Building a brand blueprint

During my internship I had the good fortune to sit in on a meeting that was to decide the blueprint of one of the company's brand. My company is a cosmetics and jewellery company and is undergoing some big changes to its branding.

Our Vice President of Jewellery, Perfumes And Cosmetics was leading these changes and had experience leading brand blueprint workshops, so she facilitated the process as the PR, communications and creative people contributed. The objective was to make a comprehensive brand blueprint document that would inform PR activities, but also marketing, creative design, product design, even how it would be sold.

We started with more standard business terms such as what the vision, values and positioning of the product were. But then we started knuckling down to discuss the belief behind the product, or what it's essence or promise was. 

 

It all sounds a little silly, thinking about how a brand sounds, what it says, what its soul is. 

 

What surprised me was how useful such a process was. I had a much better idea of how to write and communicate the brand once I had a better understanding of what it was. 

 

But this was high level stuff. Planning a brand and how to communicate is something I likely wouldn't touch until much later in my career. Strategic PR as opposed to the technical daily grind of media releases and social media writing. 

It was also a shared process, with key people involved in the communication of the product working together. I think part of the problem with promoting a business or a product is that people have very different ideas about what it is and how it should be done. Sitting down from day one and planning this out will likely help lots with this problem.

 

Ultimately, walking out from that meeting I had a much better understanding of what the new spa range was and what it meant for the business. This would let me communicate the product to people better in future and plan PR activities around the product. I think this will result in a much stronger communications strategy overall.

Telethon Presents Cirque Du Soleil Sneak Peek!!

Events just dont seem to stop at Telethon!!

This year saw the first event of this kind as Telethon teamed up with world renowned Cirque Du Soleil to rasie money for the children of Western Australia.
Presenting a sneak peek of the popular Ova performance last Saturdaay saw families from all over perth meet at the big top to pay a $10 donation to view a snippet of the performance and the opportunity to meet and greet with the performers after the show, with all proceeds going to Telethon. After a couple of weeks with constant liaison between us at Telethon and Cirqu's PR team an event run sheet was finalised and saw us all meet Saturday morning at Langley Park. On Telethons end we were able to promote the event through an exclusive segment on Today Tonight (thanks is part to Telethons association to Seven) we also ran a variety of post on the Telethon Facebook page encouraging families to come down, The West also did a write up promoting the event and ran some ad's for it whilst regional stations such as Seven Mate played advertisments on their channels. We were amazed at the responce as the two of us from Telethon arrived early on Saturday morning to set up for the event.

Two hours prior to the gates even openening the line was around the corner, which really demonstrates the support Telethon has from the Western Australian community. After meeting with Cirque Security and PR team we were issued backstage working passes and began to set up for the event. Volunteers were given a run day of the day and it was my responcibility to keep an eye on Fat Cat.
Being the main branding image for Telethon, Fat Cat's presences at community events is huge which I'm not sure i realised until this event. I was incharge of walking around with Fat Cat who was immediatly swarmed with children and parents all wanting a photo and a cuddle, chatting with all sorts of publics about their love of Telethon or how Telethon had helped them or people they knew was the most rewarding part of my day.
After watching the performance and then coordinating photos it was time to pack up the event.

After a couple hours of work we established we had raised just under $16,000 for Telethon which was just amazing to be apart of the support of the community within Western Australia is so overwhelming!! I think today really highlighted to me the improtance of branding within an organisation and providing the community with something they can associate your company with, also getting the opportunity to go out and speak with key external stakeholders who you might not often get the opportunity to speak with is very rewarding.



Fat Cat and the Performers


Until next time

caitie
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IT’S TIME FOR THE 140 DIFFERENCE

Welcome to my PR Professional Placement Reflective Blog!

To be different does not mean to consistently stand out from the crowd, but to ensure that your actions reflect that of originality and innovation.

It is through this notion that I chose to complete my placement at the Jones Lang LaSalle division of one40william.

My name is Alexandra Wheeler as a student as Curtin University, completing my final units of a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Marketing and Public Relations I am excited to share my experiences whilst interning at one40wiliam.

Jones La LaSalle (JLL) is a firm that focuses on the professional real estate service industry and provides such services to clients in 70 countries. With more than 200 corporate offices and 1, 000 locations worldwide, JLL has a high standard of real estate service experience. JLL is the managing agent for 140 Perth (the retail sector) of one40william building and development in the CBD.

“The Difference is 140”

Throughout my placement I will be working in the one40william office along side my mentor Kristi Dempster (Marketing and Tenant Service Manager). My work will be centered on public relations and marketing strategies assisting in developing the 140 retail segment.

GRAB THAT OPPORTUNITY

I was able to gain my placement through an opportunity of volunteering with Perth Fashion Festival in September 2011. As the 140 brand was involved with the festival, an email was forwarded by Perth Fashion Festival event manager Jacqui Brown on behalf of one40william to the volunteers. I jumped at the opportunity to complete an internship with one40william.

I was attracted to the vibrant and modern concept of the brand and the building itself. After emailing Kristi I was asked to come in for an interview. I researched the construction of the one40william building and the 140 brand to ensure I was prepared for questions on the organisation. Nervous but excited, I completed my interview and was ecstatic to receive a personal phone call from Kristi two days later informing me that I had gained one of the two exclusive internship placements at one40william.

It had really sunk in that the interview and communication skills that I had learnt from tutors and lecturers had been put into practice and paid off. It was the end of 2011, I had already cemented my placement for second semester 2012…and then it hit me, it was the experience and volunteering I had completed the past two years that assisted me in landing this placement.

IT ALL BEGINS…

I commenced my placement on the 9^th of August and my first two weeks (I had one week off) have already flown by. The corporate environment at one40william is warm and welcoming, with all employees presenting such experience and knowledge.

I began my experience by reading and reviewing past Marketing Plans and Public Relations Plans. This essential information provided me with a cement understanding and knowledge of the direction of the 140 brand. To ensure that I gained a further insight into 140’s brand values I studied past newsletters, the website (http://www.140.com.au/) and social media channels (http://www.facebook.com/140Perth).

A regular role that I conduct each morning when I arrive is to collect media clippings that are about or mention one40william, competitors (enex100, Carillion City, Claremont Quarter or Forrest Chase) and details on the retail industry. The clippings are collected from newspapers and then strategically displayed and filed in an organised manner.

Liaising with the retailers within 140 has become a consistent role that I conduct. This is to ensure that the retailers receive important and relevant information regarding the re-development stage that 140 is about to enter.

I attended a social media meeting with Kristi regarding the development of 140’s Instagram photo feed. The meeting reviewed the goals that are to be achieved and the specific requirements of the photo’s that are to be posted. I was then given the opportunity to venture out and take photo’s of the retailers products and the 140 building.

THE DIFFERENCE IS 140

After my first two weeks I have been exposed to amazing experiences and practices that I could only learn through an internship. I have gained a larger insight into the 140 brand, realizing it is not only a retailing driven sector of one40william but a brand that promotes itself and its values. The promotional avenue taken by 140 is creative and innovative, thus highlighting the 140 brand tagline, “The 140 Difference”.

Experience is the key to knowledge and understanding, and this experience is worthwhile!

More 140 adventures next time!

Alexandra Wheeler

it's just not the same without Gravy... Part 4

The countdown was on in the office Thursday morning. Lawless Cooking’s new website design was being unveiled to the team at 11:00am and we could all not wait to see the end product.

Lawless Cooking is a catering and cooking class company headed by celebrity chef, Iain Lawless and is the fourth client of Gravy’s that I would have introduced to you. Lawless Cooking lends us space in their office in Mt Hawthorn which forms part of our contract with them. This means Gravy is not solely at this office for Lawless Cooking duties as I am on-site for The Bra Bar, but we are there day-to-day for all of Gravy’s undertakings. Gravy controls and operates all of Lawless Cooking communications (social media, e-Newsletters, enquiries, bookings of functions and classes, etc.) and any promotional or marketing ventures that are embarked upon.

In Thursday morning’s instance, this entailed Ivana and I sitting in on the meeting with the website designers and Vicki Lawless; Iain Lawless’s wife and business manager of Lawless Cooking. This was a fantastic experience as I could see everyone’s opinion from all different kinds of skilled perspectives. Firstly, there was the website designer pitching his proposal to us and explaining as to why he has made specific decisions on the design. Secondly, there was Vicki Lawless, whose main concern is that the website harmonizes with the Lawless Cooking brand and what she expects the company to be portrayed as. Lastly, there was Ivana and I, the PR and Marketing gurus. We were mainly seeking functionality, efficiency and ease of the website and likewise to Vicki, making sure it corresponds with the brand.

Well, we were all BLOWN AWAY! It was what we imagined, and beyond. The website designer completely understood the brand and identification of the company, whilst using his expertise for the best practices of website operation. He clearly understood and identified with the brief he was given by us to produce such an amazing product. I would LOVE to show and prove to you just how amazing the website is but, unfortunately, that was simply the design. The website is now being created and will be up and running soon (I will keep you all updated so you can check it out!).

The website images where all spinning around in my head for the rest of the day with me agonizing over the question: “WHY CAN’T I DO THAT?!” As professionals in the PR and marketing industry, we are all sure to come across some artwork that is needed to be produced at some point in time; whether it be a newsletter, a poster, a brochure (the list goes on!) and as for me at Gravy; times like these come around quite often as we don’t usually work with budgets that can afford fancy graphic designers. Well, my artwork was certainly put to shame that day. Nonetheless, I went on with my day which did in fact include creating posters for Lawless Cooking cooking classes! I did get a few good ideas off him at leastJ. And although they may not be as high-grade and professional as the website designer’s, they do the job and am reassured by Ivana that they aren’t as shabby I may think! It is also a huge consolation hearing Ivana assure me that I CAN’T DO EVERYTHING and in the real world, different projects are passed through many different people until the final product is completed. This can be through various departments in an organisation or, in Lawless Cooking’s circumstance (a small business); this can be outsourced or sometimes attempted by someone within the organisation which may mean doing so in an ad hoc fashion.

I may or may not have still looked into a graphic design courses when I get home (purely out of interest of course!) It turns out… there is no quick fix for learning such skills. Lesson officially learnt – leave it to the professional graphic designers!!

Until next time…

--Sarah

Hilton Standards

Hilton Kuching is part of a major international hotel chain thus adopting uniform standards throughout. Since Batang Ai Longhouse Resort, Managed by Hilton is changing its corporate identity, many things including brochures, fact sheets, letters and anything else that still uses the old logo needs to be changed and updated. The older Batang Ai Longhouse Resort, Managed by Hilton brochures and fact sheets layout and design were not in-sync with its sister hotel, Hilton Kuching, nor was it following strictly to the Hilton Standards.

The PR department is in charge of redesigning brochures, fact sheets, letters, newsletters, banners and many more. I was given the task to copywrite a few documents such as welcome letter, notice of exemption, and fire safety and implement the new name change from Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse Resort to Batang Ai Longhouse Resort, Managed by Hilton. I also wrote a proposal for the new brochure and fact sheet. Not only implementing the new logo and name, but also updating things such as facilities and activities and following layout and design that is up to the Hilton Standards.

Not only that, I also help design the Batang Ai Longhouse Resort, Managed by Hilton new brochure. I used Illustrator CS and Adobe Photoshop to help me design it. The previous brochure was a simple 3-fold style but the new one will follow Hilton Kuching’s current 8-page brochure. Hilton is a large corporation so it has a manual that defines typography and graphic presentation of its name, logo and other visual identification. The manual describes how the identity is applied to everything the organisation utilises. I use the Hilton manual to guide me in making the brochure.

My knowledge of the two applications and familiarity with Apple Mac help tremendously. My supervisor also told me that the current trend for pictures now is to have no human beings in the photos. She explained that this is to ensure issues like racism can be avoided. It also makes people concentrate on rooms, facilities and so on that are being portrayed in the pictures.

Nearing the end of my internship, I had already burn more than 50 CDs for the press kit for future use. In the CD is general information on Hilton Kuching and Batang Ai Longhouse Resort, Managed by Hilton.