Publicity & Public Relations

The Marketing Mix Product Price Place Promotion

Communicating the benefit of your product or service to the market Overall goal is to stimulate the consumer to make a purchasing decision Involves activities such as: Sales Promotions (Buy 1 get 1 Free) Contests (Roll up the Rim) Advertising Public Relations

Promotion No TEST! Next week we will be doing an “ad campaign assignment” You will need to chose a school event to advertise for – Examples: Mustang Day, Baseball games, Rugby games, Soccer Games, Coffee House, etc. You will be able to chose your own groups of 4

Promotion The most obvious and in our face form of promotion is advertising Promotion also includes a variety of areas that are more subtle – Coupons – “Deals” – Newspaper Articles – Event Marketing

Publicity & Public Relations “All publicity is good publicity”

Publicity & Public Relations Publicity is the media coverage for a business that is not paid for Negative publicity – Hurts sales – Example: Defective products, social issues (obesity for fast food restaurants) Positive Publicity – Will help the image of your business – Charity work, brining awareness to social issues, etc.

Publicity & Public Relations Firms will often hire public relations companies or individuals to manage the publicity surrounding the company The public relations company will: – Coordinate media relations – Lobby government – Prepare Brochures and Annual Reports – Manage Crises

Publicity & Public Relations

Media Relations – Prepare press releases Print-ready stories about positive things their clients are doing – May have a press conference Media representatives are allowed to ask the company questions – Often create events that ensure press coverage

Publicity & Public Relations Lobbying – May try and convince public officials to vote certain ways – May try and encourage public support for issues

Publicity & Public Relations Brochures – Sent to potential customers Advertise and emphasize the benefits of the product/service – Can be very similar to junk mail – but often a much more concentrated effort to give to specific individuals Annual Reports – Prepared using the financials from accounting – Attempt to convince investors to give their money – Give facts and figures of the business

Publicity & Public Relations Crisis Management – When things go wrong with a business – the PR representatives will try to control the damage done to the business and brand name – A couple years ago, we saw one of the biggest PR disasters with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

PR Spin Providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure. Sometimes a company’s spin on a story can be blatantly dishonest, which contributes further to negative PR However, the business may just be telling their side of things and letting the public decide for themselves

PR SPIN ACTIVITY You are to form a group of 2 (or work by yourself) You will be given a PR disaster from 2012 and you must work as a public relations manager to put a positive “spin” on the story. How do you get the public to forgive your business?