At the beginning of the module the students will have to choose a particular organisation/company/product from the given set: launch of new tech company, product or app, launch of new software or e-commerce/startup company The final choice of a student needs to be approved by the module leader. It must be real company or project/product or the one the student is working on. The student must also determine the problem or issue of communicative nature that this company must deal with. The teacher will help the students to choose both the organisation/company/product and problem, providing the lists of suggestions if necessary. Then the students must research the organisation/company/product and a problem and elaborate the brief of the project from the client point of view containing the following: The short description of the company: the type and sector of the organisation/company/product, its size and turnover, the product, the organisational goal of the organisation and its situation in front of competitors. Values, Mission and Visions. The description must include the audit of communication resources of the selected entity (which media and tools have been used so far). Description and diagnosis of the situation or the problem. If it is a real organisation/company/product you may have discover its problem in the newspapers; if it is a imaginative one you can ´´invent´´ an issue to be treated. The problem must be of communicative nature: communicating financial results, relations with workers, launching new product, building the press office, dealing with environmental issues so it has to develop proper relations with the government, relations with investors, crisis in Social Media, to mention few examples. The description must include the origins of the problem, its development and consequences for the company and its publics, taking into account the competitors. In addition, it shall examine what were other communicative initiatives of the entity and its competitors regarding the problem (in the past and so far) and what was the overall result. The diagnosis must include the decision to be made on the situation, providing the solution to the situation in terms of communication strategy. SWOT analysis applied to the situation and organisation/company/product: all the elements must examine the company in this particular problematic situation (eg. of it is a crisis of image at one market, we are looking for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding only this company and this particular crisis) Desired results of its communication strategy in this particular situation/problem (improving relations with investors, improving image, reaching media, etc.) Map of its usual publics on the base on the provided model during the course Wished timing in which the strategy shall be implemented with the justification why in this time frame maximum budget that the company/organisation/ is ready to spend On the base of it, the students must elaborate a contra brief- a proposal with a communicative strategy as the solution to be implemented to achieve the desired objective explained in point 4. The brief must outline the following: Objectives of its communication strategy set up according to SMART methodology which will be discussed during the course Description and accuracy of target stakeholders: justification why this target is selected, how is it accurate for a selected objective, demographic, lifestyle and psychographic characteristics of the target, its size and importance for the company as well as behaviour in the selected problematic situation Creative idea of the strategy- a short description on which strategy is planned and why, and how it will be developed Main message: design and write the main message to be transmitted to the target: for example the compromise with environmental values, readiness to repair the mistakes, etc. Usually, it is one clear and convincing sentence that will guide other materials Communication techniques to be applied: specifying which PR tools will be used ( eg. those of internal communication, external communication, press relations, etc.), on the base of the contents provided in the class. The tolls must be justified in terms of its accuracy to the problem and organisation possibilities. Media plan: specifying and justifying which online and offline media will be used Overall planning of a approximated timing: Gantt table that will be provided in the course Proposal of budget in the form of the table that will reflect the overall costs References in Harvard/APA style containing all the sources used in the contra-brief and brief elaboration. Drafts of brief and contra-briefs will be provided at the beginning of the course and discussed in the class as it form an integral part of the contents. The student will choose the format that is more comfortable for him among those presented. Brief and contra-brief must form a single document and be minimum 1000 words and maximum 1200 words in the form of executive summary of the most important elements, following the structure outlined above. The size is 12 of Times New Roman font. Single spacing. It shall include the Bibliography at the end of the document as specified above.
#contrabrief #elaboration #presentation
