Strategic Services

1 of 4

It's impossible to be an expert in everything. At vivid, we focus on a particular blend of strategic skills that fit the needs of online ventures.

Community Planning
The site community plan builds directly from the value proposition and target user profile. With the definition of unique value provided to a specific target demographic - and psychographic - we'll assess the community interactions that will be most rewarding for that profile. This may include message boards for commentary on changing content, chat sessions hosted by experts or celebrities, or a regular newsletter emailed to a targeted affinity group. The feature set of your community need not be complex, but the success of your community will live in the strategy and implementation details. As part of the strategy phase in the overall site development, we'll build the community model to define community objectives, specific features, content plan, hosting responsibilities, budget and staffing plan.

Revenue Modeling
Although there are well defined financial structures for dry cleaners and McDonald's franchises, Web ventures are still an unknown. Naturally, this is the key to the current opportunity that online ventures offer to entrepreneurs with vision, discipline...and funding. Since there is no set formula, the competitive landscape remains sparse and the opportunity for innovation is clear. To assist new ventures in structuring rational expectations of revenues and operational costs over the first three years of operation, we include a Revenue Model as part of the venture strategy phase. We will build the model collaboratively with you by assessing revenues from advertising, sponsorships, product sales and partnerships on a monthly basis from Release One launch. This ensures that all aspects of the site plan, including branding, content, commerce and community are part of an integrated business strategy working toward one set of measurable targets.

Competitor and Market Trends Analysis
vivid performs competitive and trend analysis on a variety of levels. Working with your initial business concept, we'll do an online competitive audit to assess the offerings and brand messages currently provided to customers within your industry. We'll also assess comparative trends in other online industries; for example, the increase in purchases of customized golf clubs online indicates a general opportunity for customization of high-end performance sporting gear.

Trend research can validate the business value proposition by researching emerging behaviors of your target market and economic or social trends which will affect the speed and cost of marketshare dominance.

As part of the site strategy, we also may assess current best practices in community, commerce, advertising and sponsorships. This can also include metrics in key areas such as commerce conversion rates, average purchase price per visit and expected number of site visits prior to purchase.

Organizational Staff Planning
New venture founders frequently need assistance in identifying the top priority hires, specific role responsibilities in building the Web business, and the timing for recruiting and hiring. These roles can include the Chief Technology Officer, Commerce Director, Editorial Director and Writers, Community Director and Hosts, Partnership Director, Marketing, PR and Sales Roles.

Site Management Planning
As part of the launch plan, vivid will identify and recommend options for hosting, update maintenance and overall site management. The best support scenario is dictated by the specific site structure and a myriad of dependencies including frequency of content updates, sophistication of the back-end database and commerce integration, merchandising requirements and future business partnerships. The site management strategy is much more that a vendor contract for site support; the strategy must complement the overall business strategy and growth milestones. For this reason, vivid frequently does not quote budgets for site maintenance as the client needs are best served with a Site Management Plan that is completely integrated with schedules for site development, marketing promotions and organizational staffing.

Next