Essay of Léa Guidi

Alternative Comics Marketing

Since my biggest professional wish is to work in the comic books world (and if I am lucky, more specifically the publishing world), I told myself that it is logical to write my essay on this topic. Indeed, I am going to try to tell yo more about the comics marketing, according to what I know about it, thanks to my own experience or articles that I found in books and specialized websites.

My idea is to firstly speak about the French system, that I know rather well by reading a lot of comic books, what makes me able to feel how that market works ; and of course, by reading many articles whose the topic is the functioning of comics publishing, included marketing, so. Moreover, before I came in Finland, I was an active member within a young comic book house named Même Pas Mal, based in Marseille, which is basically an association, becoming a successful publisher in alternative kind of comics. Until now, four books have been published, and the team plans to publish about ten books in 2011. I worked with the work team and observed a lot the way they communicate in order to be seen and create the identity of MPM (Même Pas Mal) – which is very strong, actually it influences all the choices they make. In that sense, my essay will be mostly based on that experience I had (and I will continue to have when I will come back to France). It is an interesting example, I think, because it is an new book house which have to make many efforts in marketing and communication in order to be known. In another hand, my wish is to talk about independent comic book house, and this one is representative of the market, I guess.

Secondly, I will try to debrief a global view of the Finnish comic marketing, according to what I noticed, observing books, publisher websites, comic shops… Actually, I do not know so much about the Finnish comic culture, except that the market emphasizes the alternative books and is mostly ran by independent publishers. Incidentally, I have to say that I am really glad to notice that fact, because graphic novels, alternative comics and the independent publishing are my favorite kind of comic field.

Before I start to deal with the specific comic marketing topic, let me introduce you a global view of the French comic market, which is so big that I think it is necessary to know some statistics to better understand the marketing system and its choices. Indeed, as you will notice it, the large number of publishers and comics necessarily influences how the market operates.

 

I/ Global view of the French Market

Some statistics about the production

In France, the comic market is one of the most “healthy” within the publishing market. In 2004, for instance, one book on eight sold was a comic. It represented 6,5% of the global sales in 2007 reaching 320 millions euros and in 2009, 4863 comics were published, with 2,4% growth.

The production is huge and the market is in good health, but the publishers are careful during that crisis period. Indeed, 1264 albums published in 2009 were not really new but reissues of titles which were successful in the past (mainly classics, reissued in their complete version). Thus, the big comic book houses which are able to launch this kind of publication, do not take any risk and ensure their sales. And we have to admit that it is done in a clever way, since the sales are effectively important in the end.

The small publishers

Concerning the smallest publishers, it is obviously harder to keep a good place in this market. Indeed, 20 of them disappear each year in average and the crisis is probably going to increase this statistic. But we have to point out that many independent and little publishers are created nowadays, which means that, finally, the comic market stay the most gainful in the whole publishing world.  Actually, in France, if 9 financial groups are currently taking advantage of the two thirds of the market, 288 publishers published albums in 2009.

Different choices concerning the publication frequency

According to specialists (such as Gilles Ratier) all depends on the cost structure of the company and how is ran its catalogue. Let’s take some examples : Marsu Production works very well because the publication director chose to only publish two albums a year, but sold at more than 100.000 copies. However, those who publish about thirty albums a year, invest in marketing operations and press relations, have to sell more than 1.000 copies per titles if they do not want to difficultly handle financial troubles. Finally, big publishers, who have got an important catalogue and employ numerous employees necessarily must sell between 5.000 and 10.000 copies per album to start to be paying.

Global categorization of publishers

Most of the time, these structural choices reflect the publisher identity as well as its size and influence. Actually, we could summarily organize French publishers in four categories :

• The big ones, basing their success on the classical Franco-Belgian comics, such as Dargaud, Casterman, Dupuis or Le Lombard.
• The more recent publishers, which tried to renew the classical genre, influenced by American comics and mangas. For example, Delcourt, Glénat, Soleil, Vents d’Ouest, Emmanuel Proust..
• Then, there are those publishers specialized in the “art comics”, emphasizing on intimist auto-fiction, graphic novels… Such as L’Association, Ego comme X, Futuropolis, Ca et là..
• Finally, some ones are specialized in translating the foreign comic books in French, notably from English : Marvel/Panini, Semic, Bamboo, Akileos…

Internet

Finally, I would like to point out that publishers keep an eye on internet in order to avoid those mistakes made by the music or cinema industry. Some of them are trying out few ideas, such as Ave ! Comics, which propose paying and free previews of already published albums. The publishing labor union is looking for a way to create a common numeric distribution’s plateform. But, for the moment, internet is not able to bring in money to the publisher ; it is even additional costs.

 

II/ Alternative comics marketing

My own experience

Within the book house where I was used to work before I left France, I could observe attentively how the communication and marketing choices were selected.

First of all, do not forget that MPM is a small and independent publisher, mostly based on governmental grants thanks to its association status. I think it is important to remind this context, because it necessarily has an impact on the marketing (not only) choices. Actually, I am sure that the fact of being so recently created (two years ago), of being small, in Marseille rather than in Paris, and of being that kind of specialized publisher, far away from the big commercial success, require a perfect command and using of communication and marketing. That kind of new and independent comic book houses has to prove itself, notably by being seen, creating a strong identity which cannot be forgotten by the audience.

Basically, most of the independent publishers manage to have this strong identity, precisely because of the desire to be different, to be distinguished from the others houses, and more specifically from the big ones, which are big firms, in fact. Their goal is not necessarily to reach amazing sales, to be appreciated by the whole world or to be the richest company. It is more to publish artistic comics, original and out of the classics which, according to them, have been seen and read to much until now. So, finally, the identities of these houses are easily created through their creativity and originality. For instance, MPM is ran by people who come from the punk and rock’n'roll environment, what you can feel in their editorial choices : the humor is black, the stories are sometimes hard, the graphic choices are accurately selected, the authors often have the same thought process as them, they are as informal-minded as them. In another hand, they all have that sensitive side that you can find in the books as well, through the poetry, the sad stories or philosophical questionings.

Concerning the marketing strictly speaking, MPM likes to use images, posters, catalogues, website, blog… They effectively have an official website (www.meme-pas-mal.fr) where you can find the news, by-products, the event schedule, some information on the authors, the books, etc. They also have a blog (http://aaarg-je-meurs.blogspot.com/), which is more used as a free place, with some humorous, committed, storytelling posts as well as news, excerpts from the future published books, ads for the friends…

Images are often used too (an it seems logical for a comic publisher). MPM create a lot of posters, designed by authors or illustrators, t-shirts, badges… Which is a good way to spread the talent of the authors MPM works with. Moreover, it is maybe easier to sell than a comic, which is still for the enthusiasts (particularly the alternative ones), and enable the house to earn some additional money.

In another hand, lots of events are organized by the publisher, such as festival, dedication tour, “comic concerts”… By that way, MPM can be seen all over the France and spread its identity which is its main strength and increasingly appreciated. Even when the event is organized by another structure, the house always tries to make its stand eye-catching, schemer and attractive.

In addition, the MPM’s team wants to be creative and always tries out new fields. They have already try to organize a complete one month festival (with success), they have organized concerts with their stand working during the music was playing, they regularly meet prisoners in order to give them scenarios and comic building class… And now, they are planning to design as many poster as possible, based on a kind of game : participating authors have to create a fake movie poster, with MPM as a producer. After the deadline, an exhibition will be held in the Même Pas Mal shop, situated in the “creative” district of Marseille (here is another good choice for their communication).

I have talked about the publisher’s marketing choices, but we have to point out that there is another necessity which is to have marketing plans for the books, obviously. Indeed, if all the ways to be seen I have talked about are important, a publisher is above all discovered by the audience with his books.

I am going to continue to keep MPM as an example, because it is the publisher that I know the most, and finally, I think it is a good representative one. So, the house decided to firstly publish a collective comic, thinking that it could be a good sample of its editorial trend. That book shows a dozen artists, having respectively a very personal universe : sometimes joyful, sad, humorous, sometimes conceptual, without any strict sense, poetic… I think that it was less risky than publish an album written by a single author ; in that way anybody could find something which please him to read. Moreover, publishing a collective comic is already spreading a certain identity. I mean that only independent or alternative publishers try out that kind of publication. In France, it is really rare to find a collective album published by a big comic book house because the format is not enough “formal”, it is not the classical way to edit a comic, and the big houses are mostly featured by editing those classical ones.

For one of the next comics published by MPM, they decided to tell a story around the title. Actually, it is a black and shocking humor comic, almost indecent. That is why MPM invented that story telling that the book was censored for three years before it has been published. It is one more time a way to create the funny identity of MPM, keeping coherence with its catalogue. One of the goal of the house is to entertain the audience though publishing high level comics. And at the end, that shocking comic, launched with that fake story is actually the most successful among the MPM publications ; the team already calls it “the classic of the house”.

More technically, any book house have to find what we call the distributor ; that company whose the work is to convince as many bookshops as possible to sell the house’s books. MPM, still coherent, decided to work with a distributor specialized in that type of comics, called alternative. The company is based in Paris and is one of the most well-known in the sector. I was able to notice how efficient is the distributor’s work. Indeed, I noted the good places where the books have been put (and I am talking about the nature of the bookshops as well as the location within the shops). The most surprising (and agreeably to notice) was that in that big and so popular cultural store we have in France (named La FNAC), the first book published by MPM enjoyed a really good place, totally visible by the whole audience, as one of the newness. It is quite surprising because usually, in La FNAC, the alternative comics (specifically when it is the very first of the publisher) are placed in that special area, where you only can see the edge of the books (so you have to be really interested in that sort of comics and make the effort to go to that area and arduously look for your what you want).

I can be more technical now, and point out that the so famous marketing plan which is the four P, has been well used by MPM at the end. These four P are basically : the product, the price, the promotion and the place. I have told you about the product, the promotion and the place ; let me now briefly tell few words about the price. Actually, nothing is strictly manifest : the prices are in the average of the alternative comics market, that is to say, a bit more expensive that the classical ones. But, most of the time, there are much more pages and the materials used to make the book are more “precious”. Moreover, it is not really risky to sell “expensive” comics when you take part of that kind of niche market. Indeed, the alternative comic culture is still (even if it starting to be fashionable) destined to a certain part of the audience, ready to spend money for these books.

To conclude about this part about MPM and more globally, about the alternative comics and publishers marketing, I can say that I have the feeling that MPM is now respected in the world of publishers, that is why I believe that the team is planning to publish more comics per year. It is not risky anymore now. In addition, I feel that their objectives are more professional, their decisions more considered. In fact, it seems that their marketing and communication plans have been used to prove the audience and the publishing world how they can be creative. And it is usually the way it works for the most of the young independent publishers.

In Finland ?

Now, I am going to briefly talk about what I understood concerning the Finnish system.

The first thing I noticed is the inclination for the alternative comics. Actually, I believe that this type of comics take the biggest part of the market (which what makes me so happy, since it is my very favorite kind of books).

Concerning the marketing, I cannot say if it strictly works in a different way compared with France, but I noticed some details that I can tell you. It is not really rigorous, it is just my own observation, that I am going to base on the four P of the marketing.

The product : as I said, most of the Finnish comics are what we called alternative in France. The formats and the design of the books are diversified as well as the materials. The styles of drawing are varied too, and above all really out of the ordinary, so arty, creative with the desire to change from the classics. Some are downright a new comic concept, leaving the boxes, the speech bubbles… Secondly, a lot of comics are collective, with several authors working on a same books, publishing their own stories. I said that we have this kind of books in France too, but it seems to be more common in Finland. Finally, I have noticed that many independent publishers try to translate the books in English at the end of the page (which what is good for me). It is a good way to spread the comics in a larger area of audience. I think I am a good example, since I buy all my Finnish comics with this translation, and I do not think that I am the only one to do this. It is very smart, and I guess that we should do the same in France.

Concerning the Price, I have to say that it is much more expensive than in France. But I guess that your standard of living is higher than ours, and it could explain the prices of your comics. In another hand, you have much less inhabitants in Finland than in France, that is to say less sales ; so, maybe you have to offset the “lack” of sales by the price.

The Promotion is harder for me to explain. I suffer from a lack of information, but I am going to try. First of all, something struck me, it is about the visibility of the publisher on the cover of the comic. Actually, it happened several times that I was not able to find the name of the house because it was hidden somewhere inside the book, in a very discreet way. It appeared amazing for me since in France, every comics are pressed by the logotype of the publisher, on the cover, behind the cover, several times in the book… So, I wonder if finally, in Finland, the book is much more important than the house publishing it. Maybe you can answer me, but it sounds really strange that the publisher does not have such an impact. Actually, I cannot believe it. Then, I noticed that every publishers have an official website, obviously. They are well representative of the house’s spirit and identity. I think that as in France, the identity building is as important as the books you publish. It is, to me, half of the work of a publisher : this identity is already creating an audience, a group of people interested in your production, feeling to be affiliated to the same “family”. Finally, I know that some prices exist in Finland,such as Sarjakuva-Finlandia , in order to award authors. I guess that taking part in the contest is already a way to communicate on your publishing house.

Concerning the last P, the Place, I can say that your panel seems more diversified than ours. Indeed, in France, most (not to say all) of the comics are distributed in bookshops, specialized bookshops, some big supermarkets (but it is not the case for the alternative comics yet) and library of course. InTurku, which is not such a big city, I found some interesting places, such as coffees, bars and galleries where you can enjoy comics readings and even some events. I guess that you can probably find this kind of place in Paris, but in Marseille, for example, which is the third town of France, you cannot. Of course, Angoulême, which is the city of comic culture, it is different, but it is an exception. The last thing that I want to point out is the privileged location of the comics in all your bookshops. I have the impression that in every bookshops, one area is destined to comics. I hope that my feeling is not a mistake because, at the end, it sounds so normal and not so extraordinary. And yet, it is far from being the case. Actually, in the most popular, richest and biggest book or cultural shops, you will find a comics department. The independent ones, unless they are specialized in comics, rarely have a comic shelf. Anyway, I particularly appreciate that Finland (at least Turku), gives a respectful place to comic books.

 

To conclude, I think that one of the most important point about alternative comics marketing is the strength of your identity. Indeed, this niche market is aimed at a specific audience, looking for changing within the comic culture ; so, to be creative, original, quality or even surprising or unsettling is one of the way to build this identity so desired by the readers. The bigger (and biggest) publishers have already built their image and surf on the classical way. That is what is working for them and their audience. They can enjoy their corporate image since they have been successful many years ago. Their goal is today more to be seen or to have several big success per year, than to play with their identity, already understood by the audience.

 

 

SOURCES

 

• Articles and websites
  

http://www.capital.fr/a-la-une/interviews/le-marche-de-la-bd-devrait-continuer-sur-sa-lancee-en-2010-473542 (An article about the comic market and its statistics)

http://www.actuabd.com/-Marche-de-la-BD-Faits-et-chiffres- (Many articles about the comic market, some facts and statistics)

http://www.booksfromfinland.fi

http://finnishcomics.info

• Books

Dan Poynter, The self publishing manual,Para Publishing, 2000, 436 p

Collective, L’état de la bande dessinée, Les Impressions Nouvelles, 2009, 224 p. (About the whole comic culture conditons)