Thursday, September 22, 2011

Chegg for Good


Chegg is a social education platform that is rapidly changing the way students across the United States by connecting them to the resources needed to succeed in college. The number of campuses connected through Chegg nationwide is more than 7,000. Everyday students use Chegg for homework assistance, course selection, and textbook rentals. This company was established as solely an online textbook renting website in 2007. Since then the company has been enhancing education for millions of students nationwide and has established a positive reputation for its philanthropic efforts. The Chegg for good campaign mission statement really puts the campaign into perspective. “The mission is to help students save time, save money, and get smarter.” Target audiences for this campaign would have to be students attempting to obtain degrees from higher-level education institutes. Age groups in this target audience would range from 18-25. Key publics would include the customers and students who use Chegg each and every semester. The Chegg for good campaign is intended to help students out but they also believe that together we can be a powerful catalyst for change. Since 2008 Chegg has been planting trees on behalf of customers and due to its partnership with the American Forest Global Releaf Foundation over 5 million trees have been planted. This organization has a great reputation, people know of the organization, and there are no opponents who feel negatively toward the Chegg for good campaign.  Simply put, it’s about us doing good. I really liked this approach in the campaign because it tries to unify the target audience’s with the campaign making them feel as if they contributed toward the world becoming a better place.  When I think of 5 million trees, that’s a lot of trees. The campaign also utilizes that number very well by displaying it clearly along the bottom of the website. The first objective that came to my mind for this campaign would be capturing the attention of this particular age group and being able to connect with them. From a business standpoint the typical college age student is a very hard person to stay connected with. I think this is why Chegg will remain a game changer in the education and in the environment to show students this company cares about them, and cares about the world we live in.  Results for this campaign are obviously tremendous. According to an article I found on CNBC.com, this once textbook renting website is projected to be one of tomorrow’s tech titans.
This company plays both sides of media relations and is based on the notion that good actions will produce good results for everyone. The subtle objective of this company is to retain a connection with every college student in attempt to control the market. They utilize every possible medium to communicate messages of good surrounding the Chegg name. They also enable anyone to post ideas and solutions for the Chegg for good campaign. This is a great way to entice students to be active and participate with the organization. This idea will help generate more attention toward the campaign and is the most effective way to engage the media. Everything regarding the website or the campaign can be found online including fact sheets, recent news releases, and everything Chegg is doing to manage its positive reputation. Judging by the amount of good being done by Chegg I have become their most recent supporter. The future for this company is very bright, and with the company’s most recent acquisition of Zinch. This high school to college profile and resume’ website will help link students to perspective institutes searching for particular types of students. This will obtain students for the organization directly out of high school and will enable them to continue the relationship throughout the students college careers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g2HGyCh8L4 CNBC Video on Chegg

Campaign Analysis 1 Dove

The public relations situation that faced the Dove personal care company was a tremendous decline in sales due to a heavily over crowded market.  Dove was one of a multitude of companies featuring cookie cutter type models to help sell personal beauty care products. The company was attempting to find a niche in the market and looked to its parent companies public relations staff to devise a campaign to redefine the personal care industry forever. This was the first time the Dove company has dealt with a situation like this. Dove had to figure out a way to replace conventional methods of advertising using these stereotypical models. Because there was dispute among the public in portraying these women as users of their products might have prevented some women from using Dove over other brands and would prevent the company from solidifying itself in the market.
The “Dove campaign for real beauty” was formulated to establish itself in the crowded market utilizing a teleological ethical style approach. This results driven approach is based on the notion that good actions produce good results. In making their company sand out from other products in a very positive manner could provide more financial support for the company.  An opportunity arose from the campaign to help solidify itself in the market as a staple of the beauty care industries.
Together the collaboration between Dove and the parent company’s public relations staff resulted in one of the most successful campaigns in recent history. The opportunity Dove had dreamed of was to change how people view their bodies and renovate beauty care for themselves and the products we sell will continue to help you stay beautiful. The focus on how the public views “themselves” was what made this campaign successful.  The success is credited to the focus on the individual feeling good about themselves rather than whishing to be the cookie cutter serotypes. This resulted in the product is viewed as well as the focus on how the products make women feel more beautiful regardless of their age, shape, or size. This public relations campaign with such a revolutionary approach style would end up bolstering a 600% increase for products featured in the ads over the first two months of the campaign according to Dove sales.By redesigning the way we view beauty, they could then tailor a message specifically to target those women who have been converted toward the Dove way of thinking. Once the Dove mode of thinking has been installed into the culture, the company could then expand on this idea by giving the public the details needed to actually believe that we as individuals are beautiful regardless of their outward appearance which would end up selling more Dove product’s than ever before.
. In addition to changing the way women view their bodies; this campaign did a very good job of changing the beauty market, as we know it forever and will remain a staple of the industry. It is also very clear that Dove will remain a major contender in the personal care product as long as they continue with this revolutionary approach to campaigning. Prior to this campaign Dove was standing next to rows of personal car products on a shelf with the dream of being the one product to stand above the rest. With the completion of this public relations campaign I believe the situation has been resolved and the organization found a way to formulate a positive affect with a mutual benefit for all parties involved.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFPGa0pKyTg

Monday, January 24, 2011

Spring 2011 @ KSU

My name is Alex Budd and I am a 21 year old Communication Major with a focus in Public Relations. Prior to enrolling at Kennesaw State University in 2007, I graduated from South Forsyth high school. I have never blogged before, but it sure feels nice to vent from time to time.
After a long and rigorous end to the calendar year of 2010 it is finally time for the first semester of 2011. The semester could not have started off any better! The entire first week of classes at Kennesaw State University were closed due to inclement weather. Once the snowy/ice mix melted it's time to go back to class right? Not quite yet thanks to Martin Luther King Day. As with every good thing... it must come to an end. Eventually the school ran out of reasons to keep me away from class and was forced to open their doors to thousands of frustrated students with a little extra lack of motivation. Today marks the start of week 2 which from the spring semester, marks the start of RUSH. I am a member of the Kappa Sigma student organization on campus. This week is about meeting new people and seeking for potential brothers.