In the past year, we’ve done a ton of research trying to prepare for making a viable, and profitable video business. While I was doing that research, I learned about different strategies for improving your price point, and how to pitch to clients, and a ton of other topics, but one thing that seemed to keep coming up, was the idea of finding a niche, within the video world. It becomes part of your brand, and allows you to master a specific subset of videos.
We don’t think that we’re at the point where we need to be heading down a certain avenue, but part of our plan has been to get some samples of our work in those different areas. I personally have been working on a spec commercial, we’ve done some restaurant work, a music video, and hopefully our next ‘portfolio boost’ will be a real estate video. The thought process in not picking a niche right away, is that hopefully through doing some work we’ll start to figure it out what direction we fit in.
The truth is that, I think we would be happy working in any of the niches, and so for right now we’ve got the tail wagging the dog a bit, but at this stage in our infancy, it’s natural. As we get more clients, and start to see where we shine, we will attract more clients within that area.
The one thing that we have gravitated to, and perhaps it will some day become the thing we’re known for, is restaurant videos. In the Raleigh/Durham area, there are a ton of restaurants, and not necessarily just the corner pizza and sub shops that exist in every town in the U.S. (I love those little pizza and sub shops, but they seem to exist and thrive regardless of any marketing, that is why I’m not talking about them). We have a huge variety of foods based on ethnicity and culture, and the abundance has lead to a lot of really great options, and those restaurants understand the power of social media, and many have followings that reach far beyond those of us who can easily eat there on a regular basis.
As consumers of many of these establishments, it has done two things in my mind. First it has familiarized me with the landscape, and how the restaurants were connecting with customers. Instagram pages like “Best of the Bull” connected me personally with dozens of restaurants, food trucks, and eateries that I have tried and enjoyed. But there is so much based on still photography, and when I scroll through the search page on Instagram, so many of the food related suggestions, are videos, something I’m not seeing much in the market around me.
The second thing that being a consumer has put in my mind, are many of these restaurants’ focal points. One restaurant I’ve been to makes what I think is the best burger I’ve ever had, pays their employees a living wage, and is as environmentally sustainable as they can be; another offers amazing Korean BBQ in a ‘Chipotle/assembly line style.’ For the burger place, I’d want to make a short documentary, with the owner talking about how all of the meat is locally sourced, and the bread baked daily, and film clips of the cooking process, the meals prepped on the plate, and someone happily taking their first bite. For the Korean BBQ, I would show glamour shots of the food, intercut with shots of the lids being lifted off the trays and the steam rising. I would probably use K-pop music over it, since their brand has heavily embraced the K-pop genre.
So is food our niche here at Chocolate Diamond Media? I don’t know about that. It’s too early to tell, but we’re passionate about it, and knowledgable about it, and it’s as good an avenue as any to start down. Maybe we’ll make half a dozen videos and find out we’re supposed to be making videos for all of the tech companies, but we won’t know until we start down that road.
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