Magazine Executives = Sales Executives

I recently sat in on two meetings we had with magazine publications, ‘Scoop’ and ‘Wedding and Bride’. Lamont’s are looking to place advertisement pieces in print publications to inform readers that Smiths Beach Lamont’s do offer weddings and inform them of how much a wedding package would cost and the various things included within that. ‘Wedding and Bride’ is a longstanding publication in Victoria and has only very recently been transferred over to Perth. It is a directory for brides to be and has everything from cakes to venues to dresses to cars. Therefore it would be an ideal publication for Lamont’s to advertise their wedding packages in. As this was the first ever meeting with an employee from a magazine publication I was very surprised how they acted and how very similar magazine executives are to sales representatives. They came out to the Swan Valley and discussed the pricing of a quarter page, ½ page, single page and double page in the magazine. I didn’t realise just how expensive it is for businesses to pay for advertising and how much magazines rely on businesses to want to appear in their magazines.

Magazine executives are similar to sales executives are they are overall trying to persuade you to purchase “space” in their magazine. They genuinely both seemed very disappointed when we told them we needed to think about if and what amount of space we would like to buy in their publication. Both of the sales representatives from ‘Scoop’ and ‘Wedding and Bride’ knew their publications in great depth and overall believed their publication was the best suit for us. Companies need to think long and hard about whether their target market will read the particular magazine and whether or not it will be worthwhile for them to purchase space in the magazine. The magazines offer monthly payments, which does make it easier for the business, however some don’t offer a readership profile, where we can determine who has purchased the magazines and of what demographic they are. It would be interesting to know who purchased the magazine and who contacted Lamont’s after reading it (either via phone, email or even viewed the website).   

Online advertising really is the way to go when a business is on a tight budget. By advertising over multiple platforms, including print, online, radio and television it broadens viewers chance of spotting the advertisement. However it all comes down to what your advertising budget is and who your target audience are (in terms of what they read, listen to and watch). What is going to gain the most readership and by which group of people? There needs to be some way to analyse this and I realised recently that when you create a business Facebook page you are informed at the top of the page of how many of your Facebook “friends” saw the post, how many of them liked it and how many commented. This is incredibly handy, as it allows the business to understand who views the post and whether they prefer photographs to text (and various other things).  

Overall it was incredibly interesting sitting in on the meetings with the magazine executives as it allowed me to understand how magazines make the majority of their money and how important it is for businesses to advertise over a range of platforms in order to gain sales.

Getting your foot in the door

Since starting my internship at Lamont’s I have come to realise (more than I did before) how important first impressions are, when it comes to the working world. Most people always remember meeting you and if you don’t impress them straight away then they won’t be calling you when a new position is available for a young graduate. Because Lamont’s is such a small family business I realise that I most likely won’t be getting offered a casual or full time position after completing my internship. However I am ok with that and I am still on my best behaviour to impress Lamont’s, with my somewhat knowledge of PR in conjunction with small businesses. All I need is a good recommendation from someone working at Lamont’s to get my foot in the door. Working in the food industry is incredibly interesting and I would love to extend this further, in the sense continue to intern at food industries and slowly make my way up in the PR food chain.

Recently Lamont’s was a part of the Wedding Expo at Xanadu winery in Margaret River, where 50 plus wineries were invited to set up a stall to “sell” their weddings to potential couples looking to wed in the near future. I was in charge of collating information packages about the weddings you can have at Lamont’s Smiths Beach. This involved various documents outlining the food packages, drink packages, seating arrangements, costs, staff and images of the venue. The information packages turned out surprisingly well and looked very professional. The two PR girls went down on the weekend and took 100 of the packages. Only 25 were given out, which was a bit disappointing as we hoped to hand out many more in the hope of securing weddings for the upcoming wedding seasons. This is the first time Lamont’s were a part of the wedding expo and many people who visited the expo were not aware of who Lamont’s were and that they had a restaurant down south. Therefore this expo helped to gain exposure for the Lamont’s brand and put their “foot in the door”. People may choose to have lunch at Lamont’s next time they are the region which will definitely impact positively for Lamont’s.

Overall I have learnt some valuable lessons at Lamont’s and have realised how important it is to make a good first impression as they relate directly to the future and how people perceive you.

Small business exposure relates directly to Social Media!

Hi everyone!

My name is Lydia Crostella and this semester I am interning at Lamont’s, which is a WA family-run winery and restaurant business. Lamont’s consist of five venues within WA, including two in the Perth CBD, one in the Swan Valley, one in Cottesloe and one at Smiths Beach. Most of you have chosen large corporations, who specialise in public relations (consultancies), marketing and publicity. However, due to my ever expanding love of fine cuisine I decided to intern at a local business who do just that!

From my first day working at Lamont’s I realised how much of a family run business it really is. Everyone knows everyone and everyone works together to get the job completed. Each employee does not just have the one role; they have multiple roles across the board, which helps to gain exposure, skills and overall knowledge of the fine wine and food business within WA.

Because Lamont’s is a small business they don’t as such have a “PR team”. The girls I have been working with at the Swan Valley venue complete numerous tasks on a day-to-day basis. Answering phone calls, taking restaurant bookings, taking payments for events, liaising with staff, liaising with suppliers, having meetings with the outside marketing team, putting together event packages, updating the business website, organising events for all venues, updating the business social media sites and the list continues. Their role is not defined to a set 9am-5pm job, whatever needs to be done they will complete it.   

All the Lamont’s venues hold numerous annual events which target the same clientele each year. I decided to think of new and exciting events which would target a different age bracket and income group to further extend the Lamont’s customer base. By introducing new and different customers at a younger age, it will help market the Lamont’s brand and further entice customers to visit Lamont’s. My other roles include organising the event calendar for 2014, writing a marketing strategy for the business (12 months and 5 years), analysing the website, sitting in on marketing meetings (rebranding of the wine labels and improving the website), working on the customer database and thinking of ways to further increase the number of people who are a part of that and overall thinking of new and exciting ways they can further develop the Lamont’s brand and gain exposure in an affordable and easy way in the 21^st century.

Since the beginning of my internship here I have realised how important exposure, brand identity, publicity and overall marketing is for a small business trying to expand their brand. Social media plays a huge role in this, through images of new menus and food, upcoming events and news of the business, they help to keep customers up to date with what is occurring at Lamont’s and further encourage people to buy a Lamont’s product or book a ticket to the next event.

I have been enjoying my internship at Lamont’s so far, having learnt numerous skills over the time I have been here and I thoroughly look forward to what comes next.

If anyone is interested in Lamont's, jump onto their website