If you missed class on Monday, November 9, 2009, you missed an important lecture on Marketing – which is part of your final project. I want THREE legitimate marketing contacts – people who would want to listen to a voiceover demo with the potential of selecting you to do a job. Company name, Contact name, Contact title, address, phone, email. I’ll be checking on this, so make sure they are REAL.
I had some more thoughts and have written them down here.
This business is not about your voice. It is about knowing where you fit – what you have to sell. It is about having a demo that showcases this effectively. And it is about finding the people who want to buy what you have to sell. That’s called Marketing!
The Final Project is about helping you learn how to create an effective demo – if and when you get to the stage of producing a demo. And the project is also designed to help you think about how to market that demo.
We are creating material for a Commercial demo. So you need to think about who might want to cast a voice for commercials. (A Talent Agent is NOT a legitimate marketing contact for this exercise and you will be marked down if you include a Talent Agent.)
So, who makes commercials? Advertising Agencies? Production Companies? Recording Studios? The companies themselves? Maybe some, maybe all - but which of these groups have the most potential?
You need to follow basic Marketing 101 steps. You are not really selling, you know. Your goal with marketing is to know your customer so well that your services sell themselves.
Marketing is about understanding what you do and what your potential customer wants. It is about bringing your “product” to this market (in this case your commercial demo to people who make commercials), and even finding new products for new markets.
Marketing is your strategy and includes a whole bunch of activities:
- Business Development - Wikipedia defines this as techniques and responsibilities which aim at gaining new customers and at penetrating existing markets. It is ongoing. Techniques used include:
- assessment of marketing opportunities and target markets
- intelligence gathering on customers and competitors
- generating leads for possible sales
- drafting and enforcing sales policies and processes
- follow-up sales activity
- formal proposal or presentation management and writing
- pitch and presentation rehearsals
- business model design
- Product Development – getting real good at what you do
- Market Development – getting to know who wants to buy what you do – targets non-buying customers in currently targeted segments. It also targets new customers in new segments
- Market Research - give you information about your customers, competitors, and overall industry
- Competitor Analysis – who does what you do and how well do they do it
- Pricing Strategy – where do you fit in the price range of what you do
- Customer Service – making sure your customers are happy
- Brand Development – what makes you different
- Company Identity – make sure people can see how you are different in an instant
