Helena and Chris, the marketing consultants were in a meeting with Erica talking through the marketing plan for the Origana range.

"As the cosmetics have your name we want to use you in the advertising. We particularly want you to do the voiceover for the advert." said Chris, placing a story board on the table. "This will be filmed in the countryside, as a way to highlight the organic nature of the product. Emphasising the tag line 'Release your natural beauty'; using fields and flowers and wide blue skies in a bold but stylised way"

Erica looked at the story board. The scenery warping into the different Origana products, an autumnal tree turning into lipstick, the sky warping into the perfume bottle… It looked very slick.

"Wonderful." said Erica approvingly.

Helena brought out another series of mock ups.

"For the magazine spreads, we want to use your face; I mean what could represent eternal beauty more than the incredible Erica Kane."

"Research shows this will work strongly with our target audience," said Chris, "Who have grown up with the image of you as the epitome of glamour."

Erica gave a flattered smile. She would show her stubborn daughter what successful marketing looked like!

…

Kendal was brain stroming the marketing plan with Randi and Madison for the Midnight Shadow range.

"We are going to have to up the ante on this." she said flicking through the photographs of Randi as a vampire. "I'm not seeing anything that really grabs me. I like the tag line 'Dare you step into the Midnight Shadow', but I don't like the blood, that needs to be toned down if we want to aim for the teen market. And the photographs are so bland. We need something more excitement. Something that will cause a buzz."

"Well," said Randi, "I was looking at something online and I was thinking, you know a couple of years back firms were organising flashmobs and teaser videos on line which were really adverts."

"I think they are still doing it," said Kendal, "But go on."

"Well I thought if you really want to go for this vampire theme we should make a video… fake some real footage of a vampire and post it… post a few as a trailer and then when people are hooked reveal the cosmetics."

"That sounds expensive." said Kendal jotting down a note on her pad

"Not if we want to make the footage look amateur. The only expensive part will be the make-up."

"And stunts." said Madison looking up from her own notepad.

"Stunts?" asked Kendal.

"We can't really promote the whole blood sucking aspects if we are marketing to a teen market." said Madison, "But if we had footage say of a vampire climbing a vertical wall or jumping an impossible distance…"

"Or turning into a bat." suggested Randi.

"Precisely." said Madison, nodding. "We make it look cool without being too scary for kids."

"Sounds expensive." said Kendal once more, writing a big question mark next to the suggestion. "And it won't work for the magazine spreads."

"We could use amateur photographs in the same style." suggested Madison.

"And how would that work?" asked Kendal, not convinced.

"Simple." said Madison laying out her pad on the table between them. She ripped off the first page which she had covered with a doodle and sketched a shadowy figure jumping between buildings. Kendal however was paying more attention to the doodle.

"This is good." she said. Madison had sketched Randi as a vampire, based on one of the photographs.

Madison looked up at the drawing.

"It's just a bit of silliness."

"No." said Kendal a new light in her eyes. "This is just what we need. What goes better with kids than comic strips!"

"Sorry?" said Randi and Madison together.

"We make a comic strip starring vampire Randi doing all the cool things you talked about for the videos."

"And you're going to call her vampire Randi." Madison asked in amusement

"No!" exclaimed Randi, excitement in her voice as she caught on to the idea. "We could call the actual character 'Midnight Shadow'. Tie in with the brand and we could make her like a vampire super hero!"

"Could you draw it?" Kendal asked.

Madison nodded, but then frowned.

"We would need a proper story board." she said.

"I could help with that." said Randi, "I have some ideas!"

"Excellent." said Kendal, "Could you have something by tomorrow and we can see if this will work."

Randi and Madison shared a look and then nodded.

"Excellent." said Kendal.

She would show her mother how you market on a budget!

…