The Shakespeare Product: Status Update

The Shakespeare Product is an ongoing exploration of of Shakespeare's work, with an emphasis on the revenue-generating elements that make Shakespeare a product.  The blog began in January 2011, in an effort to fulfill course learning outcomes for a Shakespeare class at Brigham Young University.  Since the blog is driven largely by the course curriculum, I've created a new page entitled, "Learning Outcomes."  The Learning Outcomes page will serve two purposes: 1) To provide a comprehensive lists of posts and how they have met the requirements of my Shakespeare course; 2) To offer a "skeleton" of my research to anyone who participates in my blog as a reader.  As I still have several learning outcomes to fulfill, I'd be happy to receive any feedback regarding the direction I should take to complete them.

New Source Page.

This is a brief post to direct you to a new Source page that I added.  I've spent the last few weeks researching Shakespeare (and his writing) as a product, and the source page lists all of the resources that have appeared on my blog.  The source page includes a complete lists of published written works, as well as links that I have referred to in my posts.  Feel free to comment on my sources and suggests other works that might contain relevant information regarding Shakespeare and business.

The Viral Grapevine

This post is a continuation of my exploration of Shakespeare as a product.  This particular post is part two of a series on viral marketing.  You can read my first post on viral marketing here.


Viral Day 2
I'm excited to continue my connections between viral marketing and the emergence and proliferation of Shakespeare. In the brief research that I've already conducted, I've learned that, for me, learning about viral marketing is almost viral itself. This type of marketing is trendy and unpredictable--it makes for interesting research across the expanse of the internet.

Rather than falling into the trap of internet searches (although I'm sure this will continue to be a main source for information regarding the topic), I decided to see if any relevant books had been written on the topic. I recognize that it takes much more effort to write a book than to throw up a blog post, and consequently determined that a book would have higher quality research and sources to draw from.  At the local public library, I was able to find what seems to be the perfect book: Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, by Dave Balter and John Butman.

Connecting Shakespeare and Viral Marketing

As I continue my research of Shakespeare as a product, I want to address the question, "What business strategies did Shakespeare use to achieve success?" In this post, I'm going to analyze the modern phenomenon of viral marketing in comparison with some of the marketing strategies that made Shakespeare a success in the 18th century.  First, I'll offer some insights that I found in my research of viral marketing. Then I'll analyze a Shakespeare video game, which was an attempt at using viral marketing to promote Shakespeare Country.  Finally, I'll explore some of the marketing strategies that increased Shakespeare's popularity in the 18th century.

Viral Marketing
Some of the most powerful recent marketing and advertising campaigns in recent history have made use of viral marketing. This type of marketing relies information being spread person to person through social networks. A person watches a funny video at work, emails it to a few friends and posts it on Facebook, and each of these friends pass it on in a self-replicating process. A few of my favorite viral successes include the Old Spice commercials, "Where the Hell is Matt" sponsored by Stride Gum, and a recent spoof of viral videos (but successful viral video of its own right), Jennifer Aniston goes viral. Since viral marketing takes advantage of the social networking power of the internet, just one video made on a low budget can be passed on exponentially and reach millions of people. Connecting with others on the internet is effortless, mindless, and addictive--viral marketing thrives for just that reason.

Innovating in Business

In an earlier post, I posed the question, "What business strategies did Shakespeare use to achieve success?" I'd like to begin answering this question today, in the context of my blog's broader theme, which is defining Shakespeare as an entrepreneur.  I'll begin by telling a story.

About two years ago, I lived behind a traditional burger and fries restaurant called Chadder's.  The restaurant was brand new; it had taken the place of a previously vacant building. Chadder's seemed to be decently priced with good food reasonable traffic from college students who lived in the apartment complexes nearby. I assumed it would be successful based on the location.  I personally only ate at Chadder's once, but I enjoyed the food and would have willingly returned to the restaurant, until I moved to another part of town and forgot about it. Close to a year after Chadder's opened, I drove by the restaurant and saw that it had closed. I couldn't believe that the restaurant failed so quickly, although I imagine that the prices were too high for the average quality of food, especially with several other fast food franchises nearby. 

The Shakespeare Product: Purpose and Intentions

Today I wanted to take some time and re-evaluate the intentions of my blog, as well as set the course for its development.  I'll start by identifying where I've come from and the hypothesis that I've established.  Then I will identify questions that I'm looking to answer and objectives that I'm looking to fulfill.

Background
I began this blog with no real semblance of theme other than that I wanted to have fun learning about Shakespeare.  My natural inclinations have led me to pursue business-oriented themes and tie them back to Shakespeare. While following this business theme, my ideas and posts have still been somewhat scattered. I did the following:

• Read professional criticism on Leadership in Henry the V
• Analyzed elements of behavior change in Taming of the Shrew
• Performed a close reading to critique Othello as a leader
• Searched for the bottom line of A Winter's Tale
• Used two (Aesthetic Taste, Andrew Carnegie) different approaches to pursue the economic elements of Shakespeare

After two months, I've narrowed my research down to Shakespeare as a product.  I will continue the blog with a very specific interest in identifying how Shakespearean theater acts as a marketable, revenue-generating product.

Can Theater Sustain Itself?

In analyzing Shakespeare as a product, I've spent some time researching the costs and revenue of theatrical productions, from both current and past productions.  Since that research is ongoing and incomplete, I will address it later in a more substantial post.  However, I wanted to share an interesting idea on a similar note, that relates theater to the industrialist entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie.  In a New York Times article from 1904, writer John Corbin addresses the issue of whether or not the theater would be worthy of an endowment from a wealthy businessman such as Carnegie. He then gives Carnegie's take: "The only way to endow a theatre is to buy a ticket at the box office."  Corbin also quotes Daniel Frohman, who said, "An endowed theatre is only a fad.  It is for a class, and not the masses.  A play that does not appeal to the masses would not be a success."

Aesthetic Tastes in Shakespeare

Shakespeare plays, like any other type of commodity, rely on the economic principles of supply and demand.  However, discussing the supply and demand of theater just isn't as easy as discussing the supply and demand of milk, corn, rice, or some other agricultural product.  While these products might be considered necessities, theater is entertainment or luxury--which means that it's driven by the more subjective element of taste.  In this post, I'm going to take a closer look at taste, and how it benefited the Shakespeare product.  I'll rely on the help of the book Marketing the Bard, by Don-John Dugas, which I referred to in my last post.

Eureka

My explorations of the "Shakespeare" and "business" combination have yielded interesting results this semester, mainly focusing on interpersonal dynamics that appear in Shakespeare and can be applied to a corporate setting. Recently, though, I'm becoming more fascinated with the idea of Shakespeare as a product. A play is not a traditional, tangible product, but it certainly fulfills a need and generates revenue, so there must be something to it.  My searches of library databases, Google, etc. did not yield too many results for "product" and "Shakespeare," other than a handful of existing companies (electronic products, fishing tackle, you name it) that have borrowed the Shakespeare name.

HOWEVER...today I had a major breakthrough.  Using the library catalog, I found the perfect book: Marketing the Bard, by Don-John Dugas. The book is exactly what I've been hoping for.  Here's a small excerpt from the preface:

This book is about how theater managers, adapters, and publishers packaged Shakespeare's plays for commercial consumption, and how those reembodied artifacts affected Shakespeare's popularity.

The driving focus of the book is Shakespeare as a commodity, and I'm thrilled to read further and learn more of what Dugas has to say.  I've already read the preface, and I'll definitely start connecting the chapters to some of the close analyses that I do with the plays.

The Winter's Tale: Bottom Line

I wanted to approach The Winter's Tale by following the money.  Regardless of how great we consider the literary aspect of Shakespeare's plays today, I guessed that as with most business people, Shakespeare was driven in part by the "bottom line." (Money talks.) For this play, I wanted to determine how Shakespeare's fiscal incentives may have affected specific attributes of his "product," the play.  First, I began by conducting a close reading of Act 3, scene 2.  The obvious focal point of the scene is Hermione, wife of Leontes, who is accused of betraying her husband.  Despite the accusations, Hermione is strong and defiant, explaining that she values her honor more than her life.

Since Hermione is such an admirable character, I guessed that Shakespeare had particular motivations for including her in the play, and that maybe these motivations included some sort of fiscal incentive.  For example, I wondered if maybe a large percentage of his audience was female at the time of the play's showing (the year 1611), and he thought that by including a female character he would appeal to his audience demographics.  Or maybe some of his plays were commissioned by a female member of the Royal family, so he felt inclined to satisfy his employer.  My research was an attempt to discover Shakespeare's "bottom line" motivation.