How Was the Marketing Process of Cirque du Soleil Shifted from a Virtuous to a Vicious (Coursework Sample)

How Was the Marketing Process of Cirque du Soleil Shifted from a Virtuous to a Vicious Circle?
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Abstract
In this dissertation, a strategic marketing plan is defined as the choices and decisions made by a business to make customers aware of the product and the necessary steps undertaken to ensure the customers purchase the product or service. This paper will focus on the strategic marketing plan of Cirque du Soleil company and explore how and why the company’s marketing plan shifted from virtuous circle to vicious circle. This paper will explain the concepts in details using relevant examples. The paper will provide the necessary recommendations that should be undertaken to tackle the challenges which will be presented. The paper provides coverage of Cirque du Soleil marketing strategy from the recent past up to the current fiscal year. The dynamic loops resulting from the virtuous and vicious circles affecting the company are also highlighted for better evaluation of the business. Consequences of the feedback loops are explained in details.
Keywords: Marketing, virtuous circle, vicious circle, entertainment
Introduction
Marketing process is imperative to any business. Scholars have described the marketing process as a continuous process in through which a business is able to understand the market in general, the target market, the customers and the resources available. Many scholars have defined the marketing process differently. Perhaps the most brief and best definition is that the marketing process is a process through which a business understands its external and internal environment and, thus, come up with a strategy which will enable them to sell their products successfully to the maximum number of people at a certain period. As far as the marketing process is vital to any business, strategic marketing planning is key for a successful marketing process. It involves a systematic planning of events to reduce the errors involved. Thus, through strategic marketing planning, the business is able to maintain in a virtuous cycle and not evolve to a vicious circle. Cirque du Soleil, a Canadian entertainment company, just like any other business, was and is often involved in marketing. However, their marketing process evolved from virtuous circle to vicious circle. Their marketing was making increasing returns but later, as will be seen in this paper, the returns started to decrease with time (Hsiao et al, 2013).
Marketing Process of Cirque du Soleil
Strategy
According to Hsiao, et al, (2013), Cirque du Soleil has been involved with a tactic marketing strategy. In their tactic marketing strategy, the company has been able to suggest and implement the blue ocean strategy successfully. According to research, the blue ocean strategy of Cirque du Soleil has been termed as virtuous circle by many scholars and business experts. This is because, the company has been able to increase their revenue by performing to not less than 150 million spectators in more than 300 cities. The company has been involved in proper management especially for its resident shows such as that of The Beatles and the Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour. The tactic strategy has been able to assist the company in experiencing rapid growth. It has been extraordinary how the company has been able to achieve a rapid growth in a declining industry. The growth is one of the reasons why the tactic strategy is termed as virtuous circle. The business model of Cirque du Soleil via its marketing and management of the resident shows is dynamic. The management understood that there is a close relationship between the choices made and the consequences. Therefore, vital and good choices were to be made. Just as any other marketing process, the marketing process of cirque du Soleil, generated various feedback loops. This is evident from the marketing of the O,s show by the company. The company has been able to reach out to millions of people.
Resource evaluation and capabilities
In evaluating the resources and requirements, the Cirque du Soleil has been able to undertake marketing through the internet as platform. For instance, one of the infrastructures is the use of emails to market their shows. The company has been able to send campaigns to fans. Moreover, the company has partnered with promoters in different cities who market the products. they also offer promotions and sweepstakes such as in the Michael Jackson immortal World Tour. Sweepstakes were made available to the general public, as a way to promote the tour. Moreover, in making their marketing process a virtuous Cirque du Soleil has been able to partner with not only the Canadian government but other foreign governments such as the government of Dubai in promoting the shows and performances. The people behind the decisions of the company since it was established have made most of the company’s endeavors a success. For instance, the founder, Baie-Saint-Paul started with street performers and careful marketing led them to managing international performances. This has attracted willing stakeholders and donors as well as people who have enhanced the marketing process of the company. Daniel Lamare, the President and CEO has followed the footsteps of the founders to ensure a strong company (Lee, 2004).
Value Created for all stakeholders
The company has many stakeholders. The stakeholders include, the staff, managers, customers and the government. the interest of the stakeholders has been able to improve the strategies employed by the company. All the stakeholders have been able to make most of the performances a success. Thus, their decisions have been considered as iterations which have positive feedback lops to the company. For instance, the offers low cost for some of its shows such as the Zed performances. The low cost thus, enabled them to set low prices for the shows. This has been going on for a while until the prices were considered to be low enough. The financing needs were fulfilled by the vast number of fans attending the shows and hence, the company was making a profit. This worked very well with the company’s tactic strategy of selecting specific cities for performances (Neves, 2007).
However, the virtuous circle by Cirque du Soleil would not be maintained for long since, the feedback loops began to be negative. The low prices started leading to unpredictable problems for the company. For instance, the company opted to reduce the number of staff to reduce the cost of production. This, would affect Quebec’s economy . Moreover, the company is becoming expensive especially in developing the global rosters and this has led to different layoffs by the company. The CEO triple the production levels but this led to further problems, since the company was unable to manage multiple shows at once. Moreover, it was expensive to manage more than one show at the same time (Lee, 2004). The company is losing money, and the company is not making any attempt of finding external assistance. The weak U.S economy has affected the Cirque du Soleil, since few people in U.S.A are attending shows . the difference between the United States dollar and the Canadian dollar has affected the production since the production is done using the Canadian dollar but invested in U.S dollars or any other foreign currency depending on where the show is held. This has forced the company to weaken and thus, necessary measures should be undertaken very carefully (Neves, 2007).
Recommendations
The recommendations should be in the following criteria:
Enhance
Cirque du Soleil should improve their products and services by providing quality shows and performances. Additionally, the company should focus on improving on their marketing process. They should focus and work on the blue ocean strategy. This will reduce the challenges the company is encountering and revive the company. More importantly, improving the strategy will address the financial problems and needs encountered by the company and ensure the production costs are regulated (Schlesinger & Heskett, 1991).
Expand
Cirque du Soleil should launch new products categories to expand their productions. It is a move which will enable the c...