Question

Not Easy Being Indie

Tough time to be in the retail music business. That wasn't always the case as chains such as Sam Goody's and Tower Records competed for side by side with thousands of independent record stores. Back in the day, one of the best independents was Millennium Music in Charleston, South Carolina—perennially winning awards for best CD store and best store staff. But things change. Millennium Music owner Kent Wagner had done everything possible to fight the changing tide brought on by the rise of digital music: At the apex of the business, Wagner owed seven stores, but for seven straight years, Millennium had suffered double-digit revenue declines.

"We always thought of ourselves as a community center, a meeting place," says Wagner. "We knew the industry was in decline, but we thought we were different."

It turned out Millennium wasn't different. And Wagner and his business partner, Clayton Woodson, soon faced a stark choice: fold up the business completely and walk away, or attempt to transform it into something entirely different. The once-hot business had but one glowing ember left: a small but growing online trading business that allowed customers to exchange used CDs, DVDs, and books for electronics—iPods and the like. Millennium was able to make money by reselling the used merchandise on Amazon, eBay, and other sites. Millennium was launched by Wagner in 1994 with the focus of creating a thinking person's music store. Their competitive advantage was based on an inventory of hard-to-find records with large classical and jazz sections and stellar customer service. Millennium would make music connoisseurship friendly and accessible.

In the early years, that philosophy worked well, and revenue grew some 20 percent annually. At its peak, Millennium generated sales of about $10 million annually. Live bands played regularly, Millennium hosted a live-jazz happy hour, and they held book readings. Wagner opened a restaurant and a bar and expanded to book sales and DVD rentals. But the seismic industry shifts that put Sam Goody's, Tower Records, and many others out of business started catching up to Millennium. As the years rolled by, the losses mounted. Wagner's empire was hemorrhaging, and he was soon ready to try anything. In 2006, he turned for help to his marketing director, Clayton Woodson, whose eclectic background included making furniture, teaching first grade at a charter school in New York, and teaching acrobatic yoga. "Clayton tends to see looking at the abyss as a growing experience," says Wagner. "I'm the opposite."

That glowing ember of Millennium's business—the used-CD section—gave Woodson an idea. Customers often came in hoping to exchange their old CDs for store credit. What if Millennium could formalize the process to entice additional customers by offering to trade iPods for used CDs? In the summer of 2005, he persuaded Wagner to give the idea a try. Woodson soon had another insight: Buying a used CD online was cheaper than buying an MP3 album through iTunes. If Millennium moved its iPod trading program online, it could collect discs from across the globe, profitably resell them online, and still undercut iTunes's prices. Millennium launched FeedYourPlayer.com in 2006. Traffic soared from a few hundred visitors per week to more than 6,000 items a week. By 2007, the online exchange brought in $400,000 of

Millennium's $1.7 million in revenue.

FeedYourPlayer's performance was heading in the exact opposite direction of Millennium's lone remaining store. In its last full year of operation, the store lost nearly $1 million. In September 2007, Wagner called a company meeting with his 50 or so remaining employees. He delivered the news that many had already foreseen. The retail business was dying. The future was online. The store would remain open, but resources would be put toward building FeedYourPlayer. Employees were still upset even if they had seen the changes coming. Millennium's music buyer quit when he realized the emphasis would be peddling used CDs rather than fresh releases.

Wagner understood his employees' anguish. He says, "staff members were accustomed to being tastemakers." Wagner felt the conflict himself. He clung to the hope that the huge changes might save the store. "When you spend so much of your energy fighting against the blindingly obvious," says Wagner, "you can lose your focus on the big picture."

Required

Question 1

1a. Using the strategic planning process, describe three core problems to be solved by Millennium?

1b. Explain four potential alternative solutions to the problem identified in 1a.

1c. Design a marketing plan for Millenniums FeedYourPlayer.

Question 2

Conduct an external environmental analysis to ascertain if a small business In Ghana can adapt to the business model of Millennium FeedYourPlayer.

Answer 1

Answer:-

1a)

The strategic planning process is a blend of 6 stages.

1. Know the story

2. Examination and target setting

3. relative appraisal and execution assessment.

4. Strategic arrangement

5. Execution

6. backing and input.

Presently for this situation we have to comprehend the entire circumstance and make sense of the principle problems:

1. Change in inclination of clients from CD to computerized music.

2. absence of precise record-maintaining of music in control and as indicated by their classification.

3. Trade of CD DVDs and iPods. so it limits the expense so the benefit additionally diminished.

4. Flat extension of business so there was no related development in the first business so face trouble to embrace the market request.

1b)

Alternative solutions:

- When there is a major change in inclination then it is smarter to change the business in like manner from CDto computerized form. So it will better if the Millenium will be the main computerized music supplier with a wide scope of assortments.

- Making all the favored music into computerized structure. So here the market is serious and in computerized structure, it is anything but difficult to spread it over the market. The Millenium has given level extension rather than vertical which was the greatest misstep. so it can grow its business from CD offering to changing it into advanced structures. in spite of the fact that they have embraced this thought later yet it fizzled as the market was loaded with contenders.

- Advancement and versatility were the best alternative solutions for this business. As the client needs progressed and the most recent music onto the organization should be refreshed in like manner. So organization can consider more digitalization with online stages.

- The store is having as of now ubiquity in the market so it can exploit that and set up the online business as indicated by the music sweethearts' interest.

1c)

Feed your player is an altered variant of selling or trading CDs, DVDs, and iPods. it ought to elevate increasingly online business to take care of your player as opposed to going to the station. it can give the classification and furthermore can give the office to the client to pick their own playlist. so the client will be progressively energetic to do as such. they will be unquestionably prepared to pay an insignificant add up to abstain from visiting the store.

2)

A small organization in a nation like Ghana wont be prescribed to utilize a similar business model of Millennium's FeedYourPlayer. The straightforward explanation is that a small organization is right around a beginning up and doesnt hold any past great experience on the most proficient method to complete a business. There are different aspects to take a gander at when you are beginning a business.

Any association develops bit by bit and takes times. This small organization needs to initially distinguish on what thier quality is and what sort of item/administrations they can offer? When the quality is recognized, You can work your way towards accomplishing the equivalent.

Its recommended, that the organization begins a small scope holding its costs to the least. This is significant as this structures a piece of experimentation. When a solid hold is accomplished on its client, they can grow further.

Please please like the answer.......