Target Groups and Ways to Market

[DancinLights]

I own a small stage lighting company that specializes in lighting local bands and whatever odd jobs prevail. I would love to have some ideas on which target groups (i.e. corporate, weddings etc..) pull in the most money and how to market to them specifically. I would also like some suggestions on which marketing tools are used in general when advertising/promoting a lighting company. I own all of my equipment but am having a hard time gaining jobs. Thank you in advance for your advice.

[Footer]

Atlanta is a hard market first of all. EDG eats up a lot of the work. There are also a host of smaller companies that do rather well coming in at bottom dollar.

To get into the corporate and wedding scene the best thing to do is to befriend caters, staging companies, and audio companies. You also want to become best freinds with the special events coordinators at your local rental halls. Get a table at those wedding shows as well.

[museav]

I own a small stage lighting company that specializes in lighting local bands and whatever odd jobs prevail. I would love to have some ideas on which target groups (i.e. corporate, weddings etc..) pull in the most money and how to market to them specifically. I would also like some suggestions on which marketing tools are used in general when advertising/promoting a lighting company. I own all of my equipment but am having a hard time gaining jobs.

From a traditional business perspective you would normally start with identifying your audience and then develop the business including not only the marketing but also the equipment and services offered to effectively serve that target audience. It's also difficult to offer specific comments without knowing anything about your equipment, capabilities, background, resources, etc.

I agree with Kyle that the corporate and wedding markets are greatly a matter of relationships. Few people in those markets will shop out of the phone book or online and those that do are likely to make decisions based on the lowest cost, which may not be the way you want to get work. So try to develop relationships with wedding planners, event coordinators, audio and AV providers, facility managers, etc. You may have to do some work at a loss in order to develop new relationships but be careful to try to avoid starting relationships that assume that is the value of your services or that the same deals will always be available.

Corporate, wedding and special events lighting can also be a very different world than band/DJ/club/rave lighting in not just the lighting itself but also the general approach and presentation. How you dress when meeting clients and on the job, the appearance of marketing materials, the professionalism of your contracts and so on may all have to reflect the different markets. With many of my clients the ability, experience, price, etc. are factors in their decisions, however they also require that all the legal, liability, financial and other business aspects are properly addressed or they may not even consider you. Just as an example, assuming the DancinLights handle pointed me in the right direction, then the DLP web site offers only e-mail contact, neither the DLP and ELA online info provide a business address and although both DLP and ELA could be under another corporate umbrella, neither appears to be a registered company with the Secretary of State. Those could all be red flags to some potential clients, they were when my wife was involved in special events for some of her employers as if they could not confirm a provider being a legal business that has the requisite insurance then they would not even consider the company.

Added: My wife also reminded me that for many corporate events they had to use providers supplied by or approved by the venue, and such arrangements with venues may require some financial arrangement with them, such as their taking a percentage off the top, and/or your supporting some of their events at little or no cost.

There may also be other differences. For example, it is common in some markets to have to work with projection, live video production/i-mag and video recording, all of which can be closely interrelated to lighting, so if you want to generate potential interest in some markets you may want to highlight any related experience and capabilities or consider adding such capabilities..

Totally off topic, but you wouldn't happen to be related to Tibby?

[Esoteric]

I have been where you are man, and it is rough. I am in Dallas (also a large, very hard to crack market) and I began in theater lighting. But, as I am sure anyone will tell you, unless you are a large regional or a Broadway designer (or both, here in Dallas probably 75% of the regional work in lighting are guys with Broadway pedigrees), so I had connections in the house of worship market and we went that way. We got an electrician, a physical engineer, an electrical engineer, and an audio engineer/designer on contract and set out to be an all in one AVL lighting consulting and design/build company. In 2008 we were probably 60%-75% theater with a small touch of live music. This year we will be 60% or so house of worship, and 5% or so theater. We also went from being 100% labor to now 75% sales and 25% labor. We do about $250,000 in gross receipts every year, so we are still a pretty small company but are trying to grow. In 2008 we did $34,000 in total receipts. The point being we found our market and attacked it with a purpose. We even got to the point where we just launched our own line of LED fixtures.

Just some observations.

1. Find where you fit and knock it out of the park. I am a Christian and I speak "church". I don't mind the lower profit margins of dealing with houses of worship. So we jumped in with both feet. We are trying to lock down our share of the worship market here and have made huge inroads. We go to trade shows, sponsor events (free gear for advertising) we support the worship community with free knowledge (though demos, seminars, speaking engagements, and message boards like Control Booth). We also use focused advertising.

Once you find your niche and lock it down, THEN begin expanding.

Now, as far as that, it was easy for us to get into audio because of staffing and the trust our clients had in us.

That being said, we are moving into new markets and I will tell you a few things.

Weddings - First off they are VERY difficult to get into. I have been trying for 6 months and gotten NO returns. It is such a cliquish system that until you find that one inroad you are shut out. But once you get an in if you pull it off you are IN. That being said weddings are a VERY different gig. A few things (from all the wedding guys I supply equipment to). You will often have to load in/loud out in polos and slacks (or in a suit from time to time), you will have to work with demanding people who have NO idea what you do or the problems you face, and they don't care, you will need ironclad contracts (which we already had because of our other work) and people will try to break and wiggle out of them (get a lawyer to write them), from time to time you will not get paid and have to face the prospect of legal action (my collection rate is 100%, my audio guy who does weddings with his company has a collection rate closer to 90%), and you will need good insurance (we already had $2mm liability from our installs, but doing one off events added 20% to our premiums, of course you probably already have this since you do live music now).

Corporate events are much the same except that there are FAR fewer of them. Also, the dress code is usually slightly more relaxed than weddings. In addition you usually get paid (but be ready to wait 90-120 days for payment).

We have a general website. We are considering launching a specialized wedding website because they want to see different things. You need to learn the language of the industry that you are trying to break into. You have to talk to wedding clients differently than you talk to rock clients which is different than you talk to corporate clients.

Just some of our experiences.

[DancinLights]

Yes as a matter of fact I am. How do you know Tibby?

[museav]

Yes as a matter of fact I am. How do you know Tibby?

For a period he was the adviser for the 401k plan at one of my previous employers. Sometimes it's a small world!

[Pie4Weebl]

Looking at your website I'd say your a little more cut out for mitzfas and sweet sixteens than weddings....

Also you associate yourself with a band called "throatpunch" on your website? I'm not sure how you could scare away party planners any faster...

If you're making a living with clubs and local bands, just stick to that, the level of crazy you will find in the events world is just not worth it.

Also something you might try is getting DJ company's to sell your package to their clients at a markup.