Are you ready for some more Bootcamp action? Well, I certainly am, as it's time to have some more business idea fun in part 2 of the "Make a Difference Boot Camp" series! If you haven't yet read my story on the first three days of this amazing event, please check it out here: Days 1 to 3.
As you will notice throughout this post, the theme of Days 4 and 5 is all about marketing and advertising.
Day 4 - 15th of June 2023
It was 9:15am outside the Atrium building of the University of Suffolk and I was waiting outside to go in and start the second week of Bootcamp. As soon as I was let inside the building, things almost immediately things began to get very interesting, before the show could even hit the road.
As I was led away to the glasshouse, two participants in the boot camp were already inside the building having some chats, and one of the topics that came up was London and I would end up sharing with them my experiences travelling around north-west London in June 2022. Needless to say, the epic voyage back then attracted lots of praise and has created food for thought about turning my real-life experiences into interesting fairytales. This, and the comments regarding my post on the previous week's events were both big motivation boosters for my idea as well as in the hours and days that would be lying ahead.
Things then started simmering down in the morning session, for what would turn out to be one of the quietest days in the bootcamp schedule so far (but still fun!).
The first task of the session involved taking a look at a Co-op chocolate biscuit product and then having to work as a team to figure out what's unique about the product. Then the fun would start to ramp up from here, as each group was given the names of different social enterprises and we were asked to do some Internet research to find out how their brand stood out from other offerings on the market. In the group I was in, I was given the task of exploring Tranquiliti, a social enterprise that was created to address the issue of poor student support in schools.
Here's what I've managed to come up in terms of my own findings (mixed in with a few notes earlier on!):
Then, a cunning moment of creativity happened to come into play in the market segmentation activity, as we were each handed an orange and had to peel off the skin as a way of simulating how businesses break down different target audiences. This got everyone into their own states of thinking, as the next task was to analyse how Cracked It, a social enterprise providing tech-related training for young offenders, was able to do their market segmentation.
Market Segmentation for Cracked It
The afternoon's session was about secondary market research. The focal point of the afternoon was about identifying where our business ideas were lying in our chosen markets, backing things up by statistics as well as identifying existing competition.
Having done this many months before, this task was just simply a formality in terms of completing it, however if I was doing this activity from scratch, I'd imagine that I would be having much more fun trying to figure out as many fantasy map competitors in the space of one hour!
Fantasy map secondary market research
After each person took their time to share their secondary market research statistics in relation to their business ideas, it wasn't long before the cue came for the day to end. With that, I ended up heading back home (did I not mention that it was a beautiful day outside - it was 27 degrees!).
Day 5 - 16th of June 2023
The day started with a little change to the usual plan - as the room that was used on previous days was booked up for a sensory awareness seminar, we would be going up to the second floor of the Atrium building for this fun day.
The first order of the day was to work in teams to figure out the order behind producing a marketing plan. and let's just say that the way of thinking around the activity is just unbelievably off the scale - in particular, the descriptions of each group having some "rogue" pieces of paper when talking about budgets and TikTok promotion really made me laugh, especially towards the end of the activity.
Then the morning's comfort break came right on cue and for some inexplicable reason, I happened to want to have a coffee - and in the process, I happened to catch up with one of the other participants in the boot camp who happens to know a self-employed illustrator, and could potentially link me up to do some work. It is just one of many examples demonstrated over the last couple of weeks of how tangible the fantasy map idea could become.
Returning to the room, we would then go on to spend some time going through the business frameworks, starting off with PESTLE/PESTEL - which describe, among other things, how legal, political, environmental and economical issues affect the business idea - followed by the SWOT framework (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
There are many ways in which I could have handled the SWOT framework in terms of strengths and weaknesses, but the tactic that I've employed here was about what I personally could bring to the table and what I am not good at and need to improve on.
Fantasy Map SWOT Framework
And then the most interesting of the frameworks came, having to apply the 4 P's of marketing (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) to the business idea. Much like the market research carried out the previous day, much of the activity was done as a formality, but there were also a few extra bits added to the framework - as packaging ideas and product branding were also thrown into the mix.
Going into the afternoon session, we had a guest speaker from one of the digital marketing agencies come along to deliver the event. Personally, I found the idea of bringing in an external guest speaker to be one of the main strengths that I've found in the boot camp, as they are able to offer a diverse range of opinions on a wide range of business issues. And the guest speaker was no exception - especially as the subject of the afternoon's talk was about how to do marketing for free.
The overall session was relatively simple to follow, as it revolved around a three-stage process covering issues from attracting prospective audiences, to attracting greater interest and maintaining engagement, as well as three key groups of advertising media - websites, social media pages and public relations (PR).
Some marketing platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram were familiar to me, but others, such as e-commerce platform Gumroad, were completely new to me and it was interesting to get to know new marketing alternatives that could potentially help me out on my journey to developing the fantasy map business.
Initially, it looked like this was going to be a quiet session, but I was to be proved wrong when a "comfort break" turned into some very interesting chats about how we can use social enterprise initatives to stop the culture of ableism and promote neurodiversity, in a goal to make the world of enterprise and entrepreneurship, and work in general, accessible to as many people as possible. This conversation reminded me of one thing that I was reminded of earlier in the day, that when I end up doing something that I am so passionate about, I can be capable of doing anything.
As things began to quieten down approximately 30 minutes later, we would then go on to wrap up the session by recapping on the marketing elements that are needed to maintain brand engagement. Not long after, the day was over, and it was time to head home again, out in the beautiful hot weather. Boot camp over for another week.
Conclusions after days 4 and 5
After comparing my experience in Days 4 and 5 to the first three days, I have to say that the Make a Difference Boot Camp continues to provide a very positive experience in terms of helping people to create their own social enterprise business ideas - each of the presenters that came along this week had very different, and yet very interesting ways of exploring various subjects at hand. Whether it's using confectionery to explain marketing concepts, the use of "rogue" sheets of paper, or the use of structured diagrams in the guest session to organise and plan marketing campaigns.
Furthermore, in this week, I was able to continue on the path of discovering myself and what I can achieve in so many positive ways. For instance, prior to writing the blog post about the first three days of the Boot Camp and everyone responding to it very positively, I never thought to myself that I was a good writer or that I could do anything in that area.
After hearing the things that were being said about autism and neurodiversity on Day 5, I've also managed to gain some newly-founded respect for the Enterprise Team in general, as I am really pleased to see that the team are using their platform and position in the University to change the enterprise and entrepreneurship landscape for neurodivergents for the better, especially for people with autism who are looking to become entrepreneurs. I hope that this is something that will be followed through in successive managements for a long time to come.
I am certainly looking forward to sharing days 6 and 7 when the time comes, especially with the latter being a short day, so I hoping to share with you how that dynamic will play out. As always, do let me know if there is anything in these diagrams that I could improve.
What mysteries will next week's Boot Camp sessions bring?
With much love,
Jakub
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