Lessons to Reality

I've finally crafted my first full PR commstrat. It was surprisingly easy considering it's the first time I'm doing it alone. But also considering the sheer number of times that we have crafted it in class, I think my manager was impressed with the speed I was working at. Before anything was said, I was already dishing out headings and sub headings, pounding him with questions so I could craft the right marketing messages.

I remembered once in class, that the lecturer mentioned that bosses don't necessarily understand or appreciate communications as much as it deserves to be understood or appreciated. With that one piece of information, I made sure to explain why I asked certain questions and why certain things were important to be set down and agreed upon. I felt like this really helped her understand my perspective and it put the both of us on mutually understanding level that we could both give and take. An example of something that didn't really make sense to her was my insistence on locking down on a one liner condensed tag line that would sum up the whole of what West Coast Swing was. In her point of view, West Coast Swing was something that was too complex to sum up in one sentence. My point of view, was that it had to be, if not how would you (1), tell people what the dance is all about, (2) have everyone in your organisation sing the same song? I did agree with her that there are definitely different things people appreciate about the dance, be it the music, or the moves, or the connection or the competitions; and that was perfectly fine, but to a new comer, having 5 different perspective of the dance would just throw me off.

If you had the chance of reading my previous post about "Asking the Right Questions", I recognized that what the community wanted was fun. At the end of a long discussion, we narrowed it down to this: "West Coast Swing is the super fun street partner dance that everyone needs to try!"

This was something that ran through the whole organisation and had everyone's approval. I put it through my commstrat and even created mini handphone wallpapers for everyone to use on their phone. It was pretty cool what having the whole organisation unified in their vision did. The whole atmosphere was different and everyone knew what to say to people that they met. I was pretty happy that something as simple as having one key message, did to the entire organisation.

A Very Busy Week for the PRs

This was just my second week of internship and we had already carried out our first strategy. The first strategy is to redesign the company’s brochure as the previous brochure is a bit cluttered and the Chinese translation is inaccurate.

Original brochure (English Version)

Original brochure (Chinese Version)

The strategy was carried out under the observation of Tris. Before we began, my colleagues and I double-checked the parts of the brochure that needed improvement to make sure that we were working on the same page. Then, we distributed our work and I was in charge of the brochure design.

As I used Photoshop quite frequently on assignment and stuff, I got the brochure done in a short time. When I took the completed brochure to Tris happily, she shook her head and told me the parts she needed me to edit. She also requested me to emphasize strongly on the company’s theme color. I was a little disappointed at that time as I was confident in the work that I have done. However, I did what I was told and edited the brochure.

Brochure design 

On the next day, I got an E-mail from Tris saying that the printing company were not able to print out the brochure due to poor resolution and I need to edit it again. I was a bit frustrated, but still did what I was told, and learnt the lesson that by paying attention to even the slightest detail, we could make our jobs easier.

On Wednesday, while we were working, there was a sharp rap on the door. Tris went to open the door, collect the parcels from the deliveryman and open these parcels in front of everyone.

That is when I saw our fruit of labor.

Our improved brochures printed on glossy cardboard paper. Amount: 2000

We distributed our brochures at Thursday and Friday. As most of our consumer demographics are Asian, we targeted a few places which has higher amount of our target customer, which are Canning Vale Market Centre, Batemen Centre, Melville Food Centre, Collins Road Willeton, High Road Street and Victoria Park (we did not cover Northbridge as that area exceeded our area of maintenance, which we only maintain properties that are within 15 km radius from Willetton).

Some of the passers-by were very kind to us as they greeted us politely and chat with us, whereas some of them were very rude and even gave us a dirty look. To prevent this from happening, Tris taught us to read some of their body language and then to decide whether or not to approach the potential customer.

Besides, the fun part was that we were also able to select some shop that has the most Asian customers within that area and discussed with the respective business owner whether or not they have the interest to do a “cross promotion” with us. For those who agreed, we exchanged our brochures with some of theirs, and required them to place our brochures at a stand or on their counter, which we will do the same with theirs. We were able to persuade a well-known bank and few of the famous restaurants in that area, which is a great achievement for us, and I felt that it worth our every effort.

Not to mention, in the end, everyone got a box of chocolates for their effort!

Chocolates from Tris, best boss ever!

This is a very exciting week for me, looking forward to next week.

Leong Chee Lek

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