2nd Lesson - Week 1

2nd Lesson- Friday 9/5/08

During the 2nd Lesson we followed the guide lines that were given for the second lesson of progress. It was to identify a Target Audience, tentatively choose a campaign and product and to finalise the idea for campaign and product. We had already identified the target audience as University students and we had already chosen a campaign, the 'save the whales' campaign, so we only had the product to do.

Last lesson, we developed an idea to do a concert or a party of some sort to grip the attention of our target audience. In this lesson, we had a long discussion to finalise our product. We decided that a concert involving popular singers would be the best way to grab the attention of our target audience. The theme of the concert would be to raise awareness about the whaling in Japan and to raise funds for Greenpeace.

We came up with the idea of selling a product at the concert, as in before, during and after. The product would also be promoting 'stop whaling' and all money raised will go to Greenpeace to support their 'stop whaling' campaign. The product we came up with was the flat top hats. The background will be white or black and there will be a blue whale on it with maybe the logo ' stop whaling' or 'save the whales'. The singers and stars at the concert will wear these hats which would influence the audience to aslo buy the hats. This leads to the changed or newly modified target audience we came up with. We decided that as many teenagers are influential on their parents and are crazy about the singers they listen to, that teenagers should become a part of the target audience. So to finalise the target audience, we have decided that university students and teenagers would be the target.

In this lesson, together we conducted some reserach on the internet concerning celebrities that support Greenpeace. We discovered a site
called http://www.lookforthestars.org/. A list of celebrities came up and from this list we chose a few possible candidates;
-Greenday
-Pink
-U2
-Isabel Lucas

In my own reflection, I thought that Isabel Lucas would be good as a guest speaker during the concert. She supports many charitable organisations including Greenpeace and is passionate about saving the whales. She could deliver a speech on 'saving the whales' and stopping the Japanese from whaling and motivate the audience to become more interested in sponsering Greenpeace and also raise awareness about the campaign.

But the problem now was to figure out where the concert could be held in consideration of the cost. At first we were thinking of the Gold Coast Convention Centre or the Art Centre but we realised that the costs would be very high and may not be manageable for a fundraising function. We came up with the suggestions that we could take the 'Big Day Out' or 'Summer Days' as an example and have the concert outdoors and near the beach as Gold Coast is known for the beaches and the sunny weather. We are not completely sure where both functions were held but we are in the process of finding out. We also decided that we need to find the cost of having a concert held at the location and from there figure out the price of the concert tickets. The cost of the concert tickets should make a lot of profit so that a lot of money could be raised to go to support Greenpeace.

We also discussed how we would promote the concert. Should it be advertised on TV or newspapers? And how much will this cost? Also we don't know how much the products (the hats) will cost the consumers yet.

We realised that this task actually needs a lot of research. However, I'm sure we have worked quite well this lesson and will continue on to do so. I think we could improve on doing more individual research so that we can save time in the time we have for group work.

This lesson I learnt the factors that need to be considered when organising a concert or trying to sell a product. I realised that this is quite a complicated process as many things have to be taken in to consideration. Through this assessment I think I am learning a lot about marketing and the problem solving involved in it.