Wamena, Sunday, May 04, 2014
The Smart Guide to Business Writing
Description
THE SMART GUIDE TO BUSINESS WRITING
is a hands-on, easy guide to writing all the different business materials that
may be required in the course of a career. You will find tips on writing
everything from business emails to power points to performance reviews to sales
reports to business letters (yes, they still exist). The book is a quick and
simplified guide to writing business materials you can be proud of, business
writing where you will shine. There’s even a bit of humour along the way.
Preface
I wonder why I am telling you that
when I don’t know if I would call the Bible succinct. But interestingly, now
that we think about it, the Bible has chapters with long (boring) lists (of
families), as do many business documents have long boring lists (of product variations,
for example). The Bible has its own set of guidelines plainly stated (see
Ecclesiastes), just as the employee hiring manual does.
But I clearly digress.
Maybe not. Many business documents
are called the business’ bible: be it the branding manual, the bylaws forming
the business, the launch plan, and so on. These documents reflect the essence
of the business. Each business document represents the heart and soul of your
business. Words are powerful and to continue in this risky metaphor, In the beginning
was the word.
Even in business.
In the last chapter we counted the
many ways that can ensure succinctness but one way we did not discuss and is
the key to succinctness is knowing your thoughts before you turn to
(electronic) paper. Words express your thoughts and if your thoughts are
muddled, there is no way you can obfuscate that. It will show.
How do you get to clarity and
succinctness? By being totally conversant in your subject matter. And how do
you do that? By learning. Researching your topic. Questioning your peers and
gaining information from them to enhance your own knowledge base. Seeing how
other business documents have been created on similar subject matter. Look to
what has been done before you and imitate its form.
Invention is good in product
development. Not so much in business writing (save that for your novel.) In
business writing, convention is better.
Look into how other people prepared
corporate power points before. Get the corporate typeface. See what words your
managers use to refer to financial, product development, advertising issues. If
managers are too verbose, don’t imitate that trait, but see what the language
of your business is. If you are preparing a white paper, does your company like
a very academic approach or a marketing approach? Find out and save yourself a
lot of trouble. You won’t have to rewrite what you are writing if you see how
your company likes their documents to read.
Great writers tend to be succinct.
(There are exceptions: Faulkner, Jacques Lacan, Levinas,and yes the un-succinct
can often be French.) But most great writers – Hemingway, Nietzsche, Gershwin –
are succinct. Less is more. Less, interestingly, is more emotional, more
persuasive. You are not protesting too much.
Here are some examples of clearly written
documents:
From IPG to Media 3.0
IPG (Interpublic Group) , our owner,
was founded in the 1960s, but our direct lineage goes back over 100 years. UM
was the media planning and buying arm of the legendary McCann Erickson, the
creative agency founded in 1930. In 1997, UM ‘s expertise and specific
capabilities became a standalone entity within Mediabrands, one of IPG’s
agencies.
UM is a full service global media
planning and buying agency which keeps transforming and revitalizing the media
marketplace over the past 15 years. We do it by keeping ahead of the curve of
the ever-increasingly changing media landscape. UM services accounts across all
industry segments, ranging from Automotives to Retail to Telecommunications.
Our media executions are targeted nationally or hyper-locally, as needed. Each
member of our curious, hyper-minded media professional team brings a depth of
specific media knowledge which is then integrated into a tailored solution to
serve each client.
UM employees number 3,600 globally,
1,010 in the U.S., and 140 in San Francisco, where we propose your business
will be serviced from. Our West coast presence is currently focused around
clients who have a significant West coast footprint and sensibility. Our San
Francisco accounts are Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, Microsoft International,
and Cathay Pacific Airlines. We also service many clients headquartered in
other cities, including Chrysler, Johnson & Johnson and Verizon Wireless.
As such, our San Francisco office,
by nature of its high tech proximity, keeps reinventing the definition of
“media.” Their specific approach to campaigns are no longer ad campaigns in the
sense that we all once knew them. The ones that succeed today are the ones that
become movements. From our perspective, these movements are only truly
successful if they drive the right business outcomes. The job of media in this
context is to move from buying impressions to connecting brands with consumers
to nurture these movements, optimizing the most effective combination of media
assets across the new age landscape of paid, owned and earned. Today’s media
environment places a premium on aggregation of knowledge, collaboration, and
rapid response to deliver exceptional results. And so, our days of buying
purely against reach and frequency are over. The San Francisco office is well
honed in creating integrated marketing and media solutions which deliver the
right business outcomes on behalf of our clients.
We (and they) call this practice Media
3.0.
Another:
Our earlier blog this week talked
about the benefits of unified voice communications. And there are many –
instant access to people as you need them, increased security with fail-safe
communication checks and balances, just to name a few. But, as with technology,
nothing stays the same and you can see from the attached article that unified
communications is moving now to include the social networking platforms. There
are various companies making headway in these areas and, of course, Easylink is
right along with them, ready to use what is valuable to our clients and not use
what is not. (See future blogs for our strategies in this area.) But unified
communications is now de riguer, and probably within a few years, or less,
social networking platforms will be an integral part of the strategy. Take a
look and see how it’s all shaping up. Enjoy!
This is a long proposal but you can
see the succinctness of the writer as he covers different aspects of his
proposed business model:
Executive Summary
Three Muses Films (TMF) is a new
film production and distribution company located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
TMF specializes in creating films
for the underserved market of sophisticated, educated adults, especially those
in the 35-70 age group. TMF identifies and nurtures talented writers who have
been frustrated by both the Hollywood system of homogenized product and the
so-called ‘indie’ world. TMF writers create screenplays that address themes and
stories of interest to educated adults: life passages, relationships, and the
comedy and tragedy of life. TMF’s films will be both popular entertainment and
works of cinematic art.
TMF films are produced using the
most sophisticated and modern methods of digital production. By carefully
selecting talent that can be engaged for relatively low cost, TMF can create
high-quality films for under $1 million. TMF distributes its films using
streaming technology over the Internet in partnership with large-scale
infrastructure operators. TMF will also produce on-demand DVDs.
The principals of TMF have extensive
experience in management, business development, media production and
operations. It is anticipated that in the first year of operation TMF will
produce at least four films rising to eight films a year.
TMF is seeking a seed round of
$100,000 to start up the operations of the company, complete its business plan
and fill out its management team.
TMF expects to be profitable within
two years of operation.
The Market
The evolution of the film business
in the last ten years can best be described as the bifurcation between
high-cost Hollywood product characterized by computer-generated special effects
typically aimed at the 14-25 age group and a market of so-called ‘indie’ films
aimed at the 23-40 age group. With a handful of exceptions, the film industry
relegates product for sophisticated adults almost exclusively in the television
series genre (Mad Men, Damages,…). These exist contemporaneously with
specialized markets for children’s films, especially animation. Documentaries
are also increasing their visibility. Christian films are also a growing niche
market.
The one film market that has been
ignored encompasses the intelligent, sophisticated adult, aged 35-70, who are
partial to actual film, not television. Ironically, this cohort has the
financial wherewithal to afford purchasing film product, yet the market is
nearly bereft of films that can pull them into theaters. Increasingly, this
adult market is turning towards Internet streaming in the search for compelling
product. Netflix is capturing a large share of this market. However, a search
of the product available on Netflix shows that most of the so-called adult
films are older, classic films. There is no brand that is identified with this
niche, no brand that adults can trust to produce films that do not either
insult their intelligence or are exercises in self-indulgence on the part of
the filmmakers.
The core market for TMF ‘s product
has the following characteristics:
Adults, 35-70
College educated, many with graduate
degrees
Readers (at least one book per
month)
High disposable income
Technically sophisticated, Internet
users
The market, of course will extend
down in age to individuals in their late 20’s, but the most significant
sub-group will most likely be women in their late 30’s to mid-50’s. TMF’s films
will appeal to men and women, but their eschewing of special effects and
comic-book level stories will tend to engage a more female audience. Census
figures from 2010 indicate that the approximate size of this market is 25
million adults.
Examples of films that have appealed
to this audience are: Body Heat, Up at the Villa, Blue, Carlos Saures’ Carmen
and others.
A key part of TMF’s marketing
strategy will be to create a brand that is identified with superior films aimed
at sophisticated adults. TMF will employ an entire range of marketing
strategies to achieve this: viral marketing and social networking will be key.
However, staged events, media exposure and an on-line festival will also serve
to build brand awareness.
The key to the success of TMF will
be the combination of a superior product aimed at the heart of its market and
an awareness campaign that results in converting a significant part of our
market into becoming TMF customers.
The importance of brand
identification cannot be overstated. Today, with the exceptions of Pixar,
Disney and possibly Bad Robot, no film production company has established a
brand identity that can be an effective tool for generating sales. One reason
is the fragmentation of the film business into a plethora of different
companies and organizations none of which is identified with a particular type
of film.
TMF’s marketing message will be
crafted to build a sense that it is a company that can be relied upon to meet
the expectations of its market. This reinforcement will only be possible
because TMF will execute its plan of creating films that resonate strongly with
viewers. TMF will utilize testing methods aimed at a representative sample of
customers before green-lighting any production.
Another key to the success of TMF
will be that the films it produces will be popular entertainment and not heady
art films. TMF believes that creating films that can be both highly popular in
theme and execution can go hand-in-hand with creating a superior work of
cinematic art -that is the yardstick we will use to choose a script for
production. Before a single scene has been blocked and shot, we will know that
we have a film that will excite and please our audience.
Production Methods
The revolution in film production
has yet to be fully realized. With some notable exceptions, films normally cost
between $5 - $40 million to produce. Added to that are marketing and
distribution costs which can double the production costs themselves. Most of
the production cost is found in the on-screen talent, union guilds and special
effect houses. The use of rapid-cut editing also requires many set-ups,
shooting angles and equipment. While digital production has become more common,
the entire process is still burdened by high fixed and variable costs.
TMF takes a radical view of
production. By analyzing each element of the production process and by
ruthlessly eliminating costs we can produce high quality films for dramatically
low costs.
We believe that by using talent that
is just at the start of their acting career (or at the other end) and also by
judiciously searching for non-professional talent, the on-screen costs can be
dramatically reduced. We will use the appeal of breaking into the business and
obtaining the experience of working on a film to induce students at film
schools and recent graduates into working for us at the lowest possible cost.
We will use ‘mission appeal’ as a way of capturing talent that deeply desires
making superior product.
TMF will scrupulously avoid the
Hollywood system and its related cousins for two reasons. First, the costs are
prohibitive; second, the mindset of that system is not attuned to the mission
driving TMF.
TMF will work with young production
people with deep wells of energy and commitment. These people are also
conversant with the latest technologies and techniques of digital film
production.
TMF will organize production on the
team approach, not the silo approach. The team is responsible for meeting
production goals. How the team divides the work and executes is up to them.
Every production will have a carefully crafted production budget including
shooting schedule and post-production. Management will closely monitor the work
of each production team and identify any problems or issues as they arise.
Distribution & Licensing
TMF films will be distributed via
Internet-based streaming. TMF will develop a website and work closely with an
infrastructure provider to guarantee peak demand capacity as well as expansion
capacity for growth.
One strategy that TMF will explore
will be to develop a branded delivery system in conjunction with Netflix (or
one of its competitors). We will follow new direct-to-TV streaming options very
carefully including IPTV and new systems that are rumored to be under
development from Apple and Microsoft. TMF expects that the competition in this
space will be very intense in the coming years and that the options of reaching
consumers with direct-to-TV streaming will grow dramatically.
The sine quo non of our distribution
strategy will be to maintain our brand equity. TMF films will not be merged
into a general mass of other films, but instead will only be available under
our brand.
We anticipate that there will be
demand for DVD versions of our films and will we of course provide a method for
customers to obtain them.
In addition to streaming and DVDs,
we anticipate that there will be large opportunities for foreign distribution,
since our films will, in some sense, represent the best of America. Again, our
criteria will be that licensing of TMF products will be done in strict
accordance with our marketing and brand identification policies.
Revenue Model
Over the Internet, TMF will realize
most of its revenue from subscription and pay-per-view. The basic subscription
model will be $30/year for unlimited viewing of all TMF films. TMF’s subscriber
goal is 500,000 after a full year of operation and 1,000,000 after two years.
Arrangements with infrastructure
providers will entail a revenue model with splits and shares. TMF will
carefully negotiate these arrangements so that reaching high growth numbers
will not penalize the company for its success.
Both DVD and licensing revenue will
augment the revenue from streaming.
TMF also anticipates that revenue
will be made available from licensing for publication and for other back-end
licensing arrangements. As TMF develops characters and series, merchandising
revenue becomes a possibility.
Content
·
I Business Writing: We’ve all got to do it
·
II Should you have a voice?
·
III Succinctness is next to godliness
·
IV Writing that helps get you a job
·
V The business of business emails
·
VI Business letters are still in fashion
·
VII Some points about Power Points
·
VII The whole issue of business content on the web
·
IX Writing marketing materials
·
X Writing Business Reports
·
XI Writing employee performance reviews
·
XII Writing White papers
·
XIII Conclusion
About
the Author
Gay Walley is a writer in New York.
She has written two published novels STRINGS ATTACHED, THE EROTIC FIRE OF THE
UNATTAINABLE, and DUET on kindle. She is a writing coach (nycwritingcoach.com)
and ghostwriter for people’s memoirs. She has worked in advertising and
marketing as a writer for much of her career.
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