Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Media Relations
Media RelationsMedia relations are very important to every company and corporation. Media relations are what helps boost your reputation, support, and profitability to the public. Good publicity and advertising will draw sufficient attention to your service, product, or issue. http://mediamavens.com/Media relations is basically having a qualified individual/ individuals communicate and build positive relationships with the media. Knowing the reporters and building a target media list of publications that may have interest in what you are pitching, as well as determining which journals and magazines are interested in your story. Once the media relation department finds its target market is when research must be done. Research on what journals, magazines, etc are done to see if there is any interest in the story or products of the company. Reporters can easily be contacted, but their specifications about when are vital. Some want to be called on their work phone or cell, emailed, or regular mail. This information is based on the relationship you have with the reporters. If you treat them with respect they will do the same for you.Having clear information about the company and delivering the pitch is most important in media relations. Another important fact in media relations is asking what the reporter is looking for and how you can help. This may allow you to get new ideas for your news or even some different point of views. Never make promises you cannot keep and always keep your word. This is what character is all about in the work place. Keep your word and you will forever have your respect.http://www.aboutpublicrelations.net/ucgranat2a.htmTo be a successful media relations program you must possess these traits. Conducting research in the media, responding to calls, preparing for interviews and maintaining ongoing relationships is what this department is all about. The main ultimate goal of the media relations is to increase sales within the company or corporation.I feel this is an important department within companies. They are the voice behind the company and they are in total control of the reputation and image of the company. All of the company’s facts are based on what they communicate with journalists and authors. Without these qualified individuals the company or corporation might be in trouble.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Corporate Advertising
They'd Sell You Air If They Could
Corporate advertising is prevalent in our society. If you leaf through a magazine, you are bombarded by advertisements for countless different products ranging from pharmaceuticals and cosmetics to automobiles and public service announcements. Sometimes it seems like there are more pages of advertisements in magazines than pages of actual content! Though there are several different purposes behind these advertisements, one thing is for sure: they're pervasive and aren't going anywhere.
With the three different types of corporate advertising - image advertising, financial advertising, and issue advocacy - corporations and organizations have a wide variety of ways to promote their products and causes. With print advertising, a corporation can reach both target niche markets and broader, general interest groups.
Effective Advertising
Effective corporate advertising is eye-catching and unique and helps to set that product, brand, corporation, or organization apart from its competitors. Each individual advertisement can serve multiple purposes, not only promoting a specific product, but also the parent brand. It can also be an ad for a parent brand and one of issues it advocates and supports. Although one of the most popular ways to advertise is through print media (aside from on the television), billboards and kiosks are also popular places for corporate ads to appear.
http://en.mimi.hu/marketingweb/corporate_advertising.html
http://www.nikon.com/about/info/ad/index.htm
http://www.principal.com/about/advertising/index.htm
Aside from using this advertising to sell products, corporate advertising can be used to attract future employees to that organization. Pointing out the rich history of long-established corporations or the innovation of fledgling ones helps to attract certain types of potential employees. It also is used to create stronger reputations for the company. In a previous post, the issues of image, identity, and reputation were addressed. This type of advertisement tries to steer the target audience to have very specific opinions regarding the corporation. However, there is no guarantee that this type of advertising will be effective since each constituent in the target audience is unique.
Overly Pervasive Advertising
I'm of the opinion that some corporate advertising has become distracting in publications like magazines. I recently got engaged and purchased a few bridal magazines to flip through. While I understand that the major purpose of this type of magazine is to have a lot of advertisements to aid brides-to-be in choosing wedding gowns, places to register for gifts, and other things, the repetitiveness of the ads was overwhelming. One company had an eight-page advertisement spread and then had another ad less than ten pages away. It honestly made me have the opposite reaction that I feel the company wanted me to feel.
Corporate advertising is prevalent in our society. If you leaf through a magazine, you are bombarded by advertisements for countless different products ranging from pharmaceuticals and cosmetics to automobiles and public service announcements. Sometimes it seems like there are more pages of advertisements in magazines than pages of actual content! Though there are several different purposes behind these advertisements, one thing is for sure: they're pervasive and aren't going anywhere.
With the three different types of corporate advertising - image advertising, financial advertising, and issue advocacy - corporations and organizations have a wide variety of ways to promote their products and causes. With print advertising, a corporation can reach both target niche markets and broader, general interest groups.
Effective Advertising
Effective corporate advertising is eye-catching and unique and helps to set that product, brand, corporation, or organization apart from its competitors. Each individual advertisement can serve multiple purposes, not only promoting a specific product, but also the parent brand. It can also be an ad for a parent brand and one of issues it advocates and supports. Although one of the most popular ways to advertise is through print media (aside from on the television), billboards and kiosks are also popular places for corporate ads to appear.
http://en.mimi.hu/marketingweb/corporate_advertising.html
http://www.nikon.com/about/info/ad/index.htm
http://www.principal.com/about/advertising/index.htm
Aside from using this advertising to sell products, corporate advertising can be used to attract future employees to that organization. Pointing out the rich history of long-established corporations or the innovation of fledgling ones helps to attract certain types of potential employees. It also is used to create stronger reputations for the company. In a previous post, the issues of image, identity, and reputation were addressed. This type of advertisement tries to steer the target audience to have very specific opinions regarding the corporation. However, there is no guarantee that this type of advertising will be effective since each constituent in the target audience is unique.
Overly Pervasive Advertising
I'm of the opinion that some corporate advertising has become distracting in publications like magazines. I recently got engaged and purchased a few bridal magazines to flip through. While I understand that the major purpose of this type of magazine is to have a lot of advertisements to aid brides-to-be in choosing wedding gowns, places to register for gifts, and other things, the repetitiveness of the ads was overwhelming. One company had an eight-page advertisement spread and then had another ad less than ten pages away. It honestly made me have the opposite reaction that I feel the company wanted me to feel.
Identity, Image, and Reputation
You Are What I Think You Are
Identity, image, and reputation are incredibly important aspects of communication in general, but even more so in organizational communication. What your internal and external constituents' opinions and views of you are are vital to your organization's survival. Ultimately, it isn't what you think about your corporation that is important; it is what everybody else thinks about your company that makes the difference.
Identity is the most controllable portion of that almost holy trinity for an organization. Image and reputation are almost entirely the manifestations of a person's (organization's) constituents. This makes having an effective and positive identity a priority to remain in the public's good favor. This necessitates the importance of having effective company names and logos that are congruent with the image an organization wants their constituents to have in mind when they think of them.
Take it Step By Step
When an organization is seeking manage their identity, a series of steps should be taken to achieve the most desirable outcome. Through a series of very deliberate actions like conducting an identity audit, outlining objectives, and developing and testing prototypes, a positive identity can be created. However, just following the steps isn't enough to make it effective. Constituents have opinions about an organization before they even have a one-on-one experience with it. As such, once the interaction actually takes place, it is extremely important to make sure that the experience is a positive one.
A Reputation Makes You...Not the Other Way Around
When it comes down to it, the an organization's reputation is totally out of that group's control. Whether it is accurate or not, the formation of a reputation rests squarely with their constituents. Because of that, an organization must take as many proactive steps as possible and necessary to assure their constituents have the same view of the organization that the organization has of itself.
In my own experience, I helped to try to change the image of the athletic department at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. I helped to distribute fliers and letters about the athletic department's identity to students, faculty, and staff at the school to try to change the fact that the sports teams often went ignored by the general population of the campus. Other members of the athletic department helped to make athletic department's website more user-friendly, dynamic, and interesting. Overall, the efforts that were put forth made some strides toward changing perceptions within the campus community paid off. Though the initial results were minimal, the positive effects of everybody's efforts are now being shown with the reputation the school and the athletic program being more positive among the campus community and within the AMCC conference as well.
Identity, image, and reputation are incredibly important aspects of communication in general, but even more so in organizational communication. What your internal and external constituents' opinions and views of you are are vital to your organization's survival. Ultimately, it isn't what you think about your corporation that is important; it is what everybody else thinks about your company that makes the difference.
Identity is the most controllable portion of that almost holy trinity for an organization. Image and reputation are almost entirely the manifestations of a person's (organization's) constituents. This makes having an effective and positive identity a priority to remain in the public's good favor. This necessitates the importance of having effective company names and logos that are congruent with the image an organization wants their constituents to have in mind when they think of them.
Take it Step By Step
When an organization is seeking manage their identity, a series of steps should be taken to achieve the most desirable outcome. Through a series of very deliberate actions like conducting an identity audit, outlining objectives, and developing and testing prototypes, a positive identity can be created. However, just following the steps isn't enough to make it effective. Constituents have opinions about an organization before they even have a one-on-one experience with it. As such, once the interaction actually takes place, it is extremely important to make sure that the experience is a positive one.
A Reputation Makes You...Not the Other Way Around
When it comes down to it, the an organization's reputation is totally out of that group's control. Whether it is accurate or not, the formation of a reputation rests squarely with their constituents. Because of that, an organization must take as many proactive steps as possible and necessary to assure their constituents have the same view of the organization that the organization has of itself.
In my own experience, I helped to try to change the image of the athletic department at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. I helped to distribute fliers and letters about the athletic department's identity to students, faculty, and staff at the school to try to change the fact that the sports teams often went ignored by the general population of the campus. Other members of the athletic department helped to make athletic department's website more user-friendly, dynamic, and interesting. Overall, the efforts that were put forth made some strides toward changing perceptions within the campus community paid off. Though the initial results were minimal, the positive effects of everybody's efforts are now being shown with the reputation the school and the athletic program being more positive among the campus community and within the AMCC conference as well.
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