Public relations in the financial sector is a field that interests me. I am excited to learn from Justin more about how public relations fits into finance and about the more technical side. For this initial post I will analyze the research, communication, and evaluation of the River Communications public relations strategy for M3.
Research
Since the concept of discretionary tax overlay is new, River Communication faced a difficult task of gathering research. Beginning by identifying other solutions for the issue of capital gains tax was a good place to start. This identified issues that companies with similar services had with their public relations strategies. This was a good use of secondary sources to begin the research step. One of the major issues identified was the technical language used to explain the M3 concept. In the discussion with Justin I got the impression that most of the research done was informal. Granted it costs money to take a more formal approach but there are ways to do it cheaply, such utilizing resources such as interns so interview or survey financial advisors to identify how they get their information and news. Those places would be the best to get to promote to highlight M3. In addition, constant research should be done to monitor the environment since part of public relations is to foster an environment in which the client can flourish. The articles on the M3 website about the raise on capital gains tax shows that River Communications identified an opportunity to promote M3 since financial advisors would have a need for M3.
The research did identify key public. The thing I noticed on the M3 website was that the benefits tab had one side for advisors and one for the actual investors. This shows that both primary stakeholders were identified and targeted.It also shows the research done to identify each publics' stake. For example M3 appeals to financial advisors by stating how they could save their clients money which makes the advisors more money. As Justin pointed out, River Communications identified Envestnet as an intervening public. Yet with more research additional intervening public could be idenitifed. There are many companies such as BizTV that highlight organizations that impact the financial sector. Overall the research part of the public relations plan for M3 is good but as Justin said it is more realistic. As M3 grows and more money can be put into public relations, it would be beneficial to conduct further and more in depth research.
Communication
River Communications uses many different tactics in M3's public relations strategy. It utilizes an integrated marketing approach which incorporates advertising, marketing, and public relations tactics. Articles, videos, press releases, and a new website are the main forms of communication used in the plan for M3. The press releases and videos are the most credible because they are a third party endorsement. In additon a few forms of media were used. I do think that more types of media could be used such as a blog or possibly an online magaizne-type website that could highlight different stories of people that actually use M3. Also it could be another way to make M3 more understandable and relatable to financial advisors and their clients. It would be beneficial to stay up with the technological times and get M3 out on multiple media outlets. Justin talked about event shows and making an attempt to attend more of those would get the information out to the necessary publics.
The slogan of "It's not what you earn, it's what you keep" helps to make the messages in all of the media communication more centralized. I also noticed that at the end of each press release the description of M3 is the same which makes them consistent with its overall message. One suggestion is to get the slogan out into the media more often. Make it recognizable to the primary publics. Justin did mention the scripted interview with Envestnet which can be seen as unethical. No laws were broken yet it is similar to the fake blog that Dell had. With all of the unethical behavior in the financial sector recently, it would be a good idea to keep as moral and ethical as possible to promote M3 as honest.
Evaluation
This is the weakest part of the M3 plan. Justin said that it is hard to quantify yet it would be a good idea to get some sort of data to show River Communications' worth to M3. Again interns are a cheap way to get interviews and surveys out to the financial advisors, investors, and intervening publics in order to determine the customer satisfaction of M3. That information would then be presented to M3 to show how successful the plan was. Yes it is important for the client of River Communications to be happy, but that is not enough to determine if something in the plan needs to be altered slightly or if everything needs to change. As discussed in Wilson (2000), there has been a change from dealing with a crisis after the fact and issue management, which prepares for issues before they occur. I think it would be beneficial to River Communications and M3 to brainstorm different issues that could negatively affect the busines of M3 such as new laws that deal with discretionary tax overlay. The finanical crisis is causing government to work overtime, producing more and more new laws that could change the environment in which M3 functions.
The intergrated marketing approach can be very successful and as Justin said John Pheonix of M3 is happy so River Communications is successful. I think that as the company grows, the plan can grow and become more in depth.
3 comments:
The evaluation part of the post is exactly what I was thinking. I think that River Communications puts too much emphasis in how much money things will cost. I know that it is a business and money is a key component but instead of ruling out the evaluation phase I think that there should be some research on what could be done to find out possible methods for evaluating without costing money. Would interns be plausible? Or how about using a class similar to this in order to do the evaluation process? Or maybe even work hand-in-hand with River Communications to do some more research on how to effectively evaluate the end result without having to cost money? I think River Communications would be more successful if they had a means of showing how successful they are to their client or possible clients. This would all come from the evaluation phase which as of now is being eliminated. If they did the evaluation phase then they would be able to justify their success especially if M3 was to start cutting back on their budget (especially with the state of the economy now).
I couldn't agree more with your evaluation section Ashely. I believe that if River Communications holds team meetings to discuss progress, goals, problems and concerns are things that would be helpful. I remember in my internship that we would hold a morning weekly meeting every Tuesday where we would discuss certain projects and new ideas, and that's what kept the company very tight knit. I believe that teamwork is a very key thing, because if everyone within a company isn't working cohesively, then not many people are going to get along or yet be able to focus on their part of their project/assignment.
Laura, I like that you mention the use of interns for conducting research... Marist students are always looking for places to intern, and perhaps River should jump on that!
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