International Public Relations - Vera Wang - Case Study Example

International public relations Vera Wang M. Tournesac :Nawfel Bennis , Emile Fabre , Linda Sanchezm , Meng Xiao , Gadah Aldemaiji Events Order Client Vera Wang 
It is an American brand that presents classics bridal collection. Goals/objectives to be achieved 1. External objectives The fashion show is aimed at increasing international brand awareness by getting the potential customers know about the company and the brands. The brand awareness will make people to know more about the company and also to discover the company (Waiyachote, 2007). Through the fashion show, the company will make a better international brand image by building a brand perception given that the fashion show will held in the world’s leading fashion capital, Paris. The fashion show is expected to attract a large number of people/clients both new and existing (Ali-Knight, 2008). The fashion show is also aimed at showing its new products/services in a foreign market which will attract more customers hence helping to increase sales leads. The fashion show will create a show within the show where the foreign market will be made aware of the company products. This show will also be aimed at showing the full range of the company products and services to the foreign market (Waiyachote, 2007). The event will help the company find new international clients and to increase the Customer Relationship Management. The staff of Vera Wagg will deal with new international clients one on one hence increasing CRM. The company will create and build CRM in the foreign market. To increase it international networks, get smart, sell products abroad and get an international media exposure. Through the fashion show, Vera Wagg will manage its exiting lobby and supplier networks, create new networks, sell its products to the foreign market directly and indirectly and get an international media exposure both B2Band B2C. 2. Internal objectives The company aims at enhancing team building with the international staff and clients. This will be done through the creation and development of a team spirit (Oliver, 2009). The fashion show will also motivate, inform, support and reward international clients. Rewarding the international clients will increase their confidence and trust with the company and its products. Events Description Nature of the event Fashion Show- Vera Wang will be hosting a fashion show in order to market beautiful wedding/bridal dresses in Paris, the world’s fashion capital”, in the famous Place Trocadéro, which is located in front of the Effeil Tower. The issue going along with the organization of such an event is to find the most suitable- perfect place since, when it comes to location, one must keep in mind that it will mirror the spirit of the brand itself. Here it is all about finding the emplacement where trendiness meets accessibility. The whole objective of this fashion show is to catch the eyes of potential clients and news reporters ergo they must be able to get to the place with relative ease. So a hub within one of the world’s most fashionable cities seems the perfect match. Moreover having a stunning view on the Eiffel Tower is a great asset. The event will also put across homosexual marriage and adoption, which is on high debate in France. The gay marriage movement will also be emphasized in the show. Gay or homosexual marriage seems to be rampant in France, and as a result, the event will integrate it in the fashion show to ensure that the homosexuals do not feel left out or rejected. Integrating the homosexuals in the fashion show will also attract more customers into purchasing the company products and more so the gays as they will feel accepted by the company. During this show, the selected women/model will parade on the stage in the different bridal dresses. There has been a debate in France about legalizing homosexual marriage and adoption. As a result, the company plans on having two women/models parade as a couple, and two men also. This will be done to emphasize on the homosexual/gay marriage. The whole trocadero garden will be reserved for the show, and the VIP invitees will be seated next to the stage (we are going to have two stages which is indicated in the picture above) the models will come from the stairs in the right and they will make around until the stairs in the left . First we will have one girl model (age 12) who wears white dress to start the fashion show, then 2 couples of bride and groom, after we will have 2 couples of 2 brides, then 2 couples of 2 grooms. Later around 10 models that are wearing bridle dresses will walk one by one until the end of the show. 1. Bridal Images Below are some of the bridal images which clearly shows how the homosexual marriage will be incorporated in the fashion show- Having two models parade as a couple at the stage. The images below are samples to represent what will happen on the actual fashion show day. That is, the images do not represent those of the actual fashion show. Reasons for promoting gay marriage Homosexual marriage is rampant in France. Fashion is highly influenced by the kind of community it is targeted to and therefore, promoting gay marriage in a gay community would be beneficial for the company as this would attract more customers into purchasing the bridal dresses and hence increased sales. Promoting gay marriage is an external objective of the company which the company will get an immediate feedback on the perception of its brands from the target clients. It will also improve the perception of the market on the company products as well as improving its brand image. Promoting gay marriage is a business strategy and a market entry strategy for Vera Wagg. Given the rampant homosexual marriage in France, any company planning to enter into that market should have a strategy on how to address this issue. Any company which will address the homosexual marriage issue will gain a competitive advantage in the market. Vera Wagg’s fashion show is intended to make the competitive over other similar companies globally and in France and hence the business strategy of promoting gay marriage. Hour per hour description 2 pm to 8 pm The fashion show will start from 2.30 pm until 4 pm Award ceremony from 4 pm until 4.30 pm Serving champagne from 4.30 pm until 6.30 pm Dinner from 6.30 pm until 8 pm Day 1: open event to all public followed by award ceremony and serving champagne and dinner to VIPs Day 2 and day 3: open event to all public and serving champagne to VIPs Event Timing according to time Events positioning/Phase A Clients visibility means To enhance client visibility, all the event visitors will be divided into the following groups a. Target audience- Clients The main target audience is basically all the already existing and potential future international customers. This range will be highly receptive to the power of image during the show; anything from the music to the decoration may have a huge impact on them. Overall the average client of Vera Wang can take on various profiles due to the wide range of prices offered by the brand. It is noticeable however that Wang’s policy is based on High Fashion/ couture at any price and some of its dresses cost only $2000 with the Luxe Collection starting at $6000. Therefore the show must fit with the needs of the more people possible. b. Useful audience- Media Indirect audience is inherent with these events as well; any news reporter or press body which can connect to them must be considered a targeted and useful audience in the same way as the attending clients. c. Hostile audience- Wedding dress creators Paris is hailed as a world capital of High Fashion and couture, therefore competition in that area must be expected hence a significant number of hostile attenders is to be considered. It will be mainly High Fashion/ Wedding Dress creators. In this domain activity, one must not only protect our business strategy – in this case the potential customers we are canvassing- but also the integrity of the brand’s artistic property. The matter is how to avoid these to happen on a large scale during the event. During the daytime event an entrance fee will be held and attendance to the dinner might be based on an online registration request and selection system. d. Close external audience- Financial partners, shareholders and distributors Whether they are responsible for financing the project/ event or are long time international key partners to Vera Wang, they must be on the front row during the show and a part of the dinner and award ceremony following. e. Event audience – The models Official Supplier Vega Wagg will be the official supplier for the wedding dresses. There will be official suppliers for transport servicesand decoration. Metro will be the supplier for transport services where it will ferry all the invited people from the terminus station to the venue for the fashion show. Despite being on of the leading public service providers in Paris, the ticket prices for a group in nay given day is cheaper than purchasing individual tickets which makes it cheaper for Vera Wagg. Allied Europe is an event management company based in Paris and will be responsible for the supply of decorations for the fashion show (Oliver, 2009). Dinner, cocktail and hospitality services will be supplied by a different supplier. Le Meurice which is one of the leading restaurants in Paris will supply dinner and cocktail to the fashion event. Being one of the leading restaurants in the country, Vera Wagg is assured of highly quality service provision to the audience and all the attendants of the show. The better the services, the better it is for Vera Wagg as this will earn it extra points. Secondary sponsors Secondary sponsors for the fashion show will include the financial partners, suppliers, distributors and shareholders of the company The company shareholders will take a risk in investing in the fashion show project The sponsors will be responsible for the event budget Note: The secondary sponsors will only take 10% of the total event budget. Direct competition Direct competition will be expected from other bridal dress companies in France given that Paris is the world’s fashion capital. It is expected that the other bridal dress dealers in Paris will try to host similar events at the same time as the Vera Wagg’s fashion show in order to compete for the bridal clients with the company. The fact that the fashion show will be held in Paris is a direct competition for the bridal shops there. Indirect Competition Indirect competition will come from those companies, which deal with different products but in the same lines of bridal dresses. The other companies dealing with other types of bridal dresses will experience indirect competition from Vera Wang’s fashion show (Cameron and Wilcox, 2011). Events positioning/Phase B Venue The fashion show will be held in the capital city of France, Paris. Paris happens to the world’s fashion capital”, in the famous Place Trocadéro , which is located in front of the Effeil Tower. Dates The fashion show will be held inthe first weekend of May 2013. That is will be 4, 5 and 6 of May Communication Strategies Global Communication Strategies The communication strategies to be used include media partnerships, direct marketing and Public relations. All communication strategies (PR tools) will be used 7 days to the event. To communicate to our clients about the on coming show, the following communication means/tools will be used: a) Press release- This will be done for 4 times prior to the event time and once at the end of the PR operation. The company will use both print media and visual media. For example, Vera Wagg intends to use 20 Minutes newspaper which is one of the leading newspapers in France to advertise the upcoming event. The company will also run live adverts on different television stations in Paris in order to inform the people about the upcoming event (Oliver, 2009). b) Use of live shows where media will place on event versus media program on show. During the live shows, a representative from the company will hold live shows with different television station where they will talk about the show, what will be in the show and the expected outcome of this show. This to inform the audience and educate them about the show (Cameron and Wilcox, 2011). c) Internet will be used where ads will pop up versus the event tools. Articles will be displayed prior, during and after the show. In the current world of technology, most of the young people are using internet more than they watch programs from the television. Homosexual marriages are common with the youths and so are fashion shows. Advertising on the internet will therefore be a good public relations tool as it would help capture a substantial number of youths and audience (Wanta, Johnson and Golan, 2009). d) Posters, flyers, invitation cards and banners to be displayed in strategic places in Paris. The posters, banners and flyers will be placed strategically on the busy streets in Paris. This is to ensure that a large number of people are informed of the event. The posters, banners and flyers will be designed using quite attractive colors to draw attention to the moving crowds in the busy streets. Invitation cards will be sent to individual people invited to the event (Oliver, 2009). e) Other PR tools used include magazine covers, trade shows and TV shows. The magazine covers will display some of the dress designs by the company and give the readers enough insights about the company. Press Relations Partnerships with the media are the press relation for the fashion show where posters, Internet and TV shows will be used. Press relations will be upheld, as the company will use media strategies to communicate the upcoming show to the global clients (Duhe, 2007). This is to give the consumers first hand information of the fashion show and all the fashion show events as it takes place. Visibility tools Pre-event Event Post-event Radio ads Posters Speaks (Radio game) Print (Catalog) Print (Catalog) Street marketing Radio ads Press release + file Street marketing Press release+ file Print (Invitation cards) Program Program Direct marketing Press release + file direct marketing Designer creations Several designer creations will be displayed to accompany the advertisements and the communication tools used. They will also be used during the event to promote the designer dresses of the company. Life cycle of the fashion show event Budget It is estimated that 90% of the budget/financing will come from the customers and Vera Wagg with only 10% being from the sponsors. The event standard cost will be used to calculate the total budget for the event. Trade shows will take 15% of the budget while the public fair will take up to 25% of the budget. The total balance for the event is as follows: Total revenues euros VAT excluded41, 590,750.00 MARKETING COMMUNICATION COSTS 20,753,250.00 PRODUCTION COSTS 3,185,350.00 GLOBAL EVENT COSTS   23,938,600.00 CLIENT INVOICE, euros VAT excuded 41,590,750.00 GLOBAL EVENT COSTS TO COVER, euros VAT excl. 23,938,600.00 BALANCE 17,652,150.00 (As in the attached excel file) Appendices/Architectural event plans References Oliver S., (2009). Public Relations Strategy. Kogan Page Publishers Cameron G.T., Wilcox D.L., (2011). Public Relations: Strategies and Tactics: International Edition. Pearson Education, Limited Waiyachote P., (2007). International Public Relations at Top 50 Global Brands: A Converged Or Diverged Approach?.ProQuest Duhe S.C, (2007). New Media and Public Relations. Peter Lang Wanta W., Johnson T., and Golan G, (2009). International Media Communication in a Global Age. Routledge Ali-Knight J., (2008). International Perspectives of Festivals and Events: Paradigms of Analysis. Elsevier Rennen W., (2007). CityEvents: Place Selling in a Media Age. Amsterdam University Press Read More