Sustainable or Holistic Marketing

Bookmyshow.com started with a concept of Sustainable or Holistic Marketing and it is living up to the same

• This form of organization, in which everything is being performed digitally and which leads to saving a lot of paper can be a very good brand ambassador or sponsor of Go Green initiatives

• We know that world is going digital and electronic is the next big thing. There are many print magazines which have completely moved on to digital media

• All the transactions are performed digitally i.e without the use of paper money, the booking confirmations or receipts given are digital and not paper based

• Hence, bookmyshow.com in that regard initiated as an organization thinking on the same lines

• Also, bookmyshow.com is equally involved with corporate social responsibility initiatives as it gives a service in exclusive listing to donate Rs. 1/- for "Book a Smile" initiative run by Akanksha, an NGO.  

Logo of Akanksha

About The Akanksha Foundation

The Akanksha Foundation is a budding non-profit organization with a vision to equip all students with three quintessential ingredients to build their lives. Namely education, skills and character. Akanksha primarily deals with the field of education. Addressing non-formal education through the Akanksha centres and formal education via initiating school reforms

• Bookmyshow.com also gives service to purchase being human  t-shirts through its portal. Being Human is an NGO started by bollywood actor Salman Khan. Message displayed on bookmyshow.com by being human is shown below:-

Being Human: The Salman Khan Foundation supports the twin causes of education and healthcare. For every official Being Human t-shirt that you purchase, Rs.100 goes to the foundation. So, please don't buy pirated tees. We thank you for Being Human. 

Logo of Being Human

Therefore, Bookmyshow.com is the thing to be in future. World is moving to digital media and it is already a big player in its segment which will add up to its brand and revenues. Supporting the social causes along with being environmental friendly organization is what every organization should aspire for

Future Beckons, Bookmyshow.com is ready. Are you?

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) and Marketing Strategies

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of bookmyshow.com:-

Segmentation,Targeting and Positioning Model

SEGMENTATION:-

As Discussed earlier in the blog on "Socio Economic Classification", the segmented market for bookmyshow.com would be customers belonging to Class A and Class B of the socioeconomic class. In these classes, there can be customers belonging to different groups as everyone in these given class may not techno friendly to use the website or may not be owning any mean to make online payments such as credit cards or debit cards. However, we know what kind of population to target among the whole population, and we can decide upon the target audience after this

TARGETING:-


Among the people discussed above, people who are technologically sound, know the use of internet and have the means of making online payments should only be targeted. These can be people living in metropolitan cities or in tier I cities. Such customers can also be found in tier II or below cities, however, majority f the target audience will be residing in the tier I and metropolitan cities

POSITIONING:-


Positioning of bookmyshow.com as a brand can be done through all forms of media channels. As boomyshow.com acts as a service provider for a third party, hence, the products of the third party can be advertised along with bookmyshow.com as print advertisements or radio advertisements. Price of the service provided should be such that it should not let people feel the pinch of paying extra for a service. More services in distribution can be given to position the brand as customer friendly and promotion can be done through marketing strategies discussed below

Marketing Strategies:-

•  Marketing for bookmyshow.com can be done through Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC), because the service is provided online, hence the target group can be met mostly on the internet rather than on any other media

• Marketing can be done through print advertisements of the events at offerings, in the English dailies and magazines being circulated in the cities mentioned above

• Radio advertisements in the above mentioned cities will also help in gaining recognition among the consumers and help in creating awareness about the services offered

• Advertisements should be aligned with the credit card bills going to the customers

• Awareness can be done at various computer teaching institutes so that people come to know about e-ticketing and it's benefits

• Strategy can be associated with go green initiatives as using e-ticketing saves paper

• Advertisements can be put on social networking websites such as facebook.com, youtube.com, twitter.com etc

• Applications being developed for the above social networking websites can be done

• Marketing can be done through applications developed for smart phones such as iPhones, Blackberry, Samsung etc

• Customers should be asked  to share about their experiences of booking through conventional channels and booking through bookmyshow.com. Videos should be uploaded on youtube.com or on bookmyshow.com on homepage

• Public engagement campaigns can be arranged by bookmyshow.com at the time of a big ticket release or a big event so that maximum people get to know about bookmyshow.com

• Bookmyshow.com can also start going for television commercials that it does not do yet. It only features in the advertisement of the event producers, but it can start doing it on its own

 

• Bookmyshow.com can also opt for out of home media as it does not advertise on its own. It can be seen along with the hoarding of the event organizer. It should start advertising on its own on such channels

Organizational Buying Behaviour

According to the definition given in Marketing Management by Philip Kotler,  - "Organizational buying is the decision making process by which formal organizations establish the need for purchased products and services and identify, evaluate, and choose among alternative brands and suppliers"

In the case of bookmyshow.com, it is acting like a service provider or an agent for the products or services being produced by any other organization. Hence, the role of organizational buying decisions is very limited in scope for bookmyshow.com

Bookmyshow.com has only one objective i.e. to maximize its offering in terms of online ticket sales are concerned.Hence, evaluating and choosing brands and suppliers do not play a significant role in the decision making till the time the event they want to sell tickets for is profitable enough to go for online sales

Hence, bookmyshow.com defines the organizational buying behavior not in the terms of choosing the products but in the terms of services being offered to only clients who are profitable to work with, have substantial demand among the customers using e-ticketing sources and who would like to forge a long lasting relationship with bookmyshow.com

Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior for any business can be understood by the following model :-

Stimulus Response Model of Consumer Behavior

In the case of Bookmyshow.com:-

Marketing Stimuli:-

• It is dependent on price, place (distribution), products and services and promotions communications). 
• Consumer behavior is surely stimulated by the various discounted prices offered at the website
• There is no physical distribution channel of the services but the service is available where internet is available, hence, it is easy to use for technologically sound population
• Various services offered by bookmyshow.com such as home delivery of tickets surely acts as a catalyst to use the website for booking tickets
• Communications for the website is done in newspapers, magazines, television commercials or with any advertisement of an event being ticketed by bookmyshow.com, hence, people are able to acknowledge the presence of bookmyshow.com   

Environmental Stimuli:-

• Various factors covered in this stimuli are economic, technological, political, cultural,demographic, natural and social
• Economic and technological stimulus which leads to cultural stimulus is evident here because people with good economic status are able to afford the payment gateways such as credit cards. People with lesser economic status have access to debit cards, however they might not know to use it on internet. Similarly, an economically sound person will be able to afford the technology or deeply motivated person of lesser economic status will be using public portals such as cyber cafes to use the technology, which leads to a cultural stimuli
• Cultural Stimuli are the things that the human being grasps from their near and dear ones since the childhood. Hence, if parents are economically and technologically sound, children are to bound to be on the same wavelength
• There is no political or natural significance to buying on bookmyshow.com
• Demographic stimuli is surely present because people belonging to major towns such as Delhi, Mumbai will be using the website oftener than people belonging to tier II and tier III cities
• Social stimuli also plays an important part because most of the people tend to know about a 0 level service by word of mouth

Consumer's Psychology:-

• Consumer's Psychology can be defined by attitude, motivation, learning, memory, perception, personality, lifestyle and knowledge
• A person having attitude,motivation of using online services is bound to gain better from the service
• Learning, knowledge and keeping in memory the usage of the service also plays an important role
• Perception of the service is also a significant part. Consumer should have positive vibes before using the service
• It also depends on personality as some people are too cautious or finicky against the usage of credit cards for online usage
• Lifestyle also forms an important part as some people tend to book online out of choice of using credit cards oftener than paper money

 Decision Process:-

•  There are 5 stages to the buying decision process:-
• Problem recognition - People realizing the need to book first or ease of booking may lead them to use online e-ticketing options
• Information Search - In this case, as majority of the market is held by bookmyshow.com, it may be a case that other alternatives may not be too much visible during information search
• Evaluation of alternatives - Same case as information search, if the event to be witnessed by the consumer is available on the website, they do not have any other option than to book online through the same website only. The other option available is buying tickets physically from the box office, ticket window or concierge, or through other vendors such as cafe coffee day etc if they had a tie up with event production company
• Purchase Decision - Entirely dependent on the choice of the customer and the amount customer is willing to pay or not for the tickets and services
• Post - Purchase Behavior - Consumers can be satisfied or dissatisfied with the product or service. Hence, it varies form customer to customer

Purchase Decision:- 

• Product Choice - Its a pull buying, hence, entirely dependent upon the choice of the customer
• Brand Choice - No question of it, as ticket of a particular cinema will be present on only one website, hence, no choice given for brand
• Dealer Choice - Same as above, one event, one dealer, no choice
• Purchase amount - This plays the most important part in the behavior. If website gives the maximum discount to the customers or charges heavily to the customers, both the cases are going to have long lasting positive and negative impacts respectively
•  Purchase Timing - Most of the bookings are done at the eleventh hour of the event. Hence, supply for the tickets increases as the start of the day gets nearing
• Payment Method - Only online transactions are possible , hence, people able to afford online payment are able to use the services

Sales Management

Let us examine the sales management system of an online ticketing organization such as bookmyshow.com  with the help of a figure:-

Sales mechanism of an online ticketing system

Sales Management in an online ticketing organization such as bookmyshow.com does not involves any sales person, as the sales methodology is PULL BASED rather than push based. However, the sales mechanism is structured with the help of regular IT services.

 The mechanism follows this single steps:-

1. Customers log on to the website at the place of their convenience
2. Customers choose their preference of tickets and the request for buying goes to the servers
3. Servers redirect the request to the servers of the various payment gateways such as VISA, CITIBANK in case of credit card payments, various bank gateways for debit card payments or any other options
4. If the payment gets approved, customers get a confirmation of their ticket(s). If payment is not approved, then customers get a message of regret or payment failure
5. Customers with approved payments also receive an sms and an e-mail on their registered mobile number and e-mail respectively so as to show it at the concierge or box office to get the physical tickets 
6. Customers might also be required to take a print out of the booking confirmation received on an e-mail, in case the ticket issuer demands so

The other part that sales team might be undertaking is reaching to maximum number of customers, letting them know the benefits of online ticketing and making sure that the count of the customers keeps on increasing month by month

Distribution Decision

DISTRIBUTION DECISION

Distribution is the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user, using direct means, or using indirect means with intermediaries

Bookmyshow.com is a 1 level distribution channel but not in the true sense as it is not the only retailer of the services. It just acts as an agent or a services provider. Companies routing through bookmyshow.com also sell the tickets on their own

Various Distribution Channels

In the case of bookmyshow.com which provides the services through the virtual world. Hence, the form of physical distribution cycle is not of relevance in the case of bookmyshow.com as there is no physical distriution of products and services take place except the home delivery of tickets in case of any special sports event or a big scale music event

In this case, customers themselves come to the seller instead it being the other way around.

Distribution decision plays an important role in terms of making tickets reach the venues, such as in IPL where the booking has been centralized through the website. However, some people are expected to collect the ticket either from the stadium or one of the partner outlets such as Cafe Coffee Day

Till now, the distribution is seasonal and in the near future, there might be a possibility of increase in distribution services, in case bookmyshow.com plans for expansion and ventures into other categories than entertainment ticketing

Promotion for IMC / ATL / BTL

IMC --> Integrated Marketing Communications
ATL --> Above the line
BTL --> Below the line

Promotions by the bookmyshow.com are done in an integrated marketing environment through the use of both above the line and below the line advertising techniques. Primarily, above the line marketing techniques are used as below the line marketing strategies do not suit the online ticketing domain

ATL and BTL Methodologies

Above the line:-
Promotions of bookmyshow.com can be seen in newspapers, magazines, television or on outdoor boards also and also can be heard on the radio, however, most of the advertisements are sponsored by the client who has only one mode of selling tickets

Below the line:-

In below the line promotions, various discount coupons are sent to the customers who have made a purchase through the website and ordered for home delivery of the tickets. In that sense, it leads to direct customer contact