Harley Davidson

Company: Embarq (formerly Sprint)

Job Title: General Manager Sales

Job Function: Business Sales SW Florida (12 employees all leveraged quota bearing)

Expectation of professor: Create a better understanding of the material presented. Proactively inform the team and/or myself if we are not meeting expectations.

Learning experience: To be successful, an interactive team is needed; a team that is committed to the success of all.

General Information:

My boys are Gary, 22, who lives in Tampa and works as a cook and James, 18, who has his diploma as is trying to figure out what he will do going forward.

I have been in the process of a divorce for 2.5 years; the process is difficult and finding a new life after 26 years of marriage is a challenge.

I was born in Monroe Michigan, the fifth in a family of sixteen children; thirteen boys and three girls. Childhood included hard work on the farm where we grew all our own vegetables, fruits, and raised chickens, pigs and cows. The University of Detroit was great until after the riots and that ended my college adventure. Michigan Bell Telephone was a great place to work; as I went from operator services to circuit engineering design. A move to sunny Florida in 1985 (Winter Springs, Fla.) started my career with Sprint (then called United Telecom). In 1987, I was fortunate to be assigned to a two year project at corporate headquarters in Kansas City Mo; my youngest, James, was born there. I moved back to Florida in 1990, as product manager in Apopka and then a move to operations manager in Tallahassee Fla. In 1996 we moved to Fort Myers and we love it here!

Along with working 50-60 hours a week and school I love volunteering. I am in Rotary, the chamber and volunteer for the Lee County Schools Foundation.

Continuing my education is a priority, I am on a 6 year plan to retirement with Embarq and looking for my next career as a teacher!

Introduction 3

Public Relations Strategies 3-5

Integrated Marketing Communications 4

Company/Employee Issues 4-5

Public Relations Functions 5-7

Corporate Citizenship 5

Community Involvement 5

Environment 6

Target Audience 6-7

Ethical Implications Related to the PR Issue 7-8

Market Research Plan for Riordan 8-9

Affects of a PR Campaign on Marketing Function of the Organization 9-10

Conclusion 10

References 11

Introduction

Riordan Manufacturing is a global plastics manufacturer employing 550 people with projected annual earnings of $46 million. Its focuses on producing plastic beverage containers at its plant in Albany, Georgia, custom plastic parts produced at its plant in Pontiac, Michigan, and plastic fan parts produced at its facilities in Hangzhou, China. The company's research and development is done at the corporate headquarters in San Jose. The focus of Team E is to re-evaluate the current PR policies and strategize future PR campaigns, utilizing both good corporate citizenship (goodwill) and crisis management (ill-will) PR approaches. Public relations issues, target audience, marketing research, research functions and ethical implications associated to the PR campaign will also be discussed.

Public Relations Strategies

Riordan's major customers are automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and appliance manufacturers. Public relations strategy includes focusing on our targeted market; utilizing the IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) methodology. Our strategy requires all departments have a common strategy; a focus on the customer and customer needs and relationships. Public relation policies and strategies must include internal communiquйs; there will be challenges in this area as the facility move in China reaches fruition.

Public relation strategies include providing technical trade shows that demonstrate Riordan is an industry leader in using polymer materials, with the capacity to fulfill their unique needs. Customer relationships with existing customer must be strengthened; as well as relationships shaped and nurtured with new customers. "Long-term relationships will be sought by maintaining rigorous quality controls, innovative solutions, a responsive business attitude and reasonable pricing" (Riordan). Every member of the team is a connection with new customer segments. Resources have been allocated for these activities; such as financial incentives, tradeshow funding, and market research reports to support your effort.

Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing Communications requires a strategic plan and a common focus for all employees. Dr Wirth describes IMC:

Integrated Marketing Communications is more than the coordination of a company's outgoing message between different media and the consistency of the message throughout. It is an aggressive marketing plan that captures and uses an extensive amount of customer information in setting and tracking marketing strategy.

Riordan has a customer database; this will provide the historical information needed to segment and analyze customer buying habits. Analysis of customer data will be used to shape marketing, sales, and communications strategies. The strategy will determine the appropriate marketing tactics as customer data provides targets for new products and specific markets. Customer responses to new information, new products, and new buying habits will be evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the strategy and tactics. Riordan provide unique products to a targeted market; utilizing Six Sigma standards exceeding ISO9000 with Industry leading R&D, every message must carry this focus. "Since there is one message, everyone from the receptionist to the CEO can be a salesperson for that message" (Paquet).