Essay help about the music festival Bonnaroo!
Bonnaroo – Individual Case for Undergraduates
INSTRUCTIONS
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Guidelines for Written Paper
Your final paper should be single-spaced, Arial font (12 pt.) for text, bolded headings and subheads with double spacing between paragraphs and beneath each heading and subheading. You are required to include a minimum of THREE cites, two must be original citations you find in support of your assignment requirements. The final assignment should be 4-6 pages excluding references, charts, tables, and appendices. A cover page is required identifying the student, the course, the title of your paper, faculty members and date submitted.
This case revolves around one of the strongest names in the music industry today. Given its ability to regularly attract more than 80,000 fans to the event and its reputation as one of the country’s premiere festivals, Bonnaroo’s success in the live event sector cannot be denied.
The annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival began as a calling to all music fans to meet at the 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, in the summer of 2002. Since its inaugural event, the festival has brought together the top music acts, across every genre, for four days of music in a style reminiscent of the infamous Woodstock. Live Nation Entertainment announced it had taken a controlling stake in the festival in 2015, as consolidation in the live music industry was a key strategy to capitalize on one of the few music industry sectors that was still very profitable and exhibiting growth. After a few years of depressed sales, 2020 was set to be a comeback year with a sell-out announced early.
With the threat of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, Bonnaroo and the rest of the live music space was obliterated. The event was initially rescheduled from its original dates of June 11-14, 2020 to September 24-27, 2020 before being cancelled completely and replaced with a virtual event. Event officials have promised a return June 17-20, 2021 to celebrate its 20th Anniversary. You have to believe that event organizers would be more focused than ever on extension opportunities to provide greater financial stability.
The Bonnaroo brand has strong recall and brand associations amongst music fans across multiple genres. Can this brand be leveraged into other music-oriented sectors? The name Bonnaroo itself means “best on the street”, so can that meaning and attributes the festival has acquired over the years be applied in other areas for improved diversification? Can Bonnaroo expand its product category offerings the way that golf club manufacturer, Calloway, has extended itself into footwear and other golf accessories? Should it look beyond the music industry entirely and instead apply its associated attributes to a venture in an unexpected way that reinforces its core attributes the way Ferrari did with amusement parks?
Bonnaroo has built a strong brand based on a single, tentpole event. How can they now shift the focus for greater financial stability and brand equity?
Your written case should include the following sections:
Background
You have a substantial review of the history of Bonnaroo. You should spotlight the origin of the event, major successes, and how it has become one of the strongest brands in the music industry. You should look at this from a marketing and branding position. What was the early Bonnaroo brand and how was smart marketing used to build, solidify, and expand the brand? It is also important to investigate if/how the controlling stake by Live Nation has impacted the event’s perceived brand.
Problem Definition
COVID-19 has devastated the live music scene. Even the strongest brands like Bonnaroo have moved from sold-out events to cancelled events (and consequently no income). The future is uncertain as a vaccine may be rolled out in a couple of months or a couple of years. Even with a vaccine, medical professionals have said it could be a couple of years before we start to see widespread immunity. Discuss the problem the brand faces with a continuing focus on the live music sector. In this section, you will describe the primary problem(s) confronting the organization. Aside from the obvious financial implications of the pandemic, you may also want to consider other branding problems such as brand erosion, loss of target market, market share loss, changing consumer habits and consumption patterns, etc.
SWOT
Build a strong SWOT with at least three bullet points per characteristic (3 weaknesses, 3 strengths, 3 opportunities, and 3 threats). You should provide analysis of your points in paragraph form below the bullet points.
Marketing Strategy
1. As a marketing professional for Bonnaroo, profile the current target market for your proposed product extensions as opposed to the festival itself? Is there any overlap OR are the two segments completely disconnected? In what ways are they similar? Different?
a. How can fans and previous Bonnaroo attendees be utilized to jump-start sales and/or awareness of the new product(s)?
2. Develop 2-3 brand extension ideas for the Bonnaroo brand. Some examples of brand extensions that you may consider (but not limited to): podcasts, streaming/live weekly broadcasts, music equipment, recorded television series, and any other extensions that will assist in building brand equity, providing diversification, and yielding financial stability.
b. Brand extensions should be identified and justified in terms of viability, compatibility of the brand extension with the existing target market, and ability to successfully increase revenues and enhance the variety of products available under the brand umbrella. Students should also be able to identify why your proposed brand extension would save overall advertising and promotional expenses for the core brand and the new extension by creating synergy, and describe how the extensions would help address the problems you identified above under “Problem Definitions.”
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c. Describe how the proposed brand extensions will yield greater brand equity for the parent company.
d. Are there risks in the implementation of the proposed product extensions? If so, what are they and how might they be mitigated?
e. Of the two or three brand extensions you’ve presented, which ONE do you feel has the greatest chance of success? Why?