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1. Understanding the principal methods and techniques used in marketing and public relationships
Marketing:
Why is it important in marketing to understand your clients and their requirements?
Understanding your client and their requirements is very important to an entity as it allows them to
work closely with this information and abide by their needs appropriately. A lack of understanding
can lead to dissatisfaction with the work done and can in turn create a rift between client and
marketer. An example of this would be when Darlington FC’s kit suppliers did not release the
shipment of football shirts on time. This is led to angry comments from fans including “This is beyond
a joke” and “After the mess about that last season, I haven’t bothered to buy any of the tops this
season.” There was also no communication from the kit supplier, which was a bad marketing strategy
and showed a poor example of how to manage the message. An example of an organisation showing
a clear understanding of what their consumers require is the pricing of Bayern Munich’s season ticket
prices. The cheapest currently stands at £104. Comparatively, Arsenal’s cheapest season ticket
currently stands at £985. This showed that Bayern Munich understood the client’s requirements as
many of them will not be able to afford the extortionate ticket prices in this time of economic
hardship. This will shown in the Bayern Munich chairman Uli Hoeness’ quote when he stated “We do
not think the fans are like cows, who you. Football has got to be for everybody. That’s the biggest
difference between us and England.”
Why is understanding the market you are working in important? What techniques and tools could
be used to help someone understand their market?
It is important to understand the needs of your market, as you do not want to alienate certain
sections of your consumers and give them reason to stop spending their money on your product. This
will most likely lead to a loss of revenue and a lack of trust between your organisation and your
intended market. Techniques used could include managing the message. One way of doing this
properly includes constant communication between client and business. Responding quickly to
customer needs shows the consumers that they recognise their [the client’s] value to the business.
This is done effectively in the modern age via social media – Facebook and Twitter in particular. This
also shows a clear understanding a clients requirements and understanding of the market.
An example of businesses adapting to their clients needs is when there was uproar after Everton
football club changed their club badge. In an attempt to limit damage and reconcile with fans they
took to social media and gave the fans the opportunity to choose the badge for the forthcoming
seasons by way of vote. This shows that Everton care about their clients and have used an effective
tool to try and gain an understanding of what their needs and preferences are, thus managing the
message effectively.
What is a SWOT analysis? Why are they are they a useful tool?
SWOT is an advanced method of market analysis. SWOT places impetus on analysing the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a project. This is useful in a marketing strategy as
it gives pre-project information to an entity before any revenue has been potentially lost, clients
potentially upset, and company reputation damaged. An example of when a company should have
conducted SWOT analysis before going through with an idea is when YouTube altered their
comments section by making users sign up for Google + before they could comment on videos.
Users of the website were in uproar and displayed their anger by taking to Google’s [owners of
YouTube] products forum and voicing their complaints. In total, the numbers of complaints passed
430,000, and 200,000 users also signed a petition on change.org to have the comments section
reverted to its previous state. If YouTube had used the SWOT method they may have come to the
conclusion from YouTube users responses that Google + and YouTube should remain two separate
entities or Google + should not be implemented onto YouTube to the extent it has been.

2. What is audience profiling? What sort of information might be included in an audience profile?
Audience profiling is a technique used by businesses to attempt to gain a clearer understanding of
their proposed audience. Audience profiling allows a magazine to figure out its audience’s
demographic, social class, personality, hobbies, preferences and dislikes. This allows a company such
as NME to edit their magazine accordingly. NME’s target audience is ABC1 (upper middle, middle and
lower middle), and people aged 17-30. Due to this, NME often focus on genres of music that are seen
as cool in this age bracket and because of this many older artists and genres are shunned by the
magazine. Developing a clear understanding of their audience allows NME to correctly identify who
their advertising space should be sold to. A magazine like NME is more likely to advertise video games
and hair products, whereas a magazine like The Economist is more likely to advertise banking and
housing insurance.
Select a magazine and find their audience profile:
Condé Nast Traveller magazine is an upper class magazine aimed at holiday goers and people who
enjoy travelling. 72% of their core buyers are classed as AB in the NRS’s social grades, and the average
age is 47. The average household income of a buyer is £110,000, which reaffirms that their product is
aimed at wealthy households. Because the average age of a reader is 47, I believe the magazine is
aimed at married couples. 50% of the magazine’s readership lives in London/the South East. Currently
and historically, the epicentre of Britain’s wealth has been in this region.
On average, Conde Nast’s readers take 6 holidays abroad and 3 within the UK per year. The average
AB adult takes 3 holidays abroad and 3 within the UK per year. This shows that Conde Nast’s average
reader is above even most AB adults when it comes to wealth and their willingness to travel, and this
is reinforced with the figure that readers of Conde Nast are 27% more likely to travel than the
average AB adult.
The average expenditure of a Conde Nast reader whilst on holiday (including flights and hotel) is
£7,101 per person.
Explain in detail the 4 different elements of the marketing mix.
Product: These are the products that you offer to your client. Companies should look to make their
products different to others in the market and thus possess a unique selling point (USP), which it can
advertise to a potential or existing gap in the market and defeat competitors. An example of this
would be NME’s weekly release date, which allows them to provide up to date news unlike their
competitors MOJO and Q magazine, who are often out of date by the time of release.
Price: The pricing of your product, and how you can maintain competitiveness but also turn a steady
profit through this. Newspapers prices have to set specific prices to cater for their target audience.
The Sun is aimed predominantly at the social classes C2DE, with 63% of their readership belonging to
these classes. Because on average the people that belong to these classes earn less than those from
A, B or C, the price of The Sun is less than that of newspapers that are aimed at A, B, or C. For
example, The Sun’s price during weekdays is 30p, whereas The Guardian (a broadsheet newspaper
aimed at ABC1) costs £1.40 during weekdays.
Place: This is the distribution of your product, which encompasses where your product is sold and
how it reaches your customers. Newspapers like The Sun are more likely to send a higher amount of
product to newsagents, whereas broadsheet newspapers will obtain a larger percentage of their
readership from online subscriptions.
Promotion: The advertising of your product, and how you can reach your targeted customers with
information about it. Companies will reach their audience by advertising in places they known their
target audience will see. L’Oreal may advertise their products during America’s Next Top Model in an
attempt to reach the largest amount of their targeted audience possible, whereas Gillette are more
likely to advertise their product at half-time during a football match.

3. Select a publication, product or audience and explain the range of marketing materials that they
use.
The Coca Cola Company uses a wide range of marketing materials. They are a prominent frontier in
commercialisation of Christmas, to the extent that to many, their annual Christmas advert is
considered the beginning of Christmas. It is even rumoured that they turned Father Christmas from
green to red. Their importance and association with Christmas has helped them become a brand that
can be considered both family and individual orientated. They involve themselves in many forms of
advertisement that include parking Coca Cola trucks in cities so people can take pictures of
themselves stood next to it, and are so recognisable throughout the world that they mini coke bottles
are included in packs of Haribo’s.
Provide your own definition of advertising.
Advertising is a marketing tool used to gain exposure for an entity or specific product.
What is the purpose of sponsorship? Support your answer with detailed examples.
Sponsorship is a marketing tool used by a number of companies in function with one another. One
company may decide to invest in sponsorship of another company. The sponsor will then benefit
from wider exposure with their company name or logo often used alongside the name of the original
product/event. Examples of this would be the Budweiser FA Cup, the Capital One Cup, the Sky Bet
Championship, and Red Bull Stratos.
What is the purpose of endorsements? Explain a range of different types of endorsements and use
examples.
An endorsement is a marketing tool used by a company in association with a celebrity or popular
figure. Consumers enjoy seeing a familiar face on an advert as it makes the advert a lot less daunting
and does not appear to be a cash hungry, faceless corporation scheme – rather some friendly advice
from a likeable celebrity, such as Cheryl Cole with L’Oreal.
LeBron James has signed a contract with Nike that earns him $93million over 7 years for endorsing
their sportswear. By restricting him from wearing sportswear belonging to rival companies, Nike are
gaining sales from the idolisation of LeBron from young basketballers.
Why could holding an event be a good marketing strategy? What are some of the opportunities and
threats of holding an event?
Holding an event can be a good marketing strategy because the announcement of the event is likely
to develop some kind of media following and will in turn attract interest from the public. The wider
exposure can help bring in new consumers and lead to profits and further exposure of the
product/brand/band in the future. An example of an event being used for this purpose would be an
E.P launch. One benefit of this event would be for a band or artist to gain wider publicity in a variety
of media platforms, such as radio, websites and printed press. This wider exposure can lead to the
band/artist developing a larger fan base, which is important for some record labels, as they are only
interested in profits.
However, an E.P launch could have the opposite effect, as the music could not be received well. This
could gain the band negative publicity and lead to their music being prejudged by potential
consumers who have not listened to their music, but have made their opinion based on reputation.

4. What is merchandising? Use detailed examples to help explain.
Merchandising is the use of a branded product by a company used to promote its own name and
raise publicity and revenue for said company. An example of this would be when a band have t-shirts,
posters, or mugs created with something recognisable from their repertoire. People who are unaware
that the logo actually applies to a specific brand often wear shirts depicting Nirvana’s smiley face
logo. This is an example of merchandising becoming so successful that some consumers of the
product are not aware of the original source, but still work as a mobile promotion to those that do, as
well as being worn as a fashionable item.
Public Relations:
What is the purpose of a press release? What sort of things should a good press release contain?
A press release is a document released to the gathered media by an individual group or entity itself,
with the intention of gaining attention and sometimes also promoting an event or happening.
A press release should contain information about a specific subject that the author of the press
release wishes to share with the general public and intended recipients. It should offer clarity on a
subject worth publicising. Publicising is sometimes even the main purpose of the release when the
other perhaps may have a new product being released or is simply desperate in raising their public
profile. Press releases are usually sent from the company to an editor at the newspaper(s) they wish
to release the information.
What is the purpose of an electronic media pack? What sort of things should a good electronic
media pack contain?
An electronic media pack is in essence an information guide created to present facts and figures on
the authors company. Media packs can sometimes be used to try and raise revenue. An example of
this would be NME presenting successful readership and circulation figures to potential advertisers as
a way to entice them into purchasing advertising space in the NME brand, and raising revenue for
NME.
Another example of an electronic media packs’ use could be to promote their product to another
publishing company in a region of the world the NME magazine is not on sale. NME could present
figures such as satisfaction levels, demographics, and preferences to look for similarities in their
current readership and the potential readership in their region of proposed circulation.
What is the purpose of a PR briefing? Why should you create one? Explain some of the areas a brief
should cover.
A PR briefing is set up for the company or business to let their PR team understand their aims and
goals for the task they have been employed to complete. If you want your PR team to go into their set
task with clear ideas of what they should be aiming for then a briefing is a necessity. Typically, a brief
should cover the message you are trying to portray through your product, you’re overall idea for what
should be achieved, and information on the ideas behind the tasks initial creation.
What is the purpose of a press conference? Why might you hold one? Use specific examples to help
you with your response.
Press conferences are created in order to make an announcement to the gathered press. Press
conferences are often used in sport and are mandatory, whereas outside of sport press conferences
are often managed by the subject of the press conference to manage publicity for a potential product
they are releasing. However, press conferences are also organised for a number of other reasons,
including: Statements (police, health and weather warnings, company apologies, to correct press).
Press conferences are also created to offer information on a specific event to allow the media to
present this information to the interested public. An example of this would be when football teams
hold press conferences where journalists can ask their own questions and said teams manager/and or
football player answer these questions are informatively as possible. The press conference is then
published online in video and copy form, and featured on sports channels like Sky Sports News.

5. Why could hand-outs be useful when managing a PR event?
Handouts can be useful at a PR event as it may be difficult for the selected audience to follow what
the key speaker is saying. If the audience do not receive a handout during the event, they could lose
sight of what they key speaker intends to be heard. A bullet-pointed handout with informative text
can also be of use when the audience returns home as it allows them read up on concise information
even when they aren’t in a business environment.
What are some of the advantages of holding an interview instead of a press conference?
A key advantage of holding an interview rather than a press conference is that it is more of a
personal experience where you can share deeper ideas and offer exclusive information. Some football
clubs hold interviews with newspapers that they believe are favourable to them in hope that this
information will be released to the public in a positive manner. In a group interview one person who
may be the shyer voice of the group may have their voice shunned, and in turn their ideas will be
disparaged or represented inadequately. Interviews can lead to increased PR due to a possible deal
being set up to offer an exclusive to a paper.
Why do people set up film and picture opportunities? Use examples to help our response.
Film and picture opportunities offer advantages to both sides of the camera. The person having their
picture taken gains publicity and from the publicity has whatever they are promoting tossed in to the
profit making machine that is the public. The person taking the picture is then offered a possible story
that is likely an exclusive. This brings them a larger amount of publicity and possibly more consumers.
An example of this is when Tamara Ecclestone had an exclusive photo shoot with Hello magazine in
January 2013. She gained publicity via Hello’s large circulation and they gained consumers through
having an exclusive.
Why are contacts and networking important in marketing and PR? What kinds of contacts could be
useful? Provide details of a PR contact from at least one organisation.
Contacts and networking help provide an enormous amount of publicity for contestants on reality TV
shows like the X Factor UK. This is because Simon Cowell (Creator) owns the major record label Syco,
who have many contacts in the radio industry as well as the TV industry. One of the ways radio play
can be guaranteed is by offering UK and world exclusives to radio stations such as the X Factor
demographic radio station BBC Radio 1. This leads to a monopoly over the industry and one contact
can lead to another, which can lead to another, and so the pattern goes on.