Commentary and advice on marketing, mostly for publishers (traditional and brands) and writers, but sometimes from a broader perspective.
Last week I covered the first three steps of Kevin Stirtz' "Smart Marketing System", focusing on a marketing plan's Goals, Market and Message, and this week I'll take a look at the final two pieces of this simple but apparently often confounding puzzle: 1. The GOALS or objectives you want to accomplish 2. The MARKET you want to reach 3. The MESSAGE you want to deliver to your market 4. The MONEY you are willing to spend to deliver your message 5. The MEDIA you will use to deliver your message Money and Media, of course, are pretty much inseparable,…
Before I go any further with this, I want to establish the three basic principles that will represent the foundation for the Marketing Monday series of columns: 1) Publishing comics is a business, not a hobby; 2) Proftability within 3-5 years, if not sooner, is the goal. 3) The ultimate goal of marketing is to match a company's products and services to the people who need and want them, thereby [ensuring] profitability. (Investopedia) Last week, I referenced Kevin Stirtz' "Smart Marketing System", a simple, 5-step blueprint for building and implementing a successful marketing plan, and posited it as a good…
ITEM UPDATE: Wonder Woman Spec Script Review Latino Review's El Mayimbe has a preview/review of the Wonder Woman spec script that seemingly helped get Joss Whedon axed from the movie. Overall, a very great read. The writers did their homework. As a comic book character origin movie - it is just as good as Batman Begins. I can see why Silver supposedly took it off the spec market. If I was a betting man, I figure this is the origin story that Warners might stick with. My note to the studio is to not touch the script, leave it intact,…
I have a love-hate relationship with Black History Month, simultaneously appreciating the thought behind it while despising its continued necessity. As such, I'm not planning to make a big deal about it 'round these parts; it's a thing for less diverse sites and blogs to take note of, an opportunity to pay lip service to diversity for the next 28 days before returning to the status quo. (Cynical? Not me!) That said, in light of some recent relevant discussions across the blogiverse, I thought I'd "reprint" the first really good post I ever made here (and to-date, still one of…
This started out as a quick comment over at The Beat, in reference to someone blaming retailers for dim road ahead for the recently canceled The Boys series, post-DC, because retailers will order less copies from the eventual new publisher thanks to the likelihood of lower discounts than they receive from DC.It's a knee-jerk response, and one I've made often in general reference to retailers who focus only on the Big Two, but in thinking about it, I've changed my mind a bit.Marvel/DC-only retailers are like the corner bodega: they stock a basic supply of staple goods from major suppliers…
I was going to sit this one out but it really does fall right into my wheelhouse...The unflappable Loren Javier has been hosting a handful of interesting debates over the past couple of weeks at his One Diverse Comic Book Nation blog -- which is showing promising signs of becoming exactly the kind of niche site I think the comics internet needs -- and I've jumped into a couple of them, partly because I appreciate the civil tone he sets, even when he's being unfairly attacked.After mixing it up with Gail Simone yesterday over The All New Atom, I finally…
Marc-Oliver Frisch's always enlightening sales analysis is now posted at The Beat, looking at DC's estimated numbers for December 2006, and buried towards the end is a very interesting breakdown of the Average Sales per Title of their three primary imprints. I've spotlighted the DCU as a point of interest:DC UNIVERSE12/2003: 29,26312/2004: 36,92512/2005: 44,99312/2006: 44,641---------------6 months: -12.6%1 year : - 0.8%2 years : +20.9%3 years : +52.6%As would be expected, the main DCU has seen some impressive growth over the past three years, fueled largely by Infinite Crisis and its numerous lead-ins, crossovers, tie-ins and spinoffs. What's hidden beneath that…
