Outr PR

Spotify UK Communications Report



Contents:
Section 1. Executive Summary

Section 2. Agency Information

Section 3. Organisational Profile

3.1-Your Organisation

3.2 Your Organisational Structure

Section 4. Situational Analysis

4.1 -PESTLE Analysis

4.2 -SWOT Analysis

Section 5. Stakeholder Analysis

5.1 Results

5.2 Explanation

Section 6. Strategy

Section 7. Objectives

Section 8. Messages

Section 9. Evaluation

Section 10. Conclusion

Section 11. Research Documents



Section 1 - Executive Summary

This document has been produced to assess and evaluate the external
communications currently being used by yourself, Spotify, to connect with your target
audience, within the United Kingdom.

When evaluating your communication strategies currently in place, we identified a

few problems, these are:

1. Using social media as the main form of communication, whilst other

competitors use bigger platforms.
2. Only targeting younger audiences through communication.
3. Not responding to customers over social media pages about current issues
with the app on certain devices, due to new terms and conditions.
4. The @spotifyuk twitter feed is not consistent, with followers sometimes going
4 days without seeing any tweets appearing on their timeline.
5. Also the twitter feed has a lack of hash tags, meaning you are missing out on
connecting with new users through trending topics.

After looking in to these findings, we propose Spotify UK, needs



Section 2 Agency Information

Outr PR is an agency based in the West Midlands, specialising in social

media. The aim of the agency is to innovate and create new ideas for your business to
intrigue and engage with customers. We aim to create social media platforms that
create a buzz and allow users to interact with the business through them.

Many of our previous clients have been highly impressed, which you can see through
our testimonials from them on our website, www.outrepr.com. There are a few case
studies below for you to look at some of our work:

1. Benefit Cosmetics - #RollerLash Campaign

Working with our client Benefit Cosmetics, we teamed up with Elle Magazine;
to give Benefit its most successful campaign of all time. On a budget of only
3000, we included free samples of the new mascara in Elle magazine,
encouraging readers to take to social media to share their experience of using
the mascara before it became available to buy in store. There was an
incredible response to this campaign, and a video produced featuring the
readers became benefits most viewed video of all time, despite costing less
than 3000 to create. We also received free celebrity endorsement, from
bloggers, such as Zoella, who made unpaid posts about the mascara. This led
to Benefits market share increase from 25% to 38% in the first quarter after
the campaign was released.

























Section 3 Organisational Summary

3.1 Your Organisation

Spotify was founded in 2006 in Sweden, and has now become a market leader in the
digital music streaming market. It has head offices in both Stockholm and London,
and has approximately 1,600 employees.

The business is classed as using a freemium business model, where users are able to
use the service for free, or pay for a premium service where they can experience higher
quality features, as well as an ad-free service. The business makes its profit from
selling users the premium streaming services, as well as using advertising on the free
service. As a business, you aim to decrease piracy within the music streaming
industry, by allowing the public to stream music on a free basis, or pay extra and have
a premium service.


3.2 Your Organisational Structure

As can be seen below on the example diagram, as a business Spotify

takes a different approach to the standard organisational structure
businesses usually use. The use of the words team and line managers are not used
within the business, as you believe everyone should be on the same level. Instead,
employees are divided into squads who are set both open or closed-ended missions
that they must work to achieve. The structure of your organisation means each squad
is not dependent on another, so they can complete the job without relying on anyone
else, so they can continue innovating. (Culture and Diversity, 2015)

On the diagram below, there is a sketch of how the organisation is structured.



Section 4 Situational Analysis

4.1 PESTLE Analysis

Political

European Union - With Spotify still having offices in Sweden, issues are likely
to arise from the UK deciding to leave the EU. The Swedish Prime Minister has
already spoken to the country regarding his concerns for trade, as it is possible
the EU may collapse if France chose to leave the EU as well. This means there
may be stricter restrictions on trade for the company, and rules about
advertising and marketing may affect the company.

Economical

Competitive Pricing - New competition within the market are offering more
competitive prices for consumers, therefore Spotify must either create a
unique selling point for their brand or match/beat competitors pricing.
Social

Piracy Although trying to be tackled, piracy is still a large on-going issue

within the music industry. The ability to illegally download songs is affecting
the amount of people investing in paid music streaming.

Consumer Trends Consumer trends within the industry are constantly

changing, people are now investing in the likes of Vinyl, therefore less likely to
invest in music streaming service as well. Also the increase in live music events
means people are likely to invest in the music industry through that, rather
than music streaming services.

Technological

Advancements in app development Constant updates in the development of

music apps means Spotify must continue to develop and remain competitive
in order to ensure their customers stay loyal. Also they must react quickly to
any faults during app updates to retain a close relationship with their
customers.

Legal

Plagiarism Within the app and mobile market, there have been many cases
where legal issues have arose due to the similarity in apps, therefore the
company must continue to advance their technologies and include USPs.

Music Licenses In the past the company has had issues with music licensing
and has failed to have licenses for some of the features it includes (G.Peoples,


2016). Therefore it is key to ensure in future the business
complies to licensing laws in order to avoid fines.


4.3 SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The business is competitive within the market, as it has a wide selection of

genres and a lot of mainstream artists have their music released on the
platform.
The company has an established app, with constant updates allowing users to
get the bets possible music streaming.
Effective communication campaign at the end of 2016, using billboards across
the world, and specialising each one to the area it was in.

Weaknesses

The company doesnt use social media to its full potential, meaning they are
missing out on direct communication with their customers, impacting
consumers opinions on the company. This can also affect the companys
customer service, many of the target audience see social media as a way to
report any issues or issue complaints, however if the company is not
responding, consumers are being left angry and frustrated with the business.

Opportunities

After coming out of a recession, peoples income is increasing, meaning they

have more of a disposable income to spend on services like Spotify.
Cutting down on illegal downloading by web providers such as YouTube,
means people need an alternative way to stream music.
New artists see music streaming apps as an effective way to get their music
heard first.

Threats

Competition such as Apple Music, have secure deals with artists who will only
release music via their streaming apps.
Trading laws with countries may begin to change as various countries Spotify
currently operates in are opting to leave the European Union.


Section 5 Stakeholders

5.1 Who is a stakeholder?

In this section, we have analysed all possible stakeholders to Spotify UK, and
prioritised them, to how important they are to the success of Spotify.

Here is a list of stakeholders, in no particular order.

Employees Customers Advertisers Artists Android
Spotify Global Media Shareholders Pressure Record Labels
Groups
Government General Public Trade Unions Apple
Local Competition Suppliers PlayStation
community

Stakeholder Matrix Map

HIGH


Keep Satisfied Manage Closely

Government Spotify Global
Trade Unions Spotify Premium Customers

Media Employees
Partnerships with businesses such
as Apple, Android and PlayStation.
POWER Record Labels
Share Holders
Monitor Keep Informed

General Public Artists
Local Community Competition

Suppliers
Pressure Groups
Non-paying customers



LOW INTEREST HIGH


5.2 Justification

A stakeholder is someone who the action of your business affects, in

both a direct and indirect way. When stakeholders become aware of
issues with Spotify UK, they then become publics who are active stakeholders. From
looking at the above table, we can see the four categories we have split your main
stakeholders into, allowing us know to see how to handle each one differently,
depending on how much power and interest they have in Spotify UK. This will then
allow us to build the communication strategy for Spotify UK based around these
stakeholders.

Manage Closely:
The stakeholders within this section have the highest interest and power in Spotify
UK; therefore have the most influence over what you do as a business. Due to this, we
must ensure we manage these communications with these stakeholders extremely
close so that there is no misleading information, and we maintain a positive
relationship with them. We will ensure these stakeholders are prioritised within our
communication strategy.

Keep Satisfied:
Within this section, the stakeholders may have low interest in Spotify UK, however
they do have the power to control the actions of the company. The main stakeholder
within this section is the government; the strict policies enforced by these
stakeholders must be followed closely by the business, to stop any issues occurring.
Due to the low interest of their stakeholders, the communication with them is low, as
by following their policies, there is no need for communication between you and
them.

Keep Informed:
The stakeholders within this section have a high interest in Spotify UK, however have
little power over the actions of the business. Therefore, it is good to communicate
with them so they stay interested in your business. Also good communication with
the non-paying customers, whoa re stakeholders within this section can help convert
them to premium customers who are paying for the service.

Monitor:
Stakeholders here are of minimum importance to the business. They have low power
over the business and low interest.

Summary:
After researching these stakeholders, we feel it is best for the communication
strategy for Spotify UK to primarily focus on the managed closely section of our
stakeholder map. These will be the most important stakeholders to focus on
communicating with, in order to become market leaders. We will also focus on the
keep informed section, as we believe it is important to invest time into
communicating with customers who are currently using the free service, to try and
show the benefits of investing in a premium subscription to them.


Section 6 Strategy
After carrying out a full analysis of your company, Spotify UK, we have
put together a strategy based upon the issues we have found from our
research, to help create a more efficient and precise external communication
strategy.

Below we have pointed out your main problems:

The companys lack of response to users comments on social media
Lacking to use other forms of mainstream marketing as well as social media,
for example television and radio
Targeting a small young audience, where as an older audience may also
benefit from your services.
Competition using more successful forms of communication.

Taking these problems into account, Outr PR have created a new approach, adapting
your current one in order to improve your communications. The goal we have set out
for Spotify UK is to create a more personal communication strategy between the
company and its customers (both customers who use the free service and those who
pay) to create a closer relationship between the two. We have identified three key
steps to take in order to achieve this. These are;

1. Outreach

Connecting with customers by retweeting/liking and interacting with

their content that is relevant to Spotify.
Connecting with artists through social media so they can promote
Spotify as a platform where fans can listen to their music.
Using vocabulary in your tweets and Facebook posts that can
encourage customers to join Spotify, for example interesting
welcoming adjectives, which suggest without Spotify they are missing
out on something.
Update people with what is going on at Spotify head quarters, so they
feel as if the company wants everyone to be a part of something.

2. Response Time

After researching into Spotify UKs social media, one issue that arose numerous times
was people being left without a response to questions and queries, which were
sometimes negative. This meant it was affecting the companys customer service
rating, and could lead to a bad reputation for the business, which would affect the
number of people investing in Spotify Premium services compared to the amount
investing in competitors. There are a few ways we plan to tackle this:

Constant social media presence, meaning someone in always on hand

to deal with complaints as they arise.


Updates for any faults on all social media platforms, so if
there Is anything major affecting a large amount of users,
people are informed and kept up to date with the
progress of repairing the issue.
Set new targets for the speed of which complaints via social media will
be responded to.
Ensure no one should be left without a response for over 12 hours.
Create a new strategy which encourages users who are complaining to
use software on the Spotify website to take the complaints away from
the public.
Be sure that you act in a polite and professional manner, even when
the issue is extremely small, ensuring people know that you are
apologetic for the issue.

3. Innovating and Exploring

The social media pages need to ensure they do not become boring and traditional, so
people can continue to interact. As a business that is constantly staying up to date
with technology, Spotify UK needs to show this through their social media pages.

Create more exciting campaigns that encourage audiences to retweet,

for example, the Thanks 2016 campaign gained a great social media
presence by users sharing the billboards, however was barely spoken
about on official Spotify accounts.
New photos of updates that users will be able to enjoy soon, so they
can see the planning and understand why Spotify is worth paying for.
Create new photos and images to use on social media to respond to
customers in a fun, innovative way. For example, videos of music
artists used by Spotify responding to users.


Section 7 SMART Objectives

We have created a list of SMART objectives to allow you to see what exactly it is we
are hoping to help your business achieve. SMART objectives are objectives set out that
are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time scaled.

S Ensuring we begin by becoming active in engaging with customer queries

through all social media platforms, and ensuring if a wide issue occurs, generic posts
are distributed to lower the amount of queries coming in.

M Create targets of how to respond efficiently to complaints, and ensure all

questions are answered within 12 hours; therefore customers are never waiting long,
and are not left in the dark about issues.

A Ensure new content is being created to show users on social media how the
company is innovating and encouraging them to remain loyal, as they are receiving a
premium service worth the price.

R Encourage users to complain via Spotify UKs website rather than via social
media, this will make complaints easier to log for the company as well as taking the
complaints off social media where the can be viewed by the media and potential new
customers.

T According to 16 various studies (Ellering, N. and CoSchedule , 2016), the best

times to post on social media is at 1pm, 3pm and 9am. Therefore Spotify must ensure
these are the times they are most active and ready to interact with users at these
times. Relating back to time, the objectives set out, are in a 9-month plan where the
business is to undertake the set out strategies and Outr PR will monitor the results.

These objectives have been set out by Outr PR, as the form a clear plan of what must
be done in order to see the results of your new communication strategy. Along with
the previously discussed strategies, these form a clear indication of the direction the
business must now follow via its social media pages, to form an efficient and effective
communication strategy.


Section 8 Key Messages

Outr PR have set out a number of key messages that will be seen across all social
media platforms to represent your brand. They will be consistent and sell the service
to users, as an investment they should make.

1. Claim Spotify UK constantly have the best technology and apps to enjoy
music on.

Fact Spotify are constantly working to innovate and create new features on
the app for users to enjoy, which they can not get from their competitors such
as Apple Music.

Example Photos of head quarters with people working on the new software,
including tweets discussing how they are working to help the Spotify
community enjoy the best features possible, before any other people can.
Discuss how they are creating something that has never been seen in music
streaming services before.

2. Claim Spotify UKs customers are the most important aspect of the business
and we aim to please them through everything we do.

Fact Spotify respond to customer complaints in less than 12 hours every

time and interact with 90% of the tweets they are mentioned in.

Example When a customer contacts Spotify the issue must be resolved or

discussed within their target time of 12 hours, if not as a premium customer
you are entitled to a month free of Spotify Premium.

All of these will be accompanied by the relevant images and information, where users
can look further into the messages stated via their website. This will also encourage
users who are not currently premium to invest in the membership, in order to enjoy
the premium customer service and interaction that accompanies it.


Section 9 - Evaluation
The evaluation plan we have put together is one of the most important
aspects of the strategy. Outr PR will weekly update Spotify UK on their
progress with the plan, ensuring the plan is working, and update them on social
media statistics. We will also send weekly updates on social media posts we believe to
be relevant to the company, which you can then use to create content for social
media. As well we will have someone constantly updating you with any news within
the media we believe to be relevant to post about.

Audience Interaction
To evaluate the progress, we will use Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics, which
will allow us to see how many responses you have had to posts, as well as see how
many new followers you have gained.

Response Time
To manage response time, we will monitor when complaints come in, when they are
responded to and when the issue is resolved. This will allow us to form a complete
overview of how effective the new 12-hour rule has been. This will also be a step
closer to establishing a new relationship with users where we encourage them to log
complaints through Spotify directly, rather than on social media.

Innovating Content
We will create comparisons from your old content to your new content, where you
will be able to see the difference in both, and the change in image it displays on your
social media. We will also include analytics, which will be able to show you whether
the new content has been a success and how much it has improved your presence.


Section 10 - Conclusion
Our proposal for Spotify UK aims to improve your communication
strategy directly through your social media presence, which is lacking to
interact with users. It will create new innovative social media pages, which encourage
interaction between users and the company.

If you have any further questions, please contact Spotify UKs accounts manager at
Outre PR at:

000000000@outrepr.com


Section 11 Research Documents

Ellering, N. and CoSchedule (2016) What 16 studies say about the best
times to post on social media. Available at: http://coschedule.com/blog/best-times-
to-post-on-social-media/ (Accessed: 7 January 2017).

Peoples, G. (2016) Spotifys $150 Million legal tangle explained. Available at:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6836005/spotify-150-million-lawsuit-
explained (Accessed: 6 January 2017).

culture, team and diversity (2015) Searching for a tech job? Join Honeypot! Available
at: http://blog.honeypot.io/2015-11-13-whats-it-like-to-work-at-Spotify/ (Accessed: 4
January 2017).