Write Rhythm - Marketing Report

Abstract

Write Rhythm is a tech start-up launched in May 2016 in Denpasar, Indonesia. The mission of the company is to disrupt the music industry by offering a service that matches music producers with record labels worldwide (Ardie, 2017). The start-up focuses on electronic music and aims to service the industry equally at both ends. In brief, Write Rhythm sends the tracks uploaded by producers to labels that are looking for new talents, streamlining and improving the process of demo submission, that is otherwise long, tedious and often ineffective. Since the service offers an advanced filtering system, artists can send their demos to the labels that fit their sound best and, on the other side, labels can receive only the music that is consistent with their particular brand (Write Rhythm 2017). Currently, Write Rhythm lists more than 350 independent record labels across 80 electronic music sub-genres and is working to gather a larger number of users as well as to extend its genres list. Moreover, the company is entering a crucial time of transition, characterized by major changes such as the launch of the version 2.0 of the platform and a new funding round (Write Rhythm 2017). In May 2017, I have worked at Write Rhythm as a Marketing Intern. During this placement, my tasks focused on three areas of business:

1. Competition: by analyzing the competitors’ products and the influence of artists and labels on the company’s operations. 2. Customer Acquisition: by formulating new customer acquisition strategies, mostly through mail campaigns. 3. Social Media: by developing the concept of a new sub-brand and creating content for it.

In this context, the main limitation has been time. In fact, although being intense, this experience has been concentrated in only one month. Therefore, I did not have enough time to work on every aspect of the business. However, especially thanks to a continuous and insightful dialogue with Jody Taylor, the company’s founder and CEO, I have had the opportunity to have an overview of what operations are carried out at Write Rhythm and how they are conducted. For these reasons, in this report, I aim to link this experience with my academic studies by applying some of the marketing theories, models and frameworks I have learned during my master’s. In particular, my analysis takes the stock of the current situation of the company from the standpoint of the competition, the market and the online marketing mix, with the objective of suggesting relevant recommendations. Consequently, this report takes the form of a marketing report and features the following areas of analysis:

1. Competitive Analysis: by applying Porter’s Five Forces framework, the micro environment as well as the direct competitors’ offers are examined. 2. Market Analysis: by applying the segmenting, targeting and positioning model, the customers’ characteristics and the targeting strategies as well as the positioning of the brand and the product in the mind of consumers are described. 3. Online Marketing Mix Analysis: by applying an online marketing mix analysis, the strategies developed through the website, social media and sub-brands are analyzed.

This report also provides relevant recommendations that could assist the company in facing its future challenges:

1. As a result of the Competitive and Market analyses, the development of a partnership with a company with which there is a high degree of product complementarity is suggested. 2. In the light of the Competitive and Market analyses as well as of the previous recommendation, the introduction of a new pricing strategy is suggested. 3. On the basis of the Market and Online Marketing Mix analyses, an extension of the sub-brand line in growing segments of the electronic music industry is suggested.