As I begin to create my Entrepreneurship blog, I am optimistic about my project idea of improving the performance of an Acro Dance Shoe, which is used by Acro Dancers. Acro Dance is a method of dance which takes an enormous amount of energy, strength and composure to land in the right position, while combining classical dance techniques in a unique set of choreography. When performing Acro on stage, the typical Acro shoe can be very painful when performing a trick (forceful landing, i.e., side aerial), simply because the shoes do not provide any support at all for your feet. In addition, they can be very slippery, which may cause a dangerous fall on stage. One of my own personal techniques I would use before going on stage to perform would be to hairspray the bottom of my shoes so that I wouldn’t slip. I want to improve the Acro shoe to make it more supportive for your heels, because without support it can lead to painful foot injuries. In addition, I would like to make it less slippery of a shoe. I personally have worn down both of my heels, and have injured my knees from the constant tricks (flips) I have performed over 10 years on hardwood floors. Thus, this is one of the main reasons I had to discontinue Acro dancing over a year ago.
The best social media network to share my idea would be advertising via Facebook. On Facebook, there are over 300 million active users, and I think it would target many young Acro dancers, and would be a fantastic way to market my improved Acro dance shoe. Interested Facebook users would be able to click on the Advertisement on the sidebar, which will bring them directly to the web page displaying the new and improved "Nonslip & Supportive Acro shoe." The shoe photo would display a detailed shoe of an added cushioned heel, in addition to a non-slip backing for floor landing. The Advertisement on Facebook can then be “Liked”, ultimately displaying this link on your own wall, and making my new product exposed to even more Facebook users. Also, I would like to add a survey or poll to the web page, so that I would be able to collect information by asking dancers how they felt about the improvements of my new shoe. I think this would definitely be the right direction for me to obtain some initial information on what category of dancers (age, gender, etc.) would be interested so I can continue my marketing in the right direction.
In addition, I would love to conduct testing of my new shoe on a group of Acro dancers by creating a YouTube video, which would display many of the dancers' reactions and comments from the new shoe. In doing this, others can “Like” or comment their opinions about my improved product. I can create a short clip of dancers performing, less than 5 minutes, for users to download and view. This will also enable me to collect as much information as possible on my progress by viewing their comments, while I am in the process of marketing the Acro shoe for the best performance possible. Also, the YouTube link will be displayed on the Facebook web page.
Beyond just traditional social media for distribution, you could look into niche dance communities as well as sites that allow you to sell products that are easy to set up and manage as you get started.
ReplyDeleteI think social media would be really great to connect with your customer and get constant feedback about what they like and don't like about the shoes.
The idea of advertising the shoe over Facebook and youtube is a great idea. Another good way to advertise the shoe for the youtube video would be to have two girls doing the same dance side by side or split the screen with one girl wearing the your shoe and the other girl wearing the other acro shoe that isn't yours. Also twitter would also be a good place to advertise and you could trend your shoe as a topic to engage more possible customers.
ReplyDeleteI think that this idea for a new shoe is very well thought out and an amazing idea. I like how you are using facebook to get the word out. Facebook allows people to send specific advertisements according to the things they like so you might want to consider sending out the most advertisements to those who like dancing sites. Also, you might want to consider branching out from the typical facebook route and maybe advertising through making a twitter or other social media websites.
ReplyDeleteYour Nonslip & Supportive dance shoes seem like a useful product to market. I am no ballerina and have never engaged in serious dancing before; however the description of your product and how it can improve dancing is impressive. I like how you incorporate social media and everything else from lectures in ist195 to your product. Nice job.
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