music industry is growing with different musicians who wish to have
hit songs continuing to emerge. This means that as companies compete to get more clients, the
artists also compete to make their music to become popular.
Company analysis
From the polyphonic HMI case, every company in this industry seeks to attain reputation
through giving better services to the consumer. Although competition has remained a key
challenge, proper marketing and operational strategies has remained fundamental in enabling the
companies to stand out and retain their consumers.
Record companies
Consumer analysis
Although many companies have emerged to offer music related services, each one of
them is striving to ensure it becomes the most preferred by the customer through making their
songs to hit. For the record companies, HSS will majorly target organizations which seek to
make their clients’ become hit songs through the use of technology.
Competition
According to the polyphonic, recording companies have been competing to make their
services be termed as the best. Some of these companies include BMG entertainment, EMI, Sony
music, Universal Music Group, and warner music group. Analyzing the competitive strength of

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each, it is clear that they are well established and dedicated to ensure the different labels and
publishing companies under their umbrellas are operates attains a competitive advantage. HSS
will be fundamental for making the recording companies to attain competitive advantages
because it will enable them to determine the hit songs.
Company analysis
Based on the polyphonic’s case, record companies have emerged and with the increase in
the number of artists who look for better recording deals, there is a possibility that more will
emerge in the future. Although some of the bigger companies such as BMG entertainment, EMI,
Sony music and warner music have already dominated the market, they still require extensive
marketing of their products to overcome the threat of new entrants.
Producers
Consumer Analysis
Producers have become crucial in the music industry because every artist wishes to have
those who offer the best production services in for their music. Because the services offered
differ, there is a possibility that consumer will shift from one producer to the other.
Competition
Competition for consumers has become stiff as time goes one because every person
wishes to dominate the biggest market share. For the producers, giving high quality services has
remained one of the key factors for winning competition.
Company analysis

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For the music industry, working with independent producers is fundamental, and this
means the companies that deal with recording and other music related services need to work
closely with them in order to attract as many artists as possible. Liaising with people who assist
clients in various ways plays a key role in making an organization to succeed in a particular
market.
Create a positioning statement for three potential targets (Artists, Record Companies, and
Producers). (15 points)
For HSS to thrive in the potential targets, it is fundamental to come up with positioning
statements that will make the company to remain committed to providing the best services, and
also to attract as many customers as possible. For the artists, the positioning statement will be,
“dedicated to enabling the consumers realize the value for their money through ensuring top
notch beat and sound.” For the record companies, it will be “premier in delivering value to all
stakeholders,” and finally for the producers, it shall be “the leader in creating positive
relationship between producers and artists.”
Choose the two targets you think have the strongest business case and briefly explain
why. Your choice should be based in part on your analysis from questions 1 and 2 (5 points)
For the three target markets, producers and record companies are the most important
targets for HSS because they are the ones who mostly determine whether the music will be a hit
song or not. By being the highest determinants, it means they will be the in need of this
technology and therefore it will make the company to realize a sustainable growth.

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Part B: Branding
Design branding for the two target markets. Explain to Mike McCready and company
how they might “ladder up”. (10 points)
For the case of HSS, proper will enable it will enable its targets to different its services
from those of its competitors. For producers, it is good to brand them depending on the role they
play. For example, it can be branded as general producers, the engineers, the mentor, the
musician, the artist, the golden ticket, and so forth. For the record companies, it is good to brand
depending on their sizes. For example, they can be branded as majors, mini-majors and
independents.
This type of branding will aid in laddering up because the criteria used can enable
polyphonic to serve every segment to satisfaction. It will play a crucial role in assisting the
company to identify the need of every segment and come up with better ways of serving it to
satisfaction. Mike Mccready and company should understand that this type of branding will
make the company to employ similar marketing strategies in all targets because the criteria is the
same: branding based on the type of music or services offered.

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For polyphonic, the laddering up will start from defining the product features, then
delivering functional benefits, emotional benefits, the brand essence, and finally meeting the
customer needs.
Brand equity
For HSS, reputation will be one of the key factors that will deliver intagible value to the
company. The company will ensure the producers get high quality services that will make their
services to sell out and also to make the music they produce to become hit songs. For the
recording companies, it will strive to ensure its services enables them to realize sustainable
growth through recording as many hit songs as possible.
Brand extension
MEET
CUSTOMER
GOAL
Functional
benefits
Emotional
benefits
Brand Essence
Meet customer
Needs

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As time goes on, polyphonic will introduce other music development services such as
video recording and directing. To enable audio and video recording to be oustanding, it shall
consider using high quality equipment which will make the producers to realize high levels of
satisfaction, and the record companies to attain sustainable growth.
Vertical extension
Apart from high quality services which requires high prices, this company will come up
low quality related services which will cater for the producers and record companies who cannot
affort the cost for premium services. This strategy will play a key role in ensuring the company
attracts clients of different levels of income.
Line extension
As time goes on, the company will innovate other music related products such as
different varieties of instruments. This will enable it to fiversify and attract large market share. It
will also assist HSS to compete in wider range of products.
Co-Branding
After attaining a substantial market share, the polyphonic’s marketing team will team up
with other companies which offer music related products or services such as organizations which
train artists, and also other organizations which deal with other music related aspects
Whether or not you think, laddering up is a good idea, explain how the laddering process
for each brand could enhance the company’s positioning. (5 points)
Laddering is a good idea for the positioning because it will assist the polyphonic’s
management to drive growth and loyalty through striving to elevate the benefits of the services it

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offers to its target markets. It will also assist the HSS marketers to increase the services from
technical, to functional and finally to emotional. Additionally, it will also aid it communicating
the benefits of its services to the consumers based on the type of music which the artist deal with,
or based on the size of the recording company. Laddering will also enable polyphonic to enhance
the picture which the consumers hold concerning its HSS services, and this will play a role in the
determining the success of its positioning strategy.
Part C: Tactics
For your two target markets make pricing and channels decisions. Provide quantitative
support where appropriate. (20 points)
Pricing will play a key role in polyphonic’s consumer buying behavior because they like
purchasing from organizations which strive to make them realize the value for their money. For
this company to attain success, it should adopt a pricing strategy depending on the quality of
services which it provides, and also depending on how it positions itself in the market. For
instance, if it positions itself as premier, it should ensure the prices are higher than those of its
competitors, and the quality of services are also outstanding.
To enable customer participation, polyphonic should use internet as one of the marketing
channels because it will enable Producers and record companies to make channel decisions. It
can also enable the producers and the record companies to link with each other and also access
the HSS irrespective of their geographical locations. The use of online channel will also entail
the use of e-commerce to enable the producers and record companies to transfer music while in
different geographical locations.

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For your two targets describe promotions that you would use to enhance brand equity
and/or increase sales? (10 points)
Promotions will play a key role in assisting polyphonic to attract customer loyalty. For
the two targets: producers and record companies, one of the promotions that I would use is
discounts. This will include reducing the basic prices for the HSS services. Using this strategy
will lead to sale increase because consumers like purchasing from organizations where they
attain much for less prices. I will also use personal selling as one of the methods of promotions
to link with the targets. This strategy include personal contact between the company
representative and those who make purchase decisions. For the polyphonic’s case, the people
who make purchase decision will be producers and record companies.
The criteria that will be used for discounts will be based on the quantity or the money
spend using the following strategy.
Amount spend – (X/100* amount spend)
In this case, amount spend will be the total amount of money which the consumer pay for
the product/services,
X represents the discount percentage, and in this case it will be 10 percent for the
premium packages and 5 percent for the other packages.
An example of calculating discount for the premium package will be:
5000 AED- (10/100*5000) =4500 AED
This means that for a product that should cost 5000 AED, the consumer will get a
discount of 500 AED and get it at 4500 AED

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For your two targets, how would you test and evaluate the success of your proposed
tactics? (10 points)
Some of the strategies that I would use to test and evaluate the success of my proposed
tactics include setting up marketing metrics identify the sales numbers, return on investment, and
the nature of customer response. I would also measure the level of market expansion to identify
if the tactics have enabled the company to attain a bigger share. Marketing matric will play a key
role in enabling polyphonic to identify marketing achievements through evaluating the revenue
attained, cost per lead, landing page conversion rates, the customer lifetime value and so forth.
Evaluating the success of established tactics will assist the HSS marketers to identify the
effectiveness of their strategies. To attain accurate results on the success of my tactics, I will also
use KPI (key performance indicator) technic in order to attain quantitative information
concerning how the tactics will have performed. Some of the key factors that will be considered
in the KPI will include the level of market share attained, customer satisfaction, the amount of
revenue attained since the implementation of this tactics and the level of competitive advantage
which the company would have attained.

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