We gave the summative assessment having made a large number of changes that we originally had in the formative.
Thankfully all of our adjustments worked in our favor and with the help of Jon Tebb and George Nindi, we collectively delivered a well structured pitch that interested the markers on the panel including the founder of Brainient- Emi Gal!
We mainly focussed on the industry we had chosen to target, the methods in which they would benefit but all of our conclusions were based on the market research that we carried out. These factors along with my closing line "...the time is now, invest in Brainient or you may find your profits flush down the Drainient" received a fairly positive feedback from the panel.
Some of the ways in which we could have improved our pitch would be to not target band promotion websites who encourage small bands. We could have just as well marketed to band promo websites who deal with bigger, more successful bands where as in our pitch we came across more tentative to use websites that promote smaller/up and coming bands.
One other criticism from the panels from Emi Gal was that we could have used an actual brainient interactive video to further demonstrate the benefits of Brainient to a user. However, given the time constrain of 5 minutes per presentation we felt that this was an acceptable flaw but a definite consideration for a future professional presentation if we were to re-enact it.
Overall this course has been a fairly positive one. We have learned some of the fundamental aspects of Marketing and at the same time put it to practical use. This may benefit anyone who has started their own business and is thinking of the best ways to market their ideas in the creative industry. I also learned the importance of teamwork in this work flow and that communication is an essential criteria in the success of delivering a presentation. It was also a great experience to meet an entrepreneur like Emi and Ollie, who were able to give feedback from first hand professional experience.
Friday, 17 June 2011
Sunday, 12 June 2011
A second wind! Band Promotions
Discussing the improvements that were gained from the formative feedback we decided to hone in on an industry that was both untouched in terms of video interactivity and itself was a highly competitive industry.
These two factors are the reasons why we chose to target Band Promotion websites. Since their business is to attract young talent to post their content on it, it is crucial that they provide the best platform they can. However if they were to use interactive video, they would be able to allow users interested in that band to find out more about that band, including more about the band members, or their past events, but more importantly, to view and buy tickets for their next gig. This would benefit the band- who are clients of the band promos website and therefore increase the popularity of the website- the success of the bands who make the lime light would also perpetuate advertisements of the band promos website, and in turn Brainient.
Conversely, we could even argue from the perspective of a band promo websites competitors. I.e stating that the interactive technology is here, its only a matter of time before one of the band promos website uses brainient styled software. It is only a matter of time before one of your competitors does it first. WE So if another band promo website has an edge over you- then it is more likely that more up and coming bands will choose them over you. Using this as a form of "industry pressure", our argument could basically be that "the technology is here and so is the opportunity- the time is now to act and invest in Brainient".
This argument backed by the fact that businesses have been suffering recently and are trying to pick themselves up further encourage them to consolidate the product that they offer to their clients by improving the video platform they use.
All in all, we feel that we have identified a very niche place in the market to target. Using the market research we will surely be able to create a marketing strategy that is concise to the target audience, based on thorough market research and effective in its nature.
These two factors are the reasons why we chose to target Band Promotion websites. Since their business is to attract young talent to post their content on it, it is crucial that they provide the best platform they can. However if they were to use interactive video, they would be able to allow users interested in that band to find out more about that band, including more about the band members, or their past events, but more importantly, to view and buy tickets for their next gig. This would benefit the band- who are clients of the band promos website and therefore increase the popularity of the website- the success of the bands who make the lime light would also perpetuate advertisements of the band promos website, and in turn Brainient.
Conversely, we could even argue from the perspective of a band promo websites competitors. I.e stating that the interactive technology is here, its only a matter of time before one of the band promos website uses brainient styled software. It is only a matter of time before one of your competitors does it first. WE So if another band promo website has an edge over you- then it is more likely that more up and coming bands will choose them over you. Using this as a form of "industry pressure", our argument could basically be that "the technology is here and so is the opportunity- the time is now to act and invest in Brainient".
This argument backed by the fact that businesses have been suffering recently and are trying to pick themselves up further encourage them to consolidate the product that they offer to their clients by improving the video platform they use.
All in all, we feel that we have identified a very niche place in the market to target. Using the market research we will surely be able to create a marketing strategy that is concise to the target audience, based on thorough market research and effective in its nature.
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Improvements from formative
Having given the pitch our group, although succeeded in our market research still needed to develop it further.
Our pitch was from a marketing teams perspective speaking to Brainients marketing team and creating a deep analysis of the current situation. Our pitch was therefore not specified to a target audience. This was a misunderstanding on our part and would need to figure out exactly what industry we were targeting.
However we still managed to use the market research effectively and maybe needed to simply tweak this. For example w made plans of concessions to new, returning and recommended customers. This will be useful in the future presentation.
That being said, we have to change a lot of our current content to meet the brief accurately. Myself Jon Tebb and George Nindi started thinking of a specific industry that we could use to base our presentation on.
Our pitch was from a marketing teams perspective speaking to Brainients marketing team and creating a deep analysis of the current situation. Our pitch was therefore not specified to a target audience. This was a misunderstanding on our part and would need to figure out exactly what industry we were targeting.
However we still managed to use the market research effectively and maybe needed to simply tweak this. For example w made plans of concessions to new, returning and recommended customers. This will be useful in the future presentation.
That being said, we have to change a lot of our current content to meet the brief accurately. Myself Jon Tebb and George Nindi started thinking of a specific industry that we could use to base our presentation on.
Friday, 3 June 2011
Formative Assesment
Having done much research into the marketing and the product, we created a short presentation to give for the formative assessment.
Taking the role of a marketing team for Brainient, we decided to analyze all the aspects from the current webpage to the competition that Brainient faces.
In our research we found many uses for the product. One of the most versatile things that makes Brainient such a great platform is that it caters for a general company/business who have a website. We initially identified four businesses that would benefit from Brainients' services: smart phone companies, the car industry, home stores and fashion industry. We then stated the obvious benefits of how they can be improved with Brainient including confining your target audience and allowing seamless interactivity between the user and the product.
Using the SWOT analysis, we then discussed both the Brainient product and the environment it is in. We highlighted some of the plus and minus points. Some of the plus points included how brainient is a young, up and coming company who already have big clients under their name. On the other hand, brainient is not the only supplier of such a service- there are many competitors home and abroad, some of which who already have a larger clientele than Brainent currently do. Seeing this as the major threat we identified both our product and place in the market. This is then used in the marketing strategy.
Having identified Brainient as a smaller than desirable competitor in a global market, we felt that the biggest key for them is to increase the partnerships they have at a very fast rate. In this case we developed a six point plan to follow in order to achieve this.
First we would need to spread the idea to businesses by organizing presentation, attending and networking at business events, developing a list of potential clients and approaching them. Then we also thought that it would be a very good idea to create deals to attract new customers, give concessions on return customers and also making incentives for current brainient users to recommend their busniess partners.
This was our initial pitch and we felt had enough logical marketing research to substantiate it. This presentation was developed mainly by myself, George Niindi and Jon Tebb who also supported many of the ideas here. Upon giving the presentation we will most likely need to develop and maybe change our pitch altogether.
Taking the role of a marketing team for Brainient, we decided to analyze all the aspects from the current webpage to the competition that Brainient faces.
In our research we found many uses for the product. One of the most versatile things that makes Brainient such a great platform is that it caters for a general company/business who have a website. We initially identified four businesses that would benefit from Brainients' services: smart phone companies, the car industry, home stores and fashion industry. We then stated the obvious benefits of how they can be improved with Brainient including confining your target audience and allowing seamless interactivity between the user and the product.
Using the SWOT analysis, we then discussed both the Brainient product and the environment it is in. We highlighted some of the plus and minus points. Some of the plus points included how brainient is a young, up and coming company who already have big clients under their name. On the other hand, brainient is not the only supplier of such a service- there are many competitors home and abroad, some of which who already have a larger clientele than Brainent currently do. Seeing this as the major threat we identified both our product and place in the market. This is then used in the marketing strategy.
Having identified Brainient as a smaller than desirable competitor in a global market, we felt that the biggest key for them is to increase the partnerships they have at a very fast rate. In this case we developed a six point plan to follow in order to achieve this.
First we would need to spread the idea to businesses by organizing presentation, attending and networking at business events, developing a list of potential clients and approaching them. Then we also thought that it would be a very good idea to create deals to attract new customers, give concessions on return customers and also making incentives for current brainient users to recommend their busniess partners.
This was our initial pitch and we felt had enough logical marketing research to substantiate it. This presentation was developed mainly by myself, George Niindi and Jon Tebb who also supported many of the ideas here. Upon giving the presentation we will most likely need to develop and maybe change our pitch altogether.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
SWOT Analysis
Strength
Brainient is a young, up and coming company. Over the past two years the company has gone from being one mans idea, to a small start up securing first £50,000 and then £800,000 in investors. Despite the econmomic down turn, Brainient has succeeded in growing in size.
Brainient has been one of the first to the market with an idea that is both original and very profitable. The following link indicated the revenues generated by different mediums of advertising.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/13/iab-advertising-26-billion-2010/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
One of the biggest advantages is that Brainient already have a a succcessful client base to build from. Their current portfolio includes partnerships with Volvo, Samsung, Zoopla and many more.
Weakness
Relatively small company means that there is little room for maneuvering work and job load. If someone decides to leave then it can be problematic until the jobrole is filled.
Although being a young company reflects success and entrepreneurial skills, it also can negatively show inexperience in the business. Although this is a weakness, we may be able to consider methods of turning this into a positive.
Opportunity
Having formed a PEST Analysis in the previous post, we discussed that the economic climate of the recession has helped Brainient in growing over the past two years. Since its core ideas formate methods of targeted marketing, it is a great way for companies to start marketing in a very cost effective way. Also, the concept of interactive video is a way of harnessing the resources that companies already have. So companies will be improving the website that they already have rather than making external methods of marketing.
Threat
With every business lies threats- some in the form of environmental factors and other in the form of competition. Fortunately for Brainient, the environment seems to actually benefit their product. However, some of the problems associated with creating web based projects is that the competition is world wide. As a result there are a number of other companies who are selling very similar product. Here are a few companies that are very real threats to brainient- some of which who already have a bigger client base.
VideoClix.tv
Mixpo
ConciseClick
ClickThrough
Conclusion
Using this SWOT analysis as a basis- we can now start developing a marketing strategy that would best suit the business structure of Brainient and the environment in which it needs to excel, especially dealing with weaknesses and threats found from SWOT.
Brainient is a young, up and coming company. Over the past two years the company has gone from being one mans idea, to a small start up securing first £50,000 and then £800,000 in investors. Despite the econmomic down turn, Brainient has succeeded in growing in size.
Brainient has been one of the first to the market with an idea that is both original and very profitable. The following link indicated the revenues generated by different mediums of advertising.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/13/iab-advertising-26-billion-2010/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
One of the biggest advantages is that Brainient already have a a succcessful client base to build from. Their current portfolio includes partnerships with Volvo, Samsung, Zoopla and many more.
Weakness
Relatively small company means that there is little room for maneuvering work and job load. If someone decides to leave then it can be problematic until the jobrole is filled.
Although being a young company reflects success and entrepreneurial skills, it also can negatively show inexperience in the business. Although this is a weakness, we may be able to consider methods of turning this into a positive.
Opportunity
Having formed a PEST Analysis in the previous post, we discussed that the economic climate of the recession has helped Brainient in growing over the past two years. Since its core ideas formate methods of targeted marketing, it is a great way for companies to start marketing in a very cost effective way. Also, the concept of interactive video is a way of harnessing the resources that companies already have. So companies will be improving the website that they already have rather than making external methods of marketing.
Threat
With every business lies threats- some in the form of environmental factors and other in the form of competition. Fortunately for Brainient, the environment seems to actually benefit their product. However, some of the problems associated with creating web based projects is that the competition is world wide. As a result there are a number of other companies who are selling very similar product. Here are a few companies that are very real threats to brainient- some of which who already have a bigger client base.
VideoClix.tv
Mixpo
ConciseClick
ClickThrough
Conclusion
Using this SWOT analysis as a basis- we can now start developing a marketing strategy that would best suit the business structure of Brainient and the environment in which it needs to excel, especially dealing with weaknesses and threats found from SWOT.
Saturday, 14 May 2011
PEST Analysis
Political
Brainient has two main bases. Much of the marketing and sales is done here in the UK. However all of the development of the technical aspects on the software itself is done in Romania. This means that the are two governments under who Brainient may need to comply with. Recently the British Government changed from Labour to Conservative. Although massive cuts have greatly affected the public sector, Conservatives policies suggest many benefits that have and will continue to be beneficial to small businesses. Here is a subsection from the conservatives website that highlights the perks of being a small business under their government
Economical
Here is a graph showing the interest rates of the UK over a given time. We can notice that interest rates are low. This is usually an indication of a weak economy. In order to encourage growth- interest rates have been kept low so that small businesses can start up. This is a double edged sword since it means its a good opportunity to start growing a business in an economy that is weak! However it is less the question of what the situation is now and more a case of what the situation will be in the near future.
We are currently in a global recession. This will heavily affect the success of Brainients interactive software. Most businesses will suffer in this type of climate for obvious reasons. In fact Brainient was established in 2008 during a very difficult climate. However it is the nature of Interactive video which has allowed it to survive and even flourish over the subsequent two/three years. It is a cost effective means of companies to advertise. It is a way of consolidating the resources that are already available (like websites and video adverts) and simply improves what they already have using a focussed form of advertising.
Sociocultural
Brainient itself is representational of a certain style. As a relatively young company that has done exceptionally well through difficult economic times, Emi Gal stereotypically represents the entrepreneurial role model whose skills and work ethic have resonated through out the company. Although the UK has a diverse population, a significant number represent young graduates who may be involved in banking or other business firms. Socioculturally a shift has occurred. With the advent of the internet has sprung a whole new work ethic that has shifted previous ideas about secure work for big established firms and then working ones way up, to working as an entrepreneur for niche up and coming companies for a higher payoff.
Technological
One of the greatest aspects of Brainient is that it only requires the costs of paying developers. There are no other additional costs. With a developers team firmly based in Romania, they only need to maintain and improve software that has already been constructed perhaps finding ways of making them more user friendly or compatible with other platforms. However the greatest part of the software itself is that it is open to third party development. That is to say that if one wanted to add widgets to the software then they can. And for all useful widgets and tools that may be developed- they will all feed back into the software that has been used and improved by developers for the use of future users.
Brainient has two main bases. Much of the marketing and sales is done here in the UK. However all of the development of the technical aspects on the software itself is done in Romania. This means that the are two governments under who Brainient may need to comply with. Recently the British Government changed from Labour to Conservative. Although massive cuts have greatly affected the public sector, Conservatives policies suggest many benefits that have and will continue to be beneficial to small businesses. Here is a subsection from the conservatives website that highlights the perks of being a small business under their government
"Boosting growth
- We have delivered on our election promise by stopping the most damaging part of Labour’s planned increase in employer’s National Insurance Contributions – a tax on jobs.
- To help small firms get the finance they need, we have got the banks to lend £190 billion of new credit to business this year, up from £179 billion in 2010. £76 billion of this lending will be to small businesses – 10 billion more than in 2010.
- We will cut Corporation Tax from 28 per cent to 24 per cent over four years which is the lowest rate in the G7. We have also cut the small companies’ rate to 20 per cent.
- We are conducting a fundamental review of employment law to ensure we provide the competitive environment small businesses need to thrive.
- We are carrying out a cross-government Growth Review to remove government barriers to growth. Priority will be given to improving the planning system; supporting inward investors and exporters; and reforming the competition regime.
- We will boost growth outside the South East through a Regional Growth Fund and abolishing the tax on jobs for new businesses in the regions."
Economical
Here is a graph showing the interest rates of the UK over a given time. We can notice that interest rates are low. This is usually an indication of a weak economy. In order to encourage growth- interest rates have been kept low so that small businesses can start up. This is a double edged sword since it means its a good opportunity to start growing a business in an economy that is weak! However it is less the question of what the situation is now and more a case of what the situation will be in the near future.
We are currently in a global recession. This will heavily affect the success of Brainients interactive software. Most businesses will suffer in this type of climate for obvious reasons. In fact Brainient was established in 2008 during a very difficult climate. However it is the nature of Interactive video which has allowed it to survive and even flourish over the subsequent two/three years. It is a cost effective means of companies to advertise. It is a way of consolidating the resources that are already available (like websites and video adverts) and simply improves what they already have using a focussed form of advertising.
Sociocultural
Brainient itself is representational of a certain style. As a relatively young company that has done exceptionally well through difficult economic times, Emi Gal stereotypically represents the entrepreneurial role model whose skills and work ethic have resonated through out the company. Although the UK has a diverse population, a significant number represent young graduates who may be involved in banking or other business firms. Socioculturally a shift has occurred. With the advent of the internet has sprung a whole new work ethic that has shifted previous ideas about secure work for big established firms and then working ones way up, to working as an entrepreneur for niche up and coming companies for a higher payoff.
Technological
One of the greatest aspects of Brainient is that it only requires the costs of paying developers. There are no other additional costs. With a developers team firmly based in Romania, they only need to maintain and improve software that has already been constructed perhaps finding ways of making them more user friendly or compatible with other platforms. However the greatest part of the software itself is that it is open to third party development. That is to say that if one wanted to add widgets to the software then they can. And for all useful widgets and tools that may be developed- they will all feed back into the software that has been used and improved by developers for the use of future users.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Background research: What is Brainient?
Having carried out some initial research on the internet, I found out that Branient is a part of a revolutionary concept- interactive video. It is a medium that takes an already popular and accepted medium- online video, and adds an extra dimension to it by adding relevant, concise pop up animations and links.
Brainient have created a product that would mainly appeal to big companies and small businesses alike.
Here is an example, (although not interactive itself), of how someone used interactive video to request a free brochure from the same company that he/she is watching the add on. It most likely is the case that the viewer is watching the video on the glasses companies website or another relevant website that they have now shown an interest. It makes sense that the advertisement is a relevant, furthering the viewers potential to be a customer.
Now having a basic understanding of the way in which the idea works- I am in a better position to start considering marketing analysis to start highlighting the position of the company, and the economic environment in which it must thrive.
Brainient have created a product that would mainly appeal to big companies and small businesses alike.
Here is an example, (although not interactive itself), of how someone used interactive video to request a free brochure from the same company that he/she is watching the add on. It most likely is the case that the viewer is watching the video on the glasses companies website or another relevant website that they have now shown an interest. It makes sense that the advertisement is a relevant, furthering the viewers potential to be a customer.
Now having a basic understanding of the way in which the idea works- I am in a better position to start considering marketing analysis to start highlighting the position of the company, and the economic environment in which it must thrive.
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