MEDIA RELATION

A Media relation can be defined as the relationship an organization and Media (Mass Media). Media are both an electorate and means through which existing and prospective stakeholders receive information about and develop images of a company. The amount of “ink” that a company receives measures success in the media relations, whether aided by internal professionals or by external consultant. Lot of ink reflects heavy articles written about a company, the articles do not fetch any value if it does not help the company achieve the communication objective through media. To be holding heavy market share in today’s business environment, companies should open-up to its constituents one effective was is through media. This vibe helps company to preserve its corporate image, enhance reputation, weather crises, and maximize organizational potential. Through research, companies should avoid information leak that does not interest the media and if it does happen then they should target the respective audience only. Response to media calls are very essential, research on the context information required by media and respond accordingly. Media professional should do a complete research on the type of interview the company representative is going to present. Media monitoring and analysis is also an important tool for maintaining healthy relationship with media. The most critical component, in media relations is developing and maintaining a network of contacts with the media. In order to build successful media relation program, the organization has to: · Involve media relations personnel in strategy · Develop in-house capabilities · Use outside counsel sparingly

We also saw how the media can affect a company thru the Coors Case. Breaking down the case and seeing how Coors handled the media to benefit the company was very interesting. This situation with Coors could have gone either way. The attention Coors was going to receive thru 60 Minutes could help or hurt them according to how they handled the situation. By doing their homework and grooming the Coors brothers, they were successful. Part of their success was determining the right spokespeople to be interviewed, which was the Coors brother. This case showed how important the media are. By the end of the segment, most people thought David Sickler had a vendetta against Coors.


Example: In 1993, when Pepsi-Cola faced a highly publicized contamination crisis it not only showed concern towards public but it skilfully leveraged two other critical constituencies i.e. Government and media. Coca Cola India quickly sprung into action, and they communicated well with the consumers to negate the allegations of containing pesticides in the soft drinks. They came back well and are right into the action.

References:
http://www.mediarelationsblog.com/
http://www.policeone.com/media-relations/articles/1270204/%20www.wikipedia.com

CORPORATE ADVERTISING

Product Advertising:
Product Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinforcement of "brand image" and "brand loyalty". For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message with factual information. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including television, radio, cinema, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet and billboards. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.

Corporate Advertising:
Any corporate advertising campaign should be strategic and consistent. Corporations need to know how to communicate internally and externally to be successful. Corporate advertising is the paid use of media that seeks to benefit the image of the corporation as a whole rather than its products or services alone. A company’s marketing department is responsible for all product-related advertising and pays for such ads whereas corporate advertising falls within the corporate communication area. The bigger the company, the more likely it is to have a corporate advertising program. Corporate advertising helps to increase sales, to create a stronger reputation and to recruit and retain employees.
The three broad categories in which companies choose a strategy are image advertising, financial advertising and issue advocacy. Image advertising may be used when companies merge or enter new business. Companies are analyzing the image they want their constituents to have and can apply this to their corporate advertising. Analyst must analyze hundreds of companies with the possibility of investing companies with the possibility of investing in only one. Through corporate advertising companies can emphasize the strengths and future outlook of the company. Advocacy advertising typically deals with controversial subjects. This type of advertising can have inherent risks.
Companies must maintain a reputation and a good way to do this is to have corporate advertising. BIG BAZAAR has been changing their image and they have been doing this by advertising how the company is about the home and living better. It is no longer about a cheap price, but how they can provide everything for your home and life.

Example: In the advertisement of Volvo S80 the company had described the features and price targeting the customers. Product advertising is designed to stimulate demand for a general product category. Because the aim is to increase the size of the industry as a whole, this strategy is usually adopted during the early stages of the product life cycle.

References: http://www.ana.net/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_National_Advertisers
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=867975

21st CENTURY TRENDS

Synopsis: Last class we had presentations on 21st Century Organizational Trends. The presentation topics were on globalization, diversity, flexible, flat, and networked. These topics had to answer on how they have affected communication in the 21st century. Throughout the past century our communication has changed, not only due to different channels used, but also through the way we define what communication is. There are different forms of communication. There is the physical communication in which we can use our hands, mouth, etc. to express ourselves but there is also the possibility of non-physical and non-verbal communication. In this instance different signs, logos, pictures would be another way of communicating. As Chapter 5 points out, for different companies, communicating is not just what one says, it’s also one’s logo and what one does that makes one different and more competitive than others. In Chapter 6, we will face the subject of Media Relations. This part of the company brings investors, employees, etc. closer to the entity.

Personal experience: I have personally witnessed a change in communication even during my lifetime. The best example is the ability to send messages via internet. As I grew up in the 80’s, messaging was not a norm when communicating with friends or even teachers. In today’s world, I think I spend more time typing messages than talking over the phone. Even though the flow of information is definitely faster in today’s world, the “face to face” or “phone to phone” conversations are getting fewer. Another example is the work we do in school or on a job. We don’t hand write summaries anymore, but use computer for writing and calculating. Typing takes up less time for me, than writing, therefore my communication with others is faster.

References: http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/skills/effcomm5.htm

Globalization:
As the century turned, businesses realized that they must change the way they communicate in order to be successful in the new century. Business is becoming more and more globalized and boundaries are slowly disappearing. It refers to increasing global connectivity, integration and interdependence in the economic, social, technological, cultural, political, and ecological spheres. As technology has developed, it has become easier for companies to become global. More companies are 24/7 with the help of technology. At one time a company may have thought they would just provide merchandise or services to the U.S.A. However, with the technology that we have, and as it continues to advance, it is more likely that companies that once thought U.S.A. were going to be there customers are finding out that they can provide merchandise and services around the world.

Personal experience: Globalization exists in our universities and colleges. More and more foreign and outstation students are attending schools in order to obtain a better education. The experience of working with them has been great n knowledgeable.

Diversity:
Since more companies have become global it just makes sense for them also to become more diversified. Diversity not only pertains to people from different countries, but also people who have different religious beliefs, different sexes and differences individually. It is important for a global company to make sure they have ideas from all over the world, from different cultures, and people with different values. These employees can bring different ideas to projects, therefore, coming up with better products or solutions. Diversity issues change over time, depending on local historical and dynamic conditions. Companies with diversity programs are usually national or international in scope, or are composed of large groups of workers who come from differing backgrounds. Labour market is also expanding to include the whole world and a company might not just draw resources from its own country, but the whole world. This leads to company diversity as well. Innovation will occur in the environment due to so many different types of people working together. It is an important trend that is coping with our ever diverse world.

Personal experience: During our marketing class we had case on big bazaar. To get information for my research I visited the store, where I came across many difference culture people working together. When I asked the manager about the diversity in the store, his response was that it was one of their reasons for success.

Flexibility:
As organizations continue to grow and develop, it is becoming more important for them to be flexible. As the new generation enters the work force these students have been exposed to technology all their lives. They have grown up with instant messaging, iPods, the internet and cell phones. Companies are going to have to become more flexible with how employees want to schedule their work hours, letting employees work from home if possible, providing different opportunities to these employees that we haven't seen before. The flexibility trend is a trend that deals with an increase in the diversity in the workplace especially the custom needs of employees and clients. It adjusts to meet the needs of employees such as telecommuting, job sharing, mommy tracks and paying the employee for their skills.

Personal experience: Flexibility existed in our team while working on the number group assignments with regarding to time factor, meeting deadlines, understanding one an others working abilities etc.

References: http://www.flexibility.com.au/

FLAT:
The flat trend is used typically in smaller companies. The communication among the company is direct and typically employees talk to each other on a personal level. There is a lesser need for middle management. The network trend is a strategic alliance with competitors and others. It brings your competitors into your house. There is a close coordination between firms and information sharing. The flat organization model promotes employee involvement through a decentralized decision making process. By elevating the level of responsibility of baseline employees, and by eliminating layers of middle management, comments and feedback reach all personnel involved in decisions more quickly. Since the interaction between workers is more frequent, this organizational structure generally depends upon a much more personal relationship between workers and managers. Hence the structure can be more time-consuming to build than a traditional bureaucratic/hierarchical model

References: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/organization_flat.html

Networking:
A computer network is an interconnected group of computers. Networks may be classified by the network layer at which they operate according to basic reference models considered as standards in the industry, such as the five-layer Internet Protocol Suite model. While the seven-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model is better known in academia, the majority of networks use the Internet Protocol Suite (IP). Communicating computer systems constitute a computer network and these networks generally involve at least two devices capable of being networked with at least one usually being a computer. The devices can be separated by a few meters (e.g. via Bluetooth) or nearly unlimited distances (e.g. via the Internet). Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of telecommunications, and sometimes of computer science, information technology and computer engineering. Computer networks rely heavily upon the theoretical and practical application of these scientific and engineering disciplines.

Personal experience: My term did a presentation on networking; we learnt Vodafone helps a lot of companies like HP to communicate among its clients.

References: http://www.skyrme.com/insights/1netorg.htm

http://www.12manage.com/

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION

As the book has mentioned the environment for business has changed. Employees want more from their job now compared to before. Therefore, employees need to know more information. Strong internal communication is a crucial role in overall success. Internal communication (I.C) points to those “Authorized” means of communication within an organization, to mention few, internal newsletters and notice boards. Internal communication refers to interactions within among employees within an organization. Organizations must keep in mind the long-term objectives of internal communication and needs to focus on the same, identify the values of your organization, define the objectives for internal communication strategy, use the most wide-ranging and pervasive methods and be reliable in delivering message. Internal communications is an essential role in today's workplace. At one time companies didn't put a lot of value in communication. Now companies are starting to realize how much communication influences their work place. A communication audit is the best way to assess the effectiveness of a company’s internal communication. Studies show that management must provide information to employees and listen to them because it favors employees’ connection with the company’s vision and they are more willing to accept changes. Both corporate communication and the human resources departments in large corporations have someone in charge of internal communication. Some companies integrate its public relations and internal communication functions to keep messaging consistent across all the audiences. Having a two-way communication strategy is an important asset to a well-run company. People want to be able to share concerns and thoughts with management and know that management will act upon it.
Corporations should communicate strategically to create a workforce that understands the mission, goals, values and procedures of the organization, Internal communication plays an important role in the success of an organization, it’s considered more important than external communication. Strong internal communication is a crucial role in overall success.

Internal communication process consists of,
1. Developing a strategy.

2. Monitoring and evaluating the organization’s progress.

3. Taking a close look at organization includes what are the organization’s mission, goal and values.

4. What is its structure, what are the characteristics, what the communication tools are and why internal communication is needed?

Internal communication Strategies involves,
Determining goal
Defining objectives,
Identifying key messages
Defining audience
Identifying tools and tactics
Developing an implementation plan and finalizing a strategy.

Personal experience: The internal communication in PES is very poor. Being a student of PES for almost an year i could not or was not able to communicate with the top management about the difficulties that we as students face in term of easy access to internet, print out facilities and my other small but important issues.

References: http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/comstrat.htm http://www.blogger.com/•%20http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/comstrat.htm%20•%20http://www.keeneypr.com/en/art/?3 http://www.teamholiday.co.uk/articles/internal-communication-corporate- events-%E2%80%93-a-way-to-retain-your-employees-181.html http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?