Category: Entertainment

Introduction

Red Zone Entertainment is a family-owned production company located in Atlanta and it is rated amongst the best production entities across the world. It is estimated that the firm accounts for about 25 million albums in the world market (Red Zone Entertainment 2014). The company’s success is due to collaboration with popular writers, producers, and artists such as Rihanna, Justin Beiber, and Britney Spears. The company opened its doors in the year 1995 as a small family company, but it has now expanded to be a big firm through mergers and acquisitions (Edmiston & Thomas 2004). Its founders were tow bothers, viz. Christopher Stewart and Mark E. Stewart.

The two brothers were brought up in a family that engaged in music business and probably that childhood exposure to music prompted their involvement in the business. Their mother and two sisters were artists and they were employed by famous artists of the day. The two brothers entered the music business world in 1989 when one of the brothers opened a music company, viz. the “Minute Men Music”, which offered writing and recording services. The company hired family members and it had no outside family staff. The company moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in the year 1992 where it established its offices.

In 1984, the two brothers signed a deal with L.A. Reid, and this aspect required them to move from Los Angeles to Atlanta (Red Zone Entertainment 2014). The company established its offices in Atlanta in 1995 through the help of Reid. The company gained popularity in 1998 when Christopher Stewart produced his first record the “Who Dat”, which ranked first in the Billboard Rap chart in 1999. In 1998, Stewart and his writers wrote Mýa’s “Case of the Ex”. The record was ranked at number 12 on the Hot Singles Sales and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The album is still among the Hot 100 even today. The company entered a recording deal with Sole to produce her song, viz. the “Skin Deep”, which the company successfully released in 1999 (Edmiston & Thomas 2004). The song was ranked at number 127 on the Billboard 200 and at number 27 on the hot hip-hop albums. The company continued to sign agreements with major producers and in the year 1998, it engaged producers such as Kevin “She’kspere” Briggs and Eric “Nealante” Phillips, thus boosting the firm further (Johns 2010).

Major decisions by the company

Managers must make certain decisions in the course of doing business (Loch, Chick & Huchzermeier 2008). Such decisions are based on the managers’ readiness to take risks. Since the formation of the Red Zone Entertainment, its owners have been actively involved in making decisions on the company’s affairs. The decision to change the business location from Los Angeles to Atlanta is probably the most crucial move since it paved way for the company to meet new clients. The company’s relocation marked the beginning of its success as it collaborated with writers and producers and this aspect has helped enormously in improving the quality of production.

The company’s managers demonstrated their readiness to take risks when they agreed to move their business from Los Angeles to Atlanta. In Atlanta, the company pursued its dreams to meet and sign business deals with artists with great influence. Another decision that has facilitated the company’s good performance is the contract with UOMO Media Inc. This contract allowed UOMO Media to manage Red Zone Entertainment on behalf of its owners (Red Zone Entertainment 2014). UOMO Media Inc. is a production company that records and directs rational media content.

Creativity has characterized the company since its formation (Johns 2010). However, the most reckonable innovation was seen in 2003 when the company changed from a producer-based company to an innovative community by supporting and merging with many writers and producers. The decision by the company to work together with such artists boosted the company’s performance. Through these mergers, the company gained popularity and created its reputation courtesy of quality work achieved due to the introduction of new skills. The new skills introduced are converted into quality work, which explains why the company is currently listed among the best music producing companies in the world.

Effect of the decisions made

The company has benefited a lot from the decisions explained in the preceding section. The company has acted as a bridge for new artists on top of engaging in mutual benefit agreements (Edmiston & Thomas 2004). Its work has been excellent as seen from the popularity of artists whose work is produced by the company. The two aforementioned decisions enabled the company to acquire clients and improve its quality of production, thus leading to increased profits.

For instance, the company became popular following the production of an album by Blu Cantrell in the 2000. The artist was new in the music industry, but through the support offered by Red Zone Ent., the artist emerged as the best new artist of the time. Cantrell’s first album, which is known as So Blu, was released to the public in 2001 and it ranked eight on the Billboard 100 (Rushton & Thomas 2005). In addition to the song being amongst the top hits in the Billboard 100, the artist was nominated for the Best New Artist in the Granny Awards. The artist in collaboration with Red Zone Company produced yet another album, viz. “the Bittersweet”, which also did well in the Billboard 100 (Red Zone Entertainment 2014).

The album “Me against the Music” by Britney Spears as produced by the Red Zone saw the company acquire recording contracts when the album ranked first in the Billboard Music. Stewart secured recording contracts following the listing of the song as the best in the Billboard Music. Creativity has enabled the company to produce quality work for it artists, thus building reputation and increasing income.

The song “Umbrella” by Rihanna had a great impact on the company’s ratings. After the release of the song, the company won a contract to produce another song, viz. “The-Dream” (Red Zone Entertainment 2014). The song “Umbrella” was listed among the top ten best songs on the Entertainment Weekly magazine and it won a number of awards. In addition, the song broke the iTunes’ record, thus boosting the company’s reputation further. The company secured recording contracts from different top artists and it was listed among the best producing companies in the world. The success was due to good quality of production resulting from decisions to merge with experienced producers.

In 2008, the company produced an album for Mariah Carey, which topped in the top 100 charts and later the “Obsessed” album that ranked 27. The company also received a major boost in 2008 following the nomination of the song, “The-Dream”, by Mariah Carey, Christopher Stewart, Crystal Johnson, and Terius to the MTV awards. The song ranked number one in the Billboard (Red Zone Entertainment 2014). Since Red Zone had produced the album, its reputation was built further.

The company has also benefited greatly from the decision by its owners to hire UOMO Media Inc. to manage the business on their behalf. Under the management of UOMO Media Inc., the company had its albums rated top in the recording charts. The majority of the songs that emerged top in the recording charts came from artists such as Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Snoop Dogg who worked with Red Zone Entertainment. This aspect is a clear indicator that the company benefited greatly from the management services offered by UOMO Media Inc.

Conclusion

Decisions made by the management of any company determine its success or failure. The owners of Red Zone Entertainment adopted strategies aimed at increasing efficiency and effectiveness of the company. Firstly, the company changed its location from Los Angeles to Atlanta in search for better business deals. Secondly, the company collaborated with experienced writers and producers who introduced new skills, thus improving the quality of production. The partnerships allowed the company to produce quality work for its clients thus leading to the nomination of its artists for various awards. The company acquired production contracts from top artists due to increased quality of their work. The key decisions that the Red Zone’s management includes moving from Los Angeles to Atlanta coupled with letting UOMO Media to run its operations. Therefore, the company’s decisions contributed significantly to its success.

Reference List

Edmiston, K & Thomas, M 2004, ‘The commercial music industry in Atlanta and the State of Georgia: an economic impact study’, The Journal of the Music and Entertainment Industry Educator’s Association, vol.4, no.1, pp. 61-81. Web.

Johns, G 2010, Avengers: Red Zone, Marvel Publishing, New York. Web.

Loch, C, Chick, S & Huchzermeier, A 2008, Management Quality and Competitiveness: Lessons from the Industrial Excellence Awards, Springer, New York. Web.

Red Zone Entertainment: History. 2014. Web.

Rushton, M & Thomas, R 2005, The economics of the commercial music industry in Atlanta and the state of Georgia: industrial organization and new estimates of economic impacts. 2014. Web.

Taking the movies of the Twilight Saga as the main product of focus, it can be stated that the product cycle of the saga is in its saturation and decline stage. With the last installment of the series being released four months ago, while the coming up movie is still approximately a year to be released, the identification of the product cycle can be seen as the maturity stage. The latter can be seen true for the last installment of the series, i.e. Twilight Saga: Eclipse, released in June as well as for the overall series, including the one yet to be released.

The classification of a maturity stage can be explained through the sales of the product. The sales pattern in the maturity stages can be identified when “a product’s sales will slow down” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Comparing the theatrical performance of the last two films in the series, i.e. New Moon and Eclipse, it can be stated that the sales slightly went down, $702,623,634 against $690,934,878 (The Numbers, 2010b). It is not in the stage of decline yet, although the growth of the product slowed down.

Another characteristic indicating the maturity stage can be seen through the occurrence of several competitors entering the market. Products such as Vampire Diaries and True Blood, although not direct competitors, being series rather than films shown at the same time with the Eclipse Saga, are indicators that the product reached the maturity stage, creating an overcapacity (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). In this case, the overcapacity can be seen through vampire themed movies and shows directed toward teenagers.

Finally, the last characteristic of the maturity stage can be seen through the extension of the product range. The franchise of Twilight Saga was expanded to include games for iPhone and iPod touch as well as the release of the DVD which is planned for December 2010 (MTV, 2010). The latter can be seen as a marketing element as well as a prolongation of the cycle, where maturity is the longest cycle for the product (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010).

The advertisement selected for the present question is a teaser of Twilight: Eclipse trailer, released on March 10, 2010. Accordingly, the following answers are based on this teaser.

1. The teaser is represented through a 10 seconds clip, featuring footage of two scenes from the film. The teaser does not present any captions, titles, or names. The dialogue in those ten seconds is merely two sentences pronounced by two of the movie’ main protagonists.
2. The main objective of the advertisement is awareness. Accordingly, relying on the successes of the previous installments of the series, the awareness is not directed toward the product or organization (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, p. 433). The latter can be understood through that neither the name of the film appears in the teaser nor the name of its producers/directors. The goal can be seen in creating curiosity on what the product will be about, preparing the audience for the rest of the marketing campaign.
3. The message of the advertisement can be seen through two distinct aspects. The first one is an indication of the date on which the full trailer will be released, such indication was released simultaneously with the teaser, while the full trailer was released a day after. The other message related an element of the plot. Both messages stir up the audience emotionally (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010), through such aspects as curiosity and impatience.
4. The execution style of the ads is more resembling fantasy, as it does not deliver or show any particular information, rather than creating “a fantasy around the product or its use” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Additionally, it can be stated that the execution style also has a personality symbol, where the three main characters in the saga were portrayed in the teaser and they are the ones who represent the product.

The company distributing the product is Summit Entertainment LLC, a distribution studio in the United States (Bloomberg, 2010). Despite the fact that the company is American, it can be considered as a global firm. A global firm can be defined as “firm that, by operating in more than one country, gains R & D, production, marketing and financial advantages in its costs and reputation that are not available to purely domestic competitors” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, p. 571). The main reason for considering Summit a global firm is the view of the world as one market. The latter can be seen through the way revenues are reported in general in the film industry, indicating the revenues in the country of origin and the revenues in the whole world. Another reason for the company to be considered a global firm is that the international gross of the product is one of the main indicators of profitability. For example, the last two installments of the saga garnered worldwide almost 33 percent higher than in the country of origin (The Numbers, 2010a, 2010b). Finally, the reason which is general for the industry in general is that the success or the failure of a product is measured through its global performance, rather than only domestic. In that regard, the film industry can be seen as a global industry, i.e. “one in which the strategic positions of competitors in given geographic or national markets are affected by their overall global positions” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, p. 579).

References

Bloomberg. (2010). Summit Entertainment, LLC. Bloomberg Business Week. Web.

Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of marketing (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.

MTV. (2010). ‘Eclipse’ DVD Gets Official Release Date! MTV Networks. Web.

The Numbers. (2010a). The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Nash Information Services. Web.

The Numbers. (2010b). The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Nash Information Services.