Wednesday 13 March 2013

International Guest Speaker

Today in our PR lecture we had a visiting lecturer from Poland talk to us about the polish practice of PR and Marketing. Dr Anna Sobczyk-Kolbuch, from the School of Economics in Katowice, talked us through a general overview of Poland and mainly gave us a case study and asked us to analyse it. She also had a quiz prepared to see if we recognised Polish brands that were actually sold here in the UK and specifically in High Wycombe supermarkets and pubs, which was fun. I also learnt of a cosmetics company that doesn't use TV advertisements... The Body Shop... I've never considered this before but it's actually quite interesting- least to say when Anna asked us who, I thought she was proving a point that you needed advertising but clearly not.

The main case study was focused around the salt mine in Wieliczka.

The aim of the project was to:

- Increase tourists the attraction and to the Grand Sal Hotel, which is often commonly looked up alongside the mine online
- Change the perception that the attraction is 'boring' and 'not modern'
- Create desire to visit outside of holiday periods also.

The campaign consisted of finding casting for a legendary treasurer's wife and children and also a game was created for Facebook and was so successful that it is now on the actual salt mine page and is an app also for mobiles and tablets.

A task Anna set us was were the media relations used enough and how could you target other age groups.

Firstly, clearly the media relations were sufficient because the end result seemed positive on the case study paper, however measurement of financial figures would prove this better. However, there would probably have been no harm in using additional social media resources such as Twitter to drive traffic to the Facebook page for the game and to the actual salt mine page for further information. The Twitter feed would also act as an ongoing tool to help remind customers of the attraction and to run regular competitions and events. They have a regularly updated YouTube channel which is positive as many companies don't utilise or update this properly as a communications tool to their publics.

Another form of media relations could be a potential sponsorship deal. I'm unsure whether they do currently sponsor anyone- from the website there is no mention however, but sponsorship is never really considered often I find. The use of sponsorship for the salt mine could be good as it will act as an endorsement, helping to create a more entertaining brand if the brand in partnership has an uplifting, active and entertaining reputation. If the sponsorship is selected carefully they could see an influx of new customers of all age groups and backgrounds. Having never been to Poland and not knowing much of other brands there, I wouldn't like to suggest who a sponsorship deal could be negotiated with, however, I feel this could be an option waiting to be taken for the brand upon first impressions.

Secondly, another form of campaign to engage older people? Again being that it is in Poland my ideas may not necessarily translate but we can generally assume (although this will need to be proved) that older people will be:

- Looking for more of an adventure/ experience to gain
- They don't shy away from educational value like many younger people
- They potentially have more disposable income than families or younger people
- They have more time on their hands to visit outside of holiday periods
- They are likely to come for themselves or bring the family along for a day out
- They like some peace and quiet in their day but also some excitement- relaxed and at their own pace
- Although numbers are increasing, a form of communication to avoid is social media/ online although some advertisement can be strategically positioned on sites that tend to have visitors of the target group.

Therefore some potential ideas could be to run special packages in the salt mine such as special tours that incorporate different elements such as having a calm specially prepared lunch on site- incorporated in the price and offer group tours to give them a chance to meet other people their own age.

As older people may not be able to climb the stairs or stand on their feet for a long time a special shorter route, incorporating a short educational presentation, could be formulated as part of a weekend package- which includes an overnight stay at the hotel and meals and so on. Much like the Thorpe Park + Hotel deals except they can choose exclusive age group specific features to include in their package and pay for it all up front. The ability to tailor a package would not only appeal to the older target group also but to a wide variety of target groups too.

A competition could also be run but gets imaginations going and into the mood for an adventure. People could send in a photo of themselves (following the previous competition) and on the back write no more than 50 words on what would be their greatest adventure of all time with their name and telephone number also. The address could be free-post and could be advertised at specifically targeted groups for older people, places older people would typically go, even a television advertisement or radio? The prize would obviously be an overnight's stay at the health resort and a day at the mine.

The winner can also be the face of the newly created packages on promotional materials. A special feature in a relevant magazine could also be done detailing the winner's entry and their experience at the salt mine as their prize- acting like an endorsement to other people of similar ages and so on.

Seriously, I think I could go on forever with potential ideas but I'll stop there! Please let me know what you think- I'm always keen to learn, whether you have suggestions to build on my ideas or know of why these may not work in Poland?

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Careers Fair at BNU

Today was the careers fair at Bucks New University and our digital module lecturer gave us the opportunity to go down there and have a look and ask potential employers about future options or to also possibly gain primary research for any of our assignment projects.

Fortunately, John Lewis had a stall and myself and another member of my group interviewed them about their marketing for our digital module and also found out about careers in marketing for John Lewis. Unfortunately they don't have a graduate programme but they do offer work experience to anyone who applies through head office. Although currently I'm not too sure about working on the marketing for a retail store, I think any experience in any sector right now is valuable to put on my CV and crucial in getting a career after or even just before graduation.

Another stall that particularly caught my attention was Thorpe Park/ Merlin Entertainment. I'd never considered working for a company such as this, I'd always thought of agencies but then again, why not work there? They have to be as creative as possible in order to renew people's enthusiasm to come back to the park every spring/summer and this implies they would be a fun brand to work for. I think this would be an amazing opportunity but unfortunately rather than offer work experience they offer a graduate scheme. I think after more research into it I would definitely consider applying for it, such a shame I'm not graduating this year, but the time will pass quickly enough I'm sure!

So all in all a very productive day and once again an event to help get me thinking about my future and figure out what I really want to do as graduation approaches.

Monday 11 March 2013

Best Practice Traffic Building?

One of my current university assignments is to find out through primary and secondary research what the best practice traffic building techniques are.

Please could you spend 15 minutes completing the following two short surveys on SurveyMonkey to help myself and my group gain first hand insight into what you think.


If you have any thoughts or comments on the survey or on best practice traffic building techniques please comment on this post. It would be great to be able to include some quotes on genuine thoughts and opinions in our online magazine! Thanks in advance! 

Friday 8 March 2013

PR Story #7

This week's PR Story #7 is based around 'CIPR to explain PR in schools'. Naturally you can understand why this caught my attention being a PR student and I think this move by the CIPR is fantastic!!

According to a PR Week study and a ComRes survey 70% of respondents had no idea what PR involved, 9% thought PR revolve mostly around celebrity image management and only 7% were considering a role in PR. Not sure about you but I think these figures are shocking but then again I was once one of the those statistics not too long ago.

Let me take you back to 2009, I just started 6th form and was taking Media, English and Product Design A levels. Media was by far the most interesting of lessons as it touched upon a lot of film theory but also advertising and marketing techniques- but never once did it touch upon PR, but then again why should it? I chose to do an Advertising Management and Digital Comms degree at Bucks but the beauty of it is that all first year marketing, business and marketing, ads and PR modules are the same and so if you decided to tweak your degree specialism at the end of the first year you can- therefore I switched to PR without having to start again! I choose the Ads degree because I thought from my A level experience that was what I wanted to do, but through my university experience I discovered that I would benefit more and gain more from a degree in PR. I think that the information on options for degrees and future careers is very limited within schools and generally universities can only really help you unless you are at the applying stage for university. Therefore, with some schools starting their GCSEs as young as Year 9 shouldn't secondary students be more informed of their decisions earlier on?

With most careers it's fairly obviously what your job will include: doctors, dentists, teachers, bankers and so on but with marketing, PR, advertising (that doesn't involve the creative) it's difficult to fully understand what a university course and career could contain. Plus the thing is, is that it is so much fun- I never anticipated I would be this interested and involved with a university degree. Whether it's the way it's taught with the mix of practical and real world learning at Buck's or whether it's just because the subject itself is of deep interest to me- I have no idea- but I'm thoroughly enjoying it now! I wish I could have been more informed at the time of applying to university however.

The CIPR have identified a gap in their industry that PR is not appealing or attractive to anyone below the age of roughly 17 and that there isn't enough information out there for school children to teach themselves about the basics of PR. Going into schools, I believe, is going to have a massive impact on the numbers that apply for PR courses or even internships in the future.

I also think on reflection it would have been good to have attended a careers fair at secondary school in, say, Year 11 that has stalls set up providing information about all types of careers, not just the obvious ones. I've lost count of how many times I've heard people say "well I wanted to do this, but then I found I couldn't because I didn't have the right subjects/ qualifications" which is quite disheartening to hear and knowing that those people are probably now in a job they wouldn't have necessarily chosen and may potentially not even enjoy. I'm not sure if some schools do run careers fairs, but mine didn't and I've not heard anyone else talk about a careers fair at their school; I think it should become more common practice, especially since trying to get work is only getting harder.

I think other professional bodies can take a leaf out of this book; it would be interesting to see the statistics for marketing/ advertising management/ business courses also and see if they match up. I'd like to know what you think about this- have you heard of anything similar being done within schools/ colleges?

World of Student PR Update

Been a long time since posting on here; here's quick update on the world of student PR:

- Unfortunately I didn't get the PR internship due to my timetable not allowing me to commit to two full days at the PR company. Although I could be in for a couple of week's work experience over the summer there which will still be good as I was really attracted to the culture and size of the company.

- I got two 2:1's for my last two assignments so the running count this year currently stands at... 1 x 2:2, 3 x 2:1 and 2 x first. Although in general I'm happy, me being me can't ever be satisfied with anything, and that 2:2 is still niggling at me :( It's also niggling me that I got exactly the same 2:1 grade for both PR assignments and its so close to a first- I WILL get that first in PR before this year is over!!!

- Speaking of which, not including the Easter Break, I have 6 weeks roughly left of university with one exam, this blog assignment (10%) of digital marketing module and 5 more assignments left to do... sounds very daunting but exciting at the same time! It's really hard to believe that this time next year I'll be leaving education after approx 16 years in 6 weeks for good!!!

That's all for now, it's quite quiet at the moment, just working away on two more assignments plus Ad Venture report submission before Easter!


Monday 4 March 2013

The end of gift cards? (PR Story #6)


The blog post written over Reading week for a marketing blog (It's also PR Story #6): 

In the past five years gift card and voucher sales have gone up year on year and currently the sector is estimated to be worth approximately £4.65 billion in the UK. Despite the healthy growth so far, has the flurry of brands that have gone into administration last month dented the future reputation of gift vouchers altogether?

Since the announcement of HMV, Jessops, Blockbuster and Comet going into administration, seemingly all at once, there has been increased coverage over the issue of redeeming gift vouchers with these brands. There is a risk the entire gift voucher sector will be affected by administrator’s decisions to refuse the sale or redemption of gift cards of businesses going under.

Due to these decisions consumers have been outraged that they cannot use their gift cards or vouchers anymore, even though some stores are still trading, as in the case of HMV. This threatens to bring down other brands (that are stable) gift card sales because consumers are now less likely to trust the schemes. Since the high street now feels like a game of ‘which brand will go under next’, consumer confidence in gift cards is at an all time low, but does that mean marketers for retailers should scrap the schemes from their strategy plans completely?

The answer is no! There are many ways around this crisis and marketers should be careful to ensure they don’t fall into the trap of promising customers a service and then not being able to deliver. One way to overcome this is to invest in becoming a part of a multi-retailer gift card, such as the Post Office’s One4All card, that can be spent at over 17,000 stores. Although this doesn’t guarantee a sale for a particular brand, it’s important to remember in the long run, consumer confidence needs to be high in order for the high street to have a chance at surviving as a whole.

Another way to avoid this issue is for brands to choose partnerships with other companies very carefully. For example, if gift cards are a part of a reward scheme such as O2 customer rewards (i.e.: save up £10 and convert it into a money off voucher), brands need to ensure that the company they’re trusting to provide a service can deliver also, as both brand’s reputations are on the line. Alternatively partnerships can be avoided altogether during these tough times and rewards can come directly from the company itself to ensure customer satisfaction and to enhance the relationship between retailer and consumer.

Whilst Jessop’s customers lost over £800,000 collectively through unredeemed gift cards, HMV and Blockbuster’s administrators lifted the decision to ban gift cards as a goodwill gesture. However, should the brands come out of administration again it would be fair to assume that consumers are unlikely to invest in their cards again, in case of a repeated incident.

Although officials are hoping this crisis is ‘small blip’ that will pass, advice given to consumers is to invest in a multi-retailer gift card for the future and spend all gift cards they have sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment. Until brands can prove themselves to be trust worthy and be seen to fulfil their promises we can expect consumer purse strings to be drawn very tightly in the coming months. Brand trust and reputation is very easy to damage and hard to build back up; companies must remember that a well reputed brand is a brand worth saving and standards shouldn’t be forgotten at the first sign of financial trouble.

For more information visit: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/trends/art-of-gifting-under-threat/4005533.article