The Lowdown

Any kind of product, which includes comics, needs to be subjected to marketing. Now for some of you, marketing is an alien concept. But do realize that every soul on this planet is doing some kind of marketing every single day.

On a human level, marketing is simply convincing someone to do something. There's the kid who convinces his mom to get that hot new video game. There's the high school jock who convinces his coach to place him in the front line of a crucial basketball game. There's the young woman who convinces her boss to promote her to managerial position. On this human level, people use their interpersonal skills towards an end, and this is the heart of marketing.

That's why they call marketing both science and art. The science part involves research, systems and processes, while the art side involves human discretion and interaction.

So why am I telling you this?

Marketing has four major elements, each one being important in bringing your comic book dream project to success. These elements are summarized as the "Four P's."

PRODUCT - The comic book.
PLACE - Where and how the comic book will be sold.
PRICE - How much would you charge for the comic book.
PROMOTION - How to tell everyone that your comic book is worth buying.

Other texts can tell you that there is a fifth P-- PEOPLE. This concerns knowing what the general public, as well as comic book buyers, might be looking for in a comic book. The fancy term is Consumer Behavior. However, all four Ps involve PEOPLE, so this element isn't exactly exclusive.

Again, why am I telling you this?

At this day and age, it's not enough to just churn out a comic book. Comic book creators need to be equipped with enough knowledge about Marketing to get some kind of attention in an already crowded marketplace. If you intend to pitch your idea to a publisher, you'd still have to do some kind of Marketing, in that you have to convince the publisher that your work is worth investing in. More on that in another post.

In my next post, I'll be talking about PEOPLE. Because, after all, you're not just creating a comic book. You're creating a comic book that people might want to buy.