More on pest analysis

Posted: Thursday 12 November 2009 | Posted by Adam Townend |

Possible client groups

- Record Label (Packaging, Promotional material)
- Design firms (Freelancing work)
- Fashion retailer (Branding, Tags, labels, hangers)
- Electrical retailer (Branding, Catalogues, Stationery)
- Charities (Branding, Leaflets, Event posters)
- Automotive companies (Leaflets, Signage, Car Livery)
- Food retailer (packaging, point of sale, branding)
- TV company - (Screen graphics, Stationery, Promotional material, website)
- Starting Businesses - (Branding, stationery, promotional material, website)
- Magazine publication - (Layout design, advertising, Promotional, Point of sale)

The Graphic Design market for the music industries Record Labels

Local record label
2020vision records - Leeds

National record label
Parlophone Records

European record label
Frontiers - Italy

Transnational record label
Interscope/Geffen - U.S

Political
One of the most important political factors in this sector is the move away from printed material for packaging. With all the focus on downloading music packaging is becoming digital. Also costs are being cut due to the decline of CD sales. This will certainly be the case for international record labels such as Interscope and Parlophone who have a number of successful artists signed to them. For more independent labels the demand for their products, for example, CD's would be fairly low due to their small target market but would also be relatively stable. For european labels such as the Italian one, Frontiers, there would be other issues such as european legislation surrounding intellectual property rights and copyright to consider.

Economic
Because this is business to business relations, the economical factors would depend entirely on the size of the business. For a small, local independent label, the output cost would have to be fairly small compared to the bigger budgets for major labels such as Interscope. If I were to design for a small label, I would expect to be working with a smaller budget and a smaller distribution volume. I would also expect small labels to sell their artists CD's much cheaper due to the quality of production and also as way to get new bands noticed. Seasonal issues may affect this market in terms of demand, with christmas being an example of time where we see a boom in CD sales as gifts and more compilation albums are rolled out at Christmas than any other time.

Average CD price on Small Town America (independent label) - £6
Average CD price on HMV (sells CD's on behalf of labels) - £9

Social
The social aspects can be seen from a consumer point of view, because any design work produced for this client base will be sold on to the consumer. Therefore social factors involving the end user is something that must be considered. This is because the consumer will be the end user of the product (if its CD packaging). So I will need to focus on what their interests are, where they go, what they do etc. Consumer buying patterns are important to this sector as musical influence can have an impact on what style of artwork is produced. Does the style of artwork influence the consumer to buy a certain genre of music?

Technological
Due to the consistent demand for smaller labels and the technology they use, print based design would be high on their agenda. They would need packaging design for the music they release, as well as promotional material to promote their business to new artists, as the artist would already promote their label to the consumer through the music they release and design I create for them. In contrast major record labels will have to invest in advertising and promotion to get noticed as buying trends have fallen. The move towards web graphics means that print design for music could become a niche market.

further research


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