Final Marketing Plan Whole
Final Marketing Plan Whole
Final Marketing Plan Whole
MKT338
April 28, 2023
Table of Contents
Executive Summary……………………………………………..Pg 2
Table of Contents………………………………………………..Pg 3
Situation Analysis……………………………………………….Pg 4-7
SWOT Analysis…………………………………………………Pg 8-10
Developing Competitive Advantages…………………………...Pg 10
Marketing Strategy……………………………………………...Pg 11-13
Financial Projections……………………………………………Pg 13-14
Appendices……………………………………………………...Pg 14-18
References………………………………………………………Pg 19
I. Executive Summary
Spotify is a music streaming service offered on all platforms including phone, computer, and
television as well as all brands such as Apple, Samsung, Google, and more. Within their app,
Spotify offers a wide variety of music, podcasts, and audio books along with many features such
as queueing songs, lyrics, and more. Spotify is a company that focuses on its customers and
users. Their mission statement is “Spotify’s mission statement is to unlock the potential of
human creativity.” Through this mission statement, you can clearly see that Spotify is focused on
giving its users the ability and freedom to create and listen and branch out to more.
In this research paper, we will go into depth of Spotify’s background. We will tell you about
their internal environment, external environment, as well as the customer environment. Another
aspect that is going to be focused on in this paper is Spotify’s marketing efforts. You will learn
about Spotify’s strategies, target market, and SWOT analysis. One of Spotify’s biggest problems
is all its competitors big and small. In that section, you will see maps and canvases that compare
Spotify to all its main competitors as well as all its competitors.
Lastly, we have designed new features and products for Spotify that we feel will help separate
them from Apple Music (Spotify’s main competitor) as well as all the others. In this new
product, you will have access to concerts and tickets and an “on demand” feature.
Situation Analysis
A. The Internal Environment
Spotify’s marketing strategy has stayed consistent since the start. First off, they offer a free
subscription to all users. Along with that, they have many different other subscription choices (4
of them to be exact). Some people might be confused with the use of the free subscription that
they offer. “They are definitely losing potential money?” you might wonder. But they are not. In
their free subscription, they do not offer as much as you would get with the paid subscriptions.
Also, when users can get an account for free, they will feel more obligated to stay with Spotify
and when they are ready to buy a subscription, they will buy one from Spotify.
Spotify is an app that can be used anywhere at any time. This is a huge advantage for them
because users then know that they will never have to struggle with their music or podcasts, and
more being played. If you are subscribed to a paid subscription, Spotify offers an offline option.
For promotion, Spotify primarily uses social media with Facebook being their focus. One of
Spotify’s most reliable and effective ways of promoting their company is word-of-mouth.
Spotify has 6 approaches to make their marketing strategy more effective and personal. These 6
ways are:
1) Make it personal
2) Embrace marketing fluidity
3) Partner with other brands
4) Jump on social media trends
5) Test out a freemium model
6) Keep your brand identity consistent
Mission and Vision Statement
Spotify’s mission statement is to unlock the potential of human creativity – by giving a million
creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy
and be inspired by it. Spotify’s vision statement is to form a cultural platform where professional
creators can break free of their medium's constraints and where everyone can enjoy an immersive
artistic experience that enables us to empathize with each other and to feel part of a greater
whole.
The firm's current customers mainly include young adults, specifically Millennials and
Gen Z, however there is also a large audience of users who are ages 55 and up that utilize the
app. Potential customers include listeners who utilize another streaming service but are willing to
make the switch. Potential customers could also be people who do not utilize any sort of
streaming service for their music/podcasts. Characteristics of these current and potential
customers include being younger in age. The audience also skews more female than male with
56% being female and 44% being male. Users are typically either European or from North
America with the majority being in Europe. Important demographics include age and gender.
Although the brand is popular among all age groups, it is stronger with young audiences. 29% of
Spotify users are members of the millennial generation, and 26% are under 24 years of age.
Spotify’s freemium subscription is highly popular among younger users – 71% of people using
Spotify for free are 35 and older.
Geographic location of Spotify’s customers is all over the world. The Spotify customer
segmentation is largest in Europe, with 66 million users (about twice the population of
California) in Europe vs 48 million in the US, 33 million in Latin America and 18 million in the
rest of the world. The psychographic profiles of Spotify’s users can be determined via their
music taste. Spotify’s popularity among Millennials correlates with the generation’s attitude to
media consumption in general: 60% say that audio is the most immersive form of media.
Spotify’s vast audio library of 70 million song titles and nearly 3 million podcasts appeal deeply
to younger listeners aged 14-35. This segment tends to veer away from mainstream music and
looks for more indie and alternative styles. People aged 45+ tend to listen to more mainstream
music whether that be older or newer music, older customers tend to utilize the app's audiobook
feature more than younger generations. Spotify is interesting because it caters to all lifestyles.
Spotify realized that everyone listens to music no matter their lifestyle or background and
capitalized on that idea.
Product usage varies from person to person. The average user listens to about 118
minutes (about 2 hours) of Spotify a day. In the US, the target audience are frequent users of the
audio streaming service. 30% of US listeners tune in to the music app monthly and 28% listen to
it weekly – a figure that has grown steadily over the past decade. Customers can use Spotify for
free, but the listening experience will include ads. Customers also have the option of upgrading
to a premium subscription for which they will be billed monthly for. Customers utilize Spotify
for a high-quality listening experience, ad-free streaming, and a vast library of songs and
audiobooks.
Spotify’s biggest competitor is Apple Music. Spotify does a few things better than Apple
Music which allows it to be the most used music streaming service in the world. Spotify is very
personable to its users, often creating playlists based purely on your music taste and caters to
you. Spotify also made listening to music a more social experience. Users can add/ follow
friends and see what they are listening to daily. Spotify also allows you to create collaborative
playlists with up to five people. Spotify fulfills the customer need of a music streaming service
and takes it a step further that competing services cannot replicate.
Strengths M I R
S1 Brand Equity 3 3 9
S2 User Friendly 2 3 6
Weaknesses
W1 Licensing Costs -2 3 -6
W2 Streaming Difficulty -3 3 -9
Opportunities
O1 Video Streaming 3 3 9
O2 New Markets 3 2 6
Threats
T1 Competition -3 2 -6
T2 Legal Issues -2 2 -4
T3 Switching Costs -3 3 -9
A. Strengths
S1: Brand Equity
S2: User Friendly
Brand Equity
Spotify is a brand that everyone has heard of. If you were to ask someone to name a streaming
service, I guarantee that most people would name Spotify over any other platform. Over the past
years, Spotify has done multiple things to increase value to their brand, as well as push forward
to give you an experience like no other. Since the creation of Spotify, you can tell that they have
put countless time into their brand to make sure that they are getting value. One example where
you can really see this being true is their strategy and focus. You know Spotify because of their
theme and logo, which greatly adds to their brand equity and value.
User Friendly
Spotify is an app that anyone can download no matter what type of phone you have. This is vital
and important because if you are not able to appeal to all types of people, you will not be able to
reach your full potential. Spotify has worked this down to perfection, in a way that anyone can
enjoy their product, even if they are not signed up. There are very limited buttons on the app
which help with simplicity so anyone can navigate the site, no matter their age. An app that is
very user friendly is also helpful because you will be able to make individuals happy quicker,
causing them to have a very positive view of your service
B. Weaknesses
W1: Licensing Costs
W2: Streaming Difficulty
Licensing Costs
Since Spotify is a Music streaming service, they must be able to provide all different types of
music to its listeners. According to multiple analytics, Spotify spends almost 75% of its revenue
on royalty and licensing costs. This is something you do not notice as a user of the app but is
something that is very drastic in the accounting and finance side of the business, and heavily
effects Spotify, and pushes them to bring in as much revenue as they possibly can.
Streaming Difficulty
Streaming Difficulty is something that all Streaming services must deal with. Spotify struggles
heavily with this since you need some kind of internet connection to listen to their music. This
has plagued Spotify over the years, but they have slowly been able to adapt. Limiting your app
from your customers is the last thing that a company wants to do, but when you are not able to
provide because of internet, it puts the company in a tough spot. Spotify has battled this by
letting you download songs to your library, but you still need connection to download those
songs.
C. Opportunities
O1: Video Streaming
O2: New Markets
Video Streaming
Spotify has the chance to supply its subscribers with an increased amount of video content.
Currently, Spotify supplies video content through a few podcasts. They also have short clips on
select songs that show clips of the artists’ music videos. If they can provide subscribers with full
music videos as well as videos for all podcasts, then they can gain access to new subscribers.
Another opportunity regarding video streaming could include videos of interviews or updates
about the subscribers’ favorite artists. This would take away the competitive advantage that
YouTube holds over Spotify by allowing subscribers to have access to all content related to their
favorite artists.
New Markets
Spotify has grown into one of the top media streaming companies in the world. However, there
are untapped markets that Spotify can expand into. Older generations are familiar with
downloading their own music instead of subscribing to a service like Spotify. Marketing toward
these generations could grow their subscriber base exponentially. People over the age of 40 are
often financially stable and have children. Successfully acquiring this market would create an
increase in family plans and significantly boost the number of potential new customers.
D. Threats
T1: Competition
T2: Legal Issues
T3: Switching Costs
Competition
Spotify has multiple competitors in the media streaming industry. This poses a threat to Spotify
which forces them to innovate and provide value to their subscribers. If they are unsuccessful in
providing value to their subscribers, then the competition will take over the industry.
Legal Issues
Spotify is constantly having issues with legalities due to streaming rights like all streaming
services do. Spotify has millions of artists on its platform who each have their own individual
licensing terms which cause issues at times. Spotify also has trouble with people pirating music
from their platform which makes licensees pursue legal action.
Switching Costs
Over the years people have listened to music in a variety of ways and it has constantly changed.
Some people are determined to keep downloading their own music whether it is legal or not.
These people have put in a considerable amount of work creating playlists and putting their
favorite songs together on one device. This creates a high switching cost for these people if they
were switching to Spotify. They would have to start this process over on Spotify again, which is
time-consuming.
V. Developing Competitive Advantages
A. Strength-Opportunity (Aggressive)
The user-friendly app Spotify provides everyone to easily access everything Spotify has to offer.
Other media streaming services have difficult layouts to navigate through which can be
extremely frustrating. This means that Spotify can use this strength to act on the opportunity of
acquiring new markets. It is known that older generations have trouble learning how to use new
technologies. The user-friendly app eliminates that issue that current customers may have with
other media streaming companies.
B. Weakness-Threat (Defensive)
When it comes to streaming, Licensing costs make streaming more difficult and frustrating.
Spotify must deal with a bunch of legal issues since they need to have streaming rights and pay
all the artists that they offer. This also will increase their licensing costs because the more they
pay the artists, the less revenue they will generate due to these large deductions. Licensing costs
are one of the most important things for a streaming company, because if you do not have them,
you cannot run your business.
C. Weakness-Opportunity (Turnaround)
There are many situations where Spotify holds weakness that can be easily fixed for them to be
the next big thing. If Spotify were to ever need a turnaround or plan of action, there is plenty of
opportunity for that to happen. One area that may need improvement would be to keep on
expanding into new businesses and markets around the world. Being the largest music streaming
service gives lots of opportunity to make this happen and be wanted worldwide. Another area for
turnaround is to figure out ways to build and strengthen alliances with artists to better promote
Spotify through incentives such as larger royalties or new marketing schemes.
D. Strength-Threat (Diversification)
Marketing Strategy
A. Target Market:
Spotify Live will be intended to appeal to younger adults aged 18-30 who love to listen to music
on the go and would consider themselves music enthusiasts. Along with these traits, the intended
audience for Spotify Live are consumers who are creative and like to create personalized
playlists for the genres of music that they explicitly want to listen to. Spotify Live will now be
able to allow people to watch live concerts and buy tickets to Live events that are happening in
places near them. Spotify Live is like nothing that is currently on the market and will allow you
to feel more engaged and connected with music. Spotify Live is intended to be for those
individuals who want music on the go, but with more of a live feel. With these new features and
design, you will be able to watch live concerts and events from the comfort of your own couch,
something that has never really been explored until now. After the purchase, the goal is that
consumers will be happy and content with the experience that you will want to come back to
purchase access to another event. The beauty is that this is also available to anyone who has a
smartphone, as it can be watched live as the artist takes the stage, from any mobile device!
B. Product Strategy
Spotify Live got its new name by looking at what individuals thought that Spotify was lacking.
These results showed us that many people were looking for more of a live interactive feature
while being able to continue listening to their music. With Spotify Live, we have created a
flawless listening experience that includes features that will allow for easy use and
understanding. Being able to offer a system where we can start to value live events and
concerts is something that no streaming service has ever investigated and offered to
consumers. Spotify will continue to diversify and create original content and offerings to
differentiate itself from the competition. These live concerts will allow users to watch their
favorite artists from the comfort of their own home, as well as being able to feel like they are at
a concert. Through listening to some of these live events, Spotify will then be able to start
suggesting other songs and artists through certain listening habits.
Graphics in Appendices A
C. Pricing Strategy
While looking at Spotify’s already competitive pricing it is only fair to understand why it would cost a tad
more with the new Spotify live subscription attached to the regular subscription. With this new package
allowing users to watch live concerts, buy tickets to live performances, and be able to interact in a whole
new way, it is hard to stay away from. The monthly packages that Spotify already offers is the individual
plan at $9.99, the duo plan at $12.99, a family plan at $15.99, and the student plan at $4.99 a month.
Our new Spotify live will cost consumers an additional $1.99 a month on top of their initial plan to
acquire this new feature. This means the individual plan will cost $11.99, the duo plan will cost $14.99,
the family plan will cost $17.99, and the student plan will cost $6.99 with this extra added on.
Our strategy as to having this Spotify Live addition cost at such a low price is for a reason. Keeping our
rate low in the beginning is called penetration pricing. Doing this will help us gain market share as
quickly as possible. Once increasing our market share and becoming a leader in this new market is when
we will be able to raise prices to start being more profitable. We are also going along with a dynamic
approach. A dynamic approach is when a company adjusts its prices due to the differences in supply and
demand. With summer coming around and Spotify usually gaining more new customers around this
season is a great time to keep our new “Live” feature cheaply priced to gain as many customers as
possible. This is a great way to incorporate both strategies in the beginning phase of a new market.
Being one of the first music streaming apps to do this type of thing makes us leaders in the industry
from the start. That being said, there is not much competition, but it is very important to keep our
customers satisfied so there is not a quick fall. Keeping our pricing super low will allow the consumers to
give Spotify the chance to see what they are offering. Low price means low risk which means the initial
consumer count will not have much to lose or be upset about if not satisfied.
Due to this being a new addition to the music streaming world it is going to be hard to initially be able to
supply all consumers' music interests at first. Since the “Live” feature will allow users to watch live
concerts, buy tickets to live performances, and be able to interact in a whole new way. It is nearly
impossible to be able to stream all live concerts going on at once, but Spotify will have big progression as
we are working on a way for Spotify to figure out a way to make that possible. As we said before, our
strategy to begin is to not make as much profit but hope for this new movement to soon be the next big
thing which will then allow us to raise prices and be much more profitable.
Graphics in Appendices B
Something that Spotify needs to work on is their confusion. A lot of reviews deem that Apple Music and
Pandora are easier to use than Spotify. This is something that they need to work on. They have many
different pages on their app, and it would be useful if they made it simpler with just one page to go on.
Appendices B:
Appendices C:
Appendices D:
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR REST OF MKT PLAN:
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