Marketing Articles

Striking A Chord With Consumers: Reaching Markets Through Music

Regardless of ethnicity, language, race, or gender, consumers all over the world listen to music as a form of entertainment, and
marketers are beginning to catch onto the potential to reach their target markets by sponsoring concerts and
local musical events.

From global organizations such as Live Nation to smaller, community-based performances such as the Savannah Music Festival, financial institutions have numerous possibilities to sponsor and/or partner with community organizers to reach an unprecedented amount of consumers. In addition to providing companies with the ability to access their target markets, sponsorships of community-sponsored events are beneficial for branding purposes, as the association of a corporation with a specific cause will allow consumers to better process and remember the company information they receive.

Recently, several financial institutions have embraced this non-traditional strategy to generate awareness and connect with consumers on an emotional level. For example, Citi’s partnership with Live Nation secured them the opportunity to also contract with organizers of Billy Joel’s “Last Play at Shea”. Because of this alliance, Citi card holders had access to pre-sale concert tickets, unreleased artist content, and backstage passes, among other unique offerings. This concert gave Citi the unprecedented opportunity to reach large amounts of consumers and to develop personal connections with attendees built around the music.

Other financial institutions in addition to Citigroup are latching onto the idea of sponsoring musical events, even if they are not on as grand a scale as Live Nation. In fact, to reach a particular type of consumer, local functions may be the way to go. As an example, Fifth Third Bank sponsored the Waterfront Independence Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, as this event gave the bank an opportunity to reach a well-defined type of consumer in a local setting to create a deeper emotional connection and stronger brand loyalty.

In addition, ING serves as an example of an organization that recognized a need to improve awareness among a particular market and effectively executed a strategy of event sponsorship to promote its financial services. By sponsoring Marc Anthony’s Latino tour, ING successfully introduced a creative, unique method of reaching Hispanic customers.

ING’s example strives to articulate the larger point that alliances with music organizations afford an opportunity to reach both large amounts of people and a highly-segmented group of people. In fact, reaching out to small communities may grant financial institutions a more affordable and promising opportunity to step up their branding efforts. In other words, sponsorship of national concerts and local events can be seen as a long-term part of the marketing mix, as opposed to a one-time occurrence that merely increases awareness. Building high-levels of affinity and loyalty to a brand takes time, and music provides a gateway for developing that highly-coveted emotional connection with consumers.