Case Study – Britney Spears Launch Her Womanizer on X Factor Stage in the UK

Britney physically went to London to promote her new album Womanizer on the album launching day in the UK, and her appearance on the X Factor was one of the most hotly anticipated TV shows. So, why X Factor? It is so well known in the UK music industry and the people watching the TV series are the ones most likely to buy Britney’s album. In another word, X Factor targets the same customer base as Britney does.

Any other reasons? Well, thousands of journalists and reviewers keep an eye on X Factor in the UK, they talk about any X Factor news they could ever found. In such a way, Britney’s new album automatically became a hot topic all over UK, including local magazines, newspapers, other TV programs and even websites. So, the launching news went all over the places without extra work.

Lessons to Be Learned – Hold (preview), Hold (create the buzz), Fire (launch!)

PREVIEW STAGE – It is so important to find the right foreign launching partners, and keep them informed the stuff are you working on. By doing this, your targeted foreign customers will get a preview of your work via the launching partners’ network. Also, tell your partners the official launching day as earlier as you can. So, they can get the message over, and then their customers will help to message fly further as they’ve got something to share with their friends.

BUZZ STAGE – A few days before the launching, ask your foreign partners to work out a VIP list, who will receive exclusive information and resources about your product. Keep in mind, your partners know the foreign market better than you do, so give them the privilege to do the list.

The people on the VIP list are your evangelists, and they extent your potential foreign customer base to the a new level, where the BUZZ is fully loaded and all about your new product.

LAUNCH STAGE – It is the show time! Deliver what you promised and keep all the new customers happy. To achieve this, there are 2 things your partners can help you with: A. Get your foreign supply chain smooth; B. Get a better understanding of the local culture.

The whole point of marketing is to promote your products via effective advertising channels. In another word, spend less money to get more sales. So, it would be wise to have a better understanding of your customers’ habits and the entire trading environment before developing your marketing plan.

Assumption Is Dangerous

Any marketing action should be based upon research but not assumptions, and the reason is simple: you don’t sell things to yourself. So, why do you care about what you think too much? Your customers may NOT like the stuff you like, and the things that obvious to you may NOT so obvious to your customers.

Continuity Planning

Marketing campaigns normally only boost your sales within a short time period, and your sales volume  falls back when the campaigns end. That is the nature of campaigns. As a business owner, you certainly expect to get more value than the quick sales from the expensive adverts. So, before you start the campaigns, you can ask yourself that how each of them would add value to your brand, including product name, logo, and any other trade marks you own. By doing that, your intangible assets will be worth more money, together with a better industry reputation.

Customer Relationship

You need fans of your products, and they say good things about you all the time. It is not too difficult to turn your customers to evenglists. What you need to do is to keep good relationships with them by providing better service all the time. In fact, the easist way to achieve that is to sit back and review the whole sales process as often as you can. Take the TV sales for example, you can give your customer a ring several hours before the delivery time, and then spend a few minutes to set the TV up for them. You can also ask them to fill in a survey or feedback form for you. Remember, every little helps!