Self-Help Comic
Self-Help
Self-help is the act of improving oneself without the assistance of other people. A self-help book is a book that offers guidance to the reader on how they can overcome problems and better their personal or professional life.
The Ask
Develop a self-help comic book for girls between the ages of 13-17.
The Method
My team and I conducted a mix of primary and secondary research into the comic book market and the problems that girls face. During our research, we visited local comic shops as well as interviewed females about their views on comics and their time as a teenager.
The Findings
Concept
Illustrate different choices through a create your own adventure style comic.
Strategy
Eliminate uncertainty by showing that there are many different ways an issue can be handled.
How It Works
The comic book tells one story however when the reader gets to the choice selection they can pick how they want to handle the issue and turn to the page listed that will tell them how their choice unfolds.
Marketing Plan
When developing our marketing for this comic we devised an intricate five-step plan to raise awareness of this book and get teen girls excited for it.
The first thing we decided to do was to find a publisher that has a strong teenage readership base. We chose Scholastic because in 2017 they were the top seller of graphic novels and they have over 12,000 book fairs for teenage students.
As 80% of teenagers access digital media daily we decided to create a website where girls could read the book online and ask questions online.
My team and I next decided that we wanted to take advantage of social media so we would use Instagram to have interactive comic panels on and we would let the followers vote on the outcome and to show behind the scenes to show the process of creating the comic.
The fourth step to our marketing plan was to partner with popular influencers that teen girls follow. We chose influencers based on their popularity with girls and the goodwill that they spread.
The final step to our marketing plan was to promote our comic on popular mother centered blogs. By advertising, the comic on these sites mothers would learn about it so that they can purchase it for their daughter.
Distribution
The comic would be distributed through numerous different supply chains including, in major book stores, at Scholastic book fairs, and sold online through Amazon and Scholastic.
Forecast
We determined that we would sell the book in hardback, paperback, and digital form. We then looked at how much comics sell for and how many issues we expected to sell our first printing based on Scholastics numbers. Finally, we looked at the distribution cost for these books and based on the numbers we estimated that we would make roughly $41,454.50.
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70% of teenagers say that anxiety and depression are their biggest problems.
Teen girls experience emotional stress 32% more than teenage boys.
Girls are 34% more likely to confront their problems.
Less than 1% of comics have stories that end with more than one outcome.
Visual learning is vital to 65% of teenage girls.
My Role
Target audience interviews
Product development
Research deep dive and analysis
Strategic recommendations
Additional information writer
Marketing and distribution plan