Summary of learning

At the beginning of the year we were looking at the methods of how to get into industry and the aspects of business involved in networking. Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online. This is because the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences, developing friendships or professional alliances, finding employment or even business-to-business marketing This culminated in finding many 'social networking' outlets such as Youttube, flickr, conceptart.org, Facebook, blogger, vimeo and so on. These are all content directed. I.e. Flickr is predominantly for photos and images, where as something like you tube can be used for video and audio. Research also showed that one in 5 employers review profiles on social networking sites for potential employees.
The next line of inquiry was to do with different types of marketing and advertising. This was due to a project that was set, in which i was delegated the task of designing an marketing plan. This involved looking at Niche Marketing, asset led marketing and the 4p's. This lead nicely onto looking at Maslow and his hierarchy of needs. This in turn spurned looking at what businesses spend their money on and how it is delegated reasonably.

Leadership and management was an interesting area to cover, looking directly at Meredith Belbin's "Team Role Chart" - this included
Action Orientated roles, People Orientated roles and Cerebral Orientated roles.

(What makes an effective Manager?
Listening skills, informative, being a good communicator, innovative thinking, being understanding and fair.
What makes an effective Leader?
Charisma, Visionary, self determined, motivational, networking, facilitator.... these lead onto roles such as outward communications, forges new relationships and makes coalitions and manages time and teams effectively.)

Looking at situational analysis, i found that this method is Designed to take a snapshot of where things stand at the time the plan is presented. It covers much of the same ground covered in the Preparing a Market Study tutorial, so those preparing a Marketing Plan should check this out as well.

Then came devising my marketing plan.. This covered 6-Part plan that includes:

Purpose and Mission
Situational Analysis
Marketing Strategy and Objectives
Tactical Programs
Budgets, Performance Analysis and Implementation
Additional Consideration

A rewarding process that has filled in many of the blanks in terms of setting up a business and devising plans of action for selling products.

The time after this section that culminated in a presentation of a devised 'meta business,' was spend doing background research on bigger companies like sony or x boxm mainly looking at how their internal structures were set up. This was interesting but was not specific enough to my main line of inquiry, audio/visual art.

However this did lead to some interesting findings in how businesses advertise and present themselves. Looking at informative advertisements, persuasive advertisements, and the organizations such as the Advertising Standards Authority (A.S.A), that monitors englands posters, mags, and newspapers, ensuring they are fair and legal in content and persuasion.

We looked at more promotional methods such as Below the line (BTL) and Above the line (ATL) advertising, which lead onto product life cycles, pricing stratergies and the Boston Matrix, that illustrates the different stages a product goes through and the 'academic' terminology for begin able to contextualize and describe this life cycle.

All of this culminated in a critical report of findings in an area of industry that interests us, which was a fulfilling and rewarding process. But more importantly, this information greatly influenced the direction of my final av/project.
Looking at industry, i was able to locate non-profit organizations (Teststpace), small and micro Enterprise businesses (Vj anyone), festivals and competitions (OneDotZero, Light night) all in and around Leeds, some of which i have entered, if not local. There is a vibrant a/v scene in Leeds that is thriving and there are multiple opportunities to get out and experience industry, Test Space have been very forthcoming with info and helped the direction of my project a lot.

All in all an interesting module, this year much more than last i feel it has helped me contextualize my work and learning this material has enabled me to become comfortable with the idea of getting into the industry feet first.