Understanding the Functions of Marketing and PR

Use this work book to help you explain the functions of marketing and public relations. You should ensure you use additional examples to support your explanations.

Marketing Explain what market research is, how it can be carried out and why it could be important. Market research is when a person or business carries out a series of investigations that will allow them to collect information based around their business/products target market and to see if it is viable to move into that market. Information that you gather from market research will allow a person to make the correct decisions as to whether there is a gap in a market for their product. It will also allow them the opportunity to adapt their idea to fit gaps in the market which will allow them to make the most profit. For example, if IRN-BRU were to re release their energy drink, IRN-BRU 32, the company would need to use market research to look up other competitors in the same market and see what their target demographic think of the idea before deciding whether or not to continue with the drink. Explain market analysis. What is it done and who could carry it out for you? Market analysis is to, after carrying out detailed and extensive research analyse and break down the information collected to find the overall target demographic, dynamics, the strengths and weaknesses and overall physical opportunities possessed by the market that can be used for future reference. It also helps to gauge the size of the market and possible costs and difficulties involved with entering it. Market analysis is carried out by the initial company and, if applicable the product designers that piece together the first initial ideas. Certain aspects of market research will be taken and pieces together to either develop one, or several ideas that can be pitched to designers at the company. Overall, the most popular ideas that proved the most successful within the market research will be the most highly developed ideas of which could be finalized. For example, market research could develop a questionnaire to hand out to 100 people within the target demographic, for example 16-24 year olds unisex. A multiplechoice questionnaire proves more beneficial in terms of creating results that open question. For example, pitching an idea and having question close with Yes. If they like the idea and No. if not. Upon which these results can be process into a graph or final spreadsheet using software available e.g. surveymonkey.com and then finally analysed and broken down to find what is the most popular suggestions and what would work best with the target demographic on a wider scale.

Explain marketing strategy using examples. Marketing strategy is the method of taking all research and analysis that has been done and working out the best way for you to enter that market. It will also allow you to take the research and come up with the best ways to ensure that your product becomes profitable and stable in a market. This can be done in a number of ways, for example creating an extension of your product. An example of this would be Coca Cola releasing other similar products such as, Coke Zero and Diet Coke. The company decided to branch out into these diet/lighter to options to appeal to a wider audience that maybe didnt drink cola due to its sugar contents, this will in turn generate them more profit Why is advertising so important to an organisation? Use examples to help you explain. Advertising is crucial to a company as it helps to demonstrate the product/business on a wider scale via the media sector. Using larger forms of media such as viral and virtual media via the television and internet, advertising helps to generate and increase sales for the company depending on the success of the advert. Advertising also helps producers to become aware of their competitors and their strategies, to give opportunities to extend and improve above the opposition. An example being paying for web banners to be advertised on certain popular social networking sites. E.g. A new small company pay a certain amount per month for their banner to be published on Facebook, sometimes even at specific times where more people are online. Another benefit of advertising is the introduction of new products; advertising is a good ground for making the public aware of a new product. It works especially well in encouraging and persuading consumers to come try the new product, usually with the opportunities of offers or freebies. An example of an advert that generated more sales and a wider scale of popularity is the Coca Cola Holidays Are Coming! Christmas Advert, in 2001 every year the advert is played and features festive aspects such as the bright red lorry and Santa Claus at the end. Originally, the theory is that Santa Claus was originally meant to be in a green suit but upon the release of the advert the media storm began to gradually associate Santa with a red suit as seen in the advert. This theory has not yet been proven but shows strong correspondence to be believed as true. This advert also generated immense success in the music career of Melanie Thornton, who record the jingle featured in the advert Wonder Dream (Holidays are Coming) was entered into the charts at number nine in Germany. Several variations of the jingle have been released since the advert has hit the screens. What is brand promotion and what methods could you use to promote a brand? Brand promotion is the inclusion of a brand in other things to give a greater exposure to the product. This will hopefully result in a growth in interest and sales. Some examples of brand promotion are things like endorsement deals. A Company or brand will pay a celebrity or someone that is in the public eye to be seen with their product or will cast them in an advert. This is in the hope that people will see this person with the item and will in turn want it themselves, a recent example of this is Robert Downey Jr being featured in the HTC advert. Another example of brand promotion is the brand Kerrang. Kerrang started out as a

magazine, then progressed into Kerrang Radio and Kerrang TV, they also now host a yearly tour named, Kerrang tour. This allows the brand to be constantly promoted through posters, the internet and live shows allowing for greater recognition and sales

PR What are some of the key principals involved in managing the message? Some examples of key principals that are vital to an organization are firstly, communication. Communication allows facts/figures etc. to be discussed and managed at the earliest possible date. Quicker communications allows a faster, more efficient work pace and overall a likelihood of achieving deadlines on time. Another factor is allowing members of the organisation to be fully aware of what is going on, when and why. If anyone is confused or not aware of the situation, it is of the up most importance to ask another member of the team rather than leave it. This can lead to easy mistakes and more confusion if communication is not followed through efficiently. If a change has been made that will effect the organisation on a whole, the change must be informed and followed through by the whole team. All team members must be honest, open and keep in frequent contact with the head of the company before making any drastic decisions, keeping in touch with the progress and if there is any fall in figures. What is positive publicity? Find an example of it to help explain. Positive publicity is when a person or company is praised for doing something positive in the media. This is something that can happen either very openly through mainstream media or more in the background through websites such as facebook and twitter. An example of positive publicity would be things like celebrities doing charity events or endorsing charities. This will be seen by the public through various media outlets, this will then reflect positively on the celebrity as it seems they are helping charities where as it is actually just an attempt at boosting their own public image. In public relations terms, what is spin? Find an example to help you with your response. Spin is defined as a figure of propaganda; it is used as a form of persuasion towards being for or against particular organizations or public figures. It is sometimes seen as a deceptive or manipulative manner of twisting the truth. For example. This happens a lot in parliament or government based arguments. One party would complain about the large amount of unemployed, where as another party would say that there are large amounts of unemployed but the amount of unemployed is less than there was last year. This is a classic example of spin.

Why might a person or a company engage in damage limitation? Using an example will improve your grade. A person or company would want to use damage limitation when a promotional event or a person that was representing their brand does something bad or something bad happens to do with the company. An example would be if a footballer were promoting a new brand of football boot. The company has paid the footballer to do a series of adverts and feature on posters for that specific brand. If that footballer then, whilst still promoting the brand, is arrested for something like drink or drug related crimes. The company would then probably cut the promotional deals and find a replacement to try and limit the damage that is caused by their brand being promoted by someone who is currently in bad media light. What benefit could there be to an organisation to create an event? Use an example of a marketing or PR event to support your responses. Creating events for organisations can be beneficial of promoting and branching out new ideas or products, or even a new line of extensive products. These events are usually hosts with demos or testers of the newly released product for people attending the event to try and review. People attending these events with usually be part of press organisations that will report back to their publication or just random members of the public that maybe took part in the first initial stages of market research. Events usually are made up of an introductory seminar about the new 0product; its pros and cons, why people should be interested and a question and answer session at the end. Depending on the extensive budget of the company, some organisations with throw lavish parties and galas to really sell the business to its full potential. It can also be a good opportunity to find future investors and business partners for any potential products in the future. What is lobbying and who is most likely to be influenced by it? Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence a decision, to convince a person that your brand or product is something that they want. It may also been used to obtain positions of power in the government by having people speak on behalf of your party to ensure that you get the votes needed. For example there are often plans to make stricter gun laws in certain areas of America, however, due to the amount of gun lobbyists that exist it is very difficult to tighten the laws based around firearms. Lobbyists often host events where other gun enthusiasts come together and celebrate, such as Guns save lives. These events are met with some tough competition from the public on occasions, this time Piers Morgan was seen talking about it being ridiculous that the event were allowed to run on the one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook school Massacre. It is also very popular in the government. The different parties will have people who will try and convince the public to vote for them by lobbying certain political ideas and agendas to them. They do this by pushing their ideas in a number of different ways, using the research they have gathered about what the people want and using marketing strategies to assure the public that they are doing the things they promised. For example, David Cameron said that his party would be the most eco-friendly party there was. To prove this, photographers would be told what time David Cameron would arrive to work or a meeting and they would see him arriving on a pushbike as opposed to his car. This backed up the stories of being eco-friendly and encouraged the public to vote for him.

Fields of Marketing & Public Relations

Business It is important that businesses keep a positive public image. They need people to be consistently going through them to ensure that they can stay open. A business that has a negative image in any way may eventually start to reflect negatively on their business in ways of loss of customer and loss of profits.

A recent example of a business receiving negative press would be the Royal Bank Of Scotland. Recently they had a problem where people who banked with them could not access their bank accounts or spend any of their money. This was a massive negative reflection on the bank and people were unhappy and the bank received a massive amount of negative press. Government & Public Services The PR company for the bank will now have to do damage limitations Government figures need to make sure they receive good publicity to gain respect in parliament and also, if running to gain further votes in elections. When government figures release statements of promise nationwide, for example a promise to cut back on energy/pollution usage to protect the planet they cannot then be seen driving short distances to work, apposed to walking or cycling. MPs want to be seen as strong figures amongst society and worthy leaders, especially figures such as the Prime Minister. An example of this is current Prime Minister, David Cameron assuring he is photographed cycling to work. Cameron will have staff that work in public relations to tell members of the press where he will next be seen so that they can get there photographs, further benefitting them in their industry. These photographs are vital for demonstrating to the public that David Cameron sticks by his statements, if he was to release a statement and then was seen leaving for work in a car he would cause immediate controversy to not be following through with his previous promises.

Media, Celebrities & Entertainment Celebrities need to ensure that they have positive publicity, as being in the public eye on a, in some cases constant pace requires to be always perceived in a suitable mannerism for their audience and fans. Examples would be people in live shows such as the X Factor, in the later stages of the competition the public become more familiar with the contestants and they gain more social status due to their place in the competition. It is still vital that as well as performing well onstage, that they gain good publicity outside of the contest this allows people to gain certain emotional attachments to particular members and can affect their votes to stay in the live shows. Bad press can often affect the contestant and lead to less votes and even dismissed from the competition. An example of one particular contestant would be Frankie Cocozza, who got to the live shows of X Factor 2011 before receiving extremely bad and controversial press for his bad behaviour outside of the contest. Despite the papers, Frankie stayed in the competition for a further two weeks before being asked to leave due to Bragging about cocaine-fuelled sex sessions. And it reflecting negatively on the other contests and the overall show. This was due to his own actions, press could have being dramatically different if Cocozzas action had being different and demonstrated his place in the contest in a positive mannor. Charities & Pressure Groups Charities and pressure groups must constantly remain in good standing within the public eye. Charities must consistently keep people happy, they usually rely entirely on public charitable donations for them to function and help others. There are different types of charity, for example some are totally non-profit and all money that Is donated goes straight to those who it is meant to help. Some charities however take a certain percentage of the money that is given to them and keep it for themselves thus making them a business as well as a charity. Pressure groups are much the same and must remain in good public standing but will make more targeted pleas for help for certain cases. Pressure groups usually have things to do with natural disasters or helping people in other countries. The adverts are usually tailored to make you feel like you have to help those people, as without you they will struggle to survive. Without the donations the group would no longer exist.

Sport People within the sporting industry need to keep up their persona or they could run into a variety of different troubles. There are many examples of bad things happening within sport. Some things that could happen to a sportsperson who does not conduct themselves properly could be to lose their sponsorships and endorsements or even be left out of the team that they play for. A recent example of this happening would be within the American Football scene. A patriots player named Aaron Hernandez has started to lose sponsorship and endorsement deals after a friend of his was killed one mile from his home. Due to the police searching Hernandez house it is now being assumed that he may have something to do with it and some endorsement companies have already started pulling from deals with the sports star. This shows how serious deals like that are. There is no proof that he has anything to do with the murder but because his house was searched and that is seen as negative press, companies have started retracting previous deals.