Public Relations Campaign Strategy

Executive Summary

iPhone® Maxx® adds Mobile Commerce to the iPhone as a breakthrough in consumer purchasing. iPhone Maxx will initially be launched with an existing partnership with Starbucks Coffee. iPhone will build upon the successful iPhone platform and allow consumers enhanced choice in ordering their products and will be notified on the iPhone when the product is ready for pickup. The target public is consumers as well as retail establishments that are aligned with the iPhone Maxx technology. Retail establishments in which Apple is in discussion with are McDonalds, Subway, New York Metro Transit Authority (MTA), Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), and Best Buy.

Analysis of PR campaign and Marketing

There is a distinct difference between marketing and public relations; however, integrating both today has become a critical tactic for corporations that provide products of services to consumers.

Marketing in itself is used to target a market segment based on the product or service that a company may be selling through the art of pricing, promotion, and distribution. Public relations on the other hand studies and understands its public based on demographics and psychographics which helps them tailor their message to the consumer. Today's consumers are very savvy and are looking for more than a simple transaction from their service or product providers. Customers are seeking corporations that understand their needs as by having studied their shopping habits and only marketing to them with geared and targeted marketing messages which in turn connect emotionally with them.

Companies on the other hand study countless amount of data on customer profiles, shopping patterns, likes and dislikes, and solicit feedback from consumer groups to order to gather this intelligence. Once this valuable information is gathered the marketing plan is developed to lure this consumer in. Companies integrate the public relations team as this team will utilize the same data and develop a spokesperson that will closely mirror the consumer which is inspirational to the consumer and this is where the emotional connection takes place. In the customers mind, the company now truly understands their needs, likes and dislikes and has also identified the person that they can relate to.

This approach is known as "Integrated Marketing" which helps management integrate the benefits of marketing and public relations in order to convey a very strong and powerful message to its customer base. Corporations are investing heavily in data gathering software or consultants in order to cross-train the marketing and public relations teams on the demographic and psychographic of the consumer. Corporations understand today that they cannot succeed without the support and understanding of its clientele. Therefore corporations are courting their customers by frequent and relevant

communication. Integrated marketing requires strategic planning and collaboration on execution.

Corporations are also integrating celebrities to connect with its public. In most cases the chosen celebrities connect across genres and transcend race, color and creed.

Their personal mission, vision and values also align with the corporations core values.

This vehicle has proved very effective in the marketing world. As such, public relations then tailor their message knowing that their vision, mission and values also align with the core customer-base. Celebrities provide instant recognition for its product, help establish credibility and create popularity in the community.

Public relations deal more with creating and sustaining relationships with its costumer base. The public relations team is the team that should carry out the integrated marketing message. These team more than anyone understands how to connect with the customer based on what is important to its publics. The world renowned marketing guru Philip Kotler has stated companies need to adopt the 4 P's of retail in order to be successful, they are: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. In addition to these four Philip added a fifth P for public relations relating to a public relations team which in his mind is critical for all organizations to have.

An analysis of the impact of Ethical considerations

We decided to keep it clean. We will release the PR campaign to get the word out about the IPhone Maxx. In the case of the IPhone Maxx we will be ethical about by

communicating in a very clear way all the capabilities of the product that is not deceptive.

For instance, we will on state the facts about the IPhone and all its capabilities. This alone is not an easy task since this phone will have multiple functions never seen

before. We will not state a fact that has an unstated or understated disclaimer.

It's also unethical to quote statistics or people out of context; so we will have only the true facts before and after release of the product, keeping the public aware the progress of the IPhone Maxx.

Our PR campaign will use short and simple statements in order to get ideas across quickly; this is requirement due to characteristic of electronic consumers' short attention span and the preference for immediately digestible bites of information.

The IPhone Maxx is a product relatively hard to promote, we will look for a specific angle to approach that will have a clear message. Any PR campaign that in any way is unethical, will rapidly lead to a negative backlash when the public finds out.

We have many examples from the recent public controversy over tobacco companies and their role in misleading the public about the effects of smoking that looks remarkably similar to the same controversies of 40 years ago.

The first scientific studies documenting tobacco's role in cancer and other fatal illness began to appear in the early 1950s. Internal memos from the industry-funded Tobacco Institute refer to the PR fallout from this discovery as the "1954 emergency."

Edward Bernays, Ivy Lee and John Hill today are legends within the PR profession. Bernays in particular is often referred to as the "father of PR." All three

worked on PR for tobacco, pioneering techniques that today remain the PR industry's stock in trade: third party advocacy, subliminal message reinforcement, junk science, phony front groups, advocacy advertising, and buying favorable news reporting with advertising dollars. At the end it all backfired.

Analysis