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Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is basically establishing a relationship with a customer on a more personal level. It can be used with existing or potential customers to generate sales or raise awareness. For a lot of businesses it is the most cost-effective type of marketing. Customers can be targetted with greater accuracy as people who are interested in the event can be sent the information needed. The reasons for using direct marketing can be to increase sales to existing customers, to build customer loyalty, to re-establish lapsed customer relationships and lastly to generate new business gaining more customers.  Direct marketing can include the following -

• e-mail
• through your letterbox
• to your face
• magazines
• text marketing
• leaflet drop outs

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073902327

An example of McFLY direct marketing is shown above, before the tour was announced and most people knew about it, McFLY e-mailed their fans telling them that their was an upcoming tour. Therefore they are clearly not targetting anybody who wouldn't be interested in the event, as they have e-mailed everybody who is currently signed up to their newsletter. Also as I have previously bought McFLY tickets from ticketmaster, they have shown an interest and sent me an e-mail telling me that there is an upcoming tour. This is a good way to get across to the fans, as it is quite personal as it is giving fresh information! 



McFLY fans creating a promotional video for the tour

Looking through videos on youtube I found that McFLY don't actually have an official promotional video for their tour, but as seen as though they have such loyal fans the fans have made them one! This nearly has 4,000 views and basically advertises where the boys are playing the gigs and what dates. This is free advertisement for McFly as they haven't had to pay to have a trailer made, it comes along free with the fans but also holds the same information they would have given if they had one personally made themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z4B297lHcY

Advertising part two!

"Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media" (Bovee,1992,p.7)

Outside of the where the event is held - Somerset house. There is a gigantic flag advertising the event to the public. This is an easy way for the public to then find the location but at the same time gain peoples interest into wanting to attend the event. It is big, bold and eye-catching to the public. The writing advertising the name of the event is all in capitals and bold which grabs the attention into wanting to know more. As I didn't attend the event myself I found this image from Google from somebody who had attended. http://forevertrending.co.uk/london-fashion-weekend

Radio coverage 

Capital FM are a massive radio station with a huge coverage all over the UK. With McFLY having their tour advertised by Capital FM, it is a great way to get the event across to the public. As the event is targeted at teenagers, they tend to listen to the radio a lot, whilst getting ready for school or whilst they are sat at home? Also if their parents are listening to the radio in the car it can reach them then. Radio advertising can reach a wide range of people in a matter of seconds and can be heard 24 hours a day. Capital FM are also linked up on their website so fans of McFLY can purchase tickets. 

http://www.capitalfm.com/events/tickets/mcfly-2012-uk-tour/

Magazine coverage

Weirdly, McFLY haven't really promoted themselves in any magazines, or had much said about them. This is probably because it is a little tour, but one magazine advert I could find was an interview with Harry Judd, a massive deal wasn't made, and his name was only on the right side of the magazine, not really standing out. Although it isn't with the whole band and most of the interview is based on his time on Strictly Come Dancing, at the end they do advertise the tour; saying - Tickets for McFly's 2012 Up Close & Personal tour are on sale now via livenation.co.uk 

http://www.teennowmagazine.co.uk/celebrity-news/532663/mcfly-s-harry-judd-dougie-doesn-t-have-the-strictly-moves

Being a main sponsor for London Fashion Week, Elle magazine have also advertised the event, letting the audience know the dates and also where to buy tickets from. They also advertise on their website that An added bonus for ELLE readers is the chance to get one ticket half price when one is purchased at full price. Simply quote ELLETREAT when booking. Tickets can be bought for any session on any day. This is easy advertisement for London Fashion Week, as Elle have the same target audience so they are easily getting across to the right people!

 http://www.elleuk.com/londonfashionweekend

Exclusive backstage footage from the Keep Calm and Play Louder Tour...

McFLY have recently updated on their website that they will be holding exclusive backstage footage from the tour if people cannot make any of the dates. Although this is a good idea as fans will be able to see all of the shows - it does not come completely free. Fans are asked to sign up to the super city website (which looks like it is going to cost nothing) but once they have registered, there is another part with a £6 monthly fee and £40 yearly fee. So although fans are not paying to go to the show, they are still having to pay to watch it online!

Marketing communications and objectives

Marketing communications is a subject which has become popular...There are those who prefer to confine marketing communications to promotional activities, which is mostly an academic point of view, and there are those who see the subject in broader terms, embracing every form of communication used in marketing, which is how the subject is practised in the business world.

Jefkins (1991)

A simple classification of the marketing communications mix

DeLozier (1974) and Kotler et al. (1999)

Schramms communication model

Encoder - who does the encoding or sends the message

Decoder - who receives the message

Interpreter - person trying to understand, analyse, perceive.

The main use of Schramms model is to break down the sender and receiver and shows communication in a practical way (although it is not a traditional model) it can happen within our self or two different people. Each person acts as both the sender and the receiver and hence using interpretation.

http://communicationtheory.org/osgood-schramm-model-of-communication/

Communication objectives are important to have for every event held, this will depend on how well the event is going to sell - as the event will need to have a certain tactic. Every event needs to be planned beforehand to be successful, therefore developing communication objectives will eventually lead to success! 

McFLY communication objective

I think for every tour that McFLY do their main objective is to attract their loyal fans into buying tour tickets, and also attracting new fans. They have communicated with their fans through social networking websites and the programs that they have recently participated in.Without selling tickets and making profit, there would be no tour dates for fans to go too. McFLY sold most of their tour within the first week, I think the main communication objective is for them to sell their entire tour out and keep their fans happy. 

London Fashion Week communication objective

Where as with London Fashion Week, I think the main communication objective is to give the customers an idea of what they have to offer, by showing them the different packages that can be bought which will then influence them into buying tickets. 

I believe London Fashion Weekend and McFLY tour have completely different communication objectives, McFLY have to have a fan base to do well, where as with London Fashion Weekend it is something that I could see a lot of people wanting to attend, as there are a lot of people interested in fashion it is something that everyone in that target audience would want to experience. With McFLY they have done a lot of tours since they started out in 2004, therefore a lot of people have already seen them. They have a fan base which will always be there to buy tickets - but they need something new and exciting to make people want to attend the shows. 

Advertising!

Strong Theory of Advertising

According to (Fill 2003) advertising can affect the degrees of change in the attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and behaviours of the audience. The strong theory is able to persuade someone into buying a product that they have never purchased before, this can then lead them into becoming a long term buyer in the future. So when looking at an event the way that it is promoted and advertised will appeal to different people which then may change the people who attend the event. To do this an advertisement can be made relevent to a certain target audience, or the actual celebrities can be portrayed in a different way, this could be an easy way to gain a wider audience range and have a sell out event! Advertising can create an brand image and increase the sales. According to Pickton (2005) we can summarize that advertising is a strong promotional element which works by: 

- Persuading people to buy

- Creating and building brands,

- Differentia ting between brands and

- Increasing sales 

Weak Theory of advertising

 On the other hand the weak theory is the complete opposite; disagreeing it implys that advertising doesn't actually make people purchase a brand or attend an event.The weak theory believes that the strong theory does not reflect on the real world and that a consumers pattern of brand purchases is driven more by habit than advertising.

http://issuesinimc.wikispaces.com/Strong+and+Weak+Theory+of+Advertising

McFly Tour - I believe that McFly have gone for the strong theory approach by advertising themselves more than anything else. All of the four band members have took part in TV programmes recently before the tour has taken place. Harry and Dougie have both won two well known shows - I'm a Celebrity Get Me out of Here and Strictly Come Dancing. Tom and Danny have also taken part in The Cube and Popstar to Operastar. I believe that by going on these TV shows, they have become more recognised and it has created them a wider fan base helping all of their tour dates to sell out.

London Fashion Weekend -I believe London Fashion Weekend use the strong theory of advertising, this is because the way they advertise is made to advertise towards a certain target audience. For example they choose to advertise in magazines such as Vogue and have companies such as TopShop sponsoring them. Without these types of advertisements they wouldn't be able to target a certain audience. In the past they have had celebrities such as Dita Von Teese and Emma Watson, when fans of these celebrities know they are going to be attending events such as these they will make sure that they also attend the event. Therefore London Fashion Weekend have also used the strong theory with celebrity endorsement. On the other hand people who are highly interested in fashion obviously will grow a habit of attending events such as these, so no advertising would be needed for them. London Fashion Weekend will have a strong fan base of people who love shopping and will always attend the event.

Comparing both of these events I can see that their is a lot of similar advertising and that both go along with the strong and weak theory. Although both of these events have chosen to do a lot of seperate advertising, I also believe they have both grown a strong fan base who tend to go back every year wanting more. These are habits that certain people grow, and therefore they will chose to stay loyal to an event.

Social Networking

According to Mintel - Facebook is the number one social network in the UK, with regular usage towering over its nearest competitors including Twitter and Friends Reunited, thanks to its own innovations as well as development by third-party developers that attract users to stay on the service for longer.


Facebook continues to dominate the social networking landscape, with 73% of internet users having ever used it as at March 2011. By comparison, only 21% of internet users have used each of the next most popular social networks in the UK, Twitter and Friends Reunited.


http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=545141

Social networking sites are a good way to promote to all age groups, everybody visits the internet - especially to go on social networking websites as it is an easy and efficent way to stay in contact with friends and family. 

Within both of the events I have chosen to look at; social networking plays a huge part to a lot of the promotions. Throughout the event itself, the band and the sponsors. When typing 'McFLY' into Facebook the first app that actually came up was the McFly tour competition that Ice-Watch are sponsoring. The first page that came up was the offical band one where details about the tour can be found. On the offical facebook page everything on there is to do with the tour, there are different links that can be clicked on the side to do with the sponsors and the official picture is promoting the tour itself.

  

Mcfly also use Twitter as a way of keeping in touch with their fans, they each have an individual twitter account which has been verified which fans are able to tweet to. The boys then have a chance to reply to their fans and re-tweet what they have to say. They are also able to keep them up to date with any tour releases and upcoming things that are happening for the band. This is an easy way of promoting tour dates.

The same happens with London Fashion Weekend, they have a facebook page and a twitter account where they are able to promote the latest offers and dates to the public to see. This is an easy way for people to ask information and get a quick and easy reply, instead of e-mailing or phoning up about the event. 

Sales Promotions

“An activity designed to boost the sales of a product or service. It may include an advertising campaign, increased PR activity, a free-sample campaign, offering free gifts or trading stamps, arranging demonstrations or exhibitions, setting up competitions with attractive prizes, temporary price reductions, door-to-door calling, telemarketing, personal letters on other methods”.

Sales promotion can be directed at:
• The ultimate consumer (a “pull strategy” encouraging purchase)
• The distribution channel (a “push strategy” encouraging the channels to stock the product). This is usually known as “selling into the trade”

Types of sale promotions can include -

• Price promotions
• Coupons
• Gifts with purchases
• Competitions and prizes
•  Money refunds
• Incentives
• POS displays

http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/promotion_sales_promotion.asp

 
When looking at the McFly tour and London Fashion Weekend, the one that stood out with sales promotions the most of the two events would have to be London Fashion Weekend. There were so many different promotions that they were trying to offer to the public especially throughout their website and social networking websites.

With McFLY there are no sales promotions at all for this event, all tickets are priced the same for all ages. As the venues they are playing at are only small, there is no need for different priced tickets depending on the view. There are competitons that can be entered that the sponsorship have set up where fans of McFly are able to win tickets for the concert, meet and greets where they can actually meet the boys and lastly signed t-shirts.

On the other hand, London Fashion Weekend were able to offer different packages which people can purchase which offer a day full of different events. This is known as the corporate hospitality and VIP package. There are only a certain amount of these which are released so when the customer actually has one it makes them feel more special and loyal to the company.

Vodafone are able to offer their own package which is also suitable, and in bold it is made clear that their will be discounted premium brands

London Fashion Weekend also offer many other packages that customers are able to buy before the day of the event. The prices change depending on what the customer actually wants. If they just want a day out where they can go shopping then the price is going to obviously be the cheapest. But if they want everything included in the package then it can be upto nearly £37. If none of these packages appeal to the customers then they can always go with the platinum package where the chambord platinum lounge is offered.On the London Fashion Weekend website there is a link called 'treats' these are the latest prize draws that people are able to enter where they can win products to use on the day of the event. The current draw is that if a ticket is booked between the 20th and 27th January 2012 you are instantly entered into a competiton to win vouchers upto £30 from the shopping line 'Kristina goes West'.

http://www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk/ticket-information/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-Fashion-Weekend/149537531044

When visiting the official Facebook page for London Fashion Weekend, I found various links that had been posted about sale promotions for the date of the event. These included getting 60% off certain clothes ranges and also the chance to book yourself in for a style makeover getting 15% off of a style consultation. Without liking the Facebook page, these links would be hard to find. Therefore this is a way to get loyal customers involved by offering them sale promotions.

Public Relations

   ‘Form of communication that is primarily directed to image building and that tends to deal with issues rather than specifically with products or services.

   ‘Public relations uses publicity that does not necessitate payment in a wide variety of media and is often placed as news or items of public interest.’
- Friedman J, Dictionary of Business Terms, 4th ed (2007) Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series

McFLY have created a good impression on themselves by being on the two TV shows they have recently been on. Harry was on Strictly Come Dancing, and Dougie was on I'm a Celebrity get me out of here. Both shows were on for a number of weeks and neither of the boys did anything wrong which would give them bad press. They were both well behaved and they both ended up winning the show. If the boys would have done something wrong and got bad press this would have given the whole band a bad reputation; not just the individuals. I believe that how they both acted on the show has helped them to sell out their tour and a wider target range have picked up an interest in the band. Especially with Harry on Strictly Come Dancing; this type of TV program doesn't really attract the typical audience of McFLY but it is a chance to gain a wider audience! McFLY have also given themselves the opportunity to have positive free press said about them which is a bonus.