Public Relations Writing And 3 Companies That Are On Thier Game

Peggy Hughes

CGD318: Public Relation Practices and Promotional Writing

September 22, 2015

Public relations is anything to do with people who are basically professional communicators. The purpose of public relations writing would be for a professional communicator who is very good at communicating through writing to be masters of all manner of written, spoken, and digital communications and knowing how to write is number one (Seitel, 2015).

My first example is Nike Organization on line. They are always releasing better athletic shoes and clothing. The Nike Flyknit is my favorite shoe and about $200.00 a pair.  Each year when the new ones are released they advertise in writing all over their websites, news media, and stores they are sold in.  The purpose is to get people to buy this shoe. Because it is so expensive they have to really make it sound better than it actually is.  The PR is awesome and the message was written well by advertising the ultimate in cushioning in huge bolded letters, they offer the most flexibility to date while delivering maximum cushioning while you run. Below the advertisement is where Nike writes even more benefits of the shoe. They follow the PR strategy by talking about Nike Air Max Origins that date back to the late 70’s and how in 1987, Nike Air Max 1 debuted with its visible air in its heel as it still is today showing you all the comfort of the shoe.  I felt this was very good public relations writing because its gets the audience’s attention and tells you everything you need to know about the shoe while offering you a 30 day trial with it. The only improvement with this advertisement would be to show all the colors of the Nike Flyknit shoe. On this ad they only show one and someone new to the shoe may not know it comes in lots more colors. They also may not know that Nike will release two to three colors at a time throughout the year. I must admit I am a fanatic and own about 32 pair of Nike air max and Nike flyknits so I know quite a bit about them and follow all these PR advertisements for the latest and greatest.

Another big organization that stick out in my head are egglands best eggs. They hired PR people to advertise and put on their containers of eggs that the chickens are free range chickens or meaning they are not in cages and allowed to run free. They also advertise all the vitamins you are getting in their eggs. Their stamp of approval means the best. The purpose behind this is to get more people to buy their product. The more advertising on the container the more people will pay the higher price and purchase it if they think they are getting more for the money.   What they failed to leave out is the fact that they still are injecting them with growth hormone. All eggs have the same vitamins and really go through the same type of process but it’s just not

advertised.  People are thinking they are getting a better egg because the chickens are free range and not held in factory farms and allowed to run free. What they do not realize is while they may have a little more room to run it’s still pretty much the same thing. People also mistaken these for organic eggs because they state cage free or free range. It’s a PR advertising gimmick and well written especially people who really have not researched it.  Their strategy is to make the same thing seem like something else and combine terms and ideas to create a new approach to get people to buy their product. Improvements would be to be completely honest on your packaging but we all know that won’t happen because then people would not buy them as much.

Lastly, would be cell phone companies particularly mine and that is Verizon. All the cell phone companies hire PR people to make their deal that they are offering better than the others. If not better they will copycat off of another company and offer the same thing for less money to get you over to them. My company is even now advertising that they will pay off your current contract to come over to them. Most people jump at this to get a new phone but do not read the small print of what they are actually getting themselves into so the message is well written because the average consumer will jump. They are using the strategy by using new terms and phrases and combining ideas from other companies to win you over. It is good public relations writing because it will grab people looking to change and bring them over. What most people do not realize is all the cell phone companies are offering the same thing just using different words, phrases, and terms. All cell phone companies pretty much sell the same phones so they have to make their contracts and what they offer better than the competition even though usually in the small print there is a catch somewhere which most people will not read. Improvements would be to really create something new and better than the competition as far as contracts go and being able to get new phones without spending a lot of money or paying that high expensive insurance. Most people will pay the contract as long as they can get a new phone when needed. That is the hard part.

Reference

Seitel, F. P. (2015). Public relations & promotional writing [Electronic version]. Retrieved from http://outboundsso.next.ecollege.com/default/launch.ed?ssoType=CDMS&redirectUrl=https://content.ashford.edu/ssologin?bookcode=AUCGD318.15.1

 Nike, Inc. (2015). Retrieved from http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/flyknit-air-max-running-shoe/pid-10284831/pgid-808866

 Verizon, Inc. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.verizonwireless.com/landingpages/verizon-plan/

Eggland’s Best, LLC. (2015). Retrieved from www.egglandsbest.com