What have i got to offer?

The fourth lecture was mainly focused on the S.W.O.T analysis.

S.W.O.T ; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. By looking at each of these individually ,This method of analysing can help me as a one side of a business partnership (art director & copy writer) to evaluate our company and more specifically what I bring to the table and what I need to improve on. The thing that I find that is so good about S.W.O.T analysis is the fact that anybody doing one has to be really honest with themselves in order for it to work! This kind of honesty can only help you realise what state your business and your future prospects are in.

Having been shown how to do it for ourselves we where shown how to do it for our competitors companies! by being tactful and constructive in both your criticisms for our own companies and our competitors. By doing this it would allow me as a future business owner to compare each company fairly so as to learn from what they do well and how my company is more successful from theres.

My S.W.O.T Analysis...

Strengths

Photography

Illustration / Illustrator

Photoshop

Can drive to locations / meetings.

Weaknesses

Time management

Opportunities

Take more art based classes to refine skills.

Create a photo library to have visual references that could help with idea pitching.

All publicity is good publicity? - Getting their attention!

The third lecture was all about reaching your target market making sure we best choose who, where, why and when we should be aiming at when I decide to Apply for a job in an agency or maybe when doing some freelance work on the side.

Having gone over the different types of selling / Advertising to the public (shops, internet, radio, market stalls, eBay..) I realised that with my future plans I wouldn't really be advertising my services to the public, I would need to advertise/ promote my skills to agencies instead!?

As part of my course it has always been drilled into us that in order to attract the attention of any well respected agencies we would have to not only have an well presented portfolio of work but I will also have to think outside of the box when it comes to getting your foot in the door let alone an interview! Other than going round door to door Harassing agencies to look at my portfolio (which i fully intend to do) I need to discuss with my partner Gemma some creative ways to stick in the creative directors minds?!

Bridget went on to discuss the importance of customer relations and how it can make of break a business. She explained that by doing thing such as creating special offers, sale days, reward points and coupon systems or maybe even associating your business with a charity could better improve your chances of pulling in more customers. Although directly targeting customers wont really effect me until I obtain a job in an agency I fully understand and can relate it to how I am going to have to negotiate and maybe make "special offers" and "deals" in order to attract a potential employer. By doing any of the above things I am most probably going to strengthen my prospects as I will Reach a wider audience, and after possibly gaining employed status, Build a relationships within the agencies, in turn Building trust and a better reputation for myself for if I ever did want to move on.

Finding a job! -PEST & Segmentational analysis

Being an aspiring art director in the adverting world poses difficult obstacles when finding a job. After the last lecture I established that I only want to work as an in-house designer in an agency, but with this comes the problem of actually obtaining a permanent job at one!

Firstly I have to sell myself (my ‘product’ / services) to the ad agency bosses before I can even start work with the real business clients. Advertising agency’s look to employ by posting adverts for jobs on websites, papers, and advertising forums; often they go to recruitment agencies and they find suitable candidates for them. My potential clients would then obviously go to my agency bosses (assuming I was employed!) and then they would brief me for the client.

In order to best communicate my skill to my potential employers I need tp be creative in my approach in order to catch their attention and make them remember me, while all the time remaining professional.

In relation to pest and my plight in finding steady employment,

P – political factors ; government laws have few restrictions on how adverting is governed In relation to art direction, but I should take caution and be sensible to avoid offending anyone’s political agendas or culturally offend in order to appeal to a wider audience for my clients!

E – economical factors; With the current economical climate and people losing jobs left right and center I can only hope the recession will have subsided by the time I become a active job seeker! If not I will either have to compromise and lower my expectations. As an industry though I don’t really see adverting going anywhere anytime soon so in that sense it is a more reliable industry to be aiming to work in. one of the economical factors that could effect me is the money people may be putting into advertising these days may be drastically slashed in order to save money, this poses the question of ‘would they be able to afford to employ me?’.

S- social and cultural factors; having less money now due to the economical state effects social and cultural factors greatly. With people having less money this means they have less to spend on everyday things let alone pleasures! Obviously this will effect adverting agencies as clients profits and turn over’s will be significantly lower making it more difficult for them to afford advertising.

T- technological factors; technology is vital for competitive advantage, and is a major driver of globalisation in relation to advertising and dominating the market place. Technology offers companies a new way to communicate with consumers, which is vital in adverting in order to stay current and lead rather than follow. Also it allows for products and services to be made more cheaply and to a better standard of quality, obviously better appealing customers and clients alike.


Segmentation analysis

My key demographic would solely depend upon the product , service or event my client is asking me to advertise. Once I discovered the product I would take ito account; Age, Sex, Height, Dress size, Health, Agility,

Ethnicity, Social Grade, Occupation and Income level, current buying trends and responces.

Geographical factors that I am to concider will again depend on the product again. Although being a Art Director I could choose to conduct a shoot abroad, but this could be costly to the client, obviously i would have to way up the benefits of shooting abroad and whether it was really necessary. Like I said before I would ideally like to work locally in my home town of manchester. This would make it very cheap to get to work.

Making a Start in life!

Having participated in the business and enterprise lecture I was left feeling that i had a lot of questions to ask myself about where i am planning to 'go' in the future and what i want out of my education. Having already established that I am a art director within my field of advertising, well, trying to become one anyway, the lecture made me have a think about how my job would be valued in the creative working world. I recognise now that my talent is needed to produce inviting, informative and original adverts to my clients desired audience not to mention being effective within the task of boosting product sales for them! Enable to do this I am learning and adopting new skills in order to better become a successful art director such as;


• Judgment and Decision Making – becoming better able to make rational, logical and creative decisions quickly.

• Talking to others to convey information effectively.

• Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.

• Managing my own time and the time of others – designers doing work for my ads? Copywriter? Staff?

• The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.

• The ability to come up with numerous ideas about a topic and decide which ones could become polished adverts for my clients campaign.

• Developing, designing, or creating new ideas, relationships, systems, or products, to make products services and events even more ‘sellable’ and ultimately ‘buyable’.

All of these skill would be valued greatly within a prospective ad agency as it would show what a great all rounder I could be and therefore promote productivity and positivity when being hired by a client, Also simply having the ability to get the job done.

Thinking about myself and my future job or business in relation to the 4 P’s I feel that as a product I would supply people with a creative, confident minded, organized art director with the eagerness to complete tasks set originally and most importantly in the best interest of my client. I would create campaigns that best represent there desired message to the consumer. Clients would need my services to better boost their sales or return and with my promised delivery of originality and productivity I believe they would be very satisfied! (if I do say so myself! )

Ideally I would like to be salaried as an in house designer or director, in a local (Manchester agency) so I would have a more stable income and be close to home. I would obviously be competing with other job seekers but I feel once I have proved myself and I have obtained a job in an agency half of my competitive battle will be won, so long as I continue to produce the goods. In regards to price, I would research competitive salary rates on the hope that my salary could be negotiated, otherwise I wouldn’t pick a job as a resident in an agency that thought I would be being underpaid in.


Overall I felt that this lecture posed many questions for me to think about my plans and I look towards setting some achievable goals. I look forward to learning more about creating my own business.