By Tanner Bowden
Project Purpose
Setting out I wanted to create a public relation plan for Felicity’s Photo, a local photographer in Rexburg. Felicity, the owner and photographer of Felicity’s Photo, wanted to increase her exposure in the local community and find ways to stand out amongst the competition. I knew early on that research would play a key role in creating an effective PR plan that Felicity’s Photo could move forward with. After researching the market, I intended to create a plan that outlined the business’s current position, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as identify goals and strategies for the business moving forward.
Project Processes
To start my project I met with Felicity and helped her identify the main goals that she had for her business.
Felicity’s four main goals were:
- Enhance the business’s name recognition in her local community and surrounding areas.
- Have more engagement across her social media platforms in the form of likes, comments, and follows.
- Gain more positive reviews that she could share across social media platforms to help others to choose her business over another.
- Increase the overall volume of bookings.
After identifying these goals I started working on my market analysis and researching the demographics, competition, and consumers of the area. My research found that there was a lot of competition in the photography market ranging from established photography studios to people posting on Facebook trying to make some extra money, but there was also a lot of opportunity for business with lots of young families, graduations, engagements, and weddings. My research also found that because of the saturated market and number of low income individuals in the immediate area, clients were willing to forego quality in exchange for a lower rate.
After completing my research on the area I focused in on positioning of Felicity’s Photo within the market. First, I completed a SWOT analysis that outlined the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the business. From there I dove into Felicity’s goals for the business and the different strategies and steps she could take to accomplish these goals in a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely matter.
It was important that I could present all my research and the PR plan to Felicity’s Photo in a professional manner that could easily be followed and referred back on so I decided to make my PR plan, customized with photos from her business, into a booklet using Canva.
The Project
Below is the pdf version of the PR plan I created for Felicity’s Photo.
Challenges
The biggest challenge I faced throughout the project came from the market research. I felt that without the right and unbiased facts developing a strategic PR plan wouldn’t be possible. Much of my research, outside of online data sources, came from talking to people in the community and ensuring that I had a diverse group of people responding to my questions was critical.
Overview of the Experience
Final Thoughts
When I began this project I wanted to increase my experience in conducting market research, evaluating a business’s position within that market, and creating SMART goals and strategies a business could use moving forward. The biggest insight that I gained throughout my time working on a PR plan for Felicity’s Photo was that the market matters. Researching the market may not be the most enjoyable part of creating a plan for a business, but it is necessary. Without knowing the market landscape my plan wouldn’t have been nearly as relevant or had the ability to create an unique strategy for the business moving forward.