A complete marketing plan

1. RIVER BEAR
STUDIOS
Heath Hindman & Yao Lu
Full Sail University

2. Table of Contents
1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 2
2.1 COMPANY OVERVIEW & SWOT ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................... 3
THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE PANDEMIC IS THE BIGGEST THREAT RIGHT NOW. AS THE STUDIO CAN'T DO
ANYTHING REMOTELY, APPLYING STRICT HYGIENE STANDARDS AND CONVINCING CUSTOMERS TO SHOW UP IS
CRITICAL. COMPETITION FROM OTHER STUDIOS IS ANOTHER BIG THREAT (U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, 2017). ........... 4
2.2 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS................................................................................................................................... 5
2.2.1 Target Clientele ..................................................................................................................................... 5
2.2.2 Competitors............................................................................................................................................ 5
2.2.3 Production Industry Trends.................................................................................................................. 6
3.0 PLAN OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................................. 6
3.1 CLIENT GOALS.................................................................................................................................................. 6
3.2 TEAM OBJECTIVES............................................................................................................................................ 7
3.3 CONSISTENCY .................................................................................................................................................. 7
3.4 STRATEGIES OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................... 7
4.0 ONLINE STRATEGIES............................................................................................................................... 8
4.1 WEBSITE........................................................................................................................................................... 8
4.2 SOCIAL MEDIA .................................................................................................................................................. 9
5.1 CONVENTIONS AND NETWORKING ................................................................................................................... 9
5.2 PRINT MEDIA .................................................................................................................................................. 10
6.0 FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS................................................................................................................. 10
6.1 YOUTUBE CHANNEL ....................................................................................................................................... 10
6.2 TIKTOK & SNAPCHAT ACCOUNT .................................................................................................................... 10
7.0 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS .................................................................................................... 11
8.0 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................... 12
9.0 APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................................... 14

3. 1.0 Executive Summary
River Bear Studios is a recording studio in Longwood Florida, and provides recording, mixing,
and mastering services. Isra batista is now taking sole ownership of the company after his two
partners decided to move on from the venture. Izra wants to rebrand the company, as well as
offer extended services and create content. The new River Bear Studios will retain its image and
brand reputation, but expand upon its value.
This marketing plan lays the groundwork for the rebrand, and expands on the methods used to
keep the rebrand running successfully in the marketing department. The goals of the client are
a priority, and upheld through the methods chosen. This plan discusses the online, as well as
the offline strategies proposed for the business, and provides references to why they were
chosen. The strategies are proposed in two sections, and contain relevant content and
references. Social media marketing, website and search engine optimization are the main
driving points of the plan, which are discussed extensively throughout the plan. In addition to
this, a section for future considerations is included, providing insight to potential ideas down
the line. Once the successful rebrand is launched it will be important to discuss methods of
consistently posting content. If there is one key theme to this plan, it would be consistency.
Consistency is stressed regarding the quality, frequency, and visual aspects of the posts. Offline
strategies mentioned include further improving word of mouth marketing, and utilizing some
standard print media formats as a marketing accessory.
By retaining the brand image and reputation, River Bear Studios should be able to bring in more
attractive clientele, and become self-sufficient with marketing. Retaining clients will become
self-sufficient by creating actionable content on a schedule that keeps everything organized and
contained.

4. 2.0 Situational Analysis
The following sections will analyze the existing aspects of River Bear Studios and the
environment in which it operates.
2.1 Company Overview & SWOT Analysis
River Bear Studios LLC is currently a music production house located in Longwood, Florida. The
studio is undergoing some ownership changes, as our client Isra Batista parted ways with two
other former co-founders and introduced a new partner into the business. Once the personnel
changes are completed, the studio will transform into a multimedia production house providing
services to both customers and businesses.
New services include:
1. Music production
2. Video production
3. Podcast production
4. Music academy
5. Graphic design
6. Gaming
7. Artist branding
Strengths
River Bear Studios has established its reputation in the Orlando area with years of hard work as
one of the best mixing and mastering recording studios. Isra has a reputation in the business
that has attracted clients from out of state. With the new partnership introduced to the
business, the River Bear Studios will have the ability to provide professional drum, guitar
training to the public. The studio's 4.9 rating on Google reviews is another outstanding
achievement. From the reviews, it appears that the studio's setting and atmosphere are what
people like the most. With such a high rating, River Bear Studio got many new customers
through existing and former clients' referrals. The reformed company structure is another
strength of the studio. As Isra will be the sole owner, the administrative efficiency would be
much higher, and there would less compromise in the decision-making.
Weaknesses
The weaknesses of the River Bear Studios lie in four areas:
1. Lacking diversity in terms of the service provided. Currently, the studio is focused on music
production only. The result is more or less because most existing customers only come to
the studio looking for music recording and production service. Without additional service
lines, there is less competitive differentiators from other local studios. in demand, it's hard

5. for the studio to create a blue ocean space where competition becomes irrelevant and turn
clients into repeat customers.
2. Sales channels. Almost all current and former customers of the studio came from word of
mouth. A small number of customers came through Facebook. The lack of sales channels
limited the studio to create brand recognition and limited customers' diversity.
3. Customer demographic. Isra mentioned that the customers the studio currently has are
mostly Gen Y and even younger. The problems with the current demographic are that they
are mostly not financially stable and are not experienced in life, which will significantly
affect the studio's ability to maintain a steady income.
4. Lack of employees. The River Bear Studios is operated almost all by Isra himself, from the
business side to the technical side. The non-essential work that Isra has to take care of daily
distracted him from focusing on growing the studio more successfully.
The result of the weaknesses mentioned above is that River Bear Studios is not financially self-
sustained right now.
Opportunities
The opportunities for River Bear Studio lies in the music academy and creating new service
lines. The trend of the music industry right now is that more and more artists are independent.
They want to have complete creative control over their music (Daniels, 2019). Without the help
of the record label, indie artists need professional studios to produce their music up to the
highest standard. They also need to market their music, so services like graphic design,
branding would become vital to indie artists. As the world was in lockdown in 2020, the music
streaming business gained incredible growth. This trend created a prominent number of indie
artists(See Appendix B).
The music academy, on the other hand, is a way to generate stable income. Music education
usually lasts for an extended period, and it also is a potential sales channel. What is more
important is that the academy could be developed into a talent pool for River Bear Studios,
making it possible for the studio to go upstream in the industry.
Threats
The uncertainty of the pandemic is the biggest threat right now. As the studio can't do anything
remotely, applying strict hygiene standards and convincing customers to show up is critical.
Competition from other studios is another big threat (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017).
Locally, there are 20 recording studios besides River Bear. Some of the competitors provide
services like producing marketing videos for business clients, tape transfer and archiving, and

6. voiceover. Some of the competitors have a stable relationship with big businesses. On the
nation level, there are approximately 1,600 recording studios (Chepkemoi, 2017). The market is
saturated, less competitive studios are disappearing at a fast speed. Just like River Bear Studios
trying to become a multimedia production house by offering added-value services, many
studios from other industries try to become multimedia production houses by providing music
production services. So, the threats are coming from both inside and outside of the current
industry.
2.2 Competitive Analysis
2.2.1 Target Clientele
Aside from the existing customer demographic, we aim to attract personal customers from
older age groups and more comprehensive geographic locations. As we plan to expand our
music production business outside of the Orlando area and even outside of Florida, higher unit
per transaction is vital. We are looking to attract people with one or more of the following
characteristics:
1 With more disposable income
2 Less sensitive about the price
3 Easier to maintain a good relationship.
It is also essential to establish relationships with business clientele. Business clientele needs are
usually complicated, and River Bears Studios needs to combine sound engineering expertise
with video production, graphic design, and even marketing. On the other hand, business
clientele are easier to satisfy since their requests are usually clear and direct. Having contracts
with business clients assures the studio's financial stability as they typically have a relatively big
budget for marketing. Business clients are also loyal. Becoming a multimedia production house
satisfies business clients' needs and gives River Bear Studios the capabilities to enter the B to B
market.
2.2.2 Competitors
Two recording studios from the Orlando area appear to be the most similar to River Bear
Studios in terms of business structure. Analyzing the two competitors provides insight into how
River Bear Studios can differentiate itself from the others.
1. Phat Planet Studios. This studio has done a great job at SEO. It's listed as the first one in the
Google review, and its website appears in the top 5 search results on the first page. It has social
media presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. The website is carefully designed
and contains all the information a new customer wanted to know, but the website doesn't have
a blog section. Phat Planet Studios' service is focused only on audio production. Judging from its
client list, the studio relies heavily on word of mouth to attract new customers.

7. 2. Evermore Sound. Evermore is another studio that appears in the front of the search result.
The studio is also an audio-only studio. Just like Phat Planet, it has social media presence. The
website is beautifully designed, with the mission statement displayed at the center of the
landing page. Judging from its website, the studio is owned and operated by one person, Luke
Beaulac. The website also doesn't feature a blog section.
Both studios have good reviews regarding the studio setting and atmosphere. Still, they also
lack a blog section which means they don't have a social media strategy to boost their brand
recognition online. They also have no intention to become a multimedia production house
judging from their business structure.
2.2.3 Production Industry Trends
The production industry, especially the video production industry, is heavily tech-driven. Unlike
the music recording industry, new video technologies emerge every few years and the way
people consume videos changes even more rapidly. As 80% of the internet traffic is related to
video content in 2020(McCue, 2020), it's wise to enter this market.
Below are some of the trends in the video industry related to the transformation of River Bear
Studios:
1. Live Streaming
2. Tutorials and educational video
3. Captions on video
4. Vertical video
5. Video SEO
In a report published by Deloitte, “9 out of 10 business executives considered video content as
‘very’ or ‘critically’ important to their business success.”
Isra mentioned that he is willing to hire contractors to take care of the business he’s not
familiar with. I found a video production company called Orlando Webcasts Located in the
Orlando area, a great company to work with. The company has a five star rating for being
professional and corporate on Google reviews.
3.0 Plan Objectives
3.1 Client goals
The clients goals include producing passive income, being able to have more exclusivity when
choosing clients and acquiring customers, increasing social media presence. Our SMART goals
for the client are as follows:

8. 1. Achieving a passive income level of half the cost of rent within the first 6 months of rebrand
launch.
2. Be able to turn down 1 in 4 new clients or projects within the first 6 months of rebrand
launch.
3. Achieve a social media growth rate of 50 followers across 3 platforms each month after
rebrand launch.
3.2 Team objectives
The team's goal is to help spearhead a successful rebrand of River Bear studios. Aspects of this
goal include website development, search engine optimization, as well as social media
marketing and management. These goal aspects applied to the SMART format would look as
followed:
1. Develop and update at least 3 website pages per month prior to the launch of the rebrand.
2. Use search engine optimization and analytics to track and bring in five new website viewers
per month prior to the launch of the rebrand.
3. Update and create three separate monthly schedules for three social media platforms, prior
to the launch of the rebrand, as well as mention ways to keep social media consistent and of
high quality.
3.3 Consistency
Consistency is an encompassing theme of the rebrand. This plan establishes consistency in
terms of both the quality of the content and the visual aspects, as well as the frequency of the
posts. By providing a consistent stream of actionable content, client retention and new client
engagement should increase. Consistent brands are worth 20% more than their inconsistent
counterparts. (Forbes, 2019)
Consistency is a broad term that we believe encompasses 3 major aspects of the River Bear
Studios brand. The quality of content should always be high, giving clients a reason to be
viewing and interacting. Additionally, the visual aspects of the brand should be consistent, both
digitally and with tangible aspects. The studio itself has accents and aesthetics that should be
reflected by its digital mediums. These include but are not limited to design elements, fonts,
color schemes, etc. Finally, the plan utilizes consistency by means of frequency of the posts
themselves. The plan achieves this by implementing a monthly content calendar.
3.4 Strategies overview
This plan includes two major strategy structures. Online strategies and offline strategies.
1. Online strategies makeup the bulk of the plan including social media marketing, search
engine optimization, and a content calendar. Social media marketing tools are highly
valuable and even have built in analytic tools to help with further marketing research once
the rebrand launch is finished. The content calendar helps the media team stay organized
and focused by providing a structured layout of all suggested content across the platforms.
Search engine optimization makes the brand stand out when using search browsers and

9. increases online presence for relevant internet browsers. Potential clients will find River
Bear Studios with ease and be directed to the main website.
2. Offline strategies consist of In person networking, conventions, and print marketing. Word of
mouth marketing is highly relevant to River Bear Studios and this plan details ways to
ensure word of mouth marketing is effective. Industry conventions take place usually
annually (pre-covid19) and are a great way to network and promote business. Finally, print
marketing acts as an accessory to the other methods mentioned, and can be a talking point
or means of distribution to increase word of mouth marketing.
4.0 Online Strategies
We paid our attention to discuss how to utilize free internet marketing tools like social media
platforms and websites to successfully transform River Bear Studios into a multimedia
production house in this section.
4.1 Website
Website is the hub to publish all content and serves as a portal to connect all of the social
media accounts into one place. In 2.2.2, we analyzed two competitors' websites and realized
that the River Bear Studio has a considerable advantage over the blog section. When searching
River Bear Studios in Google, the website is the fourth result on the first page, and the landing
page is the blog section.
The first place that requires improvement is the website description. Given that we don't have
a mission statement right now, we could briefly summarize the good customer reviews and the
services we provide in the description section, keep it concise and eliminate ellipsis.
When we land on the blog page, it's filled with excellent tutorials and educational articles.
Although not posting much, the client has been continuously posting since 2017. This cultivates
user habits of visiting the website regularly.
In the future, blog articles could be in video form. Isra talked about making gaming videos and
podcasts. These two types of content are perfect for the blog. With the addition of video
content, it might be a good idea to have a River Bear YouTube account in the future as YouTube
is one of the most prominent internet traffic entrances.
The team recognizes that a website update is forthcoming as soon as new ownership and new
services are fully settled.
Suggestions for updates include:
1 New logo
2 New page layout
3 Add service page to demonstrate new service lines

10. 4 New landing page
5 New website description
6 Hyperlinks to all active social media accounts
When all the updates are done, we should increase the posting frequency of new content in the
blog section to at least one post every week.
4.2 Social Media
This section is mainly focused on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
1. Facebook. As our client mentioned, Facebook is right now the second most important way to
gain new customers, and now Facebook users are more towards older age groups that overlap
with our target clientele. Fully utilizing Facebook is a must. With the website's blog posts
increasing significantly in the future, the homepage of Facebook will dramatically enrich just by
reposting all the blog articles. Live streaming is another crucial way to establish a channel to
communicate with potential customers directly and showcase the studio's capabilities.
Regularly streaming is the goal we need to achieve.
2. Instagram. Unlike Facebook, Instagram users are mostly Gen Y and Gen Z, although they're
not entirely financially stable now, but establishing brand recognition and cultivating future
customers is also essential. In the future, when the music academy started, Instagram would be
a perfect place to advertise the academy to young people with interests in music. Also,
educational and tutorial content would be another focal point of the Instagram posts. Tagging
people in every Instagram post to boost engagement would be a simple but efficient way to
start.
3. Twitter. Twitter is a platform that encourages users to exchange ideas rather than sharing life
moments. From the team’s observation, there's more equality between Twitter users
compared to the other two platforms. Based on this nature of Twitter, we suggest our client
use Twitter as a place to establish his personal reputation of professionalism and authority
regarding his expertise. As our client is the studio's sole owner, establishing a strong connection
between himself and the River Bear Studios will introduce a sense of human touch to the
business. Reposting blog articles to Twitter to further interpret the article and add trending
hashtags to encourage discussion could be River Bear Studios primary Twitter tactic.
5.0 Offline Strategies
5.1 Conventions and Networking
Conventions are industry specific events filling large conventions, and even stadiums with like-
minded people looking to network and create positive business relationships. River Bear Would
benefit from sending a representative to these industry events and discussing business

11. ventures with the attendees. The next industry related convention may be different due to the
current circumstances, but there are still many scheduled events like Infocomm 2021. While
this may not be a direct sourcing of clientele, it will have residual effects that will positively
affect the business. Networking in general does this, and in-person relationships are especially
valuable. Shaking a hand and providing a business card still goes a long way when forming
valuable and long lasting connections. Even if your connection may not provide you with a
client, they may know someone else who can, and there is value in every connection made.
5.2 Print Media
In addition to word of mouth marketing, print marketing like business cards can provide an
actionable way to follow up with a verbal pitch to a new potential client. Business cards are not
the only form of print media that carry value however. Brochures are also great to provide
information on services to clients who are not as technologically inclined as some. These print
methods when used in accessory to word of mouth marketing methods.
6.0 Future Considerations
After we successfully operated the social media platforms mentioned above, we could try to
expand our online presence to other platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat. In this
section, we discuss the tactics operating accounts on these platforms for future consideration.
6.1 YouTube channel
River Bear Studios does have a YouTube channel right now, and the channel has 56 subscribers
and a total of 11 videos. All the videos are of exceptionally high quality, contain some of the
current trends in the video production industry, but the most recent video was posted 2 years
ago. We suggest that we can use this YouTube channel as an archive in the future and
incorporate voice-over explanation and break down of the music. We can start by re-uploading
all the videos one by one according to a schedule. To establish River Bears Studios’ reputation
as a professional production house, creating explanation videos of the techniques adopted in
performing and recording the music would really help potential customers to make their
decision. And these video assets could also be used as our blog post that we share across all of
our social media accounts.
6.2 TikTok & Snapchat account
TikTok is a platform a bit challenging to operate compared to YouTube. It's primarily about
socializing with strangers. The platform has 800 million DAU (Sehl, 2020), consisting mainly of
Gen Z and even the younger generation. River Bear Studios should consider having a TikTok
account simply because TikTok is the key platform for indie artists to reach new audiences now.
Most indie artists and label artists have a TikTok presence. Lil Nas X's Old Town Road really

12. gained mainstream attention when the artist promoted the song on TikTok (Marc, 2020). River
Bear Studios could make snippet versions of their YouTube content and accurately advertise
them using TikTok for business marketing tools for a price starting from $10.
Snapchat users overlap with TikTok users in terms of demographics (Tankovska, 2021). River
Bear Studios can transplant the strategy for TikTok to Snapchat easily. The two platforms are
identical to each other to some extent, the team suggests having accounts on both platforms
and deciding which one to utilize based on statistics.
7.0 Key Performance Indicators
Below are the KPIs developed to help River Bear Studios monitor the progression of the
transformation. We mainly focus on increasing revenue, reconstructing websites, and activating
social media accounts, as these are critical aspects of the studio's survival and can be achieved
quickly. All the KPIs set here is a minimum requirement and can be adjusted according to the
actual situation.
KPI Inspection
frequency
Goal Deadline
1 Inquiries received Monthly ≥20 SEP 2021
2 Conversion rate Monthly ≥50% SEP 2021
3 Number of customers retained Quarterly ≥50% SEP 2021
4 Growth in net profit Monthly ≥5% SEP 2021
5 Website traffic increase Monthly ≥50% JUN 2021
6 Social media follower growth Monthly ≥1000 JUN 2021
7 Numbers of engagement on social
media
Weekly ≥1000 JUN 2021

13. 8.0 References
2020 Music Industry Trends & the Future of the Music Business. (n.d.). Chartmetric.
https://www.chartmetric.com/music-industry-trends/6mo-report
Chepkemoi, J. (2017, June 1). Which City in the United States Has the Most Recording Studios?
WorldAtlas. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-city-in-the-united-states-has-
the-most-recording-studios.html
Cohen, J. (2020, February 13). Video Production Trends for 2020. Medium.
https://medium.com/@jasoncohen/video-production-trends-for-2020-17e44bee9ac1
Daniels, M. (2019, July 12). Why Independent Musicians Are Becoming The Future Of The Music
Industry. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissamdaniels/2019/07/10/for-
independent-musicians-goingyour-own-way-is-finally-starting-to-pay-
off/?sh=772b046c14f2
Enis, E. (2020, February 18). “The New Normal”: Why Indie Artists Are Releasing Music at a
Much Faster Rate in 2020. Billboard.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/streaming/8551261/indie-artists-faster-
releases-2020
Evermore Sound. (n.d.). Evermore Sound. https://www.evermoresound.com/
Ingham, T. (2020, March 16). A New Report Says Independent Artists Could Generate More Than
$2 Billion in 2020. RollingStone. https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/raine-
group-independent-artists-2-billion-in-2020-967138/
M. (2020, February 20). TikTok For Independent Musicians. Millennial Mind Sync.
https://www.millennialmind.co/tiktok-for-independent-musicians/
Millette, A. (2020, November 17). How independent musicians are using TikTok to engage new
listeners. The Hofstra Chronicle. https://www.thehofstrachronicle.com/category/arts-
and-entertainment/2020/11/17/how-independent-musicians-are-using-tiktok-to-
engage-new-listeners
Phat Planet Studios. (n.d.). Phat Planet Studios. http://phatplanetstudios.com/
Stewart, C. (n.d.). Six Trends in Corporate Video Production. Direct Images.
https://www.directimages.com/blog/trends-in-corporate-video-production
TikTok For Business: Marketing on TikTok. (n.d.). TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/business/en-
US/

14. U.S. Census Bureau Releases Stats on Recording and Entertainment Industry Ahead of Grammy
Awards. (2018, May 13). U.S. Department of Commerce.
https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2017/02/us-census-bureau-releases-stats-
recording-and-entertainment-industry-ahead-grammy
Video Production. (n.d.). Orlando Webcasts.
https://www.orlandowebcasts.com/videoproduction
Westcott, K., & Arbanas, J. (2020, December 8). 2021 media and entertainment industry
outlook. Deloitte United States. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/technology-
media-and-telecommunications/articles/media-and-entertainment-industry-outlook-
trends.html
Young, C. (2018, January 3). Recording Studios Are Not Dying. ProSoundNetwork.
https://www.prosoundnetwork.com/pro-sound-news-blog/usa-today-is-wrong-recording-
studios-are-not-dying

15. 9.0 Appendices
A) Publishing Calendar

16. B) Indie artists survey

17. C) Indie artist market value

18. D) Cities in the US with most recording studios