Marketing and Sales - Advertising and Promotion

1. Advertising and Promotion Introduction: Hello, and welcome to this next course in our series on sales and marketing. And here we take a closer look at advertising and promotion. We start off by looking at the target audience, who we want to sell to, and we look at the various ways we can split them up, ways we can categorize them, and we look at which type of advertising techniques are generally best suited to which particular group in our target demographic. We also look at where we can find these people, and we take a closer look at the current platforms for digital marketing that are available at the time of making the course. We look at who typically frequent these platforms and the best way of reaching them, the most persuasive types of advertising to convince them to basically buy what you're selling. We look at some other things such as corporate social responsibility, CSR, we also look at how to deal with journalists and to do with the press generally. That's also part of marketing, part of the advertising approach. In this course, they're actually not just one homework project, but two. So the first one is where you take an advert that you like, and you sort of analyze it, you break it down, you look at which of these strategies have been used, who it's aimed at, who's the target audience, and write a report based on your breakdown of an advert that you like. And in the second project, you do a similar thing. You take a product or a service that you like. And you decide who you're going to sell it to and outline sort of an advert that you would create for this product. And in both cases, upload your finished work, and I'll be very happy to look at it and give you some feedback. As with all of these, any questions, please ask. You will get an answer very quickly. And as with all of my courses, there was downloadable PDFs that you can have to form an offline library and plenty of examples in the lessons. So I hope you enjoy the course. Lots to learn. 2. Definition of Advertising Strategies: Welcome to this lesson on the definition of advertising strategies. So there are several different approaches to advertising, different strategies. And these would include informative, persuasive, emotional and humorous. The thing that is important to note is these can often be combined or adapted to the product or the audience or the specific situation. So it's not an either or they can be combined and overlapped depending on the requirement. And successive salespeople will often tailor these approaches to match their customers' needs and preferences, and then mix up these strategies a bit to maximize their impact. It's also important to note that we need to align our strategies so that they match the target audience and the campaign objectives. Take a first look at informative. So the informative sale strategy focuses on providing actual factual information and details about a product or services to the potential customers. And the aim here is more to educate customers about the features and the benefits and the value of the offering. By emphasizing the product specifications and the functionality and advantages, the salesperson here aims to convince customers that this product will meet all their needs. As an example, if someone is selling say a new smartphone, they might highlight it specifications such as processor speed, the camera quality, maybe resolution, how long the battery lasts and so on. And they would provide detailed information about these features and then use those to explain how it would help sort of enhance the customers use of this mobile device. If we look at persuasive, we're looking here to use techniques to influence the customer's buying decision in a persuasive sense. To explain that, we focus and highlight how the benefits and advantages of this product or service will solve the customer's problems and fulfill their desires. This often involves creating a sense of urgency or scarcity that will encourage customers to take action and often take action now. So here as an example, somebody might be selling a time limited offer for say a vacation package, and they could emphasize how exclusive the deal is and the benefits of booking immediately. And they might mention that there are only a few spots left, and here look at the savings you can make and the unique experiences you can have in this package, all in an attempt to get the person to click that buy button. Of course, we could appeal to people's emotions. And this is a sale strategy that connects with customers on say, an emotional level, and we tap into their sort of desires, or aspirations, and, of course, pain points. And here we would focus on creating an emotional bond and try to resonate with the customers beliefs and their values and personal experiences. This often uses a storytelling approach with use of testimonials and imagery, which will evoke emotions and establish a connection. So an example of this, if somebody's selling say a luxury car, they might emphasize that was the prestige and the appearance of success and freedom that you would associate with owning this vehicle. They could share stories or testimonials satisfied customers who experience a boost in their confidence or status of having purchased this car. And the last we mention is, of course, humor. Humor sale strategy obviously uses humor and wit to engage customers and create a positive and memorable experience. The aim here is to entertain customers while highlighting the benefits of the product or the service. Here, the approach is as you build poor, you get attention, and you just generally make the sales pitch more enjoyable and possibly even memorable. An example of this, if somebody say selling a cleaning product, they might make a humorous advert that shows a person effortlessly and comically tackling various cleaning tasks. They would emphasize how the product makes cleaning enjoyable. Obviously, it's not. And the humor here engages the audience and helps them to remember the product's effectiveness. Just worth pointing out, you have to be a little bit careful with this because you want people to remember the product and not the advert. 3. Understanding the Target Audience: Welcome to this lesson on Understanding the target audience. As you might guess, understanding the target audience is so important if you want effective advertising strategy. So you will conduct market research to identify certain demographics and physiographics, and preferences of the target audience, which, in turn, will help you to tailor your advertising approach so that it actually resonates with them. And we'll look at each of these, was the intern. So we'll start with demographics. So Demographics essentially refers to specific characteristics of a population. It could be age, gender, income level, occupation, location, just to mention a few. And understanding the profile of these target audience and their demographics will help advertisers to create messaging and channels that will actually align with their characteristics, which in turn enables advertisers to deliver relevant content and reach the right people in the right places. That's an example. If you're looking to target young people aged 18-25, then you might use social media platforms such as Instagram or TikTok because these are the platforms that are popular among this age group. And I would, of course, write at the time of recording popular because these things change. We have psychographics. So psychographics, they look at the psychological and behavioral attributes of the target audience. And this might includes things like their values, their attitudes, beliefs, interests, lifestyles, and motivations. That is what makes them tick. And by understanding the psychographics, advertisers can create messages that align with their desires and their needs and their aspirations. And this helps in connecting with the audience on a deeper level. So for example, if the target audience is environmentally conscious and values sustainability, an advertiser might emphasize these eco friendly aspects of a product in their messaging and highlight how it contributes to a greener lifestyle. And we have preferences. These refer to tastes and say habits of the target audience. This includes there maybe preferred communication channels, their media consumption, and preferred content formats. Knowing about their preferences will help advertisers to choose the right channels and the right formats to effectively reach and engage with that audience. So for example, if the target audience is deemed to prefer video content over written content, the advertiser would invest in creating engaging video ads for platforms like YouTube or streaming services to capture their attention. Now we have a quick look at the importance of tailoring the advertising strategies. And we want to do this and resonate with the target audience. There are several reasons for wanting to do this. And these are relevance, connection, differentiation, and cost efficiency. Generally, the advertising strategy will need to resonate with the target audience to maximize the effect of the marketing efforts. You want to create meaningful connections which will increase engagement and ultimately increase business. And we'll look at all of these intern now. So Look at relevance. By aligning advertising messages with the audience characteristics and preferences, the content become more relevant and therefore more relatable. And this will increase the chances of capturing the customer's attention and generating interest for your product or service. Quite a few examples. So a sportswear company would target young fitness enthusiasts. They would conduct research and identify that their target audience is highly active on social media platforms like Instagram, and that they follow fitness influences. And so to ensure relevance, the company will create engaging and visually appealing ads that will feature these influencers using their products during workouts. By showcasing this content that aligns with the audience's interests and preferred communication channels, this company will then increase the chance of capturing their attention and generating interest in their sportswear. So here you try to create a strong emotional connection by resonating with the audience on a sort of deeper level by addressing their values or their interests or their aspirations. And this connection can give you trust and positive brand perception, and this will increase the chances of conversion and customer loyalty. So if you look at an example of this, we'll have a luxury skin care brand could identify their target audience as health conscious individuals who value natural ingredients and sustainable practices, sort of a green green team. And so in order to establish a connection, they will create an advertising campaign that highlights its use as organic cruelty free ingredients, as well as commitment to environmentally friendly packaging. And so by resonating with the audience's values and addressing their desire for sustainable products, the brand will build an emotional connection, which will then foster trust and loyalty among the target audience. Then we have differentiation. This is a way of separating your product from the rest by showing how unique it is in the minds of the target audience. And so you would highlight the benefits and features, again, align with their needs, and you can show what makes them different and stand out from the rest and therefore attract their attention. So for example, in a crowded marketplace of smartphone brands, a company discovers that their target audience consists of tech savvy professionals who really prioritize productivity. And so to differentiate themselves, they focus on an advertising strategy that showcases say the seamless integration of their smartphone with productivity apps, such as multitasking capability, file sharing, and e mail management. And by highlighting these unique selling points or USPs, that cater specifically to the needs of their perceived target audience, they set themselves apart from their competitors, and they position in their smartphone as the go to choice for productivity focused individuals. And half of the point of all of this is that you target your intended audience, and so you can use your own resources more efficiently. And so by focusing on the right channels and the messaging, they can minimize wasting money by putting their adverts in front of uninterested or irrelevant audiences. And to show an example of this, If an e commerce, a fashion retailer has analyzed its customer data and identified that their target audience predominantly uses mobile devices for online shopping and spends a significant amount of time on social media platform, right? That's what they've determined. And so they wouldn't invest heavily and say traditional print advertisements. Because they will allocate a larger amount of their budget to target those social media platforms and use mobile optimized ads, because that's what the target audience is using. And so by focusing on these preferred channels, while their target audiences preferred channels, they ensure that their advertising costs and efforts are efficient, that they're reaching the right people in the right place while avoiding unnecessary spending on less effective channels. 4. Effective Approaches for Different Audiences: Welcome to this lesson on some effective approaches for different audiences. Often, advertising strategies will vary based on the target audience and the ideas that you want to effectively capture their attention, you wish to resonate with their values, and therefore drive some desired actions. And in this lesson, we'll see how advertising strategies can differ for three specific target audiences, namely millennials, parents, and professionals. And we'll also discuss sort of successful advertising campaigns that have effectively targeted these audiences. So lots of examples. Let's start off with millennials. As a definition, we would say millennials were born in the early 1980s to mid 90s and are quite a diverse group with unique characteristics and preferences. And advertising strategies that will target millennials, often focus on basically two key aspects. These are authenticity and social responsibility and their digital and social media presence. So look at authenticity and social responsibility. Millennials will often value authenticity and are drawn to brands that are aligned with their social and environmental values. Successful campaigns often showcase the brand's commitment to sustainability to social causes and ethical practices. So for example, the share a coke campaign by Coca cola, encourage millennials to share personalized coke bottles with friends and thereby emphasizing individuality and connection. If we look at their digital social media presence, they're often digitally connected and advertising campaigns will target them on social media platforms and digital channels. And so that brands will create engaging content. They will have influencer partnerships and often have user generated campaigns. A example of this is say the old spice, the man, your man could smell like campaigne which use sort of funny videos on platforms like YouTube, and they engaged millennials and redefined the brand's image, because it did have a rather old man image beforehand. We look at parents. Our parents are are really huge target audience for various products and services, and the advertising strategies need to appeal to their needs and their concerns and their values. And if we look at a couple of approaches, it would be obviously emotional appeal and family values, and of course, practicality and convenience. If we look at their family values and emotional appeals, a campaign will often target parents and we'll focus on emotions and family values and address the specific challenges of parenting. The example of this is Proctor and Gamble's thank you, ma'am, campaign during the Olympic games, which highlighted the dedication and support of mothers and created an emotional connection with parents all over the world. Or practicality inconvenience. Parents will often prioritize practicality inconvenience for making purchasing decisions. Ba it's only 24 hours a day, you know? And if you're a parent, that's not often not enough. And advertisements that emphasize time saving features and ease of use, and child friendliness tend to resonate well with parents. A few examples, say Gerba, which is a baby food brand, ran a start healthy stay healthy campaign. In this, it focused on the convenience of their nutritious baby foods, highlighted their quality ingredients and easy to use packaging. The campaign here emphasized the importance of providing health and convenient food options for parents to support their baby's growth and development. Then we have professionals. So these are working individuals or maybe sort of executive types, and they require a specific targeting advertising campaign that really speaks to their career requirements and their sort of dreams and aspirations. And a couple of effective strategies have we found is expertise in professionalism, and of course, career advancement and personal growth. We look at the expertise and professionalism. Often, campaigns will target professionals, which will focus on these aspects, expertise, reliability, professionalism, and brands will highlight their industrial expertise, their certifications, and their quality to build trust with these people. The linked in in it together campaign, they showcase professionals supporting each other and leveraging the platform's networking capabilities, or have, of course, the career advancement and personal growth, you want to really tune in on their ambitions. These advertisements that emphasize skill development, leadership, professional goals can be very effective with these ambitious people. We had a master class learn from the best campaign, which featured renowned experts teaching various skills and attracting professionals who are looking to enhance their knowledge. And with this knowledge, of course, career progression. 5. Persuasive Advertising Techniques: A Welcome to this next lesson on persuasive advertising techniques. So persuasive advertising technique can really engage audiences. They can create connections and leave a lasting impression. By doing this, brands can enhance their message and influence consumers' attitudes and behaviors. And we'll look at four things specifically in this lesson. Namely emotional appeals, celebrity endorsements, storytelling, and u. We'll look at each of these in turn now. So it's up with emotional appeals. What we're doing here is we're trying to connect with the audiences feelings and basically evoke an emotional response from them. And this technique will tap into sort of deep seated desires and aspirations and experiences. There's a couple of examples. So Nike's campaign featured Colin Kapani. And this campaign sort of stirred up the emotions by focusing on athletes who overcame adversity and defied societal expectations, and this then inspired viewers to pursue their own dreams. Or another example of the Google or Parisian Love advocate, showcase a series of Google searches that told us a heartwarming story of a long distance romance, and it connected viewers emotionally to the power of love and the role of Google and people's lives. We look at celebrity endorsements. This leverages the popularity, influence, or even expertise of well known personalities, and we used that to promote our product or service. And this technique really relies on the trust and the credibility that we associate with that celebrity. So give you a couple of examples, Beyonce did a partnership with Pepsi. And this campaign featured Beyonce in sort of high profile commercials, leveraging her star power and influence to promote Pepsi as a trendy and desirable beverage basically among her fan base. Or another example would be Matthew McConaughey did a collaboration with Lincoln. In this series of adverts, they showed McConaughey driving a Lincoln vehicle and sort of basically talking to the camera, giving thoughtful monologues, and what they were trying to do here was associate the brand with some sort of sophistication and elegance. Celebrity endorsements can offer potential benefits for brands, but there are also risks associated with it. We'll look first at the benefits of celebrity endorsements. There are several benefits of celebrity endorsements. Again, we'll look at four here, and these are increased brand visibility, credibility and trust, and emotional connection. Of course, the main benefit we're looking for here is increased sales and revenue. We'll look at each of these in turn. We're increasing brand visibility. Celebrities by their nature attract quite a lot of attention from the media and the public. Their endorsements can provide increased visibility and exposure to wider audiences, not just their dedicated fan base, but other people outside of that. So for example, when Nike or Nike, whoever you want to pronounce it, signed Michael Jordan in the late 80s, the brand's visibility absolutely skyrocketed. So Jordan's endorsement, and it boosted Nike's presence in the basketball market, but also helped expand sort of his overall brand recognition, and also that was worldwide. Mentioned credibility and trust, and celebrities often have a high amount of credibility and trust among their fans. And so their endorsement can lend their credibility to the brand and create positive associations and build trusts with consumers. So when Lauriel partnered with an actress called Blake Lively for their hair care products, this partnership credibility to the brand's claim of being luxurious. And her positive image and reputation as a fashion icon, really resonated with consumers and then enhance the consumer's trust in the Loreal brand. We also have an emotional connection. So Celebrities often have the ability to evoke emotions and create what the fans perceive as a personal connection. When a celebrity endorses a brand, it can tap into that emotional attachment that fans have and generate by association positive feelings towards the endorsed product or service. So Hon Di's Hope on Wheels campaign featured sort of pediatric cancer survivors and also had Robert Downey junior as their spokesman. And Robert Downey Junior's emotional connection with the cause combined with his onscreen persona as the ironman. He was the act who played ironman, created a sort of a strong emotional bond with viewers and really inspired support for the campaign. Lastly, we mentioned increased sales and revenue, which is why we do this, and effective celebrity endorsements really proven to lead to a boost in sales and revenue for a brand when it's done right. And so the influence of a celebrity, their star power, they can drive consumer interest and cause people to buy things, especially when the endorsement aligns with the targets, preferences and values. So, for instance, when George Colony became the face of Nespeso and their commercials, the brand witnessed significant growth in sales and revenue. And this was sort of Clooney's charm, and he's a handsome chap, and he is associated with sort of sophistication and this resonated with the audience and led to an increased demand for the Nespresso product. However, there are risks of celebrity endorsements. It's not all plain sailing. And we'll look at four potential downsides and risks of celebrity endorsements, and they are a lack of authenticity, negative publicity or scandals. Over exposure or mismatch image, and of course, the costs and the contractual obligations. They don't do it for free. Look at each of those in turn. Look at the lack of authenticity. If the endorsement somehow feels forced or not authentic, it may actually not resonate with consumers. And if the celebrity really doesn't genuinely use the product or believe in it, this can cause quite a lot of skepticism and damage to the brand's reputation. For instance, 2013, Lance Armstrong was endorsing Nike, and they had a huge setback after his doping scandal came to light. And so the endorsement lost its authenticity and as Armstrong's credibility and integrity were basically called into question, and this as a result, had a knock on effect on Nike's reputation. We also have scandals and negative publicity. Celebrities are not immune to scandals and negative publicity. So if say a celebrity is endorsing a product and is involved in some controversy, this can then, by a knock on effect, negatively reflect on the brand. And then consumers could well associate the brand with the negative actions or behaviors of the celebrity, and this, of course, will lead to a reduction and a tarnishing of the brand image. Good example here, Tiger Woods in 2009. He had lots of brands, he had Gillette and Accentur and then he was found out to have lots of extramarital affairs. And this, of course, affected his endorsements of these brands. And this negative publicity surrounding Woods behavior really negatively impacted these brands images, and actually, they ended up terminating their contracts with him. So he was no longer associated with those products. We can also have exposure or mismatching image. So what can often happen, especially if a celebrity is popular, they can endorse multiple brands at the same time, whether the image aligns with that brand or not, and this can really have a dilution of the effectiveness of the endorsement. They're endorsing everything, they're endorsing nothing. And so the audience may perceive the endorsement as inauthentic or not matching, which will have a reduced impact. So here, Pepsi had a partnership with Kennel Jenna. And their commercials were really perceived as being tone deaf and trivializing social activism. And they received quite a lot of backlash when they attempted to align her image with a protest movement. And this was seen as being inauthentic and a mismatch, and it was really quite ugly. And of course, costs and contractual obligations. So getting celebrity endorsements isn't cheap. It can cost quite a lot, especially if the celebrity is very popular and in demand. And also, you have to manage a partnership. There are contractual agreements and exclusivity clauses that you need to sort out, and this can all be very time consuming. And as we know, time is money. In 2015, Samsung had a deal with Rianna, and they got into some problems with this when she was posting photos on social media with an iPhone, which didn't go down well with Samsung. And this conflict of highlights the challenges that Brands will face when managing contractual obligations and making sure that the exclusivity clauses are actually held and adhered to. So as celebrity endorsements. Now we look at storytelling. So storytelling and advertising involves creating narratives that engage and interest the audience, and they try to have sort of relatable characters with interesting plot lines. And this creates a sort of emotional connection, fosters brand loyalty, and they try and deliver their message in a memorable way that people don't forget. The Dove campaign featured women describing their physical appearance to a forensic sketch artist. And the emotional impact came from the stark contrast between the woman's self perception of how others saw them and compared to sort of how the forensic sketch artist drew them, and the difference was a sort of powerful message about self esteem and beauty. Also, Coca Cola's holidays are coming campaign, featured sort of their, iconic red Christmas truck with all the lights and the joyous atmosphere that that created. And here, the campaign told a story of togetherness and celebration during the holiday season and sort of tried to evoke warm emotions and then associate that brand with the happy time it was filmed in. Then we have humor. Humor in advertising, the idea here is to sort of entertain and amuse the audience, and then they make the brand more memorable and foster sort of positive associations, 'cause it made me happy and made me laugh. And so we'll find sort of clever jokes, witty dialogues, unexpected situations are all commonly used to make people laugh. So Old Spice had a campaign where a series of commercials featured really over the top scenarios, funny dialogue, they used humor an attempt to reposition the brand to appeal to a younger audience, because old Spice was generally seen as an old man's perfume. And then the Doritos crash the Super Bowl campaign actually ask consumers to create their own adverts, which were often completely outrageous and over the top and very funny. And this engages the audience because of the user generated content and humor, and there's quite a lot of buzz around that. But as with celebrity endorsements, humor can both be positive and negative. It's not completely risk free. Let's look at the benefits first. They can be attention grabbing. They can form emotional connections, and they can increase the memorability of the advert. Look at the attention grabbing first. The humor has a power to really capture your attention and make an advert stand out among all the clutter and the noise. And funny adverts can break through all this and engage viewers and increase the likelihood of remembering the brand or the message. Again, we've mentioned the old Spice advert, which was funny and sort of over top scenarios, and it was quite fun and entertaining. Can also form emotional connections. So humor sort of creates a positive emotional response because laughing is good, and they use this to forge connections with the audience. And funny adverts, they can make people laugh, they can make people happy. And this laughter and sort of happiness is then associated with the brand. Now, don't know if you remember that the Budweiser Wup. Campaign became a cultural phenomenon with its kind of very catch relatable catch phrase, and people were going around going Ws to each other. And this, again, strengthened around loyalty, and was a campaign that used that effectively. We have increased memorability. So people are more likely to remember a funny advert, just simply because people like humor. People like to laugh. And when humor is used effectively, it can really have positive effects and increase the chances of the advert being shared and talked about, people at the coffee machine, or the water cooler will talk about funny adverts much more than mundane ones. Again, we mentioned already the crash the Super Bowl campaign where consumers actually made their own funny adverts. And this user generated content was some of that was really funny, and it engaged viewers and people talked about it, and the adverts were shared and went viral. It was a really, really well done thing. But as we said, it's not without risks, and there are risks of using humor. It can back fire. For instance, it can be misinterpreted or cause offense. It can also distract from the message, and there are cultural and regional sensitivities. We'll look at each of those nell. Misinterpretation or offense, Humor is extremely subjective. And what is funny to one person might be offensive to another or completely understood by others again. And adverts that use humor, they have a genuine risk of being misinterpreted. And this will then lead to negative reactions and backlash from certain segments of the audience. So we've mentioned this before, but we're going into a bit more detail. So Pepsi, with its Kendall Jenner advert, they tried to sort of use humor and link it to a protest movement, and this really didn't go down well because they were seen to be trivializing the issue. They're being insensitive to the problems, and many people just didn't like it, and they found it offensive. Can also distract from the message. So what can happen is, if the humor is too much to the front, then the intended message may not effectively communicate the desired information. So viewers might remember the humor and the funniness, but they'll forget what the thing was that was being advertised. And so what can happen is that funny or humorous adverts have been memorable for the humor, but the brand or the product that they were promoting and advertising was completely forgotten. Now we have a very tricky situation, cultural and regional sensitivities. And we said before, humor is subjective, and this can also vary across cultures and regions. So what one culture might find funny might not resonate or be just misunderstood by another. And adverts that use humor. They really need to consider the cultural nuances and avoid alienating or confusing parts of their target audience. And when they're expanding globally, they've got to be extra cautious when using humorous adverts to make sure that they remain culturally sensitive. And the translation or cultural adaptation of humor can often miss the mark, which leads to at best ineffective advertising and at worst completely offensive advertising. So there are some persuasive advertising techniques for you. So now it's your turn. If you would like to do this, you don't have to, but you can, if you want, is to think of an advert for a product or service that you know or like. And then ask yourself, well, what is it about it that I like? And then based on this lesson, what techniques does this advert use? And do you find it persuasive? Now what you can then do is use any of the points here in this lesson and just write about the advert, using the questions above. And if you post it in the Q&A, I'll be happy to provide feedback and, you know, tell you what I thought. 6. Developing Persuasive Advertising Techniques: Welcome to this lesson on developing persuasive advertising techniques. We've looked at the persuasive techniques and now we'll look at developing them. When we develop them, we have several important aspects that we need to take into account. Specifically in this lesson, we'll look at message design, the visual elements, and the so called call to action. Look at each of those in turn. The message design. This is how you craft the content, the language you use, the structure of the advert, the messaging to effectively communicate and, of course, persuade the target audience. There are several important things to consider, namely clarity and conciseness, your USP or unique selling proposition, and the emotional appeal. The message should be clear and concise and easy to understand. And it should quickly convey the main benefits or value proposition of your product or service. And if you avoid jargon and use simple language, this can really enhance the clarity. Then you have your unique selling proposition, which is almost always abbreviated to the USP. And this can highlight the unique features, the benefits, or advantages of the product or service, and then it's differentiation between your competitors and yourself. And the idea here is to persuade the potential customers to choose your option rather than somebody else's. And the USP shod clearly and prominently be communicated in the message. I'm going to look at emotional appeal. If we can create an emotional connection with the audience, this can be very powerful. And messages that tap into emotions such as fear, happiness, nostalgia, or empathy can resonate with an audience and influence their decision making process. So if we think of a message design example, Apple had a Geta MAC campaign that featured a series of commercials comparing Mac computers to PCs, which were played by different actors. The messages were designed to showcase Mac simplicity, reliability and style, and contrast them with the PCs perceived complexities and limitations. The campaign appealed both to rational and the emotional aspects of the target audience. Look at the visual elements. So the visual elements can play really a very, very important role in advertising, they're used to capture attention, convey information, and generally enhance the overall message. So we consider the following aspects when we think about visual elements. We want an attention grabbing design, want relevant imagery, and it has to be consistent with the branding, also important. What about this attention grabbing design? It should be visually appealing and attention grabbing to stand out in a crowded advertising landscape. So you use vibrant colors, maybe intriguing imagery or creative layouts to help capture the audience's attention. Now you can see this if you're looking on any online site like say Etsy, everyone wants to stand out and have a different thumbnail that is appealing to you and that you choose that one rather than the others. Have to be relevant imagery. So it's not just enough to have attention grabbing, they also need to be relevant to the product or service, and they should ideally aid in understanding and remembering the message. So images that showcase the product in use or show the desired outcomes of using this product service or evoke emotions associated with the brand can be very effective. And it needs to be consistent. So the visual elements should align with the brand's identity, and this includes logo, color palette, typography, which font, which types and sizes, and the general overall aesthetic. This consistency in visual branding builds brand recognition and reinforces certain associations. So Coca Cola's holiday advertising campaigns. They often features typical commonly seen iconic elements, such as polar bears, red and white colors, and general festive atmosphere. The idea behind these visuals is to invoke positive emotions with the viewer and then create a strong association between the drink and the holiday celebrations and fun associated with them. Lastly, we have the call to action, and the call to action is always abbreviated to CTA. The CTA is a very, very important component of the advert as it tells the audience what to do next. There are some considerations for creating an effective CTA, and these are, it should be clear and direct. It should convey a sense of urgency, and it also maybe illustrate the benefits associated with it. So the CTA should be clear, specific, and actionable. There should be no room for confusion, and it should clearly communicate what the audience needs to do, and this could be shop now, subscribe. Learn more. I was very clear, easy to understand. We can also create a sense of urgency or scarcity to motivate people to act promptly, I now and not leave and come back tomorrow morning. The idea here is so called Fomo or fear of missing out, and this can really make people act quickly. And phrases like this are limited time offer, only 24 hours left, while supplies last. So if you come back tomorrow, and might have sold out, and you'd wish, I missed out, and I don't want to miss out, so I'll do it now. This is what they want you to do. And it can also be benefits oriented. So we can link the call to action with a benefit or value proposition so that the product or service is seen to be more attractive. And you can also highlight what the audience stands to gain by taking this action. We'll look at some examples of call to actions. So Amazon often uses very compelling CTAs on its product page, and these are things like add to cart, buy now or subscribe and save. And these CTAs are clear, they're action oriented, and they're positioned strategically so that the people can very quickly and easily make their purchases. So by considering message design, incorporating effective visual elements and creating compelling CTAs, advertisers can then create persuasive adverts and advertising messages that engage the audience, communicate key benefits, and drive desired actions. 7. Analysing Advertisements: Welcome to this lesson on analyzing adverts. It's one thing to make the advert to think it's doing well, but you need an effective analysis to get real data to provide insights on whether your strategies and techniques are effective. How effective are they? How do they line with the target audience? We need to identify strategies and techniques and then evaluate the effectiveness and the alignment. You always need to use data, data driven. Visual techniques? We need to examine which colors we've used, which imagery, and which layout have we used and determine the appeal of the message and its delivery. And we look for visual clues that evoke emotions or convey specific messages. We also need to look at the language and the copywriting. We need to analyze the tone, the style, and the messaging used in the advert. Is it persuasive language? Is it storytelling, do we use wordplay, these type of things? We also need to check the CTA, the call to action. Is it effective? Is it in the right place? Is it clear? Is it compelling? Does it encourage the desired action? We need to analyze the messaging. So how does it speak to the target audiences needs? Their desires or motivation? Is there a way of personalizing the message? We need to check the emotional appeal. Does the advert tap into emotion such as happiness or fear, nostalgia or empathy in a way that resonates with the target audience? And lastly, we need to look at branding and logo placements. So how does it showcase the brand, this advert? How is it associated? We need to look really for huge consistency in the branding elements? Audience relevance? Is this advertising strategy and technique reaching those people we want to reach? Does the advert align with their target demographics and the interests and the preferences? This all needs to be analyzed? Is the message clear? Does it effectively communicate the intended message? Are the key benefits or features or the value proposition of the product or service clearly and easily understandable? What about the persuasiveness? Does it successfully influence the target audience's behaviors, their attitudes and beliefs? We need to analyze the effectiveness of techniques such as emotional appeal, social proof, or logical reasoning. We need to check brand consistency. Does this advert align with the brand's overall identity and values? Does it strengthen the brand's position and reinforce the associations? We also need impact and recall. Does this advert create lasting impressions with the target audience in a way that they'll remember it? Does it stand out amongst its competition, does it generate a positive memory, rather than just a memory, a positive one? Look as an example. So the Share of Coke campaign by Coca Cola use personalized messaging and emotional appeals to target a wide range of individuals. So the adverts featured bottles and cans with popular names or personalized labels, encouraged people to find and share their own name or the names of loved ones. And this aligned with the target audiences desire for personalization and social connection. And the effectiveness was fairly evident through the widespread popularity. It had social media engagement, which was measurable and, of course, increased sales. And all of this was an indication that this advert successfully resonated with consumers and created a strong emotional connection. Now, it's your turn. Think of a product or a service that you know or like. What is it about it that you like? And how does this product or service make your life better? And how would you go about creating an advert for it? So use any of the points mentioned here in this lesson or the previous ones and tell how you would create an advert for this product or service. If you want to make up an imaginary product or service, that would be okay as well. Again, if you post it in the Q and A, I'll be very, very happy to provide feedback on your work. Oh. 8. Using Digital Marketing Channels: Welcome to this lesson on digital marketing channels. So this is about using digital marketing channels. Here, digital marketing refers to digital channels, technologies, and strategies that promote products or services or brands or businesses and engage with target audiences. By this, we mean various online platforms and mediums such as website, search engines, social media, e mail, mobile apps, and digital advertising. Digital marketing leverages the power of the Internet and digital technologies and uses these to reach and interact with a very wide range of potential customers. It involves creation and implementation of marketing campaigns, involves content creation and distribution, data analysis, and the continuous optimization to achieve the marketing objectives and drive the desired actions. The key components of digital marketing could include the following. Online presence or SEO or search engine optimization. We can use paid adverts. We can use content marketing related to that social media marketing. E mail marketing, and then we have the analytics and the measurement of the results of all our efforts. And by implementing these key components of digital marketing effectively, businesses can maximize their online presence, engage their target audience and achieve their marketing objectives. Look at an online presence. So establishing a strong online presence involves creating a user friendly website that showcases your products or services. It should provide valuable information, and it should be easy to navigate. So you can develop the engagement with informative blog posts. You can maintain active social media profiles which will then interact with the target audience. Look at some examples. A clothing brand creates an attractive and mobile responsive website that showcases its latest collections. Mobile responsive of just responsive means it also looks good, whether you're looking it on a laptop or a computer or a tablet doesn't matter what you're looking at it. W, it always looks good. It will showcase its latest collections, provide seamless shopping experience, and integrate reviews and ratings. They will also maintain an active presence on social media platforms, where they can engage with customers, they can share tips, and, of course, run exclusive promotions. Look at search engine optimization, and this is always abbreviated to SEO. SEO focuses on optimizing a website in a way of improving its visibility and ranking in search engine result pages. So it needs keyword research. We have on page optimization, such as title tags, descriptions, headings, and so on, technical optimization, such as site speed and mobile friendliness, and then so called off page optimization, which is building high quality back links from reputable sites. Is it not spammy back links from crappy sites. So as an example, a digital marketing agency implements SEO strategies for client's website by doing keyword research and identifying relevant and high high volume search terms. They will then optimize the content and structure and meta tags, et cetera, based on these keywords. And as a result of doing all this, client's website will appear higher in the search engine rankings, which will lead to an increased traffic and visibility. And as the old joke goes, the best place to hide a body is on page two of Google because nobody ever looks there. We have paid advertising. What paid advertising is, it's running targeted advertising campaigns to reach specific audiences, and then with the idea of driving specific actions. So this will include say search engine advertising, which has a paper click method. It can be social media advertising, it can be display advertising and remarketing campaigns. So A commerce store will use Google ads to run paper click or PPC ads for specific product categories. They will then select certain keywords and write compelling advertising copy, which will direct the user to say a landing page, and this landing page will then offer them the start of their shopping experience. And the paper click or PPC campaign will increase visibility, will drive qualified traffic and generate conversions. They don't just advertise, blanket everybody, they target specific people and specific keywords here. Then we have content marketing. Content marketing. This focuses on the creation distribution of valuable, relevant, and specifically engaging content, which will attract inform and engage the target audience. This could include blog posts, videos, info graphics, podcasts, and all other forms of content that resonate with the audience. To a fitness brand, might create a block that offers workout tips, nutrition advice, and motivational content for its target audience. They will also have or create informative and visually appealing videos, which will demonstrate exercise routines and maybe some healthy recipes. And then they will then share this valuable content consistently, and the brand will then become established as a trusted resource. It will attract a loyal audience, and then will enhance brand authority. You have social media marketing. This involves using various and diverse social media platforms to build brand awareness, to foster customer relationships. I talk to them and drive engagement and conversions. It could also include creation of engaging posts. You could also run targeted advert campaigns on these social media sites, for instance, Facebook, you would respond to customer queries and complaints, and you might even also be able to get the users to generate content as well in the form of questions or here's me using this thing. A beauty brand would leverage say Instagram to showcase its products. They would share user generated content, featuring customers makeup and run influencer collaborations. They would engage with their followers by responding to comments and questions. They might have giveaways and provide beauty tips. And then this social media presence helps them build a strong community, which will then increase their brand visibility and ultimately drive sales. Social media marketing has platforms which have a significant user base and offer various features for the users to connect, share content, engage with others, and discover new information and trends. Each platform has its own unique characteristics and target audience, and this allows individuals and businesses to choose the ones that best align with their goals and target demographics. In other words, go where your customers are. At the time of making this course, popular social media sites are currently Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or X as it's now been rebranded, Linked in, YouTube, Pinterest, Snap chat, and TikTok. Then we'll look at each of these in turn. So Facebook, who's the target audience for Facebook? It's got quite a wide user base across quite a different age groups. But at the moment, it's really more for sort of adults and older people. The advantages of Facebook has a wide reach and the large user base. It can be used for very advanced targeting options for adverts, and you can build or brand communities through pages and groups. Pages are just informative and groups are more interactive. The disadvantages. It's not as popular as it used to be. And the organic reach has been decreasing over time. As a result of this, businesses now need to spend more money on paid advertising. It's not just enough to put up some posts, and people don't get told about it. And there's a lot of competition for attention in the news feed. What about Instagram, who's a target audience is mainly younger audiences, especially millennials and so called Gen Z. The advantages of Instagram, it's a highly visual platform, so it's great for businesses with compelling visual content. There are lots of influencer marketing opportunities. There are stories, reels, and shoppable posts, which all enhance the engagement. The downside of Instagram, there aren't that many options for clickable links in posts, and there's a lot of competition for attention due to the visual nature of the platform. Twitter or X. Who's this for? Twitter or X, as it's now called, appeals to a wide range of users, but it's more popular among people who are interested in real time news, current events, and trending topics. The advantages of Twitter are X, really stop calling it Twitter. It's a fast paced platform with real time engagement and also for customer service, and tweets and read tweets and hash tags can make things go viral very quickly. Have direct access to influencers and industry thought leaders. There are disadvantages. Though character limit can be quite restrictive. Due to the high volume of tweets, you can often suffer from information overload, and there's a very short time span of tweets, so they don't often get seen. We have Linkedin. Linked in's target audience. It's a professional networking platform that caters to professionals, job seekers, and B to B, or business to business interactions. The advantages it's really good for b2b marketing and for professional networking. I was getting to know people in your field. The people who use Ink in are usually more educated than not and are career oriented. And you can use targeting advertising to reach very specific industries and job titles. The disadvantages for B to C or business to consumer is really not that much reach for those types of industries. And the engagement is quite a lot less than on the platforms we've mentioned previously. And also, there's no sort of trivial nonsense. You know, the content that is produced on Linked in should really be a sort of professional and business oriented type of content. We have YouTube. YouTube attracts a wide range of users across different age groups, but it does tend to focus on maybe some of the younger people and people who are keen on video. The advantages of YouTube, it's the second largest search engine after Google and owned by Google. You can create long form content, you can create tutorials, and of course, product demonstrations, and you can monetize YouTube through adverts and partnerships. The disadvantages of YouTube, there's a lot of competition, and at the moment, you need quite high quality video production. The days are gone when you could just film something on a potato and people would watch it. When you start, it's very difficult to initially get that subscriber base up. If you're using adverts on YouTube, a lot of people are fed up with adverts and they use ad blockers and this can really have a negative impact on your advertising. Pinterest. Pinterest, for some reason, appeals predominantly to females, and specifically, who are interested in fashion, home decor, DIY products, recipes, and inspiration. The advantages are, it's very visual. And so for product discovery, of course, is very good. The pins can stay around a long time leading to extended reach, and people on pinterest have a high purchase intent. Downsides, the audience can be quite niche compared to other social media platforms we've mentioned. And if you're not actually paying them to advertise, there's quite a limited organic reach, and not a lot of people see it unless you're paying. And there's a large focus on of lifestyle and visual oriented content. Look at Snapchat. Snap chat is mainly for younger user base and very much within the Gen Z demographic. The advantages of Snapchat, it's very engaged and very interactive, and you have stories, you have augmented reality filters, all sorts of stuff like this. And this is very effective at reaching a younger audience, and then you can use Snapchat to build up a brand amongst them. And you also have direct and private communication with followers. The disadvantages, Snapchat has very limited analytics and tracking capabilities. So you don't know if your adverts are doing well, there's no analytics. And the content will disappear fairly quickly. So you'll need to be consistently and frequently posting. And there's now strong competition from other platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Speaking of TikTok. TikTok is hugely popular among Genz younger millennials, and the focus here is on short form video content. The advantages are, it's very much a trend setting platform and the potential to go viral with your little videos is very, very good. There are opportunities for user generated content and influenza collaborations. And you have access to a younger and highly engaged audience. They're really into this. The downside is that the content creation requires a lot of time and effort on the production side. Even though the videos are short, the production effort is long. And there's not lots of options for direct links and website traffic. They have to sort of hide it in there. And it's very much algorithm driven, which may make it harder to target specific audiences. So the way TikTok algorithm seems to work is stuff that's popular gets shown more, and they don't care whether you're an old channel, a young channel. If people are interested, it'll get shown blanket. So it's very difficult to target specific people with advertising. So time for the warning. These descriptions are really generalizations, and there can be quite a lot of variation within the user base on each platform. And when you're developing a social media marketing strategy, you have to understand the audience, consider the advantages and disadvantages of each platform, and then choose the appropriate platform to reach your goals. I think I said earlier, go where your customers are. And also, platforms come and go. You know, think of my space, Google plus Vine dot dot dot. They were popular, Google plus, not, and they just fell out of use and disappeared. A, e mail marketing. E mail marketing involves sending personalized e mails to leads to nurture them, to build customer relations, and of course, promote products or services. This can include automated e mail campaigns. It can be news letters, promotional e mails, and personalized recommendations based on customer behavior. So an online retailer could send personalized product recommendations and exclusive offers to customers based on, say, previous purchase history and browsing history. You can also send so called abandoned cart e mails to remind customers to complete their purchase. So what happens here, P go on to buy something, but they don't actually end up buying it. And so you can find out who they are and send them a reminder and say, Hey, you forgot to buy your mug, here's $5 off. And these targeted and timely e mails drive conversions. They increase customer loyalty and generate repeat sales. So although e mail is a technology that's been around forever, it's still an effective marketing tool. Then we have got the analytics and the measurement. So by analytics and measurement, we mean tracking, analyzing data from various markets and platforms in an attempt to understand the audience behavior. We want to measure the advertising campaign performance and effectiveness and make data driven decisions to optimize and improve them. This is very important and data driven. No based on your feelings or your preferences, but based on cold hard data. This could include tools like Google Analytics. It can have social media insights and some marketing sort of automation platforms. So an online education platform will use data analytics to track user engagement with their website and course offerings. They will analyze metrics such as as the website traffic, the bounce rates, as who goes and just leave straight away, the conversion rates and course completion rates. So a bounce rate conversion rates are how many people buy compared to those who just visit and don't buy, and the course completion rates as how much of the bought content is then being consumed. And based on these insights, they will then identify areas for improvement. They will then refine their marketing strategies, optimize their website, and the course content, which will then enhance the user experience and increase enrollments in the future. 9. Public Relations and Corporate Communications: Welcome to this lesson on public relations and corporate communications, which is often part of advertising and promotion that is overlooked. As a warning, buckle in, this is a long lesson. So here, we'll look at the role of public relations or PR, corporate communications, and look at various strategies and tactics. Specifically, we'll look at managing corporate communications, look at media relations and public relations tactics. When it comes to corporate communications, we have two distinct types, namely internal and external, and both are essential components of corporate communication. They work together to create a cohesive and positive communication system that aligns the organization internally and externally. Let's look at internal communications first. These are strategies and processes which are used to effectively communicate within an organization. This can be providing information, getting customer engagement, and then aligning employees with the organization's goals and values. The key objectives of internal communication are to inform, engage, motivate, and empower employees. And here are some examples of internal communication. Can be accompany newsletter. Can be an Intranet portal, so called Town hall meetings, can be team meetings and internal social media. As you might have guess, we'll look at each of these in turn. They're accompany newsletters. These are regular publications that provide updates and information about the organization to its employees. So we might look at say a monthly or quarterly newsletter. This could cover topics such as company news, upcoming events, employee achievements, new initiatives, industry trends, and maybe even tips for professional development. These newsletters are usually distributed via e mail or shared on the company's Internet. Speaking of Internet. So these are sort of internal websites or platforms which are only accessible to employees, not for anyone elseside of the company. They provide a centralized hub for company resources and documents and communications. In a comprehensive Intranet, could have sections on company news, policies and procedures, say employee directories, so you can find someone, get their phone number, know who their bosses, et cetera, have information on benefits. Could have training materials, and it might even have a discussion forum for employees to share ideas and collaborate. Then we have so called town hall meetings. So these are just the name that are given to large gatherings. They're not always in a town hall. It's just the name of it. And here, we have senior management, might address employees, provide updates, share insights, and maybe even engage in open discussions. Some examples of these, but say be quarterly or annual meetings, which could be held either in person or virtually via webinars or video conference. During these meetings, executives can present business strategies, financial performance, and upcoming initiatives, and employees could have the opportunity to ask questions, share feedback, and get a bit more connection to the organization's leadership. As a slightly cynical note, they can ask questions, but they might not get answers. We have team meetings. These are regular gatherings within departments or individual teams which are used to discuss goals and progress and challenges and generally foster a good collaboration and working environment. Some examples of these will be weekly or bi weekly team meetings where team members will share updates on projects, they'll review performance metrics, they'll discuss challenges and problems, provide feedback, and align goals. And these meetings are good for teamwork. They really help with the problem solving, and they ensure effective communication within the team. So somebody might say, I'm having trouble with this, and then someone will help I'll give them some ideas of what they can do. We have internal social media. These are internal social media platforms, which are like private networks or groups where employees can connect, work together and share information within your organization. And quite a lot of examples, for instance, they've got Yama or Slack, or Microsoft teams. They allow employees to join sort of groups based on interests or departments. They'll share updates, they can seek advice. They can celebrate successes and generally engage in discussions with other employees. These internal social media sites will promote cross functional collaboration. They'll encourage knowledge sharing, and generally foster a sense of community like a wee feeling among the employees. We have external communication. The external communications, they focus how an organization communicates with external shareholders as opposed to what we've previously seen employees. These could be customers, they can be clients, or they could be investors. The aim here is to build and maintain a positive reputation. We want to enhance the brand image and establish effective communication channels with these external audiences. Some examples of such methods and channels could include press releases, so called media relations, PR or public relations. I can be social media marketing, and it can be customer communications. Let's have a look at these. Look at press releases. So these are official statements which are distributed to media outlets to tell them about newsworthy events or developments related to the organization. So for example, that press releases can be issued to announce product launches, major partnerships, corporate acquisitions, industry recognition, maybe you've received an award for something, can be significant milestones have been reached or a change in leadership. And these are typically written in a fairly concise and informative format, and again, they're sent to relevant media contacts. And media relations is to do with establishing and managing relationships with journalists and reporters and media outlets to gain media coverage and respond to their inquiries. For example, you might proactively reach out to journalists with relevant story ideas. You might organize a press conference or a media briefing to provide updates. You could also respond quickly to media inquiries for interviews or comments about whatever. And you would then build positive relationships with the media because then it results in increased media coverage. Hopefully positive publicity, and in the case of negative some effective crisis communication. They have public relations or PR. This is aims to shape the way that the public feels about an organization and their reputation and use various means for this. So they might, for example, organize corporate events. They might sponsor some community initiative. They could participate in industry conferences. They might support charitable causes. Or they might even conduct media tours around their facilities. And public relation efforts, they generate positive media coverage. They build brand awareness and generally foster goodwill with the public because you're seen to be doing good things. Have social media marketing. We mentioned this in a previous lessons, that would just be a short overview. So you'd leverage social media platforms to engage with customers, share updates, even provide customer support with their queries if they come through that channel and run targeted advertising campaigns. Some examples here would include creating and managing profiles on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, X or Linked in. You would share engaging irrelevant content. You would respond to customers comments and messages and questions. You could run paid ads to reach specific target audiences, and you would then, of course, use analytics to measure engagement and campaign effectiveness and tweak them then accordingly, using your hard cold data. They have customer communications. So this is all about using various channels and methods to interact with customers specifically to provide updates and address their concerns. Some examples of this could be sending out regular e mail newsletters to subscribers. You might maintain a company blog, which is different from the internal company communication. This is an external blog to share insights and product updates to out to external people. You would use social media platforms to respond to customers comments and inquiries. You could also provide customize support through channels such as live chat, or dedicated support forums and teams. We have media relations. So it's often a good idea to establish and maintain positive relationships with journalists and media outlets, and a press release is a tool for sharing news and information with the media. And we'll look at both of these now. So what about positive relationships? How do we do this? It really is important to have a good positive relationship with journalists and media outlets. Here are a few techniques that you can use to establish and maintain positive relationships. You can use it for research and targeting. You provide relevant and useworthy information. Do their job for them. You build report with them. You can be responsive and accessible. You can offer exclusive opportunities. You can provide them with resources and support and generally maintain relationships. What you want to do is to look for journalists and media outlets that cover your industry or your relevant topics. You then would understand their areas of interest, what types of stuff they do, their so called beat, the stories they typically cover. And then you personalize your interaction with them by referencing previous work or articles. If you're providing relevant and newsworthy information, you do this by giving them stuff that aligns with their previously determined interests. So you could provide exclusive content, industry insights, you can provide data or expert opinions, and all of this will add value to their stories. And then you can make sure that your pictures, the information you give them, or your press releases, make sure they're concise, well written and tailored to their audience. O words, make that easy for them to do their job. And you also build report, so you engage with journalists on social media platforms by say liking, sharing, and commenting on their articles. You could attend industry events or conferences or press briefings and meet them in person. And over time, you can establish genuine connections with these people by showing an interest in their work. You also need to be responsive and accessible. So if you get media inquiries or interview requests or follow up questions, don't take agents. Respond promptly to them, take their request seriously. You can make yourself available for interviews or provide spokespersons who can represent your organization. Also make sure that their contact information is very easy to find on the website or the press releases. Don't waste their time having to find out your contact information. You could also offer exclusive opportunities. This could be maybe access to product launches, behind the scenes experiences or events, and you could offer them the opportunity to interview a key executives, subject matter experts, or customers. And this exclusive content will then incentivize the journalists to cover your story or provide a more in depth coverage of your story. You can provide them with resources and support to give them high resolution images or high quality videos or other relevant research material. Provide them with press kits and fact sheets and background information about your organization, and then proactively address their needs, try and anticipate what they need and provide that information so they can make their stories easier and quicker. And of course, maintain the relationship. Follow up after they have covered your story and say, thank you. Share their articles on news pieces on your social media platforms, and then tag them, mention them in your sharing of their article, and keep them informed about significant developments on news within your organization. So it's not a one and done. So that was the how. So why? Why would you do this? Having good relationships with journalists and media outlets gives quite a few advantages for any organization. You get more media coverage. You have credibility and trust. You can involve yourself with the reputation management. You have thought leadership and expertise. You also have access to opportunities. In a crisis, you have someone on your side to communicate your side of the story, and of course, we have these long term partnerships. Think about the media coverage. Having a positive relationship with journalists will increase the likelihood of gaining media coverage for your organization. And your friendly journalists are more likely to consider your news releases or your pictures or your story ideas if they trust you and have a positive relationship with you. This can then result in increased visibility, increased brand exposure, and reaching a wider audience. When they have a positive perception of your organization, this in turn enhances your credibility and trust with the journalist audience. The media coverage almost acts like a third party endorsement, and it gives credibility to your brand product or services. And this positive coverage can in turn influence public opinion and then build trust among your potential customers or investors or other stakeholders. Building relationships with journalists also allows you to proactively manage your organization's reputation. So if you're faced with a crisis or a negative publicity, some sort of scandal, if you have relationships with journalists and positive relationships, you can then present your side of the story. And you can provide accurate information to mitigate any effects of negative coverage elsewhere. You also have this sort of your seen as or you or your organization is seen as a thought leader and industry expert. So you would provide insights, opinions, expert commentary on their relevant topics, and so you can establish your organization as the go to source for any media outlet. And this in turn enhances your reputation and your industry influence. You also can get additional opportunities beyond the standard media coverage that we've already mentioned. So joist might or friendly journalists might actually seek your participation and say panel discussions, conferences, or expert interviews. And then these opportunities allow you to showcase your knowledge and expertise to a broader audience you would normally have access to. And we mentioned again, crisis. Having good relationships with journalists can be very, very valuable. So journalists who trust your organization are more likely to listen to your side of the story and provide fair coverage. They also give the opportunity to respond to allegations or correct any misinformation before it has time to do damage. And long term partnerships. Building a long term relationship with journalists can result in more collaborations and partnerships. And journalists who have had a positive experience with your organization, they might look to you for future opportunities for interviews, features, or even exclusive stories. And these partnerships, again, lead to sustained media coverage and a mutually beneficial relationship. What about press releases? What's with them? Writing effective press releases is essential for capturing the attention of journalists and maximizing the impact of what you want to say. Here are the best practices for press releases. You start with a strong headline. You write a clear and informative lead paragraph. You provide relevant and weworthy content. You clear and concise language. You include supporting quotes from people. You provide background and context. You will use multimedia elements. You will include contact information. Also, follow the associated press or AP style. They've got a style guide for their writing. Again, distribute through trusted channels. Customize it for the specific person you'll talk about. Don't just copy paste it to 20 things, make sure it's relevant to their particular outlet, and very importantly, follow up and engage. So we do each of those in turn, starting with a strong headline. So you want a concise and attention grabbing headline that clearly conveys the news or story. It should be informative, compelling, and relevant to the target audience, such as X YE Company launches innovative product revolutionizing the industry. The idea is, you want people to read further than this. They then you want to write a clear and informative lead paragraph. The lead paragraph should provide some sort of summary of the most important and salient points in a concise and engaging manner. And journalists often rely on this lead paragraph to decide whether the press release is worth looking at or not, such as X Y E Company, a leader in the technology sector, has unveiled its groundbreaking product ABC solutions, the game changer that streamlines operation and boosts productivity for businesses of all sizes. That's the lead paragraph. M. Then we need relevant and newsworthy content. This will focus on key aspects of the news, such as product launches, major milestones, partnerships, trends, or innovation initiatives, and make sure the information is timely, interesting, and adds value to the readers. Don't give them old news in a boring way. An example of this would be ABC solution reduces operational costs by 30% while increasing efficiency, making it a game changer for organizations seeking to stay ahead of today's competitive landscape. We also need to use clear and concise language. No jargon, nothing that could be misunderstood. By this, I mean, avoid excessive technical terms or industry specific jargon that may confuse the normal reader. Use simple language that is easy to understand for a broader audience. For instance, here, the user friendly interface and advanced analytics of ABC solution empowers businesses to make data driven decisions and optimize their workflows. No jargon, no nonsense. We need to include supporting quotes. And this would be from, say, relevant stakeholders such as executives, industry experts, or customers. And these quotes provide a human element and add credibility to your news. And again, make sure that the quotes are compact, insightful and actually contribute to the story in a sensible way. The CEO of X Y Z Company could State. We are thrilled to introduce ABC solution, which represents our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that drive business success. We see it's in quotes, so we know it's him who said it or her. Should also provide context and background. So we should give enough context and background to help the journalists understand the significance and the relevance of what we're telling them. So I'd include relevant facts or statistics or market insights that then support and backup what we're saying, such as according to industry experts, the global market for workflow optimization solutions is projected to reach X billion by 2025, indicating a growing demand for advanced tools like ABC solution. So the background the context is the global market growing. Also use multimedia elements, such as high resolution images, well produced videos or infographics that compliment the news. These visual assets can make your press release more appealing, it can make it more engaging and more sharable. You might provide say product images or screenshots or infographics showcasing the benefits of this solution. And also include contact information. So clearly provide the contact information of your designated spokesperson or media relations rep, who can respond to the queries and provide further information and really make it easy for journalists to reach out for additional details or even interviews. So you might include at the end for media inquiries or additional information, please contact person at e mail address or phone number. Then they can e mail you, they can phone you very easy for them. And also follow the associated press guidelines. So the AP will have a style guide, which includes consistent formatting, punctuation, and grammar. And journalists are actually very, very accustomed to this AP style, so following it makes you look more professional and makes it easier for them to read. And distribute through trusted channels. So use reputable press release distribution services, and make sure that it reaches intended audience. Target relevant journalists, relevant media outlets, and industry specific publications. I don't just blast it to anyone anywhere. And also customize for targeted outlets. So if you tailor your press release to suit the interests and preferences of say specific journalists or media outlets, that will be good. You can personalize your pictures and highlight why your news is relevant to their audience. And lastly, follow up and engage. So once you've sent the press release, follow up with the journalists and make sure they've received it and offer any extra help if they need it. This helps you build up the relationship by engaging with the journalists, ei directly or on social media or industry events. You can meet them in person, you can talk to them. So you would engage with journalists on social media platform, say by liking, sharing, or commenting on their articles. We have some public relation tactics. That was include events, sponsorship, and corporate social responsibility or CSR. Again, we'll look at each of these now. So events are planned gatherings or occasions that bring people together for a specific purpose. And this could be a product launch, it could be at a conference or a trade show, it could even be charity garners, seminars, whatever. And the organization will host these events and showcase their products and services. They will create network opportunities. They could use it to educate attendees and generate sort of publicity. And these events allow organizations directly engage with their target audience. They can then build relationships, create memorable experiences, and then leave a lasting good impression. Hopefully good. And that successfully planned event involves defining objectives, selecting the appropriate venue, coordinating logistics, what tables and chairs you need, what food you need. You will actually invite the attendees and ensure that the whole thing runs seamlessly. You could do sponsorships. So sponsorship involves providing financial support or some resources or services to say, an event or an individual or organization, and you would then get brand exposure and promotion opportunities. So they might sponsor say events, sports teams, festivals, conferences, charitable initiatives, anything really that aligns with the values of the audience. They also help organizations to increase brand awareness, to reach new audiences. They will enhance brand image and in a way set themselves apart from the competitors. And certain promotional sponsorship packages might include logo placements, naming rights, product integration, promotional mentions or the opportunity to provide branded merchandise and samples. Logo placement, you often see people have a little logo on their shirts or on the cars, or whatever. Product integration. You know, they'll be having a show and they'll be drinking one particular type of beverage. And you've seen these type of things. But we do have to be careful. So when we are selecting an event or something to sponsor, we should make sure that the target audience, the brand values, and so on, align with the company themselves. And also, it's really important to measure the return of investment, the ROI, of the events and sponsorship, to make sure that the money you're spending is actually giving you something. You're not just wasting it. And the proper planning and coordination evaluation are really important to make sure that the events and the sponsorships align with the organization's overall marketing and public relation strategy. It needs to fit. 10. Corporate Social Responsibility: Welcome to this lesson on corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility or CSR. This is the name we give to the commitment of organizations to behave in a responsible and ethical manner, usually beyond their legal obligations. What they do is they realize that they are part of a society, they're part of the environment, and they have stakeholder a stake in that. And CSR involves integrating social, environmental, and ethical concerns into an organization's business practice and decision making processes. And there are several key aspects of CSR. Social impact, environmental sustainability, ethical business practices have stakeholder engagement, reporting and transparency, and long term sustainability. And we'll look at each of those now. So social impact. So CSR initiatives. The aim here is to have a positive impact on society by addressing social issues and supporting, say, the community in something. Organizations may focus on say, education or health care or alleviating poverty on gender equality or human rights or supporting marginalized groups. And some example of social impact initiatives could be establishing educational programs, supporting local charities, and implementing initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion. That's an example of say an educational program. You might have a company of I don't know, engineers say, and some of them drive past a local orphanage on the way home, and then they might say to somebody, Okay, Wednesday afternoon, you can go home at 2:00, go to the orphanage and help people with homework, maths, whatever language, stay there say till 5:00 and then go home, and here's a cost center number to write the time against. And the company would then pay that. That would be an example of an educational program. Should also be environmentally sustainable. They can embrace environmental sustainability by reducing their environmental footprint and implement practices that minimize negative environmental impacts. This could include reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We could conserve resources, promote renewable energy, implement waste management strategies, and adopt sustainable supply chain practices. And such initiatives here may include investing in renewable technology. They might put say solar panels on the roof or wind turbines in the roof. They could implement recycling program. So rather than just throwing stuff all in the bin, they might sort it a bit better. They might engage in reforestation efforts, every widget we sell will plant a tree. It should also be ethical. CSR emphasizes the importance on conducting business ethically and with integrity. So organizations are expected to adhere to high ethical standards such as fair and transparent business practices, responsible marketing, respecting human rights, and fair treatment of employees. Oh, I don't want to get cynical. Okay. This involves. So we establish codes of conduct. What is expected of you, what you should do, what you shouldn't do. We can promote ethical decision making throughout the whole organization, and we can ensure that our supply chain is transparent and responsibly sourced. We have stakeholder engagement. This involves engaging and collaborating with stakeholders, which includes employees, customers, suppliers, local communities, and shareholders. And here, the organizations actively seek input from the stakeholders so they can know what their concerns are, what their needs are and expectations, and then integrate these all into their CSR strategies. And so stakeholder engagement could, for example, be dialogue, could be partnerships, could be collaboration on projects, it could be regular communication. And we have reporting and transparency. Now, these are key principles of CSR. So the organizations are expected to communicate their initiatives and their progress and the impact to stakeholders. And this reporting might include, say, the publication of sustainability reports or social impact assessments. I could also be complying with recognized standards such as the Global Report initiative or the United Nations sustainable development goals. They have long term sustainability. This isn't just a one time thing. It's not a one and done, but it's a long term commitment to integrating responsible practices into the core of the organization's operations. So this involves embedding CSR principles into corporate culture and policies and strategies and then ensure ongoing commitment to social and environmental responsibility. What are the benefits of this? Sounds very expensive. What are the benefits? There's good reason to get involved in corporate social responsibility or CSR. These are it enhances your reputation and brand image. You're seen to be doing good. It increases customer loyalty. They want to be associated with a company that does good. It can also increase employee engagement and retention if they feel that they're being treated fairly and are being taken seriously. They can give access to new markets and business opportunities because people would rather work with an ethical company and a bunch of unethical idiots. We can also manage risks and some cost savings. We have stronger stakeholder relations, so people feel more involved in what's going on and innovation and competitive advantage. Sometimes people think of new ways of doing things that are actually better. Can also help build a positive reputation and can enhance the brand image for the organization. So this can lead to an increased trust and loyalty from customers, employees, and other stakeholders. An example, Patagonia is an outdoor clothing company, and they've established a strong reputation for its commitment to environmental sustainability and ethical manufacturing practices. This has then, in turn, attracted environmentally conscious consumers who value the brand's dedication to responsible business practices. They wish to be associated with them and buy from them rather than somebody else. Can increase customer loyalty. Customers or consumers are increasingly seeking out companies that demonstrate social and environmental responsibility. And by implementing CSR initiatives, these organizations can attract and retain customers who are align with their values. For example, Toms, as is a shoe company, follows a one for one model where every pair of shoes purchased a pair donated to a child in need. This socially conscious approach has resonated well with customers and created a loyal following. CSR can also improve employee engagement and retention. We get higher levels of employee engagement. We get better job satisfaction and retention, they stay longer with the company. Employees feel proud to work for organization that prioritize social, environmental impact. For instance, Google is known for its employee centric culture and commitment to CSR. It's also known for tax avoidance, but won't come to that. Though the company provides numerous benefits for its employees, it supports various community initiatives and offers volunteer opportunities. And this then fosters a sense of purpose and pride among employees. Can also give you access to new markets and business opportunities. So many governments and organizations and consumers will prefer to work with socially responsible companies. For instance, Unitas sustainable living plan focuses on sustainable sourcing, reducing environmental impact, and enhancing livelihoods. This commitment has helped Univa to enter new markets and attract environmentally conscious consumers. Proactive CSR can also mitigate risks associated with social environmental and ethical issues. So by addressing these issues, in advance, organizations reduce the likelihood of reputation damage and potentially legal or regulatory consequences. Also, CSR initiatives can lead to cost savings through increased operational efficiency. So I said earlier, people will find new ways of doing things. So for instance Walmart, go to inspect, those here, did you has implemented sustainable initiatives such as reducing energy consumption and promoting sustainable sourcing. These efforts have not only reduced environmental impact, but also resulted in significant cost savings for the company, which they don't pass on to their staff. We have stronger stakeholder relations. So good CSO initiatives contribute to building positive relationships with stakeholders. This will include investors and communities, regulators, and NGOs. The organizations that prioritize CSR are more likely to receive support and collaboration and advocacy from these stakeholders. So the body shop, which is a cosmetics company, has a long history of advocating for animal rights, for fair trade, and environmental protection. And this commitment has earned the company support from NGOs, gained positive media attention, and strengthened its relationship with various stakeholders. Can also encourage the development of innovative solutions for society and environmental challenges. And by integrating responsible practices, organizations can get a competitive advantage by offering unique products, services, or business models. So here, Tesla, which is an electronic vehicle manufacturer, has revolutionized the automotive industry by prioritizing sustainability and reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. Their innovative approach has positioned them as leaders in the market and attracted environmentally conscious consumers.