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?

It is extremely important to know exactly what your client requirements are. If you are not sure and not that the work youre producing is going to be right for the client, then it most likely is not.

If the requirements are not correct the project or work will not be taken any further. This can have a large impact on your future work, especially if it is reoccurring because it will not look professional and it will put a massive down on your business.

If a decision can be made between you and your client and your agreements are of the same agenda it is far easier to evaluate and come to an agreement on the next steps of the process.

Gaining trust with specific clients that a business does work for has many advantages. It brings you more work within that company as well as them letting you have your input. For example, if Coca Cola were to come to a marketing organisation to hire them to create and produce an extremely expensive television advert, which the marketers knowledge of Coca Cola know that spending all of that money is not needed for the disappointing impact that they will achieve. The company can introduce what they think will work better in order to gain Coca Cola more publicity and sales and the expectations that they have. Coca Cola will only be able to agree with something with someone that they can trust. The more trust that is gained through different businesses, the more positive feedback you will have as a company as well the new and old businesses that want to come to you specifically for their marketing.

Why is understanding the market you are working in important? What techniques and tools could be used to help someone understand their market?

To understand a market, ever company will have a marketing strategy which is an overall plan designed to meet the needs and requirements of consumers. To ensure that the marketing plan in effectively presented a number of techniques will be used such as, public relations, trade and consumer promotions, point of sale materials, editorial, publicity and sales literature.

Understanding the market is vital. By knowing you market/customers from the back of your hand, you will be able to package and present the product in a way which gives them a reason to associate with your company. Knowing what works for your customers allows you to create a unique selling point for your product. Look at the adverts for the HTC smart phone. The paint used to emphasise the resolution and colour of the phone is really attractive and interesting to watch. It consists of paint coming from all different directions on to a dull building and foot path. It gives the phone that edge that young people want as well attracting older customers due to the high consistency and devices that are within the phone itself. HTC makers only control 25 per cent of the market but still take away a share of 50 per cent. HTC understand the importance of visibility and uniqueness to its customers. In view of this, the handset producers have packaged and designed the phone to pass as a cool and quwerky product.

Market research is carried out to identify the most appropriate marketing mix for the specific company. To enable the right marketing mix, marketers must have to ensure that the product has the right features, the price must be right, the goods must be in the right place at the right time and the target group needs to be aware of the existence and availability of the product through promotion.

The success in a competitive market all depends more on you understanding of the market than it does anything else

What is a SWOT analysis? Why are they are they a useful tool?

SWOT analysis is a structured method used in marketing to understand and evaluate the strengths weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project or a business venture.

This type of analysis is a structured method used to evaluate the points I have made previously. This analysis can be carried out for a product, a person, a place or industry. It helps specify the objective of the business or project and identifies the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective. Looking at things that could threaten your success and exposing them allows you to try and tackle them before they actually become a problem.

SWOT aims to identify key factors, internal and external. External factors may include technological change, legislation and sociocultural changes as well as changes in the market place or competitive position. Internal factors look at the strengths and weaknesses that may occur in the business. What may represent strength may be an objective of weakness. These factors include personal, finance and manufacturing capabilities.

What is audience profiling? What sort of information might be included in an audience profile?

An audience profile consists of many different details all to do with an audience. It will include things such as age, gender, educational qualification, work experience, financial backgrounds, and field of work, interests, mood, orientation, bias, food habits, religion, physique and even health conditions. All of these fields tell us a lot about a particular audience. It is a very detailed appraisal of your customers character and behaviours.

An audience profile is a task which is performed when creating a new product to launch onto the market. It is important that the audience profile is done before hand to ensure that the message you want to get across is targeting the right people in the most effective way to produce the best results. If your language, approach and content of the launch or product does not resonate with the reader, they will not take action or react in the way that you initially want them to. It helps recognise the customers and their decisions as well have reducing confusion amongst functional areas. Producing an audience profile also makes it possible for staff to be able to treat the customers right and consistently because everyone is working from the same information.

A target audience profile typically falls under two categories; demographics and physiographic.

DemographicsThese describe who your typical customers are. It is a common and traditional method that defines the adult population largely by the work that they do. It breaks the population down into 6 different groups. I have produced a table to the left which shows the catorgarys that the customers will fit within.

They are used to determine what subgroups exist in the overall population of your target market and to create a clear and complete image of the characteristics of a member in each of the segments.

Psychographics

These are used as a way of describing an audience by looking at their behaviour and personality traits. It studies individuals that can be valuable and focuses on areas of interest, activities, opinions, lifestyle and interests. Physiographic describe why your customers act as they do. It labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits.The table I have included to the left shows an audience profile of psychographics that the advertising agency Young and Rubican invented. It is very successful and is known as the 4cs marketing model stand Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/discover-the-importance-of-target-audience-profiling-HA001141467.aspx

Select a magazine and find their audience profile:

Explain in detail the 4 different elements of the marketing mix.

The four different elements of the market mix are

Product Place Price Promotion

The marketing mix is used to help decide how to take a new offer to the market. A business must develop products to satisfy the needs of customers. The price must be right and in place and it must make the existence of the product known through promotion.

Products or services

A product is a good or service that is sold to customers or other businesses. They buy the product to meet a need. The product must meet the requirements of the customer whatever these may be. For example a product that states it can do certain things; it is expected to be able to do that. Vanish clothes whitener for white clothes must be able to remove stains like it states on the packaging. This is why people buy the product. Appearance is also another big aspect that is important for the product. If it does not look appetising or attracting/appealing the product is a lot less likely to sell. It needs to be able to grab your attention as thats how you first initially make an opinion on the product as its something that you have never seen or used before, you are going to choose it upon looks. This is why consumers are prepared to pay that little bit extra for Gillettes razors as they are a lot more attractive than the bog standard ones.Here are a few questions that you would need to ask yourself to define your marketing mix. What does the customer want from the product/service? What needs does it satisfy? What features does it have to meet these needs? Are there any features you've missed out? Are you including costly features that the customer won't actually use? How and where will the customer use it? What does it look like? How will customers experience it? What size(s), color(s), and so on, should it be? What is it to be called? How is it branded? How is it differentiated versus your competitors? What is the most it can cost to provide, and still be sold sufficiently profitably? (See also Price, below). PlaceA company needs to know where the best place is to distribute the product. Its important that the place is chosen carefully using audience profiles and market research all together as a whole to souly decide. This is where the products are made available for customers to buy. A business has to decide on the most cost effective way to make their products easily available for customers. To do this, the business must select the best channel of distribution. Different organisations use different approaches to reaching their customers. For example, McDonalds use a franchising system enabling it to operate a wide variety of geographical locations. Potential methods can be used by retailers; persuading shops to stock the products that you have made. This is easy for local residents to be able to purchase the item, producers; can opt to distribute using a wholesaler who usually buys the products in bulk and resells them on in smaller quantities to retailers and consumers, telesales and mail orders; using this direct communication approach towards the customers without using a high street retailer, internet selling; in this generation internet and online selling of products are increasing more and more every day. It is an extremely popular method of distribution and allows small firms a low cost method of marketing overseas. Here are a few questions that you would need to ask yourself to define your marketing mix. Where do buyers look for your product or service? If they look in a store, what kind? A specialist boutique or in a supermarket, or both? Or online? Or direct, via a catalogue? How can you access the right distribution channels? Do you need to use a sales force? Or attend trade fairs? Or make online submissions? Or send samples to catalogue companies? What do you competitors do, and how can you learn from that and/or differentiate? PriceThe price needs to be relevant to the product/service that you are launching on the market. A firms decision on the price is often aimed at attracting a particular market segment. For example, the manufacturer of pens and lighters seek to provide the worlds market with products that are at affordable prices.

Select a publication, product or audience and explain the range of marketing materials that they use.

Provide your own definition of advertising.

Advertising is about making people aware about your product or services. It is about trying to engage people and persuade them to buy your product in order to gain and make more money. Advertising consists of persuasion and manipulation of a person in order to get them to purchase. If advertising did not exist, the public or markets of your product or services may not even know that it is available to buy. It is all about distributing information through media to as many people as possible.

What is the purpose of sponsorship? Support your answer with detailed examples.

Sponsorship and endorsements are two marketing communications. They are used to initially promote the company and the products it sells. Sponsors are known for their financial support that they provide for events and activities. The sponsorship companies are the ones who provide that support. This improves the customer support for the company because of their association with the event sponsored. The payment of the sponsorship must be exclusively for the purposes of the trade.

Sponsorship of events that are attractive and in some ways popular to your target audience is one of the best ways of communicating to your customer. Using sponsorship allows you build upon brand awareness by presenting to a wider audience and fast. Sponsorships look to achieve the largest amount of exposure to the public as they can through all different channels. It increases the visibility of your company and services and is usually something that is described as unaffordable if you were to purchase the fact that you want your company to be exploited throughout the event. Opportunities for sponsorships are applicable and do exist for all different kinds of organisations, depending on the event which one is right for your specific company. For example, Red Bull sponsor all different kinds of extreme sports events from formula 1 racing to cliff diving. Red bull being an energy drink which is something that athletes need to perform better has a fulfilled good impact on the public. Red bull is described to Give you wings therefore having connotations that you are more than able to do anything once you have drank it, just like the people who compete in these extreme sports that a lot of people would not have the confidence and energy to achieve. Red bull used events to define the brand and build loyalty rather than the standard mass market advertising. As well as just using the various options that they had available to them to bring their branding and product forward via brand placement they even created their own events from the bottom up hosting it themselves as a company. Doing this meant they had control over every aspect of the event including how much branding and promotional material they wanted through the media production. A few events consisted of the Red bull soap box race to a Red Bull cliff diving tour.

Sponsorship can be done for a person, an event, activity or organisation financially through the provision of products or services. There are many different types of sponsorship. To sponsor a person it could be a fee paid that will primarily be given to charity for that person doing something for the great of good. A good example of this would be skydiving. Many people ask for sponsors of their friends and family to sponsor them on their exhilarating journey. Sport people may also be sponsored individually by an organisation. A rally car racer may have its own specific sponsorship deal with a company where they have to promote their brand in some way on their racing car. Sponsoring someone or something will not be profitable but it is done with the expectation of a commercial return.

Sponsorship delivers an vast increase in awareness and brand building for the company. Unlike advertising, sponsorship cannot communicate specific products or services it clearly just observes the elements of the business. The message can be not be controlled like advertising.

What is the purpose of endorsements? Explain a range of different types of endorsements and use examples.

There are two different types of endorsements. The legal and political endorsements and the celebrity advertising endorsements. The legal and political endorsements declare things such as legal signing of documents, which allows for the legal transfer of a negotiable from one party to another. For example, when an employer signs a check, they are endorsing the transfer of money from the business accounts to the account of the employee. It contains special provisions that are added to an insurance policy to restrict its coverage.These types of endorsements include many different types that include testimonials, political endorsements, a form added to an insurance policy, a signature on a negotiable instrument, blank endorsements and also a notation made on a drivers license. In advertising an endorsement is promoting a product or service. Another term for endorsement is testimonials. These are commonly associated with celebrities and are always paid by the company to the person.Testimonials in advertising are either a written or spoken statement endorsing a product. They can be part of communal marketing and are most commonly applied to sale pitches attributed to citizens where as the actually word endorsement usually applies to pitches by celebrities. Social media sites such as twitter have been very good marketing tools for celebs to endorse different products, as well as instagram. They can influence the publics purchasing behaviour. For example, the new one direction fragrance that has just been launched is a good way of showing endorsement. The product is primarily been sold to people who have an interest in the band. Communicating on twitter and instagram with their fans promoting the product is positive endorsement. A celebrity who speaks positive about a product or company in the social media sector will have a big impact of the sales due to their fans (which will be the people that buy the products). Customers are also a very good way to engage people about the product or services. They have been an effective aspect in marketing for a long time. A past of current customer who will present a formal word of mouth testimonial that a business can use in marketing is a good way to achieve and build trust with future customers. Testimonials can be very effective when believed to be true. Another good example of the use of testimonials with celebrities would be Pro-active skin care. This product has been advertised by the likes of Justin Bieber, Rhianna and Katy Perry who all have said they use the product themselves. The big icons in the media industry have created testimonial video footage as well as written positive notes about how the product has had an impact on their lives. This will increase the sales massively if people believe what they are saying. Even so, if the consumer does not fully believe the endorsement by the celebrities fans are still likely to purchase the product or services for the full reason that they have made an appearance.

Why could holding an event be a good marketing strategy? What are some of the opportunities and threats of holding an event?

In marketing you can create an event that exactly matches your needs and the needs of your target market. The event can be just how the company wants it to be. Events are a good marketing strategy because they show the public their products or services including testers and samples for people to try. Product demonstrations can be hosted at your event, which works very well when interacting and communicating with your potential customers. Events are also a good marketing strategy because its a good way to show your product or services without the distraction of other exhibitors. With a custom event you control everything about it, from the venue to the timing. Its exclusivity can be appealing to your invited guests.

An event can do your business justice. Meeting new people is all part of your business growth and whichever industry you work in, getting the business in front of the right people by face-to-face conversation can be a very critical part to its intermediate growth. These events vary in all different types all depending on which type of business that you want to increase. The event could all be down to what you want to gain from the business covering groups of specific people or it could just be a good time for you personally. The decision of the time of the event is also all up to the business owners and marketers themselves, the need to think about the effect that the event will have if it is aired in the morning, afternoon or evening and if certain people can make it.

The beneficial factors for your business all depend on the services, the network offers and other businesses that attend and the extent of your own actual involvement in the project. Putting on a customer event needs a lot of thought. The business must be completely clear about what theyre trying to achieve from the event. It allows you to communicate your message directly. They can be very rewarding if the event is done properly. The events can achieve the potential to raise the organisations profile with new customers and solidify relationships with existing customers.NEED DISADVATANGES OF HOLDING AN EVENT

What is merchandising? Use detailed examples to help explain.

In retail marketing merchandising is about creating a display of products that represent one brand. For example, when you go to a concert gig they sell all different kinds of merchandise from t-shirts to pens and badges, all having the same information on, which in this case is the band or something that you can idolise them with. Merchandise is used so the right kind of customers sees it. It is the practice of making products in retail outlets available to consumers primarily by stocking shelves and displays in a way which will attract them to spend more money. For example, at the department store that I currently work at on fragrance, the proctor and gamble collection of fragrances which include, Prada, paco robanne, valentino are all presented in a specific way on the counter by the proctor and gamble company. They are displayed with markers that say which fragrance is which and they are all set out accordingly. Films and TV shows often produce a wide range of merchandise with their logos and characters on them.

In the promotions and clubbing businesses merchandise is created with specific the logos and names of that particular night. No curfew events in Leeds create all different merchandising material from pens to t-shirts, dresses and hoodies. These merchandise items are to be used and worn within that business to promote it to other people. Hostesses of the night may be asked to wear merchandise that says something that also represents the night or the club. The more the name is known the bigger the night will be. Photographs will be taken throughout the night at a club event and then posted online and therefore the more people that are wearing the merchandise the easier the message is to get across. This would be promotional merchandising.

Public Relations:

What is the purpose of a press release? What sort of things should a good press release contain?

A press release is something that can get your company coverage in publications or on tv and radio stations. Its a type of communication that is aimed at the news media specifically. They can be posted, faxed or emailed to an editors print, radio or television organisation. Press releases are used to make something seem like its newsworthy when really you just want to get information about your business out there in the public eye. Not only are they used for inviting the press to press conferences they are no used often to substitute for journalist research and article crafting. To ensure that you produce a good press release it must be written in third person and as neutral sounding as possible. This means pretending that you are actually writing the news. Sample Press Release for ConcertFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SECOND MIKE KING SHOW ANNOUNCED! AUGUST 17 TH at PIERCE PAVILIONBOTH PIERCE PAVILION SHOWS ON SALE TODAY AT 10AM! Centre Corp. presents Its Good to Be the King starring MIKE KINGMonday, August 16th at 8pm Tuesday, August 17th at 8pm Pierce Pavilion at San Onofrio San Onofrio, CA - Due to exuberant fan demand and to ensure that Mike King fans have the best possible access to tickets, promoters Concert World have just confirmed a second Mike King performance at the Pierce Pavilion in San Onofrio on Tuesday, August 17th. Tickets for both performances August 16th and now August 17th at Pierce Pavilion will go on sale today at 10 am at www.ticketworld.com and charge by phone at 800-555-0198. - end of release -This example I have included is all about a concert that has been announced. The way that the press release has been written shows that it is from third person, using block capitals to make it look and seem that it is important like its a breaking news story. The press release is written by someone who is either selling tickets for this concert, the owner of the venue, or even the management team of the act that is performing. The press release has been done to try and get tickets for the concert sold in order to make money for the business and/or organisations that are involved in the concert. Concert World who are the sellers for the tickets have been introduced on the press release; this is also promoting the website that the tickets are bought from. The website may even have advertising and promotional material on the website to try and manipulate consumers of Mike King tickets to buy for other concerts too. A press kit which consists of a packaged set of promotional materials such as photographs and background information for distribution to the press, as at a news conference or before the release of a new product is used.

What is the purpose of an electronic media pack? What sort of things should a good electronic media pack contain?

An electronic media press is good for anyone who is seeking exposure and publicity as an artist. The kit can be sent off to professionals, clubs, media or anybody who may be interested in your work. EPK is your professional resume to the word.

What is the purpose of a PR briefing? Why should you create one? Explain some of the areas a brief should cover.

Working with a PR agency can bring huge benefits for any organisation. By creating a PR brief it ensures that the agency understands exactly what youre thinking. The brief should include various things such as where you want to get to and what considerations may need to be taken along the way. Its important to pass on all the relevant information to make sure the agency knows your reasoning inside and out.

Areas that the brief should cover should include aspects such as background, communication objectives, target audiences, potential challenges, budget and timescale.

The more points that you include in your PR brief the more understanding that the agency can have towards your thinking.

One of the first things that the agency will need to know is about your background. This should include where your organisation began and where it is today. An overview of what you do should be given and the services you provide. Including competitors organisations explain how you want to differ yourself from them, how you are going to make your company stand out. Also include marketing plans the organisation may already have in place such as PR campaigns as they reflect the overall organisational objectives.

Target audiences are a very important sector of any organisation. The audience will always depend on the objective where you may have a clear idea of who you need to communicate with. Detailed demographics should be shown in the PR brief. The brief can help clarify why certain PR activities of events may not have worked in the past or what really shapes your image in other peoples eyes.

What is the purpose of a press conference? Why might you hold one? Use specific examples to help you with your response.

The purpose of a press conference is to gain media coverage of the organisation or company. Events will be held by that particular company, inviting the press giving them a good opportunity to present a news story in the most favourable light. For example, if the clothing company Top shop were to hold a cat walk event that included free items that arent on sale yet on arrival, inviting the press will make their event more like news. This could be in the papers or on the television stating that top shop have a secret that they will be releasing a new nail varnish for example.

Lesser known companies may be looking to increase their stature in the media making it easier for news agencies to cover company events without getting the free media coverage already for been popular. Gaining favourable media coverage has many advantages as the companies are able to gain greater recognition and authority in the market at a much lower cost than an advertising campaign.

Why could hand-outs be useful when managing a PR event?

During PR events, you are trying to offer as much information to the public as you can about your organisation or company. A presentation to the public is always given but only includes brief information. A hand out gives the audience something to take away from the presentation to review later or to even show a friend. Hand-outs are just another way of getting your listeners to be reminded of you and your key messages.

Hand-outs usually include much more detailed information than the presentation its self. They can further explain points made as well as supporting specific data such as contact information, case studies, references and other materials. The hand-out can also serve as summary of all your key points. For example, you may have not had enough time to cover all aspects of the specific point in the presentation, therefore the hand-out includes additional information that is also important but you may not have had time to cover.

The hand-out can either be distributed before or after the presentation depending on what information it includes. Distributing it before allows the audience to make notes as you go along the slides but this cannot always be a good opportunity. Allowing the audience to make notes and read the hand-out beforehand can cause distractions and lose the attention of the audience. Giving it out after removes the temptations.

The slides are just a guide to the added information on your hand-out. When preparing the presentation you are simply just choosing the aspects and points that are most essential, using a hand-out allows you to elaborate and expand on particular points that you feel the audience must know.