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!

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