Marketing Effectiveness Essay

After performing both Theatre In Education pieces, we needed time to reflect on the positive and negative aspects and also the effectiveness of each piece. There were both positive and negative aspects to both of the piece and these could affect the effectiveness of the pieces as well. We had reflective sessions at the end of both of the piece with the audiences and we also got a chance to talk to our teacher about our performances.

Our SToRMS piece was the first to be performed and one of the main positive feedback that we got was that the reflective listening groups at the end were really beneficial to particular audience members who actually commented that they were struggling with some of the topics included in the piece and they hoped that someone would be able to listen to them and help them after this. We were able to talk through the 7 deadly sins of communication with my group being particularly intrigued about what each one meant and at times when examples were given, the group was able to identify when they had experience someone use that in their lives. This opened up the situation for discussion as we could talk through what happened in that situation and ask how talking to them in that tone made them feel and how reflective listening could have been used in that situation. When we also went out for the interactive sections with the audience, they seemed very open to talking to us about what they would do in those situations. This was how we wanted it to be so that the audience didn't feel like we were going to judge them on their opinions and we just wanted to talk through their thought process throughout the piece and their interpretation of the piece. The comedic timing of the piece was also commented on as the audience responded as we expected to the jokes that were made which allowed interaction between the cast and the audience much easier as the atmosphere was already set from the comedy aspects before hand.

One of the main negative aspects of the SToRMS performance was refocusing the audience which was needed in order for them to understand both the story line and for the audience to completely understand the messages that we were portraying. Even though the facilitators had microphones, at times the audience overpowered them and lines were lost due to the talking of the audience. This meant that particular explanations of the activities were lost in the sea of voices and so the activity did not work as we had expected due to the audience not being able to hear the explanation of what they were being asked to do. As expected there were also certain groups in the audience who weren't interested in the piece and the messages that we were trying to convey and this lead to them not wanting to interact with cast members and relate their own lives to the piece. This made it harder to ask some of the questions and we had to use techniques like asking other questions about the scene and what happened which allowed us to initiate conversations about the scene. At times this was successful and other not which altered the effectiveness a lot.

In terms of effectiveness, I feel that the SToRMS piece was overall quite effective as in a discussion with the client, we said that in an audience of aorund 50/60 people, if we could help 2 or 3 people then that would be enough as this could be exactly what they needed. I know that we helped at least 1 person as they told me about how this was what they needed and so I believe that we achieved what we set out to do and therefore the piece was effective. I do however believe that there were members of the audience who didn't think about the piece once they had left the performance space so it was not 100% effective.

In terms of the Primary School "Survival Guide" we had a much younger target audience and therefore it appeared to be much easier to interact with as they were very interested in what we had to say. Especially in the interactive sections, we had a lot of students wanting to answer our questions and were eager to make their opinions heard. They were very willing to participate in the small activities that we gave them which made it much easier to discuss and talk through their opinions in relation to the subject chapter we were on. During the Quiz scene, in which we were asking the audience in small group for the best response to the scenario we had set up, the audience's competitive streak was clear and we had many discussion about what the best response would get the best outcome. During the discussion groups at the end of the piece, the audience were given the opportunity to ask any questions that they had and this also allowed us to ask them for feedback on the piece and the response was that they felt more relaxed about moving up to secondary school. One of the teachers at our school has a daughter that watched the piece and her and her class were talking about it for a week after we had performed it which clearly show the effectiveness of the piece if the children were talking about the piece and secondary school even after we had left. The only negative aspects of the performance was the pace during the start of the piece which was too fast, this could possibly change the effectiveness of the piece due to the audience not being able to hear the start of the first chapter as the narrator talked slightly too fast and so the audience might not have been able to connect to the situation that had been set up for them as they couldn't hear the explanation.

Overall the performance was successful and the audience clearly took away the main messages that we wanted them to understand which was that moving up to secondary school isn't as scary as they thought. I think that it was completely effective for the audience as they were talking about it even after the performance. We even got verbal communication that they were more excited about moving up to secondary school which means that the Primary School piece was more effective than the SToRMS piece.

Marketing Poster drafts

Draft 1

Positive aspects about this poster:

• Includes both SToRMS and N2C Theatre's information so if anybody needs to get in touch with either organisation then their information in there.
• Has rehearsal pictures on there so that the target audience see what the process was like and can get a taster of what they can expect when they see the performance.
• Questions relating to the main message of the piece, communication and the need for more people to openly talk about what they are experiencing with their friends, for the audience to answer once when they enter the room and once when they go out so that they can see if their opinion has changed over the course of the piece.
• The layout of the pictures, I feel, gives the whole poster a focal point and with the companies information in that central section then I feel like they are more likely to contact them.

Negative aspects:

• Lots of blank space because I didn't want to overfill the page with lots of information as that would immediately make the target audience switch off from reading it and that defeats the whole purpose of a poster which is to inform people of the piece and interest them to watch it. 

In order to fix this I made a second draft that fills up more of the space.

Draft 2

I think that draft 2 will be the poster that we use as it includes all of the main messages that we want to focus on without it being overbearing to an onlooker. The photos are from the rehearsal process which show what is to be expected of the piece and the links included to both the Theatre company and the SToRMS website are clear for people to find out more information.

Marketing Techniques Essay

The product that is the focus of this advertising is a Theatre In Education piece that is being performed by a year 13 BTEC drama class in order to raise awareness for the charity SToRMS, who focus on male mental health, and also highlight the growing need for communication, specifically in the male population of our society. Therefore, the piece is aimed at young males at the age of 15-17, as this is the focal period where boys begin to realise social pressures that are placed on them and they try to find their place, not only in the modern society that we live in, but in their social and home lives as well. We are planning to go into as many schools as possible to ensure that the message can reach as many male students as possible. Before anything else we need to delve into the world of advertising and marketing for us to find the most valuable and effective method of advertising the piece to the teachers who could be interested in us coming to their school and performing. Advertising methods can be categorised into specific and non-specific techniques: specific being a focused campaign that is aimed at a group that we know in our target range and non-specific being a campaign that has a more widespread field of focus.

A common advertising technique that is used in the current society is emails. Using emails allows the recipient to easily forward the email onto someone else, which could include teachers at other schools, and therefore can become known across a wide range of people in a short amount of time. Files and images can also be attached easily onto emails meaning, we can send small videos or photos of what they can expect of the piece and emails are also free to send meaning that they wouldn’t cost the theatre company anything to send them. Also sending an email doesn’t require a face-to-face meeting so that means that neither we nor the recipient need to take time out of our schedules to meet. Emails are a specific method of advertising and so we can narrow down who the emails are sent to in order for our piece to be advertised in the correct way and to the correct people. Although emails are a good method of marketing, emails do also have a down-side. We would need to find the email addresses of the specific people that are associated with the target audience’s age range, and we are aware that teachers are very time consumed and so we may not get a reply back as soon as we would expect. Emails can still be considered as a reliable method of advertising and marketing and so could play a major role in our campaign.

If emails cannot be accessed by everyone, then we could send out a letter instead so that those who do not have access to a computer can also be reached. Letters are seen as a more personal form of communication and because the topic of our performance can become quite hard-hitting at times, a letter could portray the emotions that are behind the performance and can link to the charity supporting the piece. Like emails, letters do have a negative side; it takes time to write a letter, to look up an address and then find a mailbox. Meaning, that writing letter would take us much longer than sending an emails would but if a letter was needed, we would accommodate to that. Letters also take longer to be delivered than emails, can be lost easier and rely on a postman to deliver it meaning, that we are not responsible if the letter is sent to the wrong person. Letter can still be considered in our campaign as the majority of teachers/schools, our target audience for advertising, have computers and email addresses so a letter can be considered as a secondary response after the emails are sent out.

Phone calls could also be regarded as a primary method of sharing our campaign as they are direct and specific, the conversations are relatively private between us and the recipient and calls can be made at any time in the day so if we miss one call at a specific time, we can proceed to ring again when they are available. Also, majority of schools are equipped with phones that are specific to people and so we can contact them directly. Although many things can be said in a phone call, not everything is always remembered, and sometimes small sections of information can be lost due to signal or interference and therefore key details could be lost or misheard. I think that including phone calls in our campaign would be crucial as they play such a huge part in the modern society and, it is a quick and easy method in which we can fully explain our piece and find out directly whether that school is initially interested. We could use phone calls as our first step in our campaign and see where the advertising audience are interested by our product and we can then proceed to send them more information about the piece through emails, and/or more phone calls if necessary, which allows them to gain full knowledge about the piece and about the message of communicating efficiently that we want them to take from it.

Another specific technique using in advertising can be to send written letters to the schools of interest as this would give them all the information that they need to know in one area and we could also include our contact details so that if they do need any extra information or would like to book a performance, they still have those options as well. With letters, you can include photos as well as writing so that the advertising audience can see what we have done, in terms of the rehearsal process, and how we've gotten to our end product. It is more of a formal way of approaching the schools instead of sending an email which may add to our overall impression on the teachers whom we are targeting as we come across more professional. Although, writing letters can be very time consuming and so might not be the most efficient way to advertise our piece and we would have to wait for the letters to reach the schools and wait for a reply. This would take up an excessive amount of time and so sending emails might be the better option in terms of speed in relation to our rehearsal period.

N2C Theatre, is the theatre company that all members of the cast are a part of and is involved with the school and the production of this piece, has their own website that we have access to which they use to advertise performances[1]. We are planning on using this to help advertise the piece and it will not only benefit the marketing audience when they are looking at it, but also the theatre company as they will get recognition as well. Using a website or a webpage is another specific type of advertising as it is focused on our piece and is directly linked to the theatre company that we are a part of. A website is also an easy way to see the full product as well because all the information is on the screen in front of you and you can get instant information from the website along with pictures to help them visualise what the end product would potentially look like. It is also very easy to change a website to help with the understanding about the meaning of the piece and what Theatre In Education pieces are normally used for. A website is online twenty-four hours a day so there is no time in which the ad will be up for, meaning that the audience can view the information about the piece whenever it is convenient for them and there isn't a limit on how many times they can view the website. This means that they can access our website as many times as they want, and they are therefore looking at the section advertising our piece when we look through the website.

Like all other advertising methods, websites do have their disadvantages. Sometimes there can be too much information on the site and so our marketing audience may lose our piece in the extremity of all the other performances and their descriptions. To prevent this from occurring, we need to ensure that the layout of the website makes the information about our TIE piece easily accessible and the information that is included isn't overwhelming. We also need to take into consideration the fact that websites are a very modern advertising technique and we don't know the exact experience that our marketing audience have with websites. We need to make sure that our website does not only appeal to those interested in joining the theatre company but to those, like our target audience, who are looking at performances that they are interested in bringing to their schools. Although our website is very specific to the work that N2C Theatre does and therefore it won't get lost in all the other drama company websites as our TIE is specific to this drama company and so I think that using the website will be beneficial to our campaign as it is specific to our theatre company.

A marketing technique that may add to our advertising campaign could be marketing products such as t-shirts and mugs with the piece, and the companies' logo that are involved, on the sides. Having actual objects such as cups that have the piece on them whilst out in public may catch people's eye and if we do have the website on there as well then, they will be able to access more information from that as well. Because this piece is what we are focused on in drama at this particular time then we can use that focus to our advantage and make certain products that would advertise our product both as a reminder of the piece to those that have seen it and also as an advertising method to those, specifically teachers, who may want to see it. The more people that see the logo on various items such as t-shirts and/or cups then it may spark their interest and they may proceed to ask questions about the piece. We can be very specific and selective of what we put on the marketing products meaning that it will be relative to the piece and we control what goes on them, so we would make sure that it wasn't excessive and overwhelming to the audience. We can therefore develop a reputation for both SToRMS and N2C meaning that they can both benefit from this method of advertising and the piece can get recognised from these companies as well.

Regarding marketing products, it is difficult to create a product that will interest a wide group of people without knowing what techniques our marketing target audience are interested by. If we make it a certain way that may not appeal to the correct audience or may not advertise the piece in the best way meaning, that we would have to conduct an experiment on which presentation on the marketing products appeals to our target audience the most. It would also be difficult to get the products to more than one school as our theatre company is based in King Ecgbert School and so we would have to ask teachers whom work in more than just our school to carry our advertising products with them and this could potentially not work as we are asking them to advertise for our product without them knowing anything about it.

Like marketing products, other techniques such as publicity stunts are also time consuming. Publicity stunts are planned events that are designed to attract the public's attention to a specific organizer or cause. Previously, we have created flash mobs in relation to another charity and so have experience in creating these which we could use to our advantage and create one to advertise this piece. Publicity stunts can reach a large quantity of people in a concentration location and the awareness generated by these stunts leads to the audience seeking out more information and therefore becoming interested in the piece that we want to show them. If the stunt makes people stop and think about what is happening, then perhaps they will begin to talk about it with their colleagues and maybe the will try and find out more information which would be on our website. Stunts like this also have a time limit of how effective they are, for example someone who watches the flash mob first-hand will be impacted more than someone who saw in on a video or just heard about it When creating publicity stunts, we need to consider the professional image that it would be sending to the audience about our company and about the piece. If we create the wrong atmosphere surrounding the piece, then our audience may not take the piece seriously and therefore become uninterested. To use a publicity stunt in our marketing campaign, we would need to study the reflection that it would have on both the theatre company and the charity and so taking this into consideration, I think that it would send out the wrong message to the audience about the piece.

A non-specific technique that could also be included is posters in town so that if our marketing target audience and other possible influences that are associated with our target audience for the piece are in public, they are still seeing an advert for the piece regardless of whether they had existing knowledge of the piece. An advantage of using posters in public area is that if we put all the needed information on the poster design, then they are still giving a substantial amount of knowledge about the piece without someone informing them. These means that the information regarding the piece can reach a broader audience than, for example, a flash-mob as we can put them in multiple locations so that our piece is being advertised in more areas and therefore reaching more people. We would still include the website and phone numbers associated with the directors of the piece so that if more information was needed it was easily accessible. Also, multiple designs of a poster can be made so that we are still advertising the same product but in different ways using different techniques to intrigue an audience to read the poster.

If an error was to occur for example, a spelling mistake, then it would be very difficult to readjust and reprint the posters which means that we would need to look over the final draft off the posters, in fine detail, to make sure that it was ready to be part of our campaign and making sure that it gave the right impression of both the piece and the companies involved. It is very difficult to make a poster that will stand out when compared to others that will also be in the public spaces and there needs to be a substantial amount of time put into the creation of these posters as they could be an essential part of the campaign. During the process of creating a poster you need to identify the key information that you want as the focal point of the design and this needs to be carefully picked out and placed in a way that is informative and professional yet intriguing.

A similar non-specific method of advertising is newspaper articles as our marketing target audience are older adults and so they are more likely to read the paper and ask for more information about the piece through the contact information that we would have to include in the advert. If we were to use a newspaper advert to gain publicity for the piece, then one of the positive aspects is that there is a variety of display options that we could use to advertise the piece. There are smaller adverts and then there are pages that are specifically about schools which could be the best way to advertise the piece as there is more chance that our target audience would potentially look at this page as they are teachers. Newspaper are also a form of targeted advertising as if we use "The Star" newspaper as an example, then that would be sent out to just Sheffield and we could have an audience across all of Sheffield interested in the piece. There are obviously going to be some disadvantages to using a newspaper article and the main one is the fact that we cannot guarantee that our marketing target audience read the paper as it quite old-fashioned in relation to modern society's ways of communicating. Having an advert in the newspaper is only there for a limited time and if you want it in for longer then you must pay for it meaning, that we would be taking money out of the budget to use a method of advertising that is diminishing in society. Also, it would take time to create the article in the correct format and language that would advertise the piece in the correct way towards our target audience and wait for it to be edited and published.

Another, less common, form of non-specific advertising is word of mouth, which involves the product being advertised through people talking about the piece and hopefully the product would reach our target audience. Word of mouth is a potential way of quick advertising as word can spread very quickly but it does put a lot of trust on those that are discussing it in terms of giving the correct information out. A downside to word of mouth is the amount of control that we have over the information that is being given out and the time scheme in which it could possibly reach our target audience. We can also not control the overall impression that is given about the piece and the opinions that people give out could therefore affect the overall impression of both the theatre company and SToRMS as a charity. Although word of mouth is a free method of advertising, it is quite difficult to evaluate the concluding result that it had as we are unable to control who the information is passed to. In terms of our piece, I feel that word of mouth could be useful especially between teachers, perhaps in different schools. We only have a limited time to advertise the piece before it is being performed and because we cannot control the speed at which the information will reach our target audience it may be hard to guarantee that other people will find out about it.

After looking at the range of advertising methods that are available, Emails, phone calls and the N2C Theatre website and social media, seem to be both the quickest methods of advertising and the most effective. As an advertising plan, I think that phone calls should be the first point of advertising as we can make phone calls to specific year group managers and we can then follow up with emails containing information about the piece and the theatre company. Alongside this, we could use the N2C Theatre account on many different social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and twitter, to advertise the piece as well. We could include pictures of the rehearsal process and pictures of other schools watching the performances. All the aspects of advertising that have been discussed could be used in our marketing and advertising plan but there are clear methods that will enable our piece to be widely known in a short space of time. 

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[1]www.n2ctheatre.co.uk

Marketing Plan

Forming our Marketing Plan and research

There are currently two of us working on the marketing plan for the TIE piece for SToRMS so, we decided that we would think about all the different ways of marketing by ourselves and find out which ones we think would be the most effective way of advertising our piece. We would then come together and discuss what we want to do and divide the jobs between us and make sure that every area is covered and we are using as many techniques as possible in order to get our piece to be advertised.

We decided on a plan together and the steps that we would take to advertise the piece:

1. Phone Calls - We were thinking that we could call either the head of year 10 and 11 in the secondary schools as they are the people who our marketing campaign would be targeted at due to them being a pathway to our target audience for the actual piece. Having a phone call would allow us to give them the basic information about the piece and what it aims we want the piece to have, plus we could get an immediate response about whether they are interested and then we could get a follow up route to send them more information.
2. Emails - We would then follow up the phone calls with an email that explains the piece in more depth and we would include links to the N2C Theatre website which has more information on it and we would also send them a small version of the poster that we would put up so that they know what to expect.
3. Social Media - N2C Theatre has a variety of different social media platforms, including twitter, facebook and instagram, which can be used throughout the rehearsal process in order for the piece to reach as many people as possible. Both of us have access to these platforms through our teachers who run them and we can both pass on photos and captions that we think advertise the piece the most and in the best light.
4. Trailer - We thought that we could make a short trailer video that could be played at the start of the piece to introduce the rehearsal process of the piece and it could include cast interviews/ the cast saying how influential it has been on their lives as well.
5. Flyers - SToRMS have already given us a flyer that they want us to hand out but we thought that we could combine what is on that flyer with information about N2C and also maybe create a joint logo between N2C and SToRMS.
6. Program - We were thinking about creating a small program that the audience can read whilst they are sitting down in their seats which gives an outview of what SToRMS is and what N2C is and also what the piece is generally based on including some information from the SToRMS website about communication between males.
7. Posters - We had the idea of creating a couple of posters that we would take down to the secondary school with us and have on the walls behind us whilst we are performing containing short and snappy sections of advice that correlates with the piece and we could also include some of the "Wise Talkers" information from SToRMS which they will be given later in the piece.

I am going to be in control of creating the posters in different eye-catching forms as well as being a part of controlling the social media as a pair. As we already have some schools that have contacted us about the piece, our teacher is going to focus on the email aspect as he has been emailing and calling them from the start and we don't want to interrupt that process and so we are only stepping in after those steps have been made.

I decided to do some research on aspects of a good poster and what makes a poster eye catching and interesting. I found a website (https://designshack.net/articles/inspiration/10-tips-for-perfect-poster-design/ ) that has bullet points about the good points of a poster and I am going to create a draft poster using their points and see what the outcome is. The main aspects that I found helpful were:
- Making the poster easy to read from a distance
- Using one big visual
- Use plenty of space
- Consider size and location

Marketing Research

Starting an advertising campaign

Before starting an advertising campaign, you need to identify your target audiences and the target audience for our Theatre In Education piece is boys aged 15-17, in years 10 and 11 in school. The performance target audience is this age range but the target audience that we will be advertising to will be the people and teachers who are going to pay and book for us to come and perform for their children. As we are beginning our marketing research, in preparation for our own marketing campaign regarding our T.I.E piece, we need to identify the different types of advertising there are and how effective they are in the society that we live in and also regarding our target audience. We found that there are two different types of advertising specific and non-specific. Specific is when a campaign that is focused at a group that we know is in our target range and non-specific is a campaign that has a more widespread field of focus.

We discussed some of the options that there are for an advertising campaign and methods that could be used and we put them into the categories of specific and non-specific. And we came up with these:

Specifc

•  Emails
• Letters
• Web Page
• Phone calls
• Social Media
• Marketing products such as cups, tshirts etc

Non-specific

• Posters
• TV Adverts
• Radio Adverts
• Newspapers
• Word of Mouth

Obviously some methods are going to be a lot harder to produce than others like Radio and TV adverts as we don't have access to those types of marketing but we could create a sample of what we would do and use that as an introduction to the piece whilst the audience are walking in. Things like phone calls, emails and social media are some of the easiest forms of marketing that we have access to and also we can directly advertise the piece to specific people who are linked to our target audience for the piece.