Understanding the principal methods and techniques used in marketing

and public relationships

Marketing:
Why is it important in marketing to understanding your clients and their
requirements?
The key element when making work for a client in marketing is that you must fit
in with their specifications and ideas and not to go and do you own idea, due to
the fact that this has been outsourced to you; an external company. If this idea is
failed then all the potential ideas for the project wont be taken forward, due to
the fact that youve gone against the clients wishes. Continuation and
consistency when failing these things can have detrimental effects on the
company and if you are the owner of the company, financial difficult might be a
consequence. However, this whole idea of understanding your client and their
requirement isnt a marketing thing, its also fundamental and universal to a lot
more scenarios where working for a client is the norm. For example if a client
really wants a certain feature including and you take that on board at one of the
many meetings you will have with the client but dont take the idea forward in
development, you will be wasting your own time with a product that wont even
be made and more importantly. Youre wasting the clients time when they could
get the product from another external company. A consequence of this could be
that future potential products wont be given to you to develop. However, the
example I just gave existed in a scenario where the external company had already
been given the project. However, in some instances, there is a range of
companies trying to pitch and impress the client to try and get the all-important
order to make the product. If the clients ideas arent understood at this point, it is
highly likely that the contract wont be given to this company.
Why is understanding the market you are working in important? What
techniques and tools could be used to help someone understand their
market?
Understanding the market that you might be about to enter or you already have
gone into is a key part of marketing and is one that shouldnt be taken lightly,
extensive research is needed before a product can even begin its design stages.
Exploring markets is a good way of establishing the competition, how much can
be made in the market and where your product can fit in the market. The result if
you dont is that you wont know what financial potential your product can have
so you may end up struggling with profit and profit margin. Also, inability to know
how your competitors are doing might lead to you been known as lower down the
market ranks as those competitors, as well as the fact that you may make a
product similar to one that is already on the market, leading to few sales been
recorded for your company and a potential lawsuit if the company who originally
made it sees it as identical/very similar. By fine combing through existing
products and markets, companies will be able to find the gaps and popular
features of the market, as well as the features not to include and the ones to stay
away from completely. This can be done through print or an e-media platform but
nothing quite beats the use of the physical product as an analysis tool. For
example, before releasing a new product, McDonalds will have to look through the
existing market (hopefully not very hard because after all this time, they should
know the markets pretty well) and establish whether the product they are thinking
of exists and if it doesnt, will it sell well and it will it make a great profit for the
company. In addition, McDonalds might want to substitute this product for an
existing product on their menu, dependant on if there is an item that doesnt sell
particularly well on the existing market (looking at sales figures will help this).

What is a SWOT analysis? Why are they are they a useful tool?
SWOT analysis, standing for strength, weakness, opportunities and threats, is the
analytical way to assess the product that you are going to make or a product that
is already on the market to try and get a better understanding of how to improve
them. Usually using a grid type method to have the 4 headings in the boxes, the
SWOT analysis tool is all about improvement of your product, while exposing the
weaknesses, which allows the company to tackle the problems before they
become a problem on the final design. As well as research and profiling, this
feature of the pre-production stage is important and is key to making a successful
and effective product, which makes a sizeable mark on the market.
SWOT analysis of IPod
Strength The memory and capacity is effective and it has a great screen
display
Weakness The battery doesnt last as long as you hope it would
Opportunity Improving the battery through extensive tests would improve the
overall product
Threat Improving the battery to the level discussed would take too much time
and the cost of said battery would reduce the profits made by the company. Either
the battery gets improved and something else suffers or the product remains the
same.
*This is a simple example of SWOT analysis; companies looking to
market a product would add more depth.
What is audience profiling? What sort of information might be included
in an audience profile?
Through audience profiling, you are building your knowledge about a client,
understanding who they are and what are their spending habits and patterns and
how often they purchase certain things, as well as simple information about
demography and geodemography (age, location, income). These facts can
establish whether your target audience has a disposable income and can spend
money on luxuries instead of on necessities, as well as establishing how to
advertise to this target audience. For example, if you are looking to cater for an
older audience, it will be unlikely that you would pick an e-media/social media
platform to advertise to them and instead would pick broadcast or print as a
desired medium. Things that might be included in an audience profile:
Gender This piece of information is relatively self-explanatory and helps
a company to establish which gender they are going to target. This can also
be used to companies that have already made a successful product, it
might transpire that they are looking to change their target audience
because they are not targeting the demographic they set out to. This will
then lead to mass research because the company have to decide whether
sticking to their ideologies and ideas or profit margins are more important.
Age Even though everything from the gender section links to this section
also, age is something that can be more focused on advertising. Finding out
the age demographics of your audience or potential audience is key
because by knowing this, you can adjust both your product and advertising
to try and fit the demographical specification perfectly. This could include
the colour, font and extend to things like imagery and layout. All of these
profiling features are just as important as each other and if one of these
isnt fulfilled, a product that doesnt make much profit will be the result.
Income While this doesnt seem relevant to audience profiling, this is a
key part of it. By establishing a particular persons income, you can assume
how much money people have to spend on necessities and luxuries and
whether or not they have a disposable income. Having a disposable income

means that people have money to spend on both necessities and luxuries,
therefore, they are more likely to spend their money on media products and
make a better target audience than someone on a low income. On the
other hand, this profiling feature survives by making many assumptions.
Firstly, you must, to some extent, assume someones income because very
few people reveal their exact income. After this, it would take a long time to
analyse people in a large capacity, so by using the few people you have
extensively analysed, you must make an assumption about certain groups
(you would analyse at least one person from most age groups, ethnicities
and have equal people from male and female respondents)
Geodemographics By knowing where someone lives, you are able to
make certain assumptions about them. However, knowing this information
wont help you unless you actually mange to collect information about
income from one residence from each area. From there, you will be able to
establish the average spending and spending patterns from each area,
while making assumptions about the residents of these areas without
knowing individual information. This is relatively risky because if you make
an assumptions and it proves to be wrong, you may misjudge your target
audience and therefore, it will have to be changed, wasting time and
money in the process.
Social class Finding out someones social status can be useful when
trying to target a certain audience. However, the amount of products that
actually target a certain social class is very few and while people with
disposable incomes that can spend money on luxuries and assumptions
about this can be made, a company dont go out to target either the ABC1
or C2DE audience, this is just analysed after a period of time. For example,
the use of complex lexis in magazines such as Q and MOJO magazine
suggests an ABC1 demographic but these media producers didnt do this
and set a clear message that this is who its for, they just had to analyse
the sale data after a year of Q and MOJO been established to see what
social class they are targeting. From here, no amendments will be made,
they will just stay with a steady continuation.
Select a magazine and find their audience profile:
The statistics that follow were collated by:
http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q and works to
establish various demographical information. These figures are as of 2012 so
could have altered in the 2 years that have followed.
Gender
Male 68%
Female 32%
While these statistics have been analysed over time, with these particular figures
coming in 2012, this male majority viewership has always been a feature of Q
magazine and while its not evident with other publications, it certainly is with Q
magazines. The use of mainly male cover stars on the media product suggests
that Q are already trying to target the male viewership and when this became
more apparent after the market analysis a year after the magazine was
established, Q decided to make it even more Male orientated to keep the
viewership at a constant and to keep existing consumers coming back.

This is an example of
one of the first Q
magazines, which, as
you can see, has a
majority of males as the

Fast-forward 28 years and with

the exception of Lily Allen, Kate
Bush and Lana Del Ray, there
have been few female cover
stars in Q magazine. As well as
the cover stars, the colour
scheme of reds and blacks also
shows how male oriented the
Age
media publication is.
The median age of a Q magazine reader is 32 and a mirroring view of the gender
demographic is taken; the cover stars are similar ages to the target audience,
therefore, familiarisation amongst consumers are how Q aim to sell their
publication. With a 15-24 age demographic been the most common age group to
read Q though, there has to be a mix of younger bands and musicians featured.
However, with the 55-64 age category been the least likely to read the music
magazine, it is highly unlikely that Q will have an older cover star (despite every
issue, Q feature a flashback from a classic star, as you can see from the Stone
Roses and AC/DC on the most recent cover of Q.
Social class
From the media pack at http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/uploads/QMediaPackFeb2013.pdf I was able to establish that 72% of people that read Q magazine
are in the ABC1 category of social class. Ike I mentioned before, not many
producers set out to target a certain social class before they have analysed sales
figures in the first year of establishment. However, through complex lexis and an
in depth analysis that has been proven to put off a C2DE social class, Q magazine
have been able to continuously make a product that accommodates for the ABC1
demographic. Due to the fact that the publication have managed to get this many
consumers, it would be unwise to change their product and lose these readers,
like any other successful brand, you make what the consumer wants and what
has been successful for you. For a more informal music magazine alternative,
NME use a lot more simple lexis and have more chatty columns compared with Q.
Explain in detail the 4 different elements of the marketing mix.
Product This piece of the marketing mix concentrates on the features and
appearance of the product. This section will take care of the look of the product,
which isnt the most important area of the marketing diagram but is still key to a
successful project. Without concentration on the features and appearance, even if
your advertising campaign and research is perfect, you will not be able to profit
because of the lack of quality on the final design. For example, Apple have a team
solely responsible for the aesthetics and features of their products and just after
the sales figures for the past product, they look to where consumers have flagged
issue with the product and note them down. From these notes, they will produce a
SWOT analysis piece (mentioned in an earlier section) and act on these issues.
This means that their new products are nearly always superior and have plenty of
changes on them, which has made Apple one of the most successful and
recognisable brands in the world.

Price This feature of the marketing mix is all about how much a customer is
willing to pay for a certain product/service. Most of this information can be found
by doing simple research but can be so key to making an effective product that
will sell well on the market. For example, by finding out how much a competitors
product is on the market for can help you price your product. With this
information, you can either try and market it for the same price and hope that the
quality and features of our product will outsell your rival or market it for a
percentage of the price your rival is and not make as much per unit but sell them
in mass quantities. As well as establishing the competitor information, things like
profiling can help to find a reasonable price for your product. Things like social
status and geodemographics can discover whether people have disposable
incomes for luxuries and price their product accordingly, dependent on the target
audience for the product.
Place This section involves establishing some facts before establishing the
outcome for your product. Like the price section, finding out where competitors
sell their products can be key to the positioning of their own products. From
finding out this information, two approaches can be taken as a result, which are:
1) Place your products in different stores compared to your rivals, miss out on
some rival sales but avoid been massively outsold by your rival in the same store
and it been highlighted by the people who stock your product, which could lead to
reduction of orders for your product the following year. 2) Stock your product in
the same types of stores as your rival, which would, without a doubt, prove which
product is better but if its your product that undersells, you get a bad name in
the process. In addition to looking at competitors product placement, new,
experimental means could be established and a new stockist could be found
which would leave you with a big profit and a business contact at the same time.
As well as this, there is the dilemma of how many stores youre going to place
your product in; is it going to be mass-market and be in all major retailers which
means it will be available nationwide, or is it going to be a niche product
placement which means that it will probably be expensive and featured in a few
stores in the country, if not the world. This would then result in you having to sell
less products but for a higher price or sell a lot more for a reasonable, more
affordable price.
Promotion Marketing mix finishes with the promotion section which involves
how consumers are informed of the product from the companies. Even though all
the sections in the marketing mix are key to a successful product, promotion is
important because if you have a great product for a great price and then promote
it and advertise it wrong, your profits have fallen at the final hurdle and
something that had so much potential is nothing but a loss in profits from the
company. Before anything gets promoted, the company must first decide where to
advise, which will usually involve them looking at the demographic they have
targeted for their product and mirror that with advertising. For example, if the
product is for a younger demographic, an e-media/social network medium might
be the best way to go, where as an older audience may desire a print or
broadcast platform. Next, it must be established whether a big promotion
campaign or a small campaign is going to be taken by the company. Saving the
company money on promotional tools is sometimes not good if it results in a loss
of sales, sometimes spending a little extra money on advertising and such can
make a monumental difference on profit margins for companies. This decision has
a few factors attached to it; 1) It depends on the companys hopes for the
product, if the focus group and testing groups dont expect it to achieve as well as

previous products, it might be wise to cut back on the promotion campaign.

Although, other companies could see this as a chance to try and over-advertise it
and realise their product isnt very good but strive to make back sales with
subconscious advertising. 2) The spending power of a company is a big factor.
Can the company afford to plaster their brand and products in every medium or
do they have to be strategic when it comes to promotion? For example, Apple can
afford to advertise and promote their brand image and products on most is not all
mediums, where as smaller rivals of the company like Motorola might have to
think about where to promote their products, due to them not having the
spending power to compete with Apple in terms of adverting.
Select a publication, product or audience and explain the range of
marketing materials that they use.

Many publications and products use a wide range of marketing materials to

promote their products and brands. However, before any of these materials can
be produced, a budget for the project, which includes adverting, will be formed.
From here, the company will be able to know how much they have available to
spend and therefore, theyll be able to know if they are appealing to the mass
market through all mediums or to a niche one through selective advertising
positioning. On the other hand, it might not be the funds that is holding the
company back from advertising through all medium, it might be the resources and
skills they have or it might be solely to do with the fact that the company want to
attract a niche market to their product. For example, a brand that I have
mentioned throughout this task, Apple, like to plaster their brand and products
through all marketing means, due to the fact that they have the financial power to
be able to do this. Whether its billboards, public transport, star power, E-media
platforms broadcast platforms or print platforms, Apple manage to reach most of
their consumers and get across the message that they want to convey. The

iPhone was and is a

huge

campaign, with the

advert been evident in most cities across not just the UK but all over the world.

Provide your own definition of advertising.

According to dictionary.com, the word adverting is defined by the activity or
profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services.
However, I think this definition undervalues the importance of the whole
advertising, which is, in actuality, one of the most important things for companies
and individuals. If adverting is not carried out, a brand/individual will not become
a heavyweight of the market and will be unable to compete with their rivals.
Adverting is the practice of realising what your message is, establishing the
importance of this message and turning it into a catchy still or moving

image/audio piece. This message shouldnt be any longer than a line or two and
should enable the consumer of the avert to remember it and subconsciously
remember it when they go shopping, therefore, making your brand more popular
in the eyes of the consumer. An advert can take many different forms, whether
its broadcast, print, e-media, and whether this is positioned on buildings, public
transport or digital boards, the list is endless to how companies and individuals
can advertise their products and services to the consumer.
What is the purpose of sponsorship? Support your answer with detailed
examples.
While Sponsorship is somehow viewed as a charitable thing, it can also be a way
for companies to promote themselves and their products to consumers, through
the sponsorship of events and awards etc. By promoting themselves, companies
are then able to either break into a new market, make themselves bigger in their
existing market or establish themselves in a relevant market, dependant on the
size and vision of the company going forward. Some companies use sponsorship
to try and send out a message, almost like adverting, while some just want to
promote themselves as a brand, after all, sponsorship can be for a range of
reasons and purposes. As well as the purposes, there are the types of sponsorship
you can get, which are; events, awards and buildings, that then get split into new
sponsorships (which involves the company sponsoring something that hasnt
been sponsored before because it has only just been established) or continuation
of sponsorship (which involves the company continuing a partnership theyve
formed with another company and sponsor them or sponsorship of an event or
awards that has previously been sponsored by someone else).
Events- Through event sponsorship, companies can climb to the next level of
their relevant field or remain in touch with the top, much like Barclays banks have
when sponsoring events. The ATP World Tour finals, a tennis tournament in
London at the end of the year that features the finest tennis players in the world,
has, in previous years, been sponsored by Barclays, which has established the
bank as one of the best high street banks in the UK and helped them to maintain
that position. While the business of the company had something to do with this,
the sponsorship and partnership with the event has also done its part, along with
the British Summertime Music Festival that Barclays also sponsor.
Awards Not as effective as event sponsorship, awards sponsorship helps the
brand to be recognised to some extent, while not wasting the finances on areas
that the company believe can be best spent elsewhere. While you can get awards
for a range of things, the sponsored and most in demand ones come in the music
and film industries respectively. The recent Q awards exhibited some of the
greatest musicians of the year and the from the past but playing a small role were
the sponsorships that had been added to each award given out by Q. Companies
such as Citroen, Carling and Sony sponsored these awards and in turn, got
publicity for doing so with a mention in the Q magazine publication. While the
companies mentioned above could and have staged events in the past, they see
these smaller opportunities as a good investment because they have realised the
viewership of Q (the most read music magazine in the UK) and have promoted
their brand accordingly to try and get themselves some positive publicity and a
chance to keep themselves relevant (especially Sony who are trying to battle with
Apple, Samsung and other top technology brands).
Buildings With the establishment of commercialism came a sense of mass
promotion and an even bigger amount of adverting. However, an even bigger
step up from promotion, adverting and event sponsorship is the relatively new

idea of building sponsorship. While in past times, you would have the building
named by the architect or such, however, throughout time, it has become a sort
of bidding war of sponsorships to have their company name on the building. Even
though events will get a brand noticed, there is nothing bigger than a building
sponsorship that will be seen by millions on a daily basis, which is why the
smaller, less obtrusive buildings arent high in demand for sponsorship (the
brasher and more noticeable, the better). A few examples include the BT tower
and O2 arena in London, the Emirates stadium (also in London) and the First
Direct Arena opened in Leeds last year to name a few.
What is the purpose of endorsements? Explain a range of different types
of endorsements and use examples.
Like sponsorship, this is a tool to aid companies in promoting their brand and
getting it noticed by the mass market and their target audience. However, instead
of doing this through a message or slogan of their own, they rely on other people,
whether this is a celebrity (star power), expert (expert power) or by a general
member of the public. The main purpose of an endorsement is to try and convey
a positive view of your brand and products through a person who can be seen as
trustworthy and honest by the consumer.
Star Power Through the use of celebrity, the consumer can be swayed to use
services, buy products and support brands, this is a feature of the celebrity
obsessed world we now live in. Even if the brand or product doesnt look like a
useful or effective product, a celebrity endorsement can change all that and
subconsciously sway the mind of the consumers to buy it. While its not as serious
as mind-control or anything like that, most companies tend to use a celebrity
endorsement, due to the fact that companies that arent have to not only battle
with the quality of other products, they have to battle with the high profile
endorsements of other brands too, having an endorsement themselves gives
them one less thing to worry about when marketing and advertising the product.
A few high profile celebrity endorsements include the use of Usain Bolt and David
Tennant in the Virgin adverts, the use of Chris Pine in the Armani advert and
Roger Federers endorsement of Moet & Chandon champagne.
Expert power Star power is good for advertising and promoting various
products but when it comes to the serious cosmetics and health related products,
consumers arent convinced by celebrities, they are convinced by an expert of the
filed that the product is from. A reassurance, a tag-line and a guarantee is all that
is needed from the expert to get the consumers approval though, as brands aim
to make quick sales from their products. Despite medical products been
commonly endorsed by experts, things like technology and food are also
promoted by expert, it all depends on the nature of the advert. If the company
want to concentrate on the quality of the product, they might think about an
expert or a member of the public (mentioned in the next section) but if they want
to draw lots of attention to their brand, a celebrity endorsement might be the
better option. Expert endorsements include toothpaste brands such as Pro White
and Oral-B using a range of experts, as well as skin care brands like Dove and
Garnier often using skin expert to positively reinforce their products to the
consumer.
Use of members of the public While this voyeurism into celebritys lives that
has become part of our daily lives exists, consumers sometimes feel as if they
arent equal to celebrities and therefore cant buy the products that celebrities
endorse. On these occasions, companies may use a general member of the public

to endorse their product, which would introduce a familiarisation element into the
endorsement, due to the fact that the consumer can now put themselves in the
same scenario and realistically compare with the endorser (which will then extend
to the brand and products of that brand). Starting in 2005, the mens skincare
brand Gillette used Thierry Henry, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods to endorse their
brand, but in 2010, this was changed after a general member of the public
replaced the three, which suggested that Gillette wanted to target the everyday
man and saw this change as a positive way of doing this.
Why could holding an event be a good marketing strategy? What are
some of the opportunities and threats of holding an event?
Events aim to promote a brands image and products through the use of
subliminal messaging, whether thats constantly reminding the consumer and the
event-goes of your products, an audio or visual message or overuse of the brand
logo which will then be a familiar symbol to those who attended the event by the
end. Staging such an even is a very good way of marketing and promoting
products and is an effective marketing strategy because something that positively
reflects your brand image and products surely has to be a good thing for any
company. Another reason why staging an event is an effective marketing strategy
is the fact that you are showing the consumer that youre willing to put on an
event, therefore, conveying that you are a bright company who are moving
forward in the target and are innovative and new at the same time. As well as
showing the consumer these features, you are also showing the rivals what the
competition is like and f your event runs without any hitches, you have increased
the length they must go to rival you. While rivals are an important part of
business, allies and links with other companies are important to; by staging an
event, you are positively showing that you are a good company to work with,
which may attract companies to work with and alongside you, which will generate
more profit and create stability amongst our company.
Opportunities Not only is an event a chance to showcase a companys
products and brand, it is a time to show what the company can do and what its
intentions with the market is, are they going to try and break a new market?
Create a new market? An event is also an opportunity to get your message out as
a company. If you have a brand ideology, you want to try and break this down into
a memorable saying and repeating it during the event (both visually and audibly)
to try and subliminally hone in on the consumer is an effective thing to do. Last of
all, an event is a time where you are trying to set yourself ahead of your
competition and to prove without doubt that you are above the rest is a feature
that should be included, whether its a concept design, an aesthetic feature or a
main attraction, your event must set you apart from the rest.
Threat Everything on the opportunities section was an effective way of making
sure you have an event like no other and are all features that should be followed
when creating such an event. However, something that is more important than
any of the opportunities is the fact that a perceived threat, big or small, must be
considered before adding that feature to the event. If it is then decided that the
threat is bigger than the opportunity, the feature may be pulled from the
schedule. After all, companies dont want to be remembered for any negative
nature at one of their events and they must ensure that all threats are thought
about before the event takes place. Negative press can break companies and
something that was supposed to increase and strengthen a companys position in
the market has caused it to be demoted and embarrassed by the event. An
example of this would be the LG event in Seoul where 20 people were injured

after a publicity stunt went wrong. The technology expert staged an event where
balloons that spelt out the companys initials were released with vouchers for
products inside. Something that started off so normal then turned nasty though,
as the crowd brought knives, sticks and BB guns to try and bring the balloons out
of the sky. While this hasnt hurt the companys reputation, it has given it
unwanted negative publicity and hasnt brought the positive publicity to LG, who
are still behind the giants of the technology world.

What is merchandising? Use detailed examples to help explain.

In marketing, merchandising is a popular tool for companies because it makes
them great profit. Merchandising is the practice that involves a display of products
that are connected to be sold under the same bracket, due to them been from the
same franchise or category as one another. Whether its logos or models or
clothing, merchandising makes up a huge market in the UK and generates great
profit for companies. This is due to the fact that they are using one brand or
product type to sell a whole range of products. However, this market is one where
the consumer can easily be exploited, through the consumers bringing out similar
products that have small changes and adding them to the product range as

something different. On the other hand, this is to the companys advantage for a
bigger profit and it is in the hands of consumers whether they buy the product so
the wording of exploitation might be unjust. Merchandising is especially big with
media products, such as films and TV, with DVDs, clothing and characters been
just a number of the products that are available through this market. A high
profile example of merchandising is Toy Story. The film that first hit our screens in
1995 is one of the biggest brands around today and has generated endless
amounts of profit from the main characters in the film, toys. In one instance, the
sales of Mr. Potato Head rocketed after the film came out and many children were
left disappointed as the demand for Buzz Light-year saw unprepared stores run
out of the toy in the Christmas of 1995. Similar examples are Harry Potter, Lord of
the rings and Star Wars, three of the most symbolic film franchises that have
brought the merchandising industry a lot of profit over the years.
PR:
What is the purpose of a press release? What sort of things should a
good press release contain?
A press release is a short piece of writing that is used to announce something of
note to the media, which will then be written up in more depth and be published
for the general public to see. This piece of writing is normally used by celebrities
to try and get some publicity for their film, TV show or new album. However, if
your media product is attempting to target a certain audience, sending it to a
niche publication wouldnt be in the best interests of the celebrity. A press release
is a good way to try and get a lot of information out there at the same time,
however, this can be unreliable, due to the fact that the press release is now in
the hands of the newspapers and magazines and you cant predict what is going
to be said until its published for the consumer to see. On the other hand, you
have provided these media outlets with this information and if you feel its not
dome to a high standard, consideration as to whether to end hem future press
releases should be taken. This document aims to answer the key questions which
will then give the consumer a proper understanding of what youre trying to
promote through these various publications. The questions that need to be
answered are: What the product is? Why are you doing this? When is this product
coming out? Where will it be available? Who is the product for? These five
questions should be added to the first part of the press release because its the
most important part. Later on in the piece, the addition of extra information and
background information should be added to the press release, due to the fact that
if the media outlets dont know this information, you will end up with an unusually
brief press release.
What is the purpose of an electronic media pack? What sort of things
should a good electronic media pack contain?
Like a press release, an electronic media pack is something sent to various media
publications to give them more information about a product and the
individual/company themselves. Sending out one of these is a sure fire way of
making sure that you are noticed by the media, without having to do a lot of press
conferences or interviews. An electronic media pack could be useful for a new, upcoming band to send to the media, due to the press not knowing much about
them and things like press releases, bios, testimonials, articles and photographs
can help the media establish exactly who these people are. As well aa this, the
press can look at the previous articles written about them and establish the
nature of how to write about them, as well as their history and starting point as a
band/actor or person of interest. Unlike a press release however, there isnt a
negative side to sending out an electronic media pack. By giving the media
additional information ,you are not doing yourself or your company ay disservice

by doing this and are, in fact, building a rapport with the media.
What is the purpose of a PR briefing? Why should you create one?
Explain some of the areas a brief should cover.
The sole purpose of a brief in terms of PR is to set out the requirements of the
project, whether this is how you will organise people or how you will make the
product. This is something that will be created before the project begin and will be
reviewed during and then after the project to see if it has been stuck to and if not,
a reason must be made. Making a brief can help stay on task and can even help
to run this and future project more smoothly, its also to keep things on schedule.
In addition, it should establish the goals of the project and the things you want to
achieve during this time, as well as things like the budget, the main effect and the
target demographic of your product. This document might also be tied to the
specification, due to these two documents been two things that are created
before the project and then reviewed throughout the project. Creating one can
make the company work more efficiently because they have something to work
with and something to try and aim for instead of a generalised target. In business,
usually if the brief is not completed in time, the company who have been given
the project might not get paid fully by the client and future work wont be given to
this external company. The budget is a main thing to include in the brief, due to
the fact that if its not completed using the targeted figure, there will be less profit
for the company at the end. This budget figure is usually in conjunction with the
sum that has been agreed by the client and the company prior to the start of the
project, which is why the external producers will have some sort of idea how
much they can spend and how much potential profit there will be. If the product is
made in-house, there is no risk of future projects been cut by the client but a
delay in the schedule could lose the company a profit that they could have had if
they would have released the product on the scheduled day. Even though the
audience profiling research will show the target demographic for the project, the
brief will also cover this. However, every company realise that a secondary
audience might prefer the product and a contingency must be created as well as
the initial target audience, due to the fact that its better to have a secondary
plan than having to back to the drawing board in the middle of the project or even
worse, after first stage of testing.
What is the purpose of a press conference? Why might you hold one?
Use specific examples to help you with your response.
A press conference involves a series of journalists asking a celebrity or a person
of interest questions about a product or event that is in the past or going to
happen in the future. The function of this conference is to try and establish some
facts about the persons product or event and in a way, try and find out more
about the individual that hasnt been established before. Even though press
conferences are to promote positive publicity about yourself, some of these PR
events end in a negative way (the celebrity walking out or meeting a question
with an angry, expletive filled response) or the reason that the PR team of the
celebrity have set up his conference is to wither eradicate some negative press or
to attempt to justify what they have done. With the amount of journalist present
at these conferences, it is very rare that you get more than two questions
answered, which then makes you reply on the questions and responses of others
to write your report or media piece. Some examples about where press
conferences are held are firstly, post-football match. These conferences are set up
to try and establish the facts that that consumer dont know about the game and
in some circumstances, to try and bring an angry response from the manager of
the team that has been defeated. Another popular press conference scenario is

when a number of celebrities are bringing out a film together and instead of
interviewing them individually, it might be easier to call a press conference, as
well as the fact that some celebrities bring the best answers out of each other so
you might get better responses than you would have done in individual
interviews.
Why could hand-outs be useful when managing a PR event?
Hand-outs are the physical, written product of what is been said in the PR event
and is a good way of making sure you have covered everything and
communicated everything to the journalists at your event. While you never want
to forget things while talking to the media, if you do and you have hand-outs, the
media publications will get that information anyway; its in a way, a safety
mechanism for companies in PR event situations. As well as this function, handouts also manage your message and your company values and reinforce those to
the media, even if you have repeated the slogan throughout the PR event, you
can never self-promote yourself enough to the press. After the PR event has been
staged, journalists from a wide range of publications now have the hand-outs and
can do with them what they see fit, they could write a report, they could write a
review of the event or they could simply publish our findings. Due to the
consequences, should the press find a gap in your hand-out (these days, if you
are bombarded with negative publicity by the press, its communicated to the
consumer and something that seemed like good publicity has fast shifted to a
negative nature) you should check all the information cant be spun by your rivals
to make negative facts and statistics and the research must be checked because
it doesnt want to transpire that you have rushed your hand-out because then
more might be at stake; consumers and the press might start to question your
products.
What are some of the advantages of holding an interview instead of a
press conference?
The one to one element of an interview is more personal and will produce
more in-depth answers in the process. When an interviewer is interviewing
the person for the first time, the interview might not be as smooth or
personal, due to neither knowing one another, but by the time they start to
familiarise themselves with each other (during the second or third
interview if they are writing/broadcasting for a big company) which will
bring about the in-depth answers that the consumer likes reading/listening
to.
In an interview, there is much less chance of a celebrity been misquoted,
compared with a press conference. This is due to the fact that there is only
one person recording the interview, therefore, its less common for the
interviewees answers to be misconstrued or misrepresented. In addition,
due to the fact that its personal and one to one, the interview can clarity a
certain point with a follow up question, where as its unlikely that a follow
up question to clarify will be allowed in a press conference, which is why
misquoting happens quite often.
Due to the fact that interviewers tend to send electronic versions of their
interview questions to the interviewee beforehand, there is less chance of
a sensitive question been asked. Of course, if one is asked and it wasnt on
the question list sent, the interviewee can refuse to answer the question
(he could do that even if it was however) or their PR person may interject
and tell the interviewer to move the interview questions along. If the
questions arent okay for the celebrity/person getting interviewed, they

can be amended ready for the interview.

The questions seem to be more ordered and even though its a tenuous
link occasionally, all the questions seem to be in a chronological order and
follow on from one another. In contrast, a press conference brings about an
every man for themselves mentality which is negative for a journalist
writing it up and a celebrity who doesnt know the nature of the next
question and therefore might not be prepared for this eventuality.
The time element in a press conference means that brief answers are the
norm, where as an interview allows for in depth answers which gives a true
representation of the interviewee. This may be a good thing if the
interviewee hasnt been interviewed for a while or is new to the PR events
and there is plenty of enigma surrounding them. The intimate and in-depth
answers might be the best option for them because they want to put
themselves across well and in a positive way.
You are more likely to get the key questions answered, some press
conferences drift off topic.
In a press conference, the interviewee sometimes gets disgruntled by a
question and answers the rest of the questions in the conference halfheartedly, where as you can order your questions in an interview and put
the risky ones last so the interviewee answers the key questions in full.
Some people show off for the cameras in a press conference so you might
see a different, rare side to the celebrity, therefore giving you an almost
exclusive interview. This exclusive interview piece could then be good for
your publication who then hold an exclusive piece, which might be in
demand with the consumers, dependant on the interviewee.
The publication you work for can brand it exclusive due to the fact that no
other journalist will record exactly the same interview, unlike a press
conference, therefore sales for that publication will rise, compared to your
rivals.
Why do people set up film and picture opportunities? Use examples to
help our response.
Film and picture opportunities are used to help a celebrity or a person of interest
connect with their fans and people around them. The reason that these people set
up these opportunities is because they want to promote themselves in a positive
way and show themselves as a role model and a positive influence. While this is a
good thing, some may use the film and picture opportunities to make up for a
piece of negative press they have received recently or use it to advertise the fact
that they are a positive influence when they inevitably do something negative in
the future. On the other hand, other people use it as a chance to show that
celebrities can connect with members of the public and fit in, therefore, giving the
sense that the celebrities are normal also, which is a good thing when trying to
promote a product of theirs. However, there can be no film and picture
opportunities unless a camera is there to capture the person of importance
carrying out public publicity, which will translate as good publicity for this person.
For example, while on international duty at the World Cup, a handful of the
England players went to the worst parts of the Brazilian capital, Rio, and worked
with some disadvantaged teenagers at their football skills. This, of course, wasnt
done while all the media werent around, there was mass media coverage and the
players involved therefore got positive publicity from doing so. However, it is
difficult to establish between an act of genuine kindness or an opportunity to
build your profile as a celebrity; in Ed Sheerans case, it is both. The singer has
visited a number of sick kids in various hospitals around the word and has been
very charitable with items while been there. Sheeran, who I believe was showing

a genuine act of kindness, was also caught on camera so therefore, it would be

classed as a photo/film opportunity, despite the nature of it.

Why are contacts and networking important in marketing and PR? What
kinds of contacts could be useful? Provide details of a PR contact from at
least one organisation.
In the industry, PR officers of celebrities companies and the like will have to have
contacts if they want to successfully promote themselves. Some of these contacts
might be able to get you exclusive access to places, some might be able to get
that exclusive interview and some might be able to squeeze you into the last slot
on a television show. Basically, in short, contacts help you do your job more
successfully and more professionally, they make you look good. Contacts can be
gained through doing the contact a favour in the past, links of your two
businesses or simply a meeting at a big corporate event, it doesnt matter as long
as you acquire the contact.
Celebrities In this day and age, if you know celebrities, you can basically do as
you please. Celebrities can help you make new contacts in the form of other
celebrities, they can introduce you to directors of films or producers and label
bosses within the music industry.
Agents Maybe even more important than celebrities, agents help to make PR
appointments with the celebrities so if you are hoping to make a celebrity a
contact, you need to stay the right side of the agent and make sure they are your
contact too, due to the fact that agents are sometimes agents for a range of
celebrities.
TV bookers its good having people that are on television as your contacts but
they wouldnt be on that show if it wasnt for the TV bookers. If you are a
journalist, these people can give you exclusive access back stage and to the
celebrities (if its good with the agents anyway). However, if you are an agent,
you can help get your celebrity a television slot, it is the agents job to try and
make the TV booker a good contact because television publicity is one of the
biggest mediums around.
Editors It is in the best interest of celebrities and agents to have at least one, if
not the majority, of magazine and newspaper editors as contacts. Especially in
the time of media dominancy, where a consumers opinion of someone can be
formulated and moulded by the media and journalist that write it. Positive
publicity is a good thing for celebrities and with an editor as contact, positive
publicity is easier to come by.
Bloggers Even though they arent as big as editors, bloggers can be everyday
people but their opinion matters, especially if they have a big e-media presence.
Just as much as print media, if not more, can sway the consumer, a blog about a
negative aspect of a celebrity is potentially damaging, therefore, it is in the best
interest to keep bloggers as contacts. However, there are so many of them out
here, due to the fact that anyone can become one, that you can only afford to
make the ones who have a huge blog presence contacts.