Promozione??Ne parla la sony Germany

Today we called a good longtime contact person at Sony Music Germany. The result of the conversation was: Today, five-and-a-half weeks before the release of Number Ones (based on the release date 17th Nov.), Sony Music Germany has apparaently not yet given an instruction to print promotion material like posters, stand-ups, etc. - all the things that are given to the record stores as decoration to call people's attention to the album. The reason for this is that up to now there has been no advise from Sony Music USA, who give the "Go" for the promotion campaign. There would still be enough time (although it's running short) to print the material, but usually the instructions for this are given two to three months in advance in order to integrate the project into the ongoing production. Therefore it rather looks like the campaign will not be that big and elaborate. This may not be unusual for a Greatest Hits Album, but this somehow fatally reminds us of the miserable promotion of Invincible. When we told our contact that in our opinion releasing the album with four different covers is not the correct method to increase sales figures, and taht to us this rather looks like ripping off the fans, he agreed and said the whole strategy was obviously mainly based on long-time fans, and it was mainly counted on them to buy the album several times. To make our point of view, which we already expressed in yesterday's news more clear: we just think that Michael deserves something better! That's supposed to say: a good marketing and promotion campaign, which does not only count on collectors, but which also gets the general public excited about the King of Pop's new Greatest Hits Album, containing his No. 1 hits and a great new song - a "Must Have" for everybody! At the moment it doesn't look like that's what Sony Music is going to do. But what did we go to the streets to demonstrate for last year? Okay, they "fired" Mottola, but the PR work for MJ doesn't seem to have changed a lot. Maybe this is a wrong impression, and maybe there will really be a nice campaign, but currently Number Ones seems to be heading in the same direction as Invincible. How shall people buy an album when they don't even know it exists? Sure, Michael would still sell his CDs, after all he has enough fans. He also doesn't need big promotion to maintain his titel as King of Pop. But the brand Michael Jackson is a brand like every other big brand - and a big brand has to be maintained and taken care of, too. McDonald's and Coca Cola are known all around the world and are extremely successful - but do their marketing departments lean back, saying "Well, people know us anyway, they'll buy our products without marketing and promotion"? No, they don't! They take care of their brands and promote them like crazy. Because big brands don't just live of so-called "heavy users" (people who constantly buy a product), but also of their image in the general public and the "rank and file". And Michael deserves this general popularity, too. The King of Pop as a brand deserves more engagement in marketing. Just creating four covers, saying "This guarantees good sales figures, now let's do a little promotion as well", is just below his level. Somehow, the fans seem to be in trouble anyway. Those who attach importance to a complete collection will soon buy four European and four US CDs, as well as four DVDs - calculate for yourself what this means to your bank account. Of course not every fan can afford this, even if he/she would love to. So it's either a complete collection and an empty bank account, or do without some editions. Of course nobody has to buy all the editions, but many will want to do so. We doubt that they did the fans a favour with this strategy.

Source: IFC International

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