Till death do us part...

Hi Everyone!

Even thou I am now typing in my final blog entry for this module, I am still doing my internship with the company till the end of June. Reading the various blog entries of my classmates and students from other Curtin campuses, it is such a wonderful read! Everyone is doing well and have achieved and learned new things from your places of internship.

This internship programme has broaden my understanding of public relations and also experiences working for a niche business. Despite the fact that I received some skepticism from peers with regards to my choice of company, a bridal company, I am very glad that this path was chosen.

Being in a creative environment "forces" me to think creatively with my work and the need to "please" and "impress" my boss, who is after-all the creative director of the company! The past weeks has been not just challenging but amazingly fun for me. I managed to do two things in one. One, my love and passion for the arts and implementing the things I've learnt in school.

Public relations is not just a tool, it is also a form of ART! Similar to public relations, art is often seen as a subjective matter in the eyes of the public.

In a nutshell, I strongly urge future students of Public Relations Internship 393 to pursue internship with a business/organization that they are passionate in. The saying "time flies when you're having fun", I definitely can relate. Internship does not seem like a drag or chore when you're doing things you love.

All the best for the upcoming exams
and future endeavours (graduation is just around the corner!)

Lots of Love (LOL)
Hafeez.J

Loved you for a thousand more.....

Hi Everybody,

Pardon the super late posting!

was supposed to post my third entry last Saturday, but due to work and the wedding of a close friend, this entry got delayed

a picture of me and (part of) the girls I've known for the past 14 years!

goofing around with the couple on the bridal dais

Hopefully, by now you have a image of a Malay Wedding here in Singapore. Its relatively similar in other parts of Asia such as Malaysia or Indonesia. Cultural customs and practices might defer between countries, but its still a big party to celebrate the union of a couple with lots of good food and the couple decked in royalty fashion, complete with lots of jewellery and traditional outfits!

Back to my internship with Bonito By Bob, I might have mentioned about the corporate communication project that I am working on, the festive greeting cards. That project is already in its final stages of production, still awaiting the "go ahead" signal from the boss to commence printing.  There have been a few amendments and changes to the media kit as per boss' request. But social media management has been rather active as we are leveraging on the influx of wedding assignments to showcase the work at the company as part of our online portfolio. 

Due to slow traffic volume on the official website, Bob wants to focus on both accounts in Facebook and Instagram at the moment. Majority of clients are obtained from the Facebook account and potential clients are able to view daily updates of the work done at Bonito By Bob through its Instagram account.

We have casually talked about revamping the official website of the company but that project is currently put on hold till we overcome this June wedding assignments. I would definitely encourage other friends and PR students of Curtin to do their internship with a company or organization that they are passionate with. Even thou work has been crazy, I am totally enjoying myself!

Till next time!

Lots of Love (LOL)

Hafeez.J

Love all around...

it has been CRAZY!

Malay wedding season has begun in Singapore. As some of you might not be aware, the fasting month of Ramadan is approaching soon in end June. And as a Muslim, weddings are not encouraged during the fasting month till after Eid'ul Fitr, a religious festival celebrated by Muslims all over the world

Among the reason why BONITO By Bob has been swarmed with wedding assignments; there have been times where I have been so exhausted (fatigue to a whole new level!), juggling school, wedding assignments on top of the public relations that I am supposed to execute for the company and datelines of other modules that I am currently taking in Curtin, say hello EYEBAGS! all thanks to sleepless nights

I am thankful to Bob for being such an understanding boss! He has agreed to extend my internship program till the end of June, so that I could take my time in completing the tasks that I am supposed to complete.

I am currently working on the media kit and a corporate communications project for the company. For the upcoming Eid celebrations, the company would like to send out festive greeting cards to their clients and suppliers. I am involved in the card design and production, its an amazing experience for me. Meeting designers,printers and their colour charts, makes me feel like Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. On top of that, I am also managing their social network platforms such as their facebook and instagram accounts.

Earlier today, my boss and I sat down to complete the intern appraisal form. Don't forget to get your forms done guys, two more weeks till the submission of our internship report! Last leg of the race...push on everybody! 

I shall update some draft samples of the work I've done in my next entry!

Till next time dearies..

Lots of Love (LOL)
Hafeez.J

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.