Marketing Research Paper

Explain the purpose of the event you select. You can do this by doing the following:

a)    The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual Four-day event developed and produced by Superfly Presents and the AC Entertainment since 2002 (Bledsoe, 2012). Every year held at the Great Stage Park on a farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It starts on every second Thursday in June and lasts for four days. In the past, the event has grown to indicate a record attendance of between 90,000 to 100,000 people, of whom the majority is female attendees at 54.79% while the males were at 41.26% with the rest having not bothered to participate in the census as per the 2014 census of the event (Bledsoe, 2012). The event organizers have successfully incorporated the 3 E’s while doing the event marketing and promotion. Doing its big ticket sales online, the event has a website that engages the public and even refers to the followers as Bonnarorians thus creating a certain excitement among them. It has also commanded a following and hype thus offering the public an annual dose of Entertainment from the music of various genres, art, foods, comedy and other exhibitions. The event marketers have been enterprising in the sense that the event has been dynamic incorporating ideas and engaging the followers. What started in a hired field, the entrepreneurs later purchased the ground that they refer to as the farm making it a permanent venue for the annual event (Bledsoe, 2012).

b)    The primary target market for the event is the fans who are music and culture lovers from Manchester, Tennessee. The secondary target markets are tourists or visiting fans from other counties and states in America.

         i.            The Bonnaroo event marketers have utilized the Geographic market segmentation to map the primary and secondary markets.

       ii.            The demographic of the primary target market who are mostly the local fans that are lovers of music, the event engages the female fans more since they have been the biggest proportion attending the event annually. It targets individuals from all the educational levels and mostly individuals above the legal age of twenty-one years offering a diversity of activities that suit the interests of the ages. The psychographics segmentation of the primary target markets is all those that love culture and music. The demographic and psychographic segmentation of the secondary target markets are individuals of all economic status, but more emphasis put on the female fans and at the same time those that love the music and believe in cultural exploration (Bledsoe, 2012).

      iii.            The event benefits the locals and the tourists from other areas in providing an enjoyable holiday destination. It also offers an opportunity for cultural interaction and learning of the values and cultural engagements showcased in the festival. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to learn more about waste management through recycling.

Discuss the current promotional strategies and concepts of the event.

a)    The Bonnaroo festival has primarily focused on social media marketing and the sale of their tickets in an easy and fun way through their website. They have created trendy hashtags and engaged their fans throughout the year referring to the fans as Bonnarians to create a sense of affiliation to the festival (Rajagopal, 2007). They have also used the social media to gather feedback and engage the fans ion improvements they want and made them feel like they are part of the planning and execution. The past festivals have also witnessed the marketers use hashtag flags all over the place so that the crowd can see it and post photos and engage in conversations on social media thus creating even more curiosity and excitement for the others that had not attended the festival. It was an effective way to reach the target market considering that social media and online marketing is the current generational marketing. The majority of the music fans are also active users of social media.

The festival has also used the Key Fob Wristband as a way to promote the event in the future since such individuals keep the wristband beyond the event. The wristband contained a chip that one had to be scanned to be able to access certain areas. It provided clearance to sections of the festival that one was mandated to as per their ticket into the festival. The bands also acted as good give away that kept the fans connected to the festival and hence looking forward to the next festival.

b)    One of the major ways that Bonnaroo can adopt to improve brand awareness and public knowledge is by engaging all the fans before, during, and after the event throughout the year (Rajagopal, 2007). Coachella Valley Music Festival has been utilizing a strategy in the past. They have live streaming of the event on YouTube while it is ongoing and hence engage the fans that did not make it for the event and make more fans aware of its existence. It also involves the fans through creating their social media in a way that they feel like a community and hence can share ideas, ask questions, and reminisce about the past events through the social media. It is a way to keep the brand known to more people and maintain a block of loyal fans every year.

Another important strategy is to ensure that they offer the fans an opportunity that they do not get anywhere else (Rajagopal, 2007). The fans being music lovers could have a chance to interact and even take pictures with their favorite artists and celebrities’ and then share them on their social media. It has worked for Coachella with the sharing booth that they set aside and last time had a trend of #KissForACause in a booth by H & H that raised over 1 Million dollars for donations to fight AIDS. The strategy is very useful as it increases the excitement of the fans while at the same time offering them a chance to contribute to a good course.

Review the current sponsors of the existing event.

A.    Some of the sponsors to the Ford, Miller Lite, Mattel and Garnier, Tito’s Vodka, Garnier Fructis, among others.  The corporate sponsors stand to benefit greatly from the event in that they get an opportunity for their Brand exposure to the over 90,000 fans present at the festival (Bonnaroo.com, 2015). Secondly, the corporate get more visibility of their brand to potential and existing customers through their appearance on the festival’s website and their appearance at the festival as well as on social media. Moreover, it offers the companies an opportunity for community involvement and hence creating better relations with the customers. Furthermore, the festival supports some charity organizations through donations and therefore, collaborating with them is an opportunity for a sponsor for corporate social responsibility.

The sponsors offered fun and entertaining opportunities for the fans bound to make them want to attend the next time. For example, Mattel, one of the sponsors furnished an air-conditioned tent that offered people an opportunity to play board games. A company like Garnier also set up salons that had hair-washing stations, which was a great luxury for the participants that spent the long weekend at the festival (Bonnaroo.com, 2015).

B.      The title sponsor I would recommend for the next year would be Apple Inc. It is because it is a multinational technology company attracting a large number of young people and across all genders. They offer a huge following on social media, and their brand commands a big and growing market share in the technology arena. They would, therefore, be a company that more individuals would like to engage in and maybe have them offer discounts on their products and hence attract more people to the event with an aim of engaging and getting the discount in the products.