TASK 04:

I have chosen to look at two different photographers, both at very different end of the music photography industry. One Rebecca Hastie who is a music student with a love for photography, she chanrges but her stuff is basic and amateur. And two Tom Barnes who does photography for much bigger bands however in his past has does photographs for students, completely self taught however very knowledgable and extremely talented.

REBECCA HASTIE:
http://www.wix.com/RebeccaHastie/RebeccaHastiePhotography










Their product: To provide professional studio photo shoots at an affordable price for students.
Their place: A studio in Birmingham
Their promotions: Through word of mouth, and self promo on facebook.
Their pricing: A bronze, silver and gold package, ranging from £100 - £250.
Strengths: Cheap and aimed at students. On website makes this fact sound like a USP. Has many friends to advertise to on facebook.
Weaknesses: Only based in Birmingham. Cannot travel because of studio restraints. Only promoting self on facebook, losing audience on myspace. Basic photography therefore limited.

TOM BARNES:
http://tombarnesphoto.com/










Their product: Professional, experienced, well travelled and high quality photography.
Their place: Based in Guilford, often travels overseas and holds a US Media Visa.
Their promotions: Through word of mouth in the music industry. He is well known and has photographs in leading music magazines.
Their pricing: £600+
Strengths: Very talented, well known within the industry. Able to travel.
Weaknesses: Expensive, out of many students price range. No advertising.

Opportunities:
In services: Able to travel around the cities I am based and the suburbs if needed. Bring something different to the photographs, interesting props or prop use.
In promotion: Will be promoting myself on more social networking sites and around colleges.
In pricing: Cheap and affordable, but professional and exciting.
In location: Two big cities, in and around.
Unique Selling Point: It is cheap and I am able to travel within reason, but my main USP is that I create photography that is different from a standard studio shoot, I choose interesting places and interesting situations which make my photographs stand out.

TASK 03:

I will use these aspects of the Marketing Communication Mix:

Public Selling: I will have a '1FREEPHOTO' day in which I will set up a basic studio and take one photo of each who wants one, touch it up then send it to the client with all my contact details on it. Hopefully if they like my skills they will pay for a package.

Public Relations: I will speak to tutors from the music colleges and say my services can be used as competition winnings or incentive material whilst I am starting out.

Advertising: I will create posters to put up in and around the colleges and uni's also give out flyers. I will find out if I can advertise in music zines and if the college has its own paper or zine. I will do most of my advertising online through an online portfolio and I will send the link to it to my target audience. I will aslo ask clients to put links or banners on their myspaces or facebooks to my site.

Direct Marketing: I may do loyalty rewards such as discount bundles to customers who have already used me notifying them through text or email.

Internet: I will have an online porfolio and pages on social networking sites.


Place:
My product is myself therefore I am able to travel Leeds and London. All enquiries and complaints will be directly to me. I will not accept any returns and will not give out refunds. If a customer is really unhappy about my service I will offer them a free day having taken back the unsatisfactory photographs.
I will use direct selling, I will use email to get the phtographs to customers and if prints are wanted I will post them.

TASK 02:

WHERE ARE THEY - HOW WILL THEY FIND ME?

My target audience will be using a lot of online media. Much of the new musicians are promoting themselves through myspace, however to advertising on myspace would be expensive and be ineffective as I would be advertising to lots of people many of whom are not my potentisl clients. However to create a photography myspace account then by using a refined search on myspace add musicians between typical university ages in Leeds and London. This would be free to use and effective as it is direct. I could also do this on similar websites such as facebook and twitter.
There would be no need to advertise on radio or television as the business is too small. I may advertise to already used clients on mobile phones if I were to have deals on as I am trusted by them and furthur down the line there could be loyalty deals I could create.
I will also communicate to my customers through flyering and posters in and around their universities. this means that my communication to my target audience will be extremely cheap. As a student I will be able to use the colleges printing facilities and all online promotion will be free as the websites I am using have free domains.

PEST:
Within politics in the PEST analysis there is not much to worry about as my business is small and part time however I will be taking personal copyrights out by sending myself all my work in the Royal Mail. I will also add watermarks to all of my online work on my portfolio. Within economics I must watch my price sensitivity as there are obvious times when students finances fluctuate. I would cheapen my deals around the ends of terms as students will be running short on money then. Also I may make my prices slightly more expensive in London as students get a larger loan there. This falls into the lifestyle trends of society also as my clients will be spending more at the the beginnings of terms. I will be very focused on my ethics and will not work with any musicians that use any kind of prejudice in their work. I feel that the pricing in my work id ethical too and iI will make a point to stick to this. I would use events that the music colleges had like gigs and advertise there. As this is a small part-times business I will not be travelling overseas however if I was to take this futher and after I finish my degree make the business full time I may consider moving myself to America as the music industry is much bigger there. I would sign up to photography sites to get emailed about technological updates however as a student I will have access to mcuh of them through my college facilities.

SEGMENTATION:
Approx. 18-25
All races, genders and body types.
Probably not from a working class background
Student
£2763+ student loan per year
Britain, much winter work may have to be photographed in a studio, incurring studio costs.
Living close and in the city centers it will be very cheap to get to my clients.
As I will have many different locations because the majority of my work will be done on location I will attempt to find creative yet cheap or free locations
Density of my target audience and urban areas
Only liberal ethics displayed within the music
Innovators, creatives
Any culture
No children, users and buyers
Similar, good business to business relationship
My service will give them cheap and affordable promotional material to make money for themselves.
It will increase their profits by making their clients more aware
They will buy from me every 6-12 months
Most will not already buy from someone else as they are new on the music scene
They read music magazines, music channels and music of their piers
Usually use public transport
Regular internet users

TASK 01:

WHO AM I - WHO ARE THEY?

'I am a photographer offering my services to music students for promotional work'

Product: A photographer with equipment to take on location to photograph musicians and providing them with affordable prints. My target market is music students of all ages and genres in Leeds and London. It is a chance for musicians to aquire promotional material for themselves without the big price.
Price: I will be charging by the image not the hour therefore making sure my clients are treated fairly. I will start with around £15 per image however creating packages to ensure I get a minimum of £90 per shoot. Prints will be charged at £4 per A2.
Place: I will be working with the colleges and universities around London and Leeds. Leeds being where I study and London where I am from, therefore having two places to stay and making the journey often means I can tie photography in with term dates etc. Both cities also have music colleges as well as university with music courses so there is a wide selection of clients.
Promotion: I will be promoting through the universities and colleges with flyers and interactive services such as '1 free photo days' which will be set up in and around places of study and be me shooting any students that ask one photograph each and re-touching then sending it to them all for free. If I still feel I need more clients then I may take to using free small packages to get the word around about my services.

I will be doing this whilst living as a student so I have a timetable to keep to and student finance to use if needed therefore this will be part-time which will fit in with my target audience well as many of them will be working to a similar timing. This also means that much of this work will have a duel purpose to making me money. It will also be going towards a portfolio which means that if I am not making a financial profil I will still be gaining something.

I will initially be working alone however through the interaction with music students I will maybe be on the lookout to collaborate with small businesses involved in music production and management doing work for all their musical projects. This will be something I will do once well established though.