Assignment for Pace University
At Pace University we the absolute pleasure of having, Doug Herzog the President of Viacom’s Entertainment Group, comprising of Comedy Central, Spike, and TV Land as a guest speaker. During Mr. Herzog’s interview, he mentioned “branding strategy”, to expand the Entertainment Groups by emerging new platforms including mobile apps, websites, and video on demand. In today’s society the importance of a Branding Strategy is a crucial entity in achieving success as a manager. Among the 4Ps of Marketing (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) product, generally is most relevant.
Product is what the consumer wants. In Mr. Herzog’s case it is what viewers tune in to his networks to see. In his efforts on trying to expand the Entertainment Group, the management team over at Viacom has to take in consideration if the product continuously meets the needs of the consumers want. The viewer of Viacom’s networks have to stay interested and engaged in the content created. For example Mr. Herzog discussed Comedy Central’s incessant search and maintaining of fresh, new comedy shows and comedians. The audiences at hand tend to go through phases where the shows that they do like to watch are similar, say another show like South Park and Family Guy may be created because viewers respond to mature contented animation. Will the target audience like it, is a question that comes to mind at the drawing board of managers.
Product is also relevant to the “branding strategy” that Mr. Herzog talked about. It is important to the long-term goal that Mr. Herzog has for Viacom. Not only does it set a precedent for other factions of the company but it creates a reputation as well. Within Viacom’s Entertainment group the goal of the “branding strategy” is to attract and maintain viewership. Mr. Herzog discussed expanding onto different platforms. One thing that Doug Herzog said in his discussion was that, with the degree that he graduated from college his job did not yet exist. Like the existence of his job, many entities that can help his company grow did not exist. Placing the product on mobile apps reaches the audiences who are technologically savvy and spend a lot of their idle time on their devices. Access to the product via websites and video on demand increases viewership to those who can’t make it to watch these shows at regularly scheduled times. An example of a branding strategy is Viacom network, VH1. VH1 worked with a design team to redesign the logo and network identity. Their branding strategy is using the idea of a plus sign. (+) “The ultimate mash up of music + pop culture + nostalgia.” This strategy seemed to work because the networks primetime rating increased by 33% and increased total viewership in primetime by 14%.
Personally I believe that the product is the most important element, but overall the goal of the 4Ps of Marketing is to increase audience growth. Mr. Herzog had implausible advice and his company was a great motivation for my own personal goals and aspirations.
DJ Jean 