MARKETING

WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING, DEFINE THE AUDIENCE, BIG OR SMALL: Who is the audience, what age/gender? Computer literate with disposable income? What are their beliefs and values? Are there any common interests between different age/gender audiences?

What is the preferred delivery system? Market research is all good news, both positive and negative. Always ask for recommendations or comments from clients and test audiences. Stay aware of copyright considerations and always keep the material adaptable.

Establishing METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION entails research and information gathering for the client and programmers. This is a specialist area and writers should try to be informed about what kind of processors and software will be compatible with the interface. Delivering multimedia requires decisions about physically recording the application on its destination medium; CD, or as a URL for a web-site? What platform is needed, what bandwidths, memory sizes, storage capacities?

Marketing is a large part of the Design Strategy meetings, and includes the packaging and delivery of the CD, consideration of kiosks and distribution networks, etc. Keep clients involved in the process of Research & Development as much as possible. Select groups of friends or relatives who are potential users and do your own research, or use marketing analysts.

A relevant questionnaire checklist would include:

• Young adult, teenager or child?
• Elderly?
• Wheelchair disabled?
• Visually impaired?
• Deaf?
• Hand immobility?
• Learning difficulties?

A large commercial web project would probably contain these essential elements and terms:

• A DEFINITION STATEMENT: A set of documents that outline what is wanted, sets out assets and requirements, details the technical and visual approach and divides the work into easily understood, costed and timed packages, or modules of activity.

• SPECIFICITY: A term central to the IT industry concerning programming and functionality. It refers to the uniqueness of a thing, what makes an entity specifically that; e.g. what makes art art? Computers allow us to focus on very specific details. It relates to the way we deal with this information in all its forms, and the sharing of those ideas through multimedia, extending from the creative and aesthetic decisions to functionality and programming requirements.

• CONVERGENCE: A concept formulated by Nicholas Negroponte in the 1970’s, referring to the way the computer is evolving into a device somewhere between a telephone, an ATM, a DVD home theatre and a modem. It’s inside a BMW coupe right now. This hybridization of software and hardware is called convergence. This term also refers to shifts in industry. Multimedia is an area of business not owned by one industry, spanning entertainment, telecommunications and computer companies, as well as toy manufacturers. Further, it is an area that motivates industrial change, since these industries themselves are converging.

• PLANNING & VALIDATION: Probably the most important and on-going phase of the writing process, especially when working to a budget. Writers and designers can broaden the scope of any project, but everybody involved, including the client, needs to have a shared vision of the final outcome before any creative decisions are finalised. Good PLANNING provides structure for all members of the development team.

Take a modular approach when developing any project, big or small. Establish a production period that is worked out in achievable stages, then systematically execute these steps to each deadline. A precise understanding of the client’s needs and expectations is essential in the initial stages of any commercial job. The prime concern of most projects is to accurately identify the audience, then design accordingly. The client, producers, directors, writers, designers, artists, programmers and marketers must all have an absolutely uniform grasp of the objectives of the project and any limitations that exist.

VALIDATION OF CONTENT is crucial to quality control, guaranteeing that the product is perfect. Like proof-reading an unpublished text, validation should happen between the client and the development team to ensure the accuracy of all information, during construction and after the multimedia is created, making sure it delivers the required message and that it looks right.

• ASSETS AND REQUIREMENTS: Assets are content, requirements refers to programming.

• STORYBOARDS AND FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS: All the creative skills are employed to produce the screen designs, audio scripts, navigation, data flow and communication charts.

• GRAPHIC DESIGN AND CONTENT ACQUISITION: Once everything is specified, the programming team builds the visual components. Content is created, processed and logged, providing the application’s assets, resulting in a graphic 'kit of parts' with content logs.

• IMPLEMENTATION: Building the public facing interface, creation of databases and models, constructing infrastructure and populating databases with content. Unit testing takes place at this stage with prototypes. There may be a front end, updating and communications software presentation to the client, who should be working closely with the development team.

• TEST AND AMEND: The result of feedback and market research. Public facing applications are complicated to test, and some changes will be needed. Continue to seek improved data flows. Developers should always conserve a small budget to cover this area.

• TECHNICAL CONSULTANCY AND HARDWARE: This is usually undertaken by a group of suppliers working with the client. It involves choosing hardware, setting up communications providers, defining kiosk requirements and giving technical advice, support and management.

• SUPPORT, ROLL OUT AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT: Very important with public facing applications. Kiosks need a good 'Roll Out' Integrator to produce a reliable interface. Multimedia development requires concentration in many complex areas.

Typically, multimedia services utilize some or all of the following framed elements, or units:

• A “PUBLIC FACING” FRONT END: What the customer uses, a CD, an Internet site, a kiosk, or a combination of these. It is the means by which users access the service and feel loyal to the provider. Attractive and well branded, it should have a clear message and focus on the services provided. The service must be intuitive – there can be no instruction manual.

• THE DATA AND CONTENT UNIT: Key to all services are the data (price information, product details, user help) and supporting content (text, illustrations, video and audio, etc.) Skillful design structure is important, being easy to maintain and update. All data and content have to be stored in database, causing problems in file size, formats and distribution methods.

• COMMUNICATIONS UNITS: Multimedia services have complex communications needs, and demands on facilities can cause problems. Solutions involve compromise because of the difficulty of transferring large amounts of data. Users need access to services from various sources; e.g. bank details, products, web-sites, on LAN, ISDN, satellite or dial-up service.

• UPDATING AND CONTENT MANAGEMENT UNIT: For large applications, presentation systems or multi-service delivery, it is safest to have a 'supervisor' application that allows content and data to be changed by repair specialists and/or the public users; e.g. Red Hat’s LINUX operating system. This application may be used in the delivery process, handling communications to the network and testing presentation of content before it goes public.

• NETWORK MANAGEMENT UNIT: Public kiosks, CD or linked Internet sites need a software unit (like Help desks) that can check the state of all attached items and restore them if necessary. This 'house-keeping' unit is very important because users are intolerant of breakdown, and adverse publicity can be damaging.

• CITATION: A formal bibliography (see The Cinematograph example on page 41), or record of your research sources.

Basic citation components and punctuation are:

Author's Last Name, First Name (author's Internet address, if appropriate).
"Title of Work" or "title line of message."
In "Title of Complete Work" or title of list/site as appropriate - Internet address.
[menu path, if appropriate]. Date, if available. Archived at: if appropriate.