Why a marketing lesson with a .5? Because before we move on to Marketing Lesson #3, copy writing and ad construction, I feel like we really need to go back to Marketing Lesson #1 and discuss Market again. You see, a lot of peanut gallery comments start popping up when you get into discussing what an advertisement should look like and say. We all saw a little bit of this start to happen when in lesson 1, Market/Message/Media.

If you were to go back and reread Lesson 1 you’d hear me say that just about everyone tends to overlook the “Market” in the Market/Message/Media trio. That’s pretty much what all subsequent comments did, with the exception of one particular shining star - Daevryn. Daevryn was the only one who addressed Market at all, and I give him a lot of credit for that.

I’m going to address a couple of particular comments from Valg and Tac that pertained to headlines. Valg didn’t like one of the headlines I used as an example (and merely that) which was something like, “Players say free online game is better than sex.” Valg suggested that we do one that appealed to the retro aspect of CFers which was, “Like (someretrogame) but better.” Tac went in a whole other direction and said we should use, “By what name do you wished to be mourned?” for it’s attention getting quality. Now this whole thing could have regressed into a huge argument that could never be resolved -

BECAUSE TALKING ABOUT MEDIA WITHOUT DEFINING MARKET IS A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME!

I’m going to pick on Valg’s (very good) headline as my example. Let’s say our Market is people aged 16-21… are they going to remember the game CF is supposed to be better than? Well IF that is the age group we’re looking for, that really creative headline is totally lost on them. At the same time if we’re after sophisticated, upper class 30 somethings then my “better than sex” headline is a total waste. All three headlines were fine examples, but one can not say which is better until a Market is defined.

So who defines the Market?

This is not my opinion, it is fact. Valg, Zhulg, Nepenthe define our Market, and no one else. Why? Because they are in charge of delivering our product, and that product must also be directed at our Market. As they implement changes and new features to CF, they have to ask themselves, “Do these things interest and excite the Market we’re after?” Then they need to do the same thing with CF marketing efforts. It is the implementers who shape the MUD, and they shape it toward a specific demographic - and in so doing they define the Market of CF.

Now just because you target one specific Market does not mean you won’t draw people out of other Markets as well. But these people are the gravy, not the meat. We’ll use one of my businesses as an example - the Tae Kwon Do school. Now I have experience in all kinds of combat oriented situations, I have experience as a tournament competitor and as a children’s instructor. I COULD teach anyone to do just about anything they wanted to do with Martial Arts.

I could, but I don’t.

My school has a very specifically dedicated Market, and it this:
I want kids age 5-12 who live within 3 miles of my school. They live with both parents, in a household that has a combined income of $100,000+/year, with a home value of $150,000+. I want them to be basically good kids, but have problems with either self discipline or self confidence.

I could go into the whys and wherefores of my Market, but it’s not really relevant. I would, however, like to point out that I would like to narrow this down over time, and I’m in the process of methodically targeting an even more specific Market. Now you might think that this is very few people, and you are right. The list that I purchase that fits this criteria is only 1400 names. (Yes, you can buy very targeted lists of names addresses and phone numbers.) But this enables me to put a lot of very specific information in front of a very small number of people. So when I send out 1400 ads, I get a return of like 8-10% instead of the 1% that blanketing zip codes would get me. This means my cost per new customer is lower, and I can spend more money creating really cool (and really expensive) things to attract my Market.

Now just because I go for kids age 5-12 doesn’t mean that I don’t attract a certain number of 3 year olds, teenagers, and adults too. They tend to be the siblings and parents of the kids aged 5-12. They are the gravy on my meat, baby!

Remember this: He who would be all things to all people, winds up nothing to nobody.

So as the Imps of CF begin to define their Market, they should initially define these variables:

1) Age
2) Occupation
3) Geographic location (one specific county or city)
4) A personality profile that includes the wants/needs/desires of the prospect that CF will fill

I understand what you mean. If we started an ad that understood our market and that our market understood, we'd be much more sucessful. I guess that makes the problem with advertising currently (besides lack of quantity) that we hit a small demographic. Who doesn't like sex?

Any add that starts off with "YOU KNOW WHAT'S BETTER THAN SEX?" In big letters tends to catch attention. From there I can see that we explain that we're a game, which would cut out the amount of low quality players we obtain, and from there, explain what the game is to further slim out the target market.

Is that what you're talking about, Stunna?

This seems like pretty basic add marketing right now, but I'm a bit drunk, so I'm sorry if this seems a bit muddled.

Any ad that starts off with "YOU KNOW WHAT'S BETTER THAN SEX?" In big letters tends to catch attention.

From who? I assume we're targeting reasonably educated people, the same type who often choose books over television. If I saw an ad like that, I'd immediately assume it's a scam. I'm definitely not going to click it from work, or in a public coffeehouse, or with children in the room.

Text MUDs aren't for everyone. The medium puts a premium on creativity and craftsmanship, not whiz-bang instant gratification.

From there I can see that we explain that we're a game, which would cut out the amount of low quality players we obtain, and from there, explain what the game is to further slim out the target market.

Why work extra to weed out morons when you've started with a tactic that is most likely to work on a moron? There are ways to get people's attention without going lowest-common-denominator.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>3) Geographic location (one specific county or city)

I could understand this point for any "normal" business but for an internet based game or shop its somewhat difficult for me to see the reason behind it.

Cf might move on to adds beyond just internet ads.

Also a lot of places people see adds can be geographically related, such as newstation sites, school sites, so on and so forth. Also geopgraphically you might find some parts of the country more open to online gaming then others.

Geographical location could also be defined in cyberspace such as trading card sites or facebook.

>1) Age

Majority of the playerbase are young adults

>2) Occupation

The range of occupations varies, but CF is mostly for smart people.

>3) Geographic location (one specific county or city)

Let's consider time and effort it takes your student to arrive to the Taek Won Do lesson. Now, compare it to the time and effort it takes to connect from different locations in the world. CF runs 24/7 and the only restriction is where internet reaches and that it is in English language only. Target audience becomes, people who can speak English and have internet connection. This sets internet as the media to advertise in and that the ads should be in English.

>4) A personality profile that includes the wants/needs/desires
>of the prospect that CF will fill
>

People interested in online roleplaying. Mayhaps they can be reached by advertising in gaming sites and webcomics?

A simple fact of advertising is that your ads work better the more someone sees them. Different studies have yielded different results, but all of them indicate that the average prospect has to see your ad a MINIMUM of 6 times before they will take action, some studies have shown that it requires two or three times that.

It's not a question of who can use it. Like I said there are many more people that COULD come to my school, but I'm after a very specific portion of those people.

Let's consider that a potential player needs see only 6 things before they take action towards CF. We know we can put PPC, a poster in their hobby shop, and a couple articles in their paper right now with no more budget than we currently have - we'll probably have to pay or negotiate for a couple more "hard" activities. It would be completely impossible to do this all across english speaking cyberspace - and the results would yield far too many players if we did that. Call this reason number one.

Reason number two is that the more targetted your Market is, the more specific and appealing your Message can be. Today in Michigan we have sub zero conditions, and most schools are cancelled because it's just damn cold. Marketing pieces that have some sort of "Here's a free way to have inside where it's warm" would really grab my attention. It's a targetted message. A targetted message means that a higher percentage of people are going to respond to your marketing efforts, and that equates to a lower dollar amount spent per new prospect gained. This means that you can spend more money on each prospect to create more attractive marketing pieces.

For example, within my list of 1400 people that are the targetted market for my TKD school there are 150 of them that have had some kind of contact with my school. Either they have called in for lessons, signed up for a free seminar, been to a birthday party here or otherwise done something that has allowed me to collect their contact info. This list of 150 people is a very hot list, and I know response out of this group is bound to be very high. So where I might only spend a couple bucks an ad to reach my 1400, for these people I'll go as high $10 or $15. I do things like send packages that have weird crap in them. The last one I did was a two foot tube, and inside was a rubber chicken and a letter from me. The headline was, "Don't let your child be a chicken!" And it talked all about how my school teaches confidence to young people. Those pieces ran me $7 a pop, but the response was HUGE - 24 out 147 called in for intro lessons. But I could never have that kind of return if the Market was not so limited. See what I mean?

Reason number three is that concentrating players in a geographic location makes word of mouth spread more easily. One friend plays a weird online game, who cares? All the sudden three, four, five of your friends are playing? Now it's time to check it out. Interest breeds interest.

Reason number four is that it's much more manageable for the immortal doing it. How can one person manage a national marketing campaign? Impossible.

One targetted area is a learning experience. Test small, roll out big. Master one area, then move on to others.

adsf

Gamers in general. Specifically those who are interested in fantasy and mid-evil (read: not eastern) themes.

However, they don't need to care about graphics and whatnot.

They have plenty of free time for games, I would think. They are primarily males in middle class with a good imagination.

That's what I see.