T-Shirts and Suits blog

This blog section contains new information for creative people who want to make their businesses and organisations even more successful.

Written by David Parrish, these articles add to the ideas and examples published in his book 'T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity'.

Blog posts are listed by category - see below right.
Or go to a complete list of blog posts.

Rolls and Royce

Successful creative businesses need a combination of creativity and business strategy - what I call 'T-Shirts' and 'Suits'.

Sometimes, one individual has both of these elements in good measure, but more often than not, the harmony of creativity and business is formed by two people, or a larger team.

Frederick Henry Royce met Charles Stewart Rolls in Manchester in 1904. Royce was the engineer and Rolls the businessman, and their partnership formed the world-famous company Rolls-Royce.

Jennifer Harris, writing in Management Today, points out that different skills can combine in a complementary way but different attitudes cannot. I agree.

There must be a shared vision for the enterprise, even if the partners involved are very different characters with different skills. So the shared vision is in many ways the starting point. If people are working hard together but with different goals in mind, conflict - or at least stalemate - is likely to occur.

Matters of risk, growth, financial reward and lifestyle are all issues about which partners might have different views. If these are not in harmony, each person may have a valid, but different, business strategy in mind as their road map to different destinations.

Success means different things to different people, so simply agreeing together that you want the business to be 'successful' is not clear enough. Working towards different definitions of success will inevitably bring problems. That definition of success needs to be clearly defined and agreed.

"Start with the end in mind", says Steven R Covey in his bestselling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Having that clear vision of the future, and then starting with that end in mind, is exactly what successful creative entrepreneurs do.

Good Enough...

Thanks to Phil Birchenall for sending me this article about the Flip Video camcorder. It's about a simple and inexpensive camcorder that's "good enough" rather than being "the best". It has just the right range of features to be usable and useful, at a reasonable price. It's opened up a new market of 'ordinary' users, not just video enthusiasts.

It got me thinking more about Quality.

Creative people in business are rightly concerned about Quality. However, quality is subjective, not objective. And in business terms, the customer's perspective is vital. Sometimes creators add "too much" quality, not because the customer demands it but simply because the producer wants to - or thinks they ought to.

I recently bought a digital camera. Not the 'best' or the most complex, but one that is small and light enough to take with me without having to decide every day if I really want to carry the extra weight. As a Nikon, it's well built and I expect it to be reliable. Also it was easy to obtain and sold at a reasonable price. It does the job for me, it's 'fit for purpose', therefore it's 'quality'.

Quality has many dimensions because the consumer takes into account price, convenience, speed of delivery, maintenance costs and usability in deciding their own definition of quality. So we need to think about offering Quality in different dimensions.

For example:
- Artists sell limited-edition prints. Not as good as the original but good enough for many people.
- A product can be designed to be biodegradable - so it deliberately doesn't last too long.
- Publishers can offer an eBook version now instead of the paperback delivered by Amazon next week
- Websites can be designed without too much technical complexity so they are accessible to blind people using speech synthesis software
- Film-makers can also create short videos instead of a full documentary, quickly, in an internet-ready format, on a fixed budget, without compromising quality.

Not everyone wants the biggest, longest, most expensive or most complex version of what you can offer.

Is a Rolls Royce better than a bicycle? It depends on what the customer actually wants.
Is a bicycle a poor-quality Rolls Royce? No, it's a different product and can be even 'higher quality' in many ways.

By understanding customers' perspectives on quality, the most successful creative businesses use their creative talents to produce goods and services which fit customers' definitions of quality as well as staying true to their own sense of artistic integrity.

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Film funding through eBay...

Financing a feature film can be a complex and expensive business, and most talented film directors never get a chance to make a full-length feature film because of lack of finance.

But with her 'can-do' attitude, resourcefulness and determination, Fiona Maher has made a film on a micro-budget, raising cash from a variety of sources, calling in favours and getting in-kind support from suppliers and a wide range of talented people in her network.

One of the creative ways she raised funds was by selling roles in the film on eBay to people wanting to take part in the film project.

'The Tree of Death' is a comedy feature, described as 'Blair Witch meets Spinal Tap'
The film will be released later in 2008.
In the mean time, here's a teaser from YouTube...

CCTV = PR

Manchester band The Get Out Clause used CCTV as PR - and then were publicised on Sky News!

With the help of public relations expert Liam Walsh of AskMe PR, the band performed under Closed Circuit TV cameras in various places around Manchester - then demanded the footage from the CCTV operators under the Freedom of Information Act.

They then used the footage to make their promotional video!

This 'guerrilla marketing' stunt resulted in the band's video being featured on Sky News. Watch video here.

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Cate Blanchett 'Sparkles'

Congratulations to one of my client creative businesses, Sparkle Media on their successful projects in Australia !

The visual effects and animation company has recently worked in Australia with Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes, producing video footage for the multimedia theatrical performance Minutes of a Separation.

Sparkle Media also worked for Reebok whilst in Australia on an 'advanced fitness' website project.

It's a pleasure to work with creative entrepreneurs like Glenn Maguire and Andy Cooper, who are the company's directors.
Over the several months I have been involved in their business growth, I have been able to advise them on matters such marketing, intellectual property and enterprise development.

Sparke Director Glenn Maguire said:
"Since attending David's workshop and then engaging him as an adviser, Sparkle Media has gone from strength to strength. The company now operates on a global level, going head to head with world wide agencies - and beating them. We've never looked back and have a lot to thank David for."

Working internationally from their base in Liverpool, Sparkle has worked closely with creative industries support agency Merseyside ACME.

Creative Times: Leading Creative People - it's like herding cats!

Leading Creative People ...
                                       ...."We say it's like herding cats!" was a comment about leading and managing creative people when I was a guest speaker at the Munich meeting of MAGNET - the Marketing and Advertising Global Network.

My presentation to the owners of advertising agencies from around the world was on the subject of Leadership. One aspect they were particularly interested in was how to lead 'creative' staff.

Link to full article: Leading Creative People 

Creative Times is now online ! 
Link: www.creativetimes.co.uk

The Price of a Bed

Would you pay 50,620 Euros for a bed?
(That's over £40,000 GBP, about $78,000 USD)

Probably not. But apparently some people do. Why? What's going on here?

I'm fascinated by pricing strategies and run workshops for creative businesses on the subject.
There are different ways to decide on your pricing strategy and I'll be writing more about them soon.
Certainly, customers are often buying more than the just the bare object - they are buying into something much bigger.
See What are you selling, really?

In the case of a Hastens bed, you are invited to buy into the story of a small family firm in Sweden.

The advert asks "Who would spend 50,620 Euros on a bed?"
It continues "Most people would not or could not. A select few could and would..."

Are you one of the select few?

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I'm interested to hear from you about pricing strategies - especially about businesses in the creative industries.

Carnaby Street W1

Westminster Council bought the copyright in the design of its iconic street signs (pictured).
This means that it can now generate income fom licensing this intellectual property to businesses.

The designs were created by Misha Black in 1967 and the copyright remained with the designer until his death, when it passed to his estate. Black's son then sold the copyright to Westminster Council in London for £50,000 GBP (100,000 USD).

The Council plans to charge licence fees to more than 100 companies that use the design on popular tourist souvenirs and other products.

Designers should follow Misha Black's example by retaining copyright when creating designs for clients, to make a profitable sale later - or to generate licensing income themselves.

Photo credit: DearCatastropheWaitress.

See related blogposts:
Protecting - and profiting from - your IP 
Whose photos are on your website? 
Let's follow George Lucas 

Don't Co-operate

In contrast to the business strategies of collaboraton or Co-opetition, there is another strategy to consider: 'Don't Co-operate'.

This is one of the characteristics of the success of Apple Inc., according to Wired Magazine in an article called 'How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong'. The article shows how Apple breaks several of the conventional rules of business adopted by most hi-tech companies, such as 'Communicate', 'Play Nice', 'Love Your Customers', and 'Coddle Your Employees'.

Apple's unconventional strategy demonstrates that there are no universal rules in business - you have to create a unique formula which works for your enterprise, and your customers.

Beware 'Copyright Grabs'

Photographer Chiz Dakin (Peak Images) asked me to warn other photographers about the problem of 'copyright grabs'.

Chiz is concerned about the trend for businesses, particularly large corporations, to "grab copyright in any image they can get their hands on", as she puts it.

This practice is a hazard for photographers who don't carefully read the small print in contracts with clients.
It can also apply to competitions.

So the advice from Chiz is: make sure you read the small print to ensure you don't lose your intellectual property rights in your images!

See also:
Protecting - and profiting from - your IP 
Whose photos are on your website?