Day 11. The Face Of 4Music.

30 . 06 . 13

C H A N N E L 4 / The Promotion Of The UK's No.1 Music Network

 

On this day, my indirect manager Melissa decided she wanted me to be able to see more of the vibrant city of London. In many respects my two weeks working for Channel 4 had unbelievably elapsed, I would be heading back up north to my routes, to transfer the skills I had learnt here and apply them to my final year as an undergraduate.  Of course behind every venture at Channel 4 was a tailor-made duty to uphold. Remember the merchandise I administered an order for…the majority of the products had hastily arrived mid-week and I have to admit, I was feeling boastful and content about the quality. Merchandise is anything with a logo on which can be dispersed to consumers.  But why would Channel4 want to give out merchandise with no expense? Freebies are an easy way to initiate advertising particularly for an insubstantial brand, the goodwill gesture behind it strengthens relationships with the domain of BoxTV and decision makers, the nature of that supporting factor that comes with supporting Channel4 may resonate in the minds of the user.  Further to analysing hits and traffic information, quite often one marketing strategy of a less tangible nature, organisations might look to generate revenue through the use of Public Relations.

“Public Relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you” (Cutlip and Center et al., 1985)

Assembling the tote bags that morning, each tote bag contained a 4Music T-shirt, 4Music Pen, 4Music lanyard… have I said 4Music too many times? ‘Box Africa’ memory sticks and a selected few special bags containing Box Africa branded hoodies. The logo alone is capable of simplifying the unique details of the brand. This strategy was something which I believed their competitors rarely achieved. In today’s competitive market, reputation can be a company’s biggest asset, the mechanism that makes you stand out from the crowd and gives you a competitive edge. Effective PR can help manage reputation by communicating and building good relationships with all organisation stakeholders. The items were creative and useable with the logo juxtaposed and visible from all angles.

The merchandise was available to anybody, but as the brand ultimately depended on reputation for survival and success, the team was instructed to think about the target profile of the brand during distribution. What better way to integrate into the public than on a sunny Thursday afternoon, I was told to consider the environment, were there any younger segmentations passing through London, urban males, young groups which would help to elevate and strengthen the power behind this product placement inside the immediate community. The working environment on this out-of-office, summery day was vibrantly chartered to the mood of the brand, the team were joyful and getting PAID to do this and the sunshine made this job much more entertaining and certainly heightened the spirit, I got some snazzy photographs too, but I was far too shy to ask teammates for group shots.

Bibliography: Cutlip, S. M., Center, A. H. and Broom, G. M. 1985. Effective public relations. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. p.8.