You have applied for a PR position with a fast-growing credit union. Whilst they have only been in existence for 10 years, the culture of the organization is a relatively conservative one. The organisation has a small marketing team, but it has never employed a public relations practitioner before, and now feel its time.
During your interview for the job, the president admits he is not exactly sure what PR is, but is fairly sure he wants the person in the position to plan promotions and stage events that will attract new customers, write stories that will get free space and coverage in local media and start and employee publication. The president states he is also open to suggestions about the position and asks you what other ideas you have.
Q1: Do the responsibilities outlined by the president indicate he understands the public relations function?
A1: The president of the credit union has a basic understanding of what is required from a PR professional. The activities outlined in the activity are not unusual duties for a PR professional to perform.
Q2: What additional ideas would you put forward to the president in relation to the activities and functions you could perform in the role if employed as PR position?
A2: Given that the credit union is a relatively young, fast-growing business, my suggestion to the President would be to explore avenues of expanding the organisations client base by possibly re-branding logo’s to a less conservative nature which would in turn attract a wider target audience. In addition, I would also suggest that the credit union become a sponsor for a local sporting club within the community. This will initially make the organisation’s presence known and eventually achieve the President’s wish to attract new customers. As mentioned in the activity, the President already anticipates the newly created PR role to undertake event management and promotional activities. The role should also incorporate media liaison activities which would incorporate writing media releases as required.
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2 comments:
Thanks Vangel. You are right, the tasks the president mentions are quite common PR tasks. I like you idea about sponsorship. Re-branding is a big step for an organisation, you need to ensure you don't alienate existing clients. The organisation might be conservative but if things are working well enough, change not always needed. A change of internal 'culture' could be enough to freshen things up. Still, branding always worth thinking about. Anyone else have some thoughts?
Thanks for teh feedback Toni.
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