POSITIONING FOR PROFITABLE GROWTH IN THE CREATIVE INDUSTRY Uche Nworah FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23RD 2012 uchenworah@yahoo.

com

The Creative (&) Cultural Industry

The creative industries refers to those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property. (UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport) May also be referred to as the cultural industries ...Hesmondhalgh 2002, or the creative economy ...Howkins 2001.

Which professions make up the creative industry?

This includes a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information (intellectual property compared to bricks & mortars). Howkins' creative economy comprises advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, R&D, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games (Howkins 2001).

The Creative Industries

Writer/Author Songwriter Photographer /Videographer Print Journalist Creative/Graphic Artist Comedian Fashion Designer Branding/ Advertising Practitioner Actor Music Director PR Practitioner Recording artist Interior Decorator Talent/Artist manager Event Planner Songwriter Blogger/Online Journalist Model Broadcast Journalist Social Activist Politician Sportsman Performing Arts

Publisher Music Producer Make-Up Artist

Film Producer On-Air Personality Singer/Artist/ Entertainer

Film Director Disc Jockey (DJ) Jewellery Maker

Architect Video Jockey (VJ) Choreographer/ Dancer

Reality Show Contestant Life Coach

Celebrity Cook Web Designer/IT Practitioner

Celebrity anything Entrepreneur

Public Speaker Showbiz Impresario

Serial Public Nuisance (SPN) Others???

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The Creative Industries: The UK Example

Contribute 7.3% of GDP and employ over 2 million people (5.1% of UKs employment). Accounts for 10.6% of UKs export of services The sector is forecast to play a bigger role in coming years. "The creative industries are a big part of the CBI's plans for a more dynamic and rebalanced economy, and the country's future success is tied up with their success. They're a part of the business community that deserves championing. Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Boss Active and sustained UK Government support through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) The Government wants to create the right environment to start and grow a business, making sure that people working in the creative industries have the right managerial and leadership skills to do so. It has committed to introducing a one-in one-out rule for new regulations, sunset clauses, and an immediate review of all inherited regulation in the pipeline.

The Creative Industries: The UK Example

The government also funds the Cultural Industries Development Agency (Cida). The CEO is Nigerian born Toks Majek-Akisanya There are also numerous grants, funding support and other support for practitioners The United Kingdoms creative economy is the largest in the European Union and as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) probably the biggest in the world. The creative sector accounts for 7.3% of the UK economy, around 60 billion, and is comparable in this respect to the financial services industry. The sector is growing at twice the rate of the economy as a whole The government is promoting Britain as the worlds creative hub and envisages creative industries at the heart of the national economy.

Group Task
Analyse the creative industries in Nigeria with a view to highlighting successes, prospects, challenges and recommendations to relevant stakeholders on way forward for sustainable growth

The Creative Industry In Nigeria

The first National Policy Dialogue on the development of creative/entertainment industries in Nigeria held in Lagos in July 2012 to identify challenges and develop a roadmap going forward. The event was organized by the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, supported by UNCTAD, UNDP and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank The objectives of the Policy Dialogue were: (i) to facilitate synergies between the Government and stakeholders to support and re-position the creative industries as important vehicles for economic and social transformation. (ii) to highlight the rising contribution of creative industries to Nigeria's economy, GDP, trade, tourism and image promotion. (iii) to identify the myriad challenges affecting the growth of creative industries and to develop a roadmap to address them. The Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) says Nigerias creative industry is capable of contributing more than N1 trillion annually to the nations economy according to the Director-General of the commission, Mr Afam Ezekude during the 2012 National Creativity Day celebration in Abuja.

The Creative Industry in Nigeria (2)

In 2010, President Jonathan midwifed a $2 million soft loan via the Nexim Bank and Bank of Industry to help deal with the obstacles that prevent the growth of the industry such as piracy, lack of venture capital, lack of proper marketing and distribution network, poor capacity building of filmmakers so as to improve quality and better production practices. However, only a few filmmakers have been able to access the fund, a situation that has caused much frustration in the industry Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala plans to create a new window under the YouWIN Programme (Sure P) to allow in a short-term basis some quick funds to support members of the creative industry There is a buzz globally about the creative industry in Nigeria and a recognition of the talents that abound The Nigerian creative industry renaissance appears to be led by music, comedy, writers and Nollywood Many challenges still stunt sustained growth

A Few Known Creative Entrepreneurs

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Chinua Achebe on Beginning Writers

Most writers who are beginners, if they are honest with themselves, will admit that they are praying for readership as they begin to write. But it should be the quality of the craft, not the audience, that should be the greatest motivating factor. For me, at least, I can declare that when I wrote Things Fall Apart I couldnt have told anyone the day before it was accepted for publication that anybody was going to read it. There was no guarantee, nobody ever said to me, Go and write this, we will publish it, and we will read it, it was just there. But my brotherin-law, who was not a particularly voracious reader, told me that he read the novel through the night and it gave him a terrible headache the next morning. And I took that as an encouraging endorsement (There Was A Country, Chinua Achebe, paragraph 2, page 61)

Creative Entrepreneurs
As a creative person in business, you have your own unique creativity, your ambition about what you want your enterprise to become, and your own ideas about what success means to you. Creative entrepreneurs blend creativity with smart business thinking Successful creative entrepreneurs embrace both creativity and business. David Parrish, author of T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity

BUSINESS OR HOBBY?
Success for your creative enterprise may include a range of factors in addition to financial reward, such as fulfilling creative ambitions, staying true to personal values, and gaining recognition for your work. Each enterprise will combine these and other ingredients differently to create their own particular definition of success. The challenge for you as a creative person when planning and developing a business is to combine creativity with the best business ideas, so as to turn creative talent into income streams. Crucially, this is not a matter of making a compromise between creativity and business its a matter of getting the best of both worlds. Success means different things to different people, so as a creative entrepreneur you need to be clear about your own definition of success. In other words, you must be clear about where you are planning to go. (Business Link UK publication)

Business Plans
The paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a businesswoman, I have to move with that shift. (Madonna - Recording artist and entertainer) The best business plans are useful documents which become a route map or pocket guide to help you on your journey to success. The best business plans provide milestones and measures of success, so that progress can be tracked as the business develops. These key performance indicators (KPIs) measure the most important aspects of the companys performance and are the business equivalent of a cars dashboard, providing the driver with essential real-time information.

KEY QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

Which specific goods or services should we offer (from all the creative things we could do)? Which particular customers should we target (out of all those potential customers out there)? If you dont answer these questions, there is a danger that you can try selling everything to everybody - and end up selling nothing to nobody

Strategic Planning
Strategic planning involves using your head as well as your heart, using left-brain logic as well as right-brain intuition, to steer your creative passion in the direction of business success. Creative talent does not automatically deserve business success, so you need to assess all your creative options to decide which are likely to be the most feasible in business terms. To be creative as an amateur with no requirement to make money provides opportunities for infinite artistic freedom. However, once you take your creative talent into the commercial arena, you will have to deal with two major factors competitors and customers. The late May Nzeribe taught me a lesson once on getting paid for ideas at a clients meeting

ANALYTICAL TOOL: PRIMEFACTS

A useful checklist to identify characteristics that are potential strengths and weaknesses is the PRIMEFACTS checklist This is an acronym for ten factors which provide headings for your analysis of your enterprises: People, Reputation, Intellectual property, Market information, Ethos, Finances, Agility, Collaborators, Talents, and Structure.

ANALYTICAL TOOL: ICEDRIPS

External factors should be evaluated too, and a similar checklist for identifying potential opportunities and threats is provided by the ICEDRIPS: Innovation, Competitors, Economics, Demographics, Regulations, Infrastructure, Partners and Social Trends

Things to Consider before setting up shop

Strategic Planning - Understanding your Customers - Profiting from your Ideas - Organisational Structures - People and Skills - Promoting your Products / Services - Financial Management - Legal and other issues

Positioning for Growth

To position for growth, there is an assumption that already one has clearly identified his/her path in the creative industry such as There must be some evidence of demonstrable talent or set of creative skills that can appeal to others to the point that they are willing to pay for the service (all of us may be able to sing in the shower but this does not necessarily mean that we have the talent to sing Reality bites, therefore many who are currently caught up in the creative industry gold rush may be better off going back to 9 to 5 jobs

POSITIONING AT TWO LEVELS

S/N 1 MICRO (PRACTITIONER) Nature/Nurture MACRO (GOVERNMENT/INSTITUTIONAL) Sustained support (e.g. the UK model looking at the activities of DCMS, Cida, Universities UK etc) Making data available Appointing the right people to head government agencies with a mandate to support the work of the creative industries Setting up a specific creative industries ministry as the Ministry of Tourism and Culture which overlooks the creative industries appears to be more focused on tourism

2 3

Local and global linkages, networking, affiliations Continuous improvement through skills development, training etc

Learning the business side of things including branding

Some Brand Experts Views on Positioning

Positioning starts with a product. A piece of merchandise, a service, an institution, or even a person. But positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect (Positioning: The Battle for your mind, Al Ries & Jack Trout, 1981) Positioning means owning a credible and profitable position in the consumers mind, either by getting there first, or by adopting a position relative to the competition, or by repositioning the competition.(Understanding Brands, Cowley. D, 1996) Strategic positioning is creating a unique and sustainable competitive position (Professor Michael Porter at the Tony Elumelu lecture series, August 11, 2011)

Thoughts on Brand Positioning in Nigeria

Many organisations seem to have lost their way in the desert, not able to know what they stand for (brand essence), what to promise and how to communicate such promises to their customers and what/how to deliver on any such promise (look towards the Telcos and banks for culprits where a big gulf exists between brand promise and service delivery) This could be as a result of failure of brand leadership, lack of capacity and total disregard for the paying customer, not helped by weak regulatory frameworks (NCC ban in Oct 2012 of Telco promos due to poor QOS) It could also be as a result of the nature of the Nigerian economy with much power still very much in the hands of the seller. A situation that has led to buyers being happy and grateful for even finding to buy in the market certain goods and services The above can be said of the creative industry when we look at whats happening in Nollywood, the media, music, fashion industries etc

Brand Positioning in Nigeria: The Creative Industry Outlook

Show business Media Fashion Advertising/ Branding

(1)How are the individuals/firms listed above positioning themselves? (2)Give evidence of such positioning strategies (3)What is your view of the success/failure of such positioning strategies (4) Suggest alternative strategies

Brand Value Propositions & Promise

All Brand value propositions should simply let the consumer know: What is in it for him/her? To propose to a customer, youve got to decide what you stand for, what you think people think you stand for, what you can actually offer over the long time. Anything else is positioning to fail Brand positioning is more about what the brand does and stands for and less of what the brand says (talk is cheap)
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What Are We Positioning As?

The biggest The most entertaining blog The first The better The best The oldest The most customer friendly The cheapest The most cost effective. The most convenient The media with the widest coverage of The clothing label for

Aim to be good in your category and at what you do

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Positioning: An Agency Perspective

Identification of the true uniqueness and relevance of our clients' brands and enterprises in order to create strong differentiation, clear strategic focus, and outstanding business performance Positioning succinctly defines the target, the category in which the brand competes, their differentiated benefits, and what the company must do to prove those differentiated benefits to the customer

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Steps in Brand Positioning

Articulate Brand Attributes What the brand delivers through features and benefits to consumers. Promise to Consumers What consumers expect to receive from the brand. Be Better Than Competitor attributes What the other brands in the market offer through features and benefits to consumers. Pricing An easily quantifiable factor Your prices vs. your competitors prices. Deliver Consumer perceptions The perceived quality and value of your brand in consumers minds (i.e., does your brand offer the cheap solution, the good value for the money solution, the high-end, high-price tag solution, etc.?). Take some time to create a thorough picture of the current market and how your brand fits in that market to determine your brands current position. If thats not the position you want for your brand, take the necessary steps to change it based on the gaps defined when you analyzed the five factors above. You must know that brands are better built by substance and publicity, and then maintained by substance still, and advertising

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CREATING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE The Use of Out-of-Home Advertising Media Uche Nworah FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23RD 2012

Out-Of-Home Media
Out-Of-Home media, also known as OOH media refers to advertising media which are hosted on platforms outside peoples homes and offices. They can be seen at shopping malls, recreation parks, and on major highways and roads displaying clients advertisements. Such advertising are targeted at particular audiences, usually mobile or transit target publics with the aim of achieving distinct advertising objectives.

OOH MEDIA LANDSCAPE IN NIGERIA

Very vibrant medium and a multi-billion naira industry Many OAAN registered outdoor firms managing several boards across Nigeria All major formats like Wall drapes, Lamp posts, 96 sheets, Gantries etc are present Pricing is subjective in the absence of data Lacks dependable metrics Too many regulators at state, LG and federal government levels OOH media practice currently undergoing a revolution as practitioners re-group and also investments in LED platforms

Reach of Media

OOH remains a vital medium in the advertising media mix

Source: AMPS 2009 , 2010 & 2011

Top Advertisers - Outdoor

The Biggest, Highly Discerning & Demanding Advertisers know this

2009 5000 4000

Value (Million)

2010

2011
TOTAL SPEND ( Billion) = 28.1

4452 3932

4648 4191 3158 2567 1777 742 1132 2027 1782 1002 1034 671 923 1276

3000
2000 1000 0
M.T.N
GLOBACOM

1345

1098

GUINNESS NIGERIA

AIRTEL

ETISALAT

Source : MMS

NIGERIAN BREWERIES

Total Ad Spend by Media

3year Media Investment Table & Consequences

0% 200 9

31%

40%

14%

15%
N 43.1b

201 0

41%

29%

13%

17%
N 97.5b

201 1

45% TV Outdoor

27% Radio

13% Press

15%

N 102.8b

Key OOH Issues

Growth has led to several management issues for OAAN members Regulation by government sets in, but commercial targets take lead on order & environmental objectives

Outdoor Rates spike in the absence of audience measurement metrics

Advertisers review their investments in OOH

AIRPORT TARMAC BUS BRANDING

version 1, August 22nd 2012

GANTRY

version 1, August 22nd 2012

BRIDGE PANEL

version 1, August 22nd 2012

WALL PANEL

version 1, August 22nd 2012

LAMPPOSTS

version 1, August 22nd 2012

UNIPOLE

version 1, August 22nd 2012

WALL DRAPES

version 1, August 22nd 2012

LED (ELECTRONIC BOARDS)

version 1, August 22nd 2012

ULTRAWAVES (scrolls 3 messages per face)

version 1, August 22nd 2012

MEDIAN LITEBOXES

version 1, August 22nd 2012

BUS SHELTERS

version 1, August 22nd 2012

ROOFTOP BILLBOARD

THE ROLE OF OOH IN CREATING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

CHALLENGES
Market weariness Regulatory issues (e.g NCC and the recent ban on consumer promos) Issues of believability etc

A platform for communicating the brands messages Used to position the brand as dominant in the minds of the audience through the rentals and acquisition of big stature boards Used in supporting sales at the street level Deployed to drive brand penetration

Group Task
As the National Manager of OOH Media in a leading telecommunications company in Nigeria, you have received the mandate of the Board to initiate the process of renting back-lit lampposts nationwide for advertising. Bearing in mind the importance of using this street level OOH platform in creating competitive advantage, outline (a) How you will go about this project (b) what major factors to bear in mind in selecting the locations (c) The challenges you encounter (d) The time frame the nationwide roll-out will take (e) Make suggestions to management on critical success and other factors concerning the companys use of lampposts and other OOH platforms

SUSTAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Uche Nworah FRIDAY NOVEMBER 23RD 2012

Seun Osewa (Founder/Owner of nairaland.com

To get a social network going, you just have to bribe or beg people to join your social network until it's big enough to sustain itself. If you're evil, forcing or tricking them to join also works: In 'The Social Network' Mark Zuckerberg bootstrapped a social network by hacking into student records and creating accounts for students without their consent, effectively forcing them to join. Some dating sites solve the chicken and egg problem by paying a bunch of beautiful female models to join the site and participate.The models attract a lot men to join the site (a form of trickery really), and this attracts more women. With Twitter and Quora, employees of the company were the first to start using the sites heavily, then their friends and family, then attention seekers, geeks and celebrities, and finally regular people. In effect, Twitter and Quora employees were initially paid not just to develop the respective sites but to use them and post on them regularly. Until your social network takes off, you'll just have to bribe or beg people to join and participate. I did that.

Linda Ikeji (Blogger at lindaikeji.blogspot.com

Well, the truth is that you cant do one thing for the rest of your life. I started modelling very early in life in 1998. By 2004, I realised that most of the people I modelled with had all moved on." And she did moved on from Modelling to Blogging and become a top Blogger! Now I have more money than I even know what to do with it. I make millions of Naira from what I love doingblogging. The best part of all this is that I would blog for free. Now I dont chase money anymoreit chases me. Its not even just about the money, its the great friends Ive met via this blog, the wonderful people I interact with here, the freebies I get. How much of a big deal I am to some people. Once in a while I think of that 19 year old girl who trekked for miles to school because she would not sell her body and I say to her, we made it, Linda, we made it! Recognised in Forbes Magazine (African edition/August 2012) as the highest paid blogger in Nigeria)

Linda Ikeji (Blogger at lindaikeji.blogspot.com

Well, the truth is that you cant do one thing for the rest of your life. I started modelling very early in life in 1998. By 2004, I realised that most of the people I modelled with had all moved on." And she did moved on from Modelling to Blogging and become a top Blogger! Now I have more money than I even know what to do with it. I make millions of Naira from what I love doingblogging. The best part of all this is that I would blog for free. Now I dont chase money anymoreit chases me. Its not even just about the money, its the great friends Ive met via this blog, the wonderful people I interact with here, the freebies I get. How much of a big deal I am to some people. Once in a while I think of that 19 year old girl who trekked for miles to school because she would not sell her body and I say to her, we made it, Linda, we made it! Recognised in Forbes Magazine (African edition) as the highest paid blogger in Nigeria)

What we say and what we do

A bank positions itself as the one customer bank but some of the banking halls still look like 1990s banking halls A Telco says everywhere you go, yes, everywhere the customer goes, the reception is poor A bank says it is in your best interest but marketing staff do no think so, not until the targets are lowered and made more realistic A bank promises to manage customers wealth but its top execs live a luxury Bentley jet-set lifestyle A government security agency says it is your friend but we all know that our friend shouldnt make us part with money all the time A bank says it is committed to environmental protection but its generators are on round the clock in all its branches A bank that prides itself as a leader in customer service and asks if we would rather not bank with them stills grapples with customer issues President YarAdua said his administration would be anchored on the principle of the rule of lawthis was exploited by some unscrupulous officials who had scant regard for the law. However, as the man at whose desk the buck stopped, he must accept responsibility and Nigerians indeed hold him accountable for everything that happened on his watch. (Segun Adeniyi writing in the book Power, Politics & Death, 2011)

The Brand Environment: The Factors that Impact on the Brand

Internal Business strategy Quality of human capital (branding, mgt, sales etc) Manufacturing capacity Cash flow & resourcing Marketing mix Corporate culture Organisational structure/hierarchy Ownership (a key factor) External PESTLE Factors Michael Porters 5 Forces

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 The definition of a Lovemark is a product, service or entity that inspires Loyalty Beyond Reason Saatchi &
Saatchi

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GROUP ACTIVITY
Prepare a presentation to the whole class focussing on the following: BLUE TEAM: Plans of showcasing the creative industries in Nigeria through an annual Creative Day to convince decision makers to take practical steps to support these industries YELLOW TEAM: Establishing a foundation in support of creative industries in Nigeria GREEN TEAM: improving the profile of creative industries and help them turn into a factor within the local economic and social environment. RED TEAM: Developing awareness of the creative sector by proving/showing to policy makers the potentials ORANGE TEAM: Creating awareness of the socio-economical importance of the creative industries in Nigeria GREY TEAM: Map a particular city's creative industries and develop strategy for promoting the creative industries through media campaign.

Group Work
Read the case studies provided and suggest ways in which the firms are sustaining their competitive advantage Make recommendations on how to further strengthen the businesses competitiveness