The Kickstarter Movement
Kickstarter is an organization that helps provide support for creative and aspiring entrepreneurs who may not have all of the credentials as there are many instances where they may lack expertise or resources to launch their business. Kickstarter tries to eliminate that barrier by curating a collection of projects that need funding within the creative industries, such as art, film and videos, games, comics, crafts, design, fashion, food, journalism, music, photography, publishing, technology, and theatre. In essence, it is an organization that acts as a middleman who helps facilitate and collect funding for creative projects; while also providing the means of marketing and advertisement for the brand/product. Kickstarter paves a 360 degree communication pathway for the entrepreneurs and their consumers to give and receive input for the project. It cultivates the spirit of innovation and allows for engaging feedback from the global community to modify or add to their product. The people who donate (backers) are eligible to receive the product + other items based on the ‘”stretch goals” that is formed from the amount of money that the project raise. This calls for a WIN-WIN situation!
Although, has pronounced rules in their terms and conditions that does not allow projects to fundraise for charity nor for it to be involved in equity, investment other forms of financial returns. Kickstarter also does make 3–5% of its profit from every backed project like many for-profit companies…but aside from that, the special about thing about Kickstarter is a recent modification to their mission statement and operation. The organization recently announced their decision to becoming a “Benefit Corporation” in 2016.
To note, the organization’s mission statement is:
“We built Kickstarter to help bring creative projects to life. We measure our success as a company by how well we achieve that mission, not by the size of our profits. That’s why, in 2015, we became a Benefit Corporation. Benefit Corporations are for-profit companies that are obligated to consider the impact of their decisions on society, not only shareholders. Radically, positive impact on society becomes part of a Benefit Corporation’s legally defined goals.”
In essence, they are devotees to the creative society and are focusing on achieving goals pertaining to the development of the arts and culture. They not only hold accountable to corporate social responsibility in their mission statement, it is also clearly seen according to the way that the platform stimulates positive online engagements, which in turn, leverages personal and brand value for entrepreneurs. Corporate social responsibility is the one of the most important factor for any business owner to mull over. It is crucial in maintaining the ethical practices of a company and its legacy, moving forward. When loyal and potential customers are not able to recognize the genuine nature of the organization or company, the marketing shenanigans and gimmicky advertisements with product/service development will NOT be enough to retain customers. (Uber anyone?) This is where Kickstarter found their niche, in which they filled in the gap by allowing entrepreneurs to freely create their marketing strategy without hiring a digital marketing expert, which can rack up a lot of money. They also give a huge leeway for entrepreneurs to establish a communication channel to target a demographic of consumers and investors for their project.
It is important to know that marketing and communications is vital for any business to thrive, and it is the one sole purpose of the social media field. Quoting the funnel concept in digital marketing: “The goal is to create brand awareness from turning engagements into a loyal purchase with added advocacy” In terms of Kickstarter’s social media strategy, they let the projects speak for themselves and the content is automatically canned. It’s true that advertising and marketing will not be successful unless there is meticulous planning, but in this case, it’s up to the project creators to create a separate ad campaign. The high level of influx in content on the Kickstarter website is already way too concentrated, so there is really no need to establish another marketing strategy on social media since it will be messy and all over the place. One thing that Kickstarter has its their advantage in getting project campaigns to gain momentum and become viral. It is also important for them to legally bind themselves with the product by registering for intellectual property protection in the case where competitors or the public would steal their ideas. With Kickstarter, they have more liability because of the widespread awareness of the product. In any case, they also do offer the traditional newsletters for subscribers and the online video livestreaming option where creators can broadcast on the website. All in all, Kickstarter’s only responsibility is to house the projects, and the rest is up to the creators to independently drive traffic and engagements using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Kickstarter has built a reputation over the years with successful companies that created Oculus and Pebbletime who started their journey with a vision and loyal backers who believed in their dream. This type of success will be seen with future entrepreneurs in the tech industry for years to come. The organization will definitely will help with sustainability and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation for the next generations (Gen Z and Alpha Gen). Kickstarter will act as an archival type of tool for people to gain inspiration and create further innovation. As a matter of fact, since Gen Z is the first generation to not know of a world before technology, will be largely composed of entrepreneurs because of the exposure to ubiquitous information and technology (Schawbel, 2–3). The future is looking bright from the Kickstarter headquarter. Not to mention the obvious, they show their support for diversity and inclusion by showcasing a variety of projects made by people all over the globe. The platform enables the project creators to further collaborate with other social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, ThunderClap etc. They also have a curated page with mutual partners and sponsorship with renowned companies and organizations like Kodak, Rhode Island School of Design, HAX, Sundance Film, Art Basel, Creative Capital for the successfully backed projects to gain further traction in the arts and culture.
There is an article about Kickstarter that lists all of the key components to a successful Kickstarter campaign, one that really stood out to me is the tabletop games and physical products that are usually gather successful crowdfunding whereas documentaries, films, shorts, and music are prone to failure. (Taylor, 3–5). I think this is true to consider with the national gross income data for film and music industries that are not doing so well as opposed to fashion and gaming (Blakley’s “Lessons from fashion’s free culture” TEDXUSC). It does make sense on a certain level because the consumer mindset wants the project to be completely accessible for its users to test it out before purchasing. Another example of Kickstarter projects that can stimulate online traffic is the Veronica Mars Movie project where it gave existing diehard fans the opportunity to relive their fandom with a film sequel to the series. It is a great way to help maintain the legacy of the series by earning budget for the film while authentically engaging with the fans to update them on the producers’ progress. The project collected $5.7 Million with the crowdfunding, going over its $200,000 goal by a landslide.
A fun and safe community like Kickstarter accepts the works of entrepreneurs no matter how crazy it is, and it disregards the traditional investors who would not foresee a potential market for these products. The platform thrives on a unified global community on social media to broaden the amount of exposure for projects. The creator of Kickstarter, Brian Fargo quotes: “(Kickstarter is) A way for every creative person to control their destiny” Which translates to “Go kick yourself some butt in this competitive and fast-paced market!!!” yet it also gently whispers, “Strangers on the internet aren’t all bad. Faith in humanity CAN be restored.” An idea can’t reach to its full potential if it is missing funds or supporters; it will be only a third of the way to complete success. And in most cases, collaboration may very well be the mother bearing the child that is the creativity. To end on this note, there is a famous quote by the great Albert Einstein who said: “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value” and this remains true in business. Many brands that strive to emulate this saying will inevitably succeed not only from the eyes of consumers but from the creators themselves. To summarize, the platform’s pure existence contributes to social responsibility in itself. It is a great example of a publishing company that has a great story to the development of the arts in society because its drive is to represent the vision of creative souls with ideas but little resources to launch their projects. Kickstarter forges a connection with the creative class, especially the outlaws, the nerdy ones, and the rejects to help them render the products to become reality.
References:
http://danschawbel.com/blog/5-predictions-for-generation-alpha/
https://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture
