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Introduction:

Creative Industries (a term borrowed by Richard Caves) like arts, film, music, television,
book and magazine publishing share certain key economic properties: among other things,
demand is highly uncertain, products are primarily differentiated based on su bjective rather
than objective dimensions of quality, and time is of the essence in that there is a need for a
tight coordination of production activities and a timely realization of revenues. While it is
difficult to come to an exact definition, taken tog ether, these properties distinguish creative
industries from other sectors of the economy. i

The power of music is undeniable; the loyalty showered upon those who create it,
unmatched; and the lessons for corporate business leaders, boundless. It is diffic ult to think
of any product or industry that evokes more emotional intensity from its followers than rock
and roll. Their attitudes and behaviour shatter the traditional measures of customer loyalty
in terms of reach, quantity, and degree to define outrigh t fanaticismͶthe ultimate level of
devotion a firm can hope to receive from its customers. ii

Rock is the greatest music genre of all time, be it number of years of its popularity , number
of artists, albums sold, concerts held or any other parameter. This gives me a great
opportunity to learn from the rock bands which have survived test of times for a number of
years that can be compared with a firm. Among the rock bands I have heard many visionary
geniuses in the way they created ͞customer value,͟ promoted s ocial networking, and did
strategic business planning for example The Beatles, U2, and Grateful Dead etc to stand
themselves different from other bands of their times.

Management learning from rock bands could be extraordinarily complex to find. Along with
being conceptually intriguing, this topic is verbally challenging. This study is to understand
how some bands were topping the charts whereas other similar sounding bands became
just one-hit wonders, and document the same.

£tatement of the Problems:

Why do some bands and musicians stand the test of time, producing hits decade after
decade, while others are doomed to one -hit-wonder infamy?

How can firms build sustainable businesses in creative industries?

The purpose of this study is to discuss and analyse the three concepts, sustainable
competitive advantage, innovation and organizational longevity by drawing parallels from
the bands I will study. I will attempt to draw a relation between advantages which in turn
create sustainable competitive advantage which in turn improve chances of survival. More
specifically, we will work out each of the concepts in relation to the rock music industry and
look if the three interact as mentioned above.

£urvey of background literature

Anita Elberse, Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School is a

leading expert on marketing strategies and has publish her research in top academic
journals in the field of marketing, economics, and management. As a teacher on the
͚creative industries͛ she has also covered music industry to understand what drives the
success of bands in this industry and how firms can develop effective marketing strategies
for their products. Her research currently focuses on two major questions:

1. How can firms increase the success of new products in creative industries?
2. How can firms build sustainable businesses in creative industries?
According to her the first question considers challenges at the product level where as second one
focuses on issues at the level of the firm (in our case a band) and its portfolio of products.

In their book, ͞Brands that Rock: What music industry can teach marketers about customer
loyalty͟, Roger Blackwell & Tina Stephen take readers behind the music to uncov er how
businesses can create brands that become adopted by culture and capture a long -term
position in the marketplace. Brands That Rock takes a unique, behind -the-music look at how
businesses can increase brand awareness, customer loyalty, and profits by implementing
some of the same strategies that legendary bands have used to transform customers into
fan and create deep, emotional connections with them. Stephan and Blackwell also examine
how businesses, from Victoria͛s Secret and Wal -Mart to Cadillac and Kraft, have
implemented ͚rock and roll strategies͛ to become adopted by culture and secure fans in
their own right.

John͛ O Leary, who moved from being a band member to management consultant, in
working on his book ͞Cool Teams: Business Lessons from Rock͟ in which he would compare
business teams with rock bands. He mentions how band like Simon &Garfunkel, Sonny Terry
& Brownie and others have used personal tensions for innovative gains similar to what
manager at work place try to achieve thorough managed conflicts.

My study will be in line with the existing literature and I would try to find how bands were
able to come up with good music through innovation and also were able to adopt correct
marketing strategy to create sustainable competitive advantage over others in that era.

£tudy Methodology:

I plan to select few successful as well as unsuccessful bands from 60͛s to 90͛s and
understand what lead to their success or failure by reading more about the band. This
selection will be primarily by genre. For each band their formation, lineup, albums, tours,
managers, sound engineers, and record labels will be studied to find the influence each one
had on the band͛s popularity.

Below mentioned tools will help in analysing the band more structurally:

1. SWOT analysis

2. Porter͛s five forces model

3. The Product Lifecycle

4. Core Competencies

5. Value net

These findings will be then analysed from innovation, sustainable competitive advantage
and organizational longevity perspective.

Time Lines:

£

  
    

 Project proposal July 25st
 Short listing of bands July 25th- Aug 30th
 Summary on each band selected (monthly report) Sep - Nov
 Analysing and generalising findings across bands December 15st
 Final report (1st draft) Jan 15th
 Final report (2nd draft) February 1st

÷eferences:

Books and papers:

Elberes Anita, (Current Research), Creative Industries,

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Peter Drucker (1977), An Introductory View of Management, Harper & Row Publishers.

Glenn Rifkin (1997) , How to ͞Truck͟ the Brand: Lessons from the Grateful Dead, Strategy +
Business Magazine, First quater 1997, Issue6.
Koehn Nancy, Miller Katherine, and Wilcox Rachel (2009), U2 and Bono ,Harvard Business
School

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Stephen Davis (1985), Hammer of the Gods , William Morrow & Co.

Kyle Anderson (2007), Accidental Revolution: The Story of Grunge Rock , St.Martin Griffin.

Porter, M.E. (1980) Competitive Strategy, Free Press, New York.

Porter, M.E. (1985) Competitive Advantage, Free Press, New York.

Porter, M.E. (1991) " Towards a Dynamic Theory of Strategy", Strategic Management
Journal, 12 (Winter Special Issue), pp. 95 -117.

Roger Blackwell & Tina Stephen (2004), Brands that rock: What music industry can teach
marketers about customer loyalty, John Wiley &Sons

^ocumentary and film series:

1. VH1 Rock Docs (rebroadcasts of music documentaries originally produced for other
networks or for video (VHS or DVD) release ), VH1 Classic

2. Classic Albums (1997 ʹ 2008), Isis Production

3. Seven Ages of Rock (2007), BBC Worldwide & VH1

4. John Dower (2003), Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop , Warner Bros

Tentative Table of Contents

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

3. Strategy in dynamic world

4. Three concepts for dynamics

{Y Innovation
{Y Competitive Advantage
{Y Longevity

5. History of rock
6. Value creation by rock bands

7. Bands analysis

8. Findings/Analysis

9. Conclusion

10. Scope for further study

11. References


  


 

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i
Anita Elberese, Current research on Creative Industries
ii
Roger Blackwell & Tina Stephen (2004), Brands that rock: What music industry can teach marketers about
customer loyalty, John Wiley &Sons