Halloween Party

On the 9th of September we were set the task of hosting a Halloween party in the Art Cafe of the Hartlepool campus. We all got designated areas of work ranging from poster design to security etc. and it started out really well. We managed to get bands booked, security, venue, tickets and posters printed but when it came to selling tickets it all went down hill. I feel that the plan failed because parts of the organisation that should have happened first, did not. For example, the posters should have been made within the first few days / first week of being given the task therefore there would have been more time for everyone to see the poster and not make other plans. People didn't seem interested in the party when tickets were being sold as this was a week maybe a week and a half before the actual event and by now people would have already made plans for Halloween and there was a lack of communication between everyone and there was a lot of misunderstandings. I think if we had had some help from student union to promote the party and help organise things we would have been more successful in carrying out the party. I think we all thought it would be a success as we made a connection with Skyy and organised a free entry and bomb (drink) after the Halloween party, so we thought this would make people want to come. A few people did buy tickets but as the party has been cancelled they got refunded and we have decided not to go ahead with the party, basically to avoid embarrassment and bad reputation.

When the party was cancelled a sign was put up saying "Cancelled due to lack of interest" and this was a bit of a mistake as this can be seen as damaging our reputation as illustrators. We could have bent the truth a little and said that we couldn't afford the security with the budget we have because we required more etc. this is called damage limitation. We are limiting the damage to our reputation.

I think it's a good thing that the Halloween party failed because the next time we have this opportunity we will know what not to do and we will know who to contact for help. I also think that this failure will make the Student Union a little more aware of what they can do to help courses in this situation.

Conceptual Branding

Branding is the process of creating a name / image for a product which after a lot of repetition will them embed into the consumers mind differentiating it from all other products and brands on the market. [1] Branding is a great thing and has made certain products really successful as it sucks the consumer in once they become attached to the brand. For example Adidas, they have a constant logo throughout their products and Adidas consumers know the brand from a simple 3 stripe design. The same can be said for bands that have logos, for example when Nirvana fans see the yellow smiley face they immediately know it's Nirvana and when people see the red lips and tongue they know it's The Rolling Stones. Branding is all about having a unique name and image which consumers become familiar with. 

This is a very effective professional thing to do with a product as it helps with sales and gaining consumers and a following of people that are interested in your product. Branding is a rather successful practice as it sucks people in and subconsciously forces people to buy a new product, someone could have 10 pairs of Nike Air Max trainers but as soon as another design comes out they want to buy it, because they have been sucked in by the brand. 

''We call what we do Conceptual Branding. We believe in unique differentiated brands and that a brand is more than just a logo, a set of typography and colour palette. We believe in brands that tell a story and convey a message, brands that appeal just as much to the heart as they do to the intellect.'' [2]

[3]

[1] UNKNOWN. What is Branding? http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/branding.html (09.10.2014)

[2] UNKNOWN. Kind Conceptual Branding https://www.linkedin.com/company/kind-conceptual-branding-as (09.10.2014)

[3] http://blog.hrpartners.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/brandIdentity2.jpg

Target Market and Consumer Needs

We (illustration and graphics) have been set the task for hosting a Halloween party for ourselves and other students. I need to carry out research into our target marker and consumer needs in order for this event to run as well as we possibly can.

A target market is a group of people or 'consumers' which a particular product is aimed at. In this case our target market is uni students, aged 18+ (due to sales of alcohol). I looked into whether uni students would be able to afford to buy a ticket etc. by researching the amount of money the average student spends. I found that the average student (in a month) spends most of their money on rent, followed by food. The amount of money on average spent on social activities is £64 a month [1]. Therefore I think students would be able to afford  couple of pounds for a Halloween party presuming that we met their consumer needs which I will now go into further. 

Consumer needs are basically preferences in which your target market will have when thinking about spending their money on the product you are selling. In our case the consumer needs will be cheap entry, cheap drinks and food, exciting atmosphere, awesome decorations as it's a Halloween party and a range of music and the venue being close to the campus / student accommodation.

http://www.savethestudent.org/money/student-money-survey-results.html#2

The venue we have for the Halloween party is the Art Cafe on the campus which is free for us to use. We had the option to host the party at the Theatrical Town Hall but it was a bit too expensive for us to hire. I think if the word gets around and the advertising posters work well we will get a large amount of people wanting to attend. Also, with the venue being free the ticket price won't be expensive therefore more people will think about coming. The students will be happy that the venue is close to home / uni as well, so there is more of a chance they will buy tickets.

We have all be assigned roles for the event. The roles are as follows; Ticket designer, poster designer, security organisation, music organisation, decoration, authentication of tickets and event organiser. 

My role, along with another student is the authentication of the tickets. We need to come up with something that can make the ticket authentic so that people cannot photocopy the ticket and get in for free. We had some idea such as gold leaf (because it's shiny), shiny paper to print on, embossing and UV ink / paint. We will need to sort something before the tickets are sold so preferably the final idea shouldn't cost money. We are going to look further into this and discuss with fellow students.