Media Relations

Media Relations

"We can't quite decide if the world is growing worse, or if the reporters are just working harder." -The Houghton Line

The media are both a constituency and a conduit through which investors, employees, and consumers recieve information about and form images of a company. With the technology that we have today, companies are under constant examination from many of their constituencies. It is important for companies to have a good relationship with the media. One way to establish this relationship would be to have an experienced media relations department. Some companies cannot afford a department focusing on media relations, if that's the case there are always consultants that focus solely on media relations. As technology develops new channels for relaying information throughout our future, media relations will continue to grow. In today's news, you hardly ever see a story about something positive. It seems like the worse the news is about a company or person the more likely it is going to become a major story, whether the information is true or false.

Examples in today's society:

This example explains how media can help or hurt a company. A company can use the media for its own promotion and advertising. Wall street journal is contemplating on doing a story on Apples "all you can eat" itunes television. This television plan will consist of WSJ, CBS, and Disney adding an entire lineup of shows for just one single fee. This fee will be paid once and you are able to view any shows you want on these networks, at any time. This story will obviously help Apple tremendously and hurt local cable companies. You can read more on this here- www.theappleblog.com

Experience:

I don't have a personal experience here but I have another example where I personally saw an advertisement for a business that hurt another business. For example, I don't know if anyone is familiar with the Nuva Ring advertisements for birth control but I was watching television the other day and witnessed a law firm advertisement focusing on the side effects on Nuva Ring. The advertisement asked for people having blood clot, stoke, or heart attack from taking Nuva Ring to contact their lawfirm immediately. This is obviously an example of how an advertisement for a company can effect another company. Do you have any experiences where you saw the media help and hurt companies? An example of this advertisement is found here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9mYEoDbSqI

Chapter 5 - Corporate Responsbility

It is important that corporations take ownership in the social implications of its business. They need to be accountable for issues beyond the business aspect and make efforts to improve society and quality of life for all customers and employees, etc. It needs to include environmental, social, and economical issues. Without this focus today, companies are in danger of facing problems.

Corporate responsibility will have an impact on customers buying products or using services. It is even more important when economic conditions are bad. Corporate responsibility can set organizations apart from the pack.

Coca-Cola for instance, works with the local community to support projects that help the community. They make a lot of donations mainly to local community issues but also to other organizations in relation to the environment, healthcare and disaster relief. Another company example would be Burger King. Burger King places a lot of emphasis on the environment. They are continually working to find ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. The kids meal bags are made out of recycled materieals and are printed with educational information about recycling.

It is very important that all companies work hard to show proof of their efforts. Consumers are not going to just believe the company is "going green" just because they advertise that fact. They need to report what they are doing and show evidence of how they are backing up their plan. In todays world of skepticism, "seeing is believing " and no one wants empty promises.

CHAPTER 4: Identity, Image, Reputation, and Corporate Advertising

IMAGE AND REPUTATION

Outside the business world, we relate image with social status, respect, prestige, character, and values. We closely link identity with aspects such as community, culture, ethnicity, and nationality.
In business, we notice that various products are targeted to appeal to those who seek prestige. Driving flashy cars, expensive jewelry and other aspects of one’s lifestyle can give an impression of wealth and prestige. Products such as these meet the consumer's expectations for high quality and status.
In the cell phone industry, Verizon and AT&T constantly battle to be the best. In their humorous commercials they'll both claim to offer the best service, widest coverage, fewest dropped calls and so much more. AT&T will mock some aspects of Verizon's service, and Verizon will gladly return the favor; it's very entertaining. Their numerous ads would make any potential consumer feel that buying cell phone service is a choice between one or the other. No doubt, they’ve succeeded in building a strong presence.

As a business, the image or reputation you’d like to build depends on your market segment. Cell phone companies such as T-Mobile and Cricket appeal to their customers with competitive prices. T-Mobile's unlimitted plans are almost 40% cheaper than Verizon's and AT&T's, but their coverage is poor. Cricket provides great convinience - they don't run credit checks or make consumers sign contracts, but their service is regional. In the auto industry, especially now, customers are looking for inexpensive and fuel efficient cars. In retail, Wal-Mart succeeds by striving to offer the lowest prices.

From a quality standpoint, a company has to make sure it's products are consistent with the image it projects. Often times, products or services don't match the consumer's expectations. I’m sure you can relate with an experience where you were either impressed or dissapointed by a product or service.

Communicating Strategically and Effectively (Chapter 2)

Communication is one of the most important things in business. However, it seems like there are always problems with communication in the workplace, even though we now have more communication channels than before. Why do you think that is? I believe that many communication problems start because people do not consider the type of person they are talking too. Many people don't consider how the person feels or how they will interpret the message being relayed. Sometimes if you know what type of personality a person has it is easier to communicate with them.
In order to give you a better understanding of what I am talking about, I would like to introduce you to the Merrill-Reid personality types. According to the Merrill-Reid personality types, a person can be analytical, amiable, a driver, or expressive. An analytical person is someone who is task oriented and pays close attention to the facts and details. An amiable person is people oriented and sincere, and their main focus is to cooperate with others in order to get the job done. A driver is someone who is task oriented and focuses on power and control to get the job done. An expressive person is people oriented and likes to persuade others, and their main focus is on popularity and recognition. The following link will give you a better understanding of the four personality types:
http://www.bigideasnetwork.com/four_quad_personality_profile.htm
Since, you now have a better understanding of the four different personality types, consider this. I work in the Accounting department at 1ST SUMMIT BANK, and I am an analytical person because my main focus is on the details. I do my best to ensure the overall safety of the Bank. However, there are numerous people in the bank who are expressive, and worry more about providing excellent customer service instead of worrying about the Bank's safety. There are many times when our personalities clash and it makes it hard to communicate. In order to get them to understand my side of things, I assure them that I know we need to make the customer happy, that way they know I understand their side of things. However, I also remind them of the things they may have overlooked. It is easier to communicate with people with different personalities if you know how to handle them. If you know what type of personality a person has you can prepare yourself even more. In order to communicate effectively you have to be willing to see things from the other person's point of view not just your own. If you can not see things from a different perspective, there is a good chance that it will be very hard for you to communicate effectively with others.

Chapter 1 Blog

In today's society there are so many things that are constantly changing and evolving. Many times it has to deal with many different topics and ideas. The expectations of companies have changed from what they were years ago. Company's are dealing how the culture has changed over the years, and how those attitudes are being constantly influenced by the popular culture of the ever changing world. Through this article I will point out a few examples from the book and then we can discuss different examples from our real life examples.

First we can see how Coca-Cola has struggled through the change in the environment of the culture in 2006. It was not because they were changing their product or because they were making changes to their prices, it was because of the concerns in the environmental concerns in India and labor issues in Columbia. The people were complaining that the products were containing too many insecticides. This can be very frustrating, but we can all see that with the proper communication we can all make it out of it. Also, the companies should be adapting to the environment while they should not be compromising the principles that they stand for.

Finally this should be something that companies should not assume will disappear over night, or at all for that matter. As for example we saw this with the toy company that Dr. Wilkie showed us the other night, that had their CEO hold a press conference and interview to show to the public that they were doing their best to solve the problems for their customers. We have all experienced this through the whole situation with Toyota.

Now is there anything that you can think of that would be an example of anything that was discussed here or anything that invovles chapter one: