Week Four—Client Marketplace
- Examine the marketplace for your client
I. Describe the appeal to different age groups and foreign markets
Generally speaking, the YMCA’s appeal essentially spans across all age group segments—from children to seniors—one major reason is due to the healthy lifestyle movement:
Healthy Lifestyle Movement— Around 65% of people in the U.S. are overweight, and 30% are obese (over 60 million), according to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Obesity Society states that obesity “has reached epidemic proportions in the United States” (www.obesity.org). An immense weight loss industry – $60 billion in 2008 revenue – has responded by offering a wide array of solutions. The industry itself is broken down into nine market segments (Profile America, 2009). There are “51 million people in the United States who are dieting to lose or control their weight (American Demographics, 2001).”
As separate age groups, the YMCA offers programs and services that specifically appeal to each, including but not limited to—
Children—pre-school, daycare, day camp, summer camps, sports leagues
Adults—fitness center, aerobics/other fitness classes, pool, availability of children’s services, sports leagues
Seniors—Silver Sneakers program, fitness center, pool, fellowship activities
The goal of the YMCA, however, is to reposition itself as a mission-centered organization, rather than the traditional program-centered focus. It is vitally important for members and non-members to understand that the YMCA is not only a “swim and gym” but a full-functioning hub for services to the children, families and the community.
In regard to “foreign markets”—the YMCA of Kanawha Valley was founded to serve the members of the local community, which includes an eight county radius around the main Charleston facility.
There are YMCAs across the country and into other countries that could be considered “foreign”, however, those individuals are not the target audience of the YMCA of Kanawha Valley.
II. Recent successes
Despite the economic situation, the YMCA has managed to round out 2010 with a positive outlook for organizational operations—some of the recent successes of the YMCA include: Spirit of the Valley campaign, facility restoration, departmental restructuring, budget reallocation, increased marketing efforts and marketing/rebranding efforts.
III. What does the target want? Why should they connect with your client?
Due to the fact that target audiences for the YMCA span many different demographic, psychographic and economic segments, generalizations are made to most successfully answer these questions.
Target wants: clean and safe facility, friendly staff, value-added services, quality programs, community minded initiatives, a sense of belonging, volunteer opportunities and a worthy cause to support
Why connect? The hope for the final product of the YMCA commercial for this course will be to engage viewers and reintroduce the organization, its mission and its service to the community.
Specifically, the target viewers should connect with the YMCA based on this project concept because it aims to expand knowledge about programs and services offered at the YMCA while at the same time bringing understanding of the new mission-centered focus. The focus solidifies the organizations’ commitment to children, families and the community—and hopes to gain support through showing viewers the true mission of the YMCA.
Utilizing the relatable human element of involvement, service and betterment of the community will motivate interest and an increased, deeper engagement with the YMCA.
IV. Genre
In researching the various genres of films, uncovered is a list developed by the AMC Filmsite that outlines the main genres and sub-genres. “These genres are broad enough to accommodate practically any film ever made, although film categories can never be precise. By isolating the various elements in a film and categorizing them in genres, it is possible to easily evaluate a film within its genre and allow for meaningful comparisons and some judgments on greatness (Dirks, 2010).”
Based upon the definitions presented, the closest appropriate genre for my presentation would be a drama.
Drama— Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction (Dirks, 2010).
Sub-genre would be a docu-drama.
Docu-drama—A combination of a documentary and drama. Recalling accounts from real-life experiences, places, people and events make it a documentary; the depiction of realistic settings, life situations and stories make it a drama.
“Throughout its long history, drama documentary has been one of film and television’s most popular, but also most controversial, forms. Film and program makers are attracted to its combination of the languages of drama and documentary either to dramatize research, thereby stimulating interest in issues through empathy with characters and narrative, or to apply documentary style to fictional content, thereby enhancing its immediacy (Rolinson, 2010).”
After choosing a genre to define your work, answer the following questions for your project as compared to similar genre projects—
Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets; therefore, the generalization of the entire genre is incredibly difficult—thus, for our purposes, the sub-genre docu-drama will be the focus.
Setting [genre]
1. Where and when does the typical project take place? Typically, docu-dramas are set in historical scenes. Typically they are reconstructed previously witnessed or researched events.
2. What visual images are associated with the typical setting? Again, typically docu-dramas are reconstructed previously witnessed or researched events—thus, the scenes are recreated to mimic or dramatize the actual setting as it was originally, and/or as it is currently.
Characters [genre]
3. Describe the typical heroes or protagonists.While there is typically no standard hero or protagonist in docu-dramas, as the storyline depends on the situation—a drama characteristically has a protagonist that experiences significant action throughout the entirety of the film. There is normally an introduction to the main character, explanation of current situation/back story, conflict and resolution.
4. What types of supporting characters would you expect to find? Supporting characters in docu-dramas are typically those who are closest to, in direct connection with or are in close conflict with the main character. Again, depending on the situation, the supporting characters can play a number of roles in a film.
5. Are the roles in these generally more masculine or feminine? In general, dramas tend to have a more masculine edge with a feminine appeal.
Plot [genre]
6. What are the conflicts you would expect to find in this genre? Naturally, the recreation of historical events, there is room for interpretation of certain elements of a storyline. One argument in defense of the drama documentary form is that documentary and drama cannot be viewed as mutually exclusive, since the assumption that documentary is objective and innately factual is misguided. If factual programming is itself subject to editorial decision-making and narrative organization, then drama cannot ‘corrupt’ documentary. (Rolinson, 2010)
7. Describe typical plot structures in this genre.
Freytag’s depiction of dramatic structure—
Iconography [genre]
8. What objects and images do you expect to see in a film of this genre? Identifiable individuals, specific and recognizable locations, dramatic reenactments and/or images of realistic action, direct interaction between narrator and camera, potential interviews, one-on-one conversations, and the like.
Mood/Tone [my project]
9. Is the typical project optimistic or pessimistic? Typical – pessimistic; Project – Optimistic
10. Light or dark? Light
11. Comedic or serious? Serious
12. Eerie or wholesome? Wholesome
Cinematic Style [genre]
13. What are typical shots (framing) and camera movements? Slow and deliberate—talking heads and cut scenes.
14. What is the typical lighting like? Lighting should be used to portray the mood/tone of the project. Mainly rely on natural light for outdoor shots, uses of studio lighting for the talking heads and dramatic lighting for interviews.
15. What editing techniques are typically used? Primarily uses cut scenes, with some panning scenes.
16. How is sound typically utilized? Often, music is an integral part of the nature of this genre. Music is used to portray a mood and is likely to heighten emotion and help convey the tone and nature of the story.
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