Feedback please for Font Business course/seminars

Nadine Chahine
Nadine Chahine Posts: 97
edited October 30 in Type Business
Dear all,
We're planning a new Font Business course or series of seminars and I would love your feedback as to how you think this should be structured. The plan is to have these 4 lectures/seminars. Each 1.5 to 2 hours each over the span of 2 weeks (tentatively, first half of December).

This is the plan below and the focus is on e-commerce. Enterprise is already covered in Julia's course.

Session 1: Beginner level to intermediate
Typeface launches and portfolio planning
Typeface and library marketing
Competitive market analysis
Sales and offers: understanding what works
Session 2: Beginner level to intermediate
EULAs
License types (Desktop, Web, Apps etc)
Session 3: Beginner to Advanced
Business models (perpetual, annual, subscription)
Pricing tiers and multipliers
Tier types (by traffic, company size etc)
Session 4: Beginner to Advanced
Distribution agreements (every nitty gritty detail of it)


1- What do you think of the topics? Is there anything you think should be addressed?
2- Should these be offered as all in one bundle or per lecture? Or week 1 vs week 2?

Thank you!
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Comments

  • JoyceKetterer
    JoyceKetterer Posts: 813
    I think if a font seller is offering this level of coursework, especially on pricing, you are in danger of running afoul of antitrust laws. I think you should ask a lawyer before you do this.  
  • Nadine Chahine
    Nadine Chahine Posts: 97
    Th pricing part of the course is not about setting prices but explaining how the tiers and multipliers work in relation to business model and analysing existing public info on pricing in the market. It's similar in approach to the pricing talk I gave at ATypI. We don't tell people what to price and are fully aware of anti-trust laws.
  • JoyceKetterer
    JoyceKetterer Posts: 813
    edited October 30
    @Nadine Chahine I wanted to do a workshop exactly like that for Atypi and was advised by multiple attorney's that it was too dangerous.  
  • Nadine Chahine
    Nadine Chahine Posts: 97
    Oh good to know thank you! We have great lawyers so will check as well. 
  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 2,896
    Given that Nadine/ILT are based in the UK, and Joyce/Darden in the USA… they might receive different legal advice for that reason alone.
  • JoyceKetterer
    JoyceKetterer Posts: 813
    @Thomas Phinney. That's definitely possible but the advice I got was as much re: AtypI as it was for Darden Studio.  
  • Thierry Blancpain
    Thierry Blancpain Posts: 210
    Seems also hugely different to have such a class as part of an industry group event vs. a private party’s online class.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,227
    In my experience with lawyers, much depends on how you phrase a question. If you ask, ‘Can I do this thing?’ or ‘Should I do this thing?’, they will focus on the risks of doing it at all. If you instead ask ‘How can I do this thing?’, they will focus on the ways in which can avoid the risks.

    There are organisations like AIGA that have a long practice of providing members with advice on pricing strategies and practices, and somehow manage to do so without contravening anti-trust laws.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,998
    John Hudson said:
    There are organisations like AIGA that have a long practice of providing members with advice on pricing strategies and practices, and somehow manage to do so without contravening anti-trust laws.
    The Graphic Artists Guild has been publishing a book that literally lists prices for design work. They’re up to the sixteenth edition. So yes, there are definitely ways to do it.

  • Kent Lew
    Kent Lew Posts: 944
    e.g.: https://www.aiga.org/resources/pricing-models-for-design-firms-and-agencies

  • JoyceKetterer
    JoyceKetterer Posts: 813
    @John Hudsonbeing innocent does not protect you from over zealous prosecutors who see a small fish they can make an example of
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,227
    Joyce, would you say that the attorneys you consulted are experts in anti-trust legislation and defence? My impression is that mentioning anything at all about pricing is treated by overly cautious lawyers as being interpretable as price fixing.
  • Miles Newlyn
    Miles Newlyn Posts: 252
    edited November 2
    I think this caution and anxiety when talking about money and pricing in our business is the product of fearmongering. 
    There is only one of us that has the (mis)fortune of being a publicly traded company.
    When that's your place, it's all about the numbers.
    Hmm, I wonder what it'd be like like if we were all publicly traded? Quite different I'm sure😱

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