Over the next few blog posts I will be exploring the notion of truth and how it fits into the profession of Public Relations.
To quote the CIPR:
‘Reputation has a direct and major impact on the corporate well-being of every organisation, be it a multinational, a charity, a Government Department or a small business. That is why the professionalism of those people who guard and mould reputation – public relations practitioners – is so important.’
The subject matter I will be discussing is:
“Honest and responsible regard for the public interest is not the same as telling the truth.”
If anyone has any specific thoughts and would like to contribute feel free to email me on: carli_smith@hotmail.com – if you wish to be anonymous then that can easily be arranged.
So come on, shock me with your best stories of withholding information. Or give me the low down on how your personal ethics fit in with the organisation you work for? And what would you do if you were asked to work on a campaign that was controversial?
Friday, 29 October 2010
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
What is Expeditionary Marketing? And is it right for you and your business?
Expeditionary Marketing is not a trek along the Great Wall of China or even a climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. You don’t have to travel to the Amazon and navigate your way through the unknown forests and discover dangerous native tribes. Expeditionary Marketing can all be done from the comfort of your organisation’s HQ, your office or your home...
Society has changed due to many factors, from reductions in the amount of disposable income that your customers have to rising costs of running their homes. Consumers are becoming increasingly media savvy and have been for the past few decades, they are no longer guaranteed to seek information about certain products. No longer can marketers rely on a television advert on a popular channel, a couple of adverts in a generic magazine and a leaflet through a consumers’ front door. New innovative methods are emerging as businesses look for opportunities to approach and target new markets and gain valuable market share.
A new discipline is emerging and it is essential that companies who want to be successful at least acknowledge its existence. Entrepreneurial Marketing is based on 7 key principles:
- Pro-activeness
- Calculated Risk taking
- Innovativeness
- Opportunity focus
- Resource leveraging
- Customer intensity
- Value creation
Expeditionary marketing is one of the tools in the kit of entrepreneurial marketing. It acknowledges that failure might take place, but it is a risk worth taking. It is based on the question of:
Whether your business is there to simply serve customers and create new markets?
Do your marketing efforts follow consumer’s wants and needs or does it lead them in new directions?
If you are still not with it then let me use an example:
The Apple brand is extremely entrepreneurial in its approach to business. They are a brand that are willing to put themselves out there and take risks. Who would have ever thought that the IPod would have made such as impact? It is extremely hard to find a household without an IPod and even if an individual already had an mp3 player they would often purchase an IPod anyway. Just think to yourself, was there a market for a touch screen computer that allowed consumers to play games, view pictures, browse the internet, edit documents and download some pointless applications? No. There wasn’t. Apple didn’t identify a specific audience that needed these benefits, they launched a product and caused enough of a buzz around it through various forms of marketing and PR that consumers were convinced they needed one and it was a given that hardcore Apple Loyalists would purchase one anyway. Clever hey?!
For companies like Apple who are in the fast moving world of technology it is easier to create new products and pose them to consumers as new gadgets are being invented all the time. But could every business benefit from expeditionary market to a certain degree? By looking beyond serving consumers and venturing into the unknown your business might discover something new or tap into a new target audience you never knew you had.
It was said at the beginning of the article that your business wasn’t required to enter the unknown forest of the Amazon, but to a certain extent it is. The world is a big place with many unknowns about it, so go and explore, you never know that native tribe you find might love your product...
Society has changed due to many factors, from reductions in the amount of disposable income that your customers have to rising costs of running their homes. Consumers are becoming increasingly media savvy and have been for the past few decades, they are no longer guaranteed to seek information about certain products. No longer can marketers rely on a television advert on a popular channel, a couple of adverts in a generic magazine and a leaflet through a consumers’ front door. New innovative methods are emerging as businesses look for opportunities to approach and target new markets and gain valuable market share.
A new discipline is emerging and it is essential that companies who want to be successful at least acknowledge its existence. Entrepreneurial Marketing is based on 7 key principles:
- Pro-activeness
- Calculated Risk taking
- Innovativeness
- Opportunity focus
- Resource leveraging
- Customer intensity
- Value creation
Expeditionary marketing is one of the tools in the kit of entrepreneurial marketing. It acknowledges that failure might take place, but it is a risk worth taking. It is based on the question of:
Whether your business is there to simply serve customers and create new markets?
Do your marketing efforts follow consumer’s wants and needs or does it lead them in new directions?
If you are still not with it then let me use an example:
The Apple brand is extremely entrepreneurial in its approach to business. They are a brand that are willing to put themselves out there and take risks. Who would have ever thought that the IPod would have made such as impact? It is extremely hard to find a household without an IPod and even if an individual already had an mp3 player they would often purchase an IPod anyway. Just think to yourself, was there a market for a touch screen computer that allowed consumers to play games, view pictures, browse the internet, edit documents and download some pointless applications? No. There wasn’t. Apple didn’t identify a specific audience that needed these benefits, they launched a product and caused enough of a buzz around it through various forms of marketing and PR that consumers were convinced they needed one and it was a given that hardcore Apple Loyalists would purchase one anyway. Clever hey?!
For companies like Apple who are in the fast moving world of technology it is easier to create new products and pose them to consumers as new gadgets are being invented all the time. But could every business benefit from expeditionary market to a certain degree? By looking beyond serving consumers and venturing into the unknown your business might discover something new or tap into a new target audience you never knew you had.
It was said at the beginning of the article that your business wasn’t required to enter the unknown forest of the Amazon, but to a certain extent it is. The world is a big place with many unknowns about it, so go and explore, you never know that native tribe you find might love your product...
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