Public Relation Plan for Mulberry - Case Study Example

Public Relation plan: Mulberry Introduction: Company Profile Mulberry is an English luxury brand that was established in 1971 by Roger Saul in Somerset, England. The fashion company is presently one of the most successful and respectable brands with an international presence. The most saleable products of the company in and outside Britain are luxury costumes, leather bags and footwear. The business activities of Mulberry can be classified as design and retail divisions. The design division is responsible for crafting and designing luxury products, managing production and wholesale allocation, marketing and brand management. On the other hand, the retail division is mainly responsible for selling Mulberry products at independent shops and store counters in malls and supermarkets. From the financial viewpoint, Mulberry is listed at the London stock exchange with a market capitalisation of £437.08 million. Presently, Mulberry is the largest luxury leather products manufacturer in the United Kingdom. The fashion house has two production factories in Somerset, the Rookery and the Willows, where skilled craftsmen and craftswomen are hired from surrounding areas. Mulberry upkeeps the touch of Englishness along with style and elegance in its products; creativity is of high importance in the organisation. The signature collections include Roxanne, Bayswater, Alexa, Lily, Brynmore and Willow. In 2006, the company had started a training and apprenticeship programme for nurturing and developing the skills of potential craftsmen and women. The apprenticeship programme is also a source of recruitment for the company (Mulberry, 2014a). In the following section, various aspects of the public relation plan for Mulberry have been discussed. Situational Analysis Situational analysis refers to the process of assessing an organisation’s internal and external environment with respect to its capabilities, consumers, competitors and external factors such as, media and government regulations. There are numerous methods of conducting situational analysis such as, 5C analysis, Michael Porter’s five force model, SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis. Situational analysis of Mulberry includes assessment of its internal and external factors (Wolstenholme, 2013). Internal Analysis In this section, the company culture, organizational structure, financial resources and budget, current problems and approach adopted to mitigate the issues will be elaborated (Wolstenholme, 2013). Mulberry, being one of the renowned companies in the international fashion industry, has a creative workplace environment. The company has a total of 1087 employees and are engaged in enhancing organisational activities through innovation and crafting skills. The net revenue has declined as per the financial reports of Mulberry for 2013 and 2014. According to the management, wholesale business of the organisation is facing turbulence due to slow market condition in the United Kingdom and Asia, which justifies the decline in revenue. The internal analysis further suggests that the operating profit has fallen due to increased cost related to newly opened stores. On a positive note, the organisation is focusing on remodelling the product offerings and planning to launch various products within an affordable range. In addition, Mulberry is concentrating upon improving productivity of its existing stores as well as creating a strong international store network. External Analysis On the external front, the company is gaining popularity not only in the United Kingdom, but also in Asia and Middle East. The company has observed huge profit in 2010 when it had launched its brand, Alexa, in Middle East and Asia (Mulberry, 2014a). However, increasing cost of the raw materials and labour are to be held responsible for greater operating cost incurred by the company. According to the Wall Street Journal (2011), one of the chief executives of Mulberry had expressed concern over increasing cost of the raw materials such as, leather. Then again, it was also evident from the conversation that the company will not be compromising on quality delivered. Campaign Objectives According to Tench and Yeomans (2009; 2014), campaign objectives are mainly formulated on the basis of three factors: awareness, attitude and behaviour. Awareness campaigns encourage target population to perceive certain thoughts related to the product and services. Affective campaigns influence individuals to develop a particular feeling(s) towards certain aspect(s). On the other hand, conative campaigns affect behaviour pattern of people, thereby influencing individuals to take certain decisions or behave in a particular manner (Gordon, 2011). The campaign objectives of Mulberry can be classified as cognitive and affective in nature and they are stated as follows:  To promote its position as a luxury brand in the local market, the company requires opening more number of retail stores at prime locations of the United Kingdom and crafting advertisements and promotions that exhibit materialistic richness. Fashion industry being a creative segment, Mulberry must undertake product differentiation so as to meet unique demands.  For international expansion, the company should increase its participation in international fashion shows and promote the brand through well-known business as well as fashion magazines. Also, Mulberry can create products as per requirements of the consumers in a particular nation. For establishing presence of their products in a particular country, the company needs to set up greater number of stores and undertake activities that draw positive customer attention.  In order to expand its consumer base, the company must segment its products and add variety. Keeping in view the declining disposable income of individuals, Mulberry needs to introduce low cost products so that market share can be increased. The campaigning objective in this regard should be to make consumer relate themselves to the new products (Mulberry, 2014b; 2014c). Publics Fashion has a unique way of influencing every other business sector, given that every individual embraces developments in fashion industry overwhelmingly. However, Mulberry products are generally not directed at the mass population. It is rather more acceptable to individuals with high social status. In addition, there are a number of ways to segment the consumers of Mulberry: Geographical segmentation Mulberry has stores in a number of Asian, European and Middle Eastern countries such as, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Ireland, Kuwait, UAE, Spain and the United States (Mulberry, 2014a). Demographic segmentation From demographic point of view, the Mulberry products such as, outfits, footwear and bags, are mostly purchased by women. Then again, the company has male consumers as well. The age of the consumers of Mulberry ranges between 25years to 45years. Since the Mulberry products are comparatively expensive, the purchasers are mainly individuals with high disposable income. Psychographic segmentation According to the psychographic segmentation of Mulberry’s target population, the brand is preferred by those consumers who have a luxurious lifestyle. These individuals include celebrities, business tycoons, sports personality and other wealthy individuals. They purchase the products of Mulberry as they are able to relate their lifestyle and taste with the same. Group memberships Group associations such as, member of societies and club as well as influence of families has a great impact on the purchasing behaviour. Individuals prefer social acceptance and appreciation when they invest in luxurious products. Power segmentation (covert and overt) Overt and covert power does not exert any significant influence on the purchasing behaviour of Mulberry’s consumers. Segmentation by role in decision making Role in decision making process has a great influence on purchasing behaviour of the consumers. It has been observed that individuals who occupy higher authority in the decision making process tend to purchase luxury brands such as, Mulberry (Center, et al., 2014). Messages Mulberry requires reaching greater consumer base in order to improve its market shares, profit and competitiveness. Hence, the company need to launch affordable products along with the luxury products. The message will be framed aligned with the business objectives. The company can disseminate the message that it will launch handbags directed at mass affordability. It is expected that the message will attract attention of all those individuals, especially women, who are willing to purchase Mulberry bags or footwear, but are unable to afford it due to high cost. The idea will affect the common perception about the brand being a luxurious one as the existing customers may consider dilution of the company’s exclusivity. In this regard, the company must assure its consumers that the low cost products will be standardised in nature and the image and status of the luxury products will be taken care of through differentiation (Gaines-Ross, 2008). The message can be communicated through conducting press conference and personal interviews for fashion magazines. In the interviews and press conferences, the public relation representative of the company will clearly explain that by launching new products, they will not compromise on reputation of the existing products (Broom, 2013). Public Relation Strategy There are four main strategies that a firm can employ for managing public relation activities: no action, taking action only if it is necessary, taking action to avoid a problem and integrating every member to solve the problem. In this context, it is important to note that not every strategy may prove fruitful in different scenarios. Strategy formulation: The first step is to determine the audience. If Mulberry is to launch new low-cost bags, it needs to determine demand for the product. For this purpose, the company will conduct multiple surveys for precisely outlining the demand. In the next step, the public relation department will be involved in the pre-launch activities such as, creating awareness and building expectation regarding the product prior to the launch. The pre-launch activities will be followed by intensive and integrated communication related to the event launch. After the product launch, Mulberry will focus upon various follow-up activities Every new activity involve certain degree of risk and issues, which is why Mulberry will undertake planning pertaining to risk management so as to maintain trust of the shareholders and reputation of the product. Mulberry will integrate various activities through internal communication among its employees so as to ensure that they act as internal ambassadors. On the other hand, the organisation will conduct proactive communication with the consumers and stakeholders for developing and maintaining their interest in the products offered (Oliver, 2009; 2004). Tactics According to Smith (2009), communication tactics can be classified under four major categories: Interpersonal communication, Organisational media, News media and Advertising and promotional media. In addition, communication tactics depends heavily on the kind of strategy that an organisation develops for its products. The strategy can be short-term as well as long-term in nature. For short-term campaigns, Mulberry’s communication strategy should include media components such as, press conference, press releases, advertising and interviews. The company should broadcast its products in the existing and new stores. However, strategies related to long-term campaigns can be more complicated. The company will require focusing mainly on adopting strategies to establish market leader perception. Also, for achieving long-term success, Mulberry must position itself in such a manner that it has an impact on the industry as a whole. The strategic communication tactics can be described as being action oriented and non-action oriented. The action oriented tactics or events that Mulberry can implement primarily consist of celebrity endorsement, fashion events, exhibitions and demonstration. In contrast, the non-action oriented tactics can include newsletters, brochures, direct mails, advertising, theme activities, news release, social marketing and micro blogging (Phillips and Young, 2009). For Mulberry, the primary public relation activities will include building relationship with various media partners, public relation oriented advertising and direct mails, press conferences, sponsorship, lobbying, building financial public relations and product image related crisis management (Gregory, 2000; Wilson and Cameron, 2014). Tool analysis Public relations management is a part of overall organisational management activities, which identifies, develops and maintains a relationship between organisations and its stakeholders. The tools of public relations can be classified as internal media and external media. In case of Mulberry, the internal media mainly constitutes in-house journals, annual reports, presentations, and printed literature (Smith, 2008). The external media sources for the company are public events, press releases, newsletters, blogs and social media marketing (Breakenridge, 2012). Mulberry has an in-house online journal, where it publishes about its events, collections and various other developments taking place. House journals are considered as one of the most effective public relation tools helping organisations to communicate progress and developments to the employees (Mulberry, 2014a). Annual reports and presentations are published by every organisation at the end of every financial year. Mulberry also publishes interim as well as annual reports and presentations. Annual report is considered important from the internal and external stakeholders’ point of view. Annual reports and presentations enable the stakeholders such as, shareholders and financial collaborators, to determine organisational performance (Smith, 2008; Mulberry, 2014b; 2014c). Mulberry hosts different fashion shows so as to gain attention of the mass. The most common events that the company conducts internationally are Autumn-Winter collection show and the Summer-Spring collection show. At regular intervals, Mulberry communicates with its stakeholders through press releases. The press release media include newspapers, magazines and television. Sending newsletters is a very common, yet effective, marketing and public relations strategy. Newsletters are released by the company to keep the consumers and other stakeholders updated about activities conducted. Presently, almost all global organisations maintain online blogs so as to gain better access to their online audiences. In this context, the mention of social media marketing is very important as consumers are primarily targeted through social networking sites such as, Facebook and Twitter (Breakenridge, 2012). Evaluation of the plan Regular evaluation of public relations (PR) plan is necessary for a company as it contributes towards determining the progress of activities and control deviations. Continuous evaluation of the plan allows for measuring success of the PR activities. There are three aspects of evaluation process, which are described below: Program conceptualisation and design will help in determining the target population distribution and the cost that Mulberry will incur in conducting the PR campaign. Furthermore, the evaluation process will also point out the related benefits and effectiveness of the campaign. Monitoring and measurement of accountability of the implemented program will foreground whether the campaign or strategy of Mulberry is able to achieve the desired targets. It will also monitor and measure effectiveness of the tactics applied related to the strategy. Impact and efficiency of program will be assessed so as to oversee that the program is complying with the desired objectives. Moreover, evaluation plan will also determine whether the resources are being utilized judiciously and the costs are within budget (Cutlip, Center and Broom, 2006). There are few methods of evaluating the PR plan: MacNamara’s Macro Model The model presents PR programs in the shape of a pyramid. There are three layers that show input, output and outcomes. The input measures quality of the message conveyed, appropriateness of the message as well as the medium chosen and its impact on the target group. The output assesses effectiveness of the message and the degree of its dissemination. Lastly, the outcome in the model represents whether or not the targeted objectives has been achieved. Under the MacNamara’s model, various data collection methods are applied at different levels such as, peer review, interview, focus group, observation, surveys, feedback and databases (MacNamara, 2008). Apart from this model presenting a comprehensive approach to program evaluation, Mulberry can also apply techniques such as, survey, media content analysis and Lindenmann’s yardstick (Wilcox and Reber, 2014). Reference List Breakenridge, D.K., 2012. Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional. Harlow: Pearson Education. Broom, G.M., 2013. Cutlip & Center’s Effective Public Relations (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Center, A., Jackson, P., Smith, S. and Stansberry F. R., 2014. Public Relations Practices. International Edition. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Cutlip, S.M., Center, A.H. and Broom, G.M., 2006. Effective Public Relations, 9e. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Gaines-Ross, L., 2008. Corporate Reputation: 12 steps to safeguarding and recovering reputation. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. Gordon, A.E., 2011. Public Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gregory, A., 2000. Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns. London: Kogan Page. MacNamara, J. R., 2008. PR Metrics. Research in public relations: a review of the use of evaluation and formative research, pp. 1-20. Mulberry, 2014a. About us. [online] Available at: [Accessed on 19 July 2014]. Mulberry, 2014b. Annual report 2012. [pdf] Mulberry. Available at: [Accessed on 19 July 2014]. Mulberry, 2014c. Investors presentation 2014. [pdf] Mulberry. Available at: [Accessed on 19 July 2014]. Oliver, S., 2009. Public Relations Strategy (3rd ed.). London: Kogan Page. Oliver, S.M., 2004. Handbook of Corporate Communications and Public Relations Pure and Applied. Abingdon: Routledge Phillips, D. and Young, P., 2009. Online Public Relations: a practical guide to developing an online strategy in the world of social media. (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page. Smith, L., 2008. Effective Internal Communication (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page Smith, R.D., 2009. Strategic Planning for Public Relations. (3rd ed.). Abingdon: Routledge Tench, R. and Yeomans, L., 2014. Exploring Public Relations (3rd. ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education. Tench, R. and Yeomans, L., 2009. Exploring Public Relations (2nd ed.). Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. The Wall Street Journal, 2011. Mulberry Aims to Keep Quality High, Despite Increase in Costs. [online] Available at: [Accessed on 19 July 2014]. Wilcox, D.L. and Reber, B.H., 2014. Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (7th ed.).Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Wilson, D.L. and Cameron, G.T., 2014. Public Relations Strategies and Tactics (10th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education. Wolstenholme, 2013. Introduction to Public Relations. 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