Business analysis

The business I have been most inspired by is Team StarKid, who I've been consistently researching and referencing throughout the course. They were my source of inspiration when I was coming up with an idea for my business as one of my favourite musical theatre companies. They produce incredible content and their original musicals are so impressive, despite them being a smaller company. It amazes me what they can do with such small budgets, casts and crew, thinking outside of the box to achieve what they want onstage with limited resources. I will definitely face similar problems when it comes to my own productions, so I can look at what StarKid has achieved and use a similar mentality to figure out how I can make my visions come to life. Furthermore, StarKid has many values that my business and I share. They recognise the lack of diversity in the theatre industry and, especially in more recent years, have had cast and crew members of all different races, gender identities, sexual orientations, etc. They also are one of the main theatre companies that is making theatre more accessible for those who may not be able to afford typical theatre ticket prices. By uploading recordings of all their shows on YouTube, people from all over the world are able to access and enjoy their shows for free. They also always caption their videos and encourage others who know different languages to create captions so more people can access their work. Even with livestreams, which they are unable to caption, StarKid release the script so people who are deaf/hard of hearing can still enjoy these performances. I plan to record the performance I'm doing for my final project and I will personally caption these videos to ensure they can be accessed by as many people as possible.

Five key things that I've learnt about the creative industries are:

1. There are numerous strategies that can be used to market a creative business. Through my research into route-to-market strategies and competition research, I have been able to understand the best way to target certain audiences and what platforms are best to use.
2. The creative industries is a growing sector with higher contributions to the UK economy every year and in increase in the number of jobs available, meaning this is a good time to begin a career in the industry.
3. There are multiple sources of funding available in the arts sector with a variety of organisations that provide these funds (e.g. Arts Council England), making it financially easier to create new projects and have support for a creative business.
4. It is a difficult industry to be successful in because there are so many creative businesses out there, making it more challenging to create something that will stand out. Through my competition research, I have been able to see what areas in the theatre industry aren't being addressed and used this to find the focus for my business.
5. The creative industries have been impacted by significant events such as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had an impact on things such as travel (e.g. touring productions), transporting goods (e.g. props) and funding. I will therefore need to be conscious of how these would affect my business and projects.

I found the National Theatre's mission and vision statements to be the most powerful (see 'Vision and Mission statements' post) because of their emphasis on making theatre for 'everyone'. They want to ensure that the work they showcase can be accessed by all, which shows how much they value diversity and accessibility in the industry. Furthermore, both of their statements are short and memorable, whilst the other statements I looked at were far too long with multiple bullet points. This suggests the National Theatre has a clear goal in mind regarding what they want to achieve and have made sure to convey this clearly to their customers.

The value statement that I found to be most powerful is The Limelight Theatre's (see 'Examples of a value statement' post) because it's clear and concise with explanations behind each of their selected values. The other value statements I looked at either lacked reasoning behind their selected values or overexplained them to the point where it's more like a paragraph than a statement. The Limelight Theatre clearly has a great understanding of what is most important to them and what they stand for.

As someone who shares similar beliefs and values as these other businesses, I was highly influenced by them and made sure to carry across the same kind of message in my own statements. I made sure that my message is clear to others so they can easily understand what my company is all about.

I find the most effective branding to be StarKid's because of the distinctive font that they've used, which gives their consumers a sense of what kind of work they do. It appeals to their fans, who probably would've discovered the company through their parody musicals, thus making it likely they'd be into pop culture and recognise the Star Wars font. The branding I like the least though is the RSC's because of how plain and simple it is with just their name (both abbreviated and in full) in a red rectangle. The font isn't even that interesting, which doesn't make the logo particularly memorable. Overall, I'm not a fan of logos that are simply text. I don't think they stick in the mind particularly well, unless some sort of unique font and colour scheme is used. I personally prefer logos that have a distinctive image, which I have as the focus of my logo. I feel like this will make my company and branding stand out better.