COMM344 - The Culture Reporter suffers from the “Homebound Bronchitis Blues”

10 days ago I found myself back in the Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport returning from a short trip to Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Even though the weather was a little chilly (okay, so compared to Florida it was chilly) the sun was shinning and the shopping was fantastic!

If you have never been to Rockvale Square and Tanger Outlets in Lancaster PA – it is worth the trip.

Tanger Outlets are the “name brand” shops with deeply discounted designer items that range from shoes, shirts to sheets. Rockvale Outlets has just about every type of shop you could be looking for and the items are truly discounted. At one shop I found that I kept asking the girl to recheck the check – I couldn’t have possible spent so little!

My prized shopping item for the day would have to be the purchase for the soon to be granddaughter. She will make her appearance into this world in July and I can tell you she will be quite the little shopping diva if “glamma” has anything to say about it! I digress; my little diva to be now has a pair of

Ruby Red Slippers

That’s right this culture / entertainment beat reporter is going to have a lot of fun introducing the soon to be teeny tot socialite to the world of classic films, theater and discount shopping.

The trip was wonderful, the company of friends and family was delightful and then the plane ride back to Florida. Why is it people who have colds do not think they number one need to cover the mouths when the cough and number two that the air on the plane is recycled and they may just cause everyone to get sick?

Half way through my 2 hour flight the light reflected through the plane and I could actually see germs floating through the air heading my way from my flight companion who coughed, wheezed and hacker her way though the flight. Fast forward 3 days and this culture beat reporter had a terrific flu that turned into bronchitis and hasn’t seen the outside of the condo in a week.

Still - loved the shopping and seeing the family
Did I mention that we had to buy an extra suitcase to put all the lovely purchases in?

COMM314 Airlines need PR Guru – Combat the “pain in the backside opinion”

The last several weeks I have had the extreme pleasure of booking lots or airline travel for myself and my husband… Now some may not know me and you aren’t quite sure what I mean but the rest of you realize that I am being sarcastic, and you would be correct!

What an ordeal – the countless searches of all the “cheap flight” websites only to discover the “hidden costs” which has become my favorite term when it comes to booking flights.

For instance, I could book a round trip flight from Ft Lauderdale Florida to Philadelphia PA. The initial flight will cost me $98 per person, now add on airport taxes, convention taxes and fuel charges and my $98 flight now costs $135. Then comes the wonderful “hidden fees” – did I mention that if you want a seat on the plane its $6 each way, want extra leg room for an exit room make that an extra $20 each way. Check luggage? That will cost a cool $15 per bag each way.

Let’s recap – my 98 flight with all the additions in now will cost me at whopping $177
That’s if I only check one bag!

Here is my favorite part – several airline companies do not subscribe to mass airline and discount sites. They figure their fares are low enough people will find them – They are right! I spent the next hour finding a more reasonable flight that only cost me a total of $120 with up to 2 checked bags.

For my money, airline companies who have wonderful “hidden charges” need to spend some money trying to impress upon me why I should use their services and also desensitize me to the “extra charges” sticker shock because right I suffer from the pain in the backside opinion.

COMM314 - PR without money

Many of you know by now that I am chairing the JLBR Golf Classic. This week I was pondering the economy, and how PR could help spread the message about the upcoming event.

I sat for a moment and thought if I were a corporation what I would do. I would have staff put together a media campaign, invite in the press and take out ads. If I were a professional athlete I would hire a PR firm, reinvent myself with new clothing, do interviews and make rounds of apologies. What one thing do these scenarios have in common???

MONEY What is a non-profit to do when they are trying to raise money and not spend it? We have a media committee for the golf outing. They have written press releases, put up website, created post cards and rack cards. Yet is this enough during an economic downturn?

I sought advice via the internet where I found this article “How to Become a Household Name” One line in the story caught my attention

“Another important way to generate media interest in your business is by harnessing the power of your own personality.”

Interesting, what is it I can do to generate PR and get the message to the community that we have a great event, we are sponsoring a children’s golf clinic and that the funds will go towards helping women and children in our area….

Talk to People…

Lots of them…

Its time to start a grass roots effort to raise awareness – call media outlets, banks, major corporations and the entire membership to inform them about the Golf Classic and ask them to help and mostly ask them to provide us with referrals.

All this effort should draw attention to the outing which will in turn generate interest and that will lead to donations.

Wish us luck…

COMM344 - Passion with purpose

Passion to do what you believe in was the message in the posting from Professor Vanhorn this week. I agree, you need to have a passion for what you do and a desire to do it well.

I would add that Passion goes hand in hand with Purpose!

Not long ago Jay and I found a book called “The Passion Test” by Janet Bray and Chris Attwood. The premise behind the text is to motivate and inspire, to help others find the way to achieve their goals and find out what it is that is most important to the person and help to discover their passion in life.

The book itself is very long only 291 pages and easy to read yet the pages are filled with testimonials from average people that will inspire the reader.

My favorite section of the book is Chapter 8 “What You Think You Become.” I have always believed that if you are positive and strive for goals that you will achieve, I guess you can call me a believer. On the reverse, I also believe that those people who constantly mention how sick they are, that life is terrible and are filled with Doom and Gloom are believers too – they just choose to accept defeat.

“What you put your attention on grows stronger in life” is mentioned in the book and could also be heard in another novel “The Secret,” The bookie and video that spread the news that being positive and striving for what you want - “passion and purpose” help you achieve your goals.

Not long ago I was watching Joel Olsten with my husband and he mentioned the very same message, what you believe can happen. How interesting that a minister would spread positive news and the power for good, I like it!

Regardless of what you believe in I hope that everyone finds their passion and purpose that will help them find happiness.

COMM314 - The Importance of PR

Today I sat in a meeting that discussed all the communications aspects that would be involved in promoting public programs and events. As I observed the process my mind wondered to the question on the value or importance of PR for a company. I went online to “Google” the question and found some interesting answers.

For the corporate sector I found an essay by Mike Manning of Connors Communications. He talks about the Importance of PR in a Successful Company Launch. He states that a good PR plan can actually take a “new market by storm and offers the most cost-effective way to validate a new product or service to the most people possible.”

For the educational sector I found a scholarly paper written by Lee Stewart whose PR Model paper titled The Importance of Public Relations was peer-reviewed, accepted, and sanctioned by the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) as a scholarly contribution to the knowledge base in educational administration. He discussed how crucial PR to the educational system. He claims that the community has the right to know what happens in public schools since the community pays for the public schools. Therefore the school system needs to be able to effectively communicate, needs and results. This holds true for elementary through higher educational institutes.

For the government sector I found an article on the New Edelman stakeholder study shows rising importance of PR in Japan written by one of Japans premier PR agencies. The study found that Japan realizes that they need to run their businesses in the traditional manor yet use the “Western Style” of communication to spread the word. According to this article this is a complete shift in philosophy for the country’s business.

Regardless of what sector you ask PR is now an invaluable asset that helps promote goodwill, mission and cooperation. On a side note, I think it is great that the U.S. can now be called the inventor of modern PR practices!

COMM344 - Jazz Music is it vanishing?

This week I have the privilege of speaking to the director of a local jazz society. This director has long been a figure of jazz music in South Florida and has done so much for the Jazz Music Culture: She has held concerts that benefit music scholarships at Florida universities / schools, she is dedicated to spreading the message about the complex yet improvisational art of jazz music and she has maintained the positive message that music helps to bring society / groups of people together.

This week I found another side of the personality of this music powerhouse, fear. The economic situation in the state has caught up with the small arts organizations such as hers that rely on outdoor concerts, restaurant gigs and community support to keep their organizations solvent. Contributions are down, people are staying home versus spending money on a night out and restaurants that once hired performers nightly have scaled back to weekend only entertainment.

Even more distressing to her was that she feels that Jazz Music is being pushed out of South Florida. Case in point, one of the last South Florida Jazz radio station has been reformatted to be an easy listening station. The only other Jazz station remaining is the public broadcasting station and her fear is that the economy will force the station into bankruptcy.

Combine this with that the fact that local public schools are cutting the music programs and forcing band directors to teach basic curriculum, which rarely includes Jazz, and she knows that unless something is done to create more visibility for the American Music Standard there will no longer be an audience for the music.

What can we do? According to our Jazz friend, spread the message about the American Music genre that began in New Orleans. Talk to friends, neighbors and associates and the music and its benefits and mostly participate by sponsoring schools Jazz music programs to ensure that this piece of Americana remains.