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Introduction

P-are has been appointed to devise and implement a public relations campaign for Carat Catering. The overall aim of the campaign was to raise awareness of Carat Catering’s unique service in East Kilbride and the immediate surrounding area. Through the campaign P-are primarily aimed to create a brand identity and raise awareness of Carat catering within the local community. The campaign increased their online presence through the integration of the following social media platforms, website, blog, Facebook, Twitter and Blipfoto and communicated with the local community through various public relations tactics. Additionally the campaign also aimed to implement a business to business public relations approach building relationships with appropriate businesses within the East Kilbride area.

Research and Planning

In order to create an effective campaign for carat catering we at P-are carried out some in depth research prior to devising and implementing our campaign.

The first stage of research involved several meetings in October with Carat Catering to ensure we understood the company and their plans as much as possible. This involved us devising a list of key questions for Carat Catering (See Appendix A). These questions were crucial as they helped develop our understanding and the needs and wants of the company. It was clear that Laura and Andrew from carat catering wanted potential customers to know that they offer a flexible service. Initially they informed us that they cater for the needs of their clients as opposed to what Carat Catering can offer them. This makes them different from competitors as they have no sample menus for customers. In addition Carat Catering also mentioned that they wanted to target everyone and had no specific target market. The only markets that they mentioned they were keen to pursue at a later date were weddings and possibly busy families but they made it clear they did not want to pigeon hole themselves. Lastly they informed us that they needed a website up and running with a portfolio as they had only a basic template which they had created before meeting us.

Our second stage of research at P-are then involved researching Carat Catering as a company where we analysed their online communication materials such as Facebook and the website in order to analyse their current brand position. We then put together a competitor list of all immediate competition in East Kilbride (See Appendix B). We also researched potential competitors online paying close attention to the website design and marketing messages of other catering companies. We then met with Laura and Andrew again and discussed our findings. Prior to this meeting Laura and Andrew had mentioned that they wish to increase customer enquiries as well as gain regular clients. We suggested after close examination that it would be wise to have a community based campaign as Carat Catering were unknown within the community and were not branded yet. This should then lead to the local community of East Kilbride enquiring at a later date about Carat Catering and spreading the word amongst friends. It was decided that the main focus therefore for this 13 week campaign was to establish Carat Catering as a community focused company and raise awareness online and offline in the local area of East Kilbride and surrounding the areas.

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The third stage of planning and research was focused on a competitor review. Laura had informed us that there was one main company she considered as competition to Carat. This was Book a Buffet online (See Appendix C). We then asked Laura how she wants Carat Catering to be perceived, she stated “We do not want to be seen as flashy or fancy; instead we wish to be seen as simple but elegant”. From the competitor websites that we showed Laura ‘TheMixx’ websites branding was closest to the vision she had for Carat Catering’s image. (See Appendix D). We then took on board the “simple but elegant” theme and inspiration from ‘The Mixx’ website.

Our final step in the planning and research stage before putting together our campaign strategy was to finalise the publics. Laura and Andrew had mentioned in our first meeting that they were looking to target busy families within East Kilbride who do not have time to plan and organise family parties. We at P-are after doing some research suggested that Carat Catering identify communities within the local area of East Kilbridevia local media and through the Christmas Craft Fair. We researched potential publics and devised a list of East Kilbride community centres, libraries, Sports centres and parent and toddler groups (see appendix E). However we still suggested aiming at a wider audience in the surrounding area such as Glasgow and Renfrewshire through a business approach and online tactics. As we were aware Laura and Andrew were both keen on tapping into the wedding market we suggested a simple business to business PR approach. We researched potential businesses within East Kilbride specifically those who would fit into this market (see Appendix F). We suggested that this approach would be wise as it would be impossible to “target everyone” and that defining particular markets would be the smartest option. After devising our key research lists we then put together a list of appropriate media for the campaign (see Appendix G).

Situation

Carat Catering is a new catering company based in East Kilbride. It is run and owned by Andrew who has 12 years’ experience as a chef and his fiancée Laura whose background is events with over 15 years’ experience. They are currently running Carat Catering as a part time business while Andrew is working full time and Laura part time whilst both looking after their young baby of 7 months. They describe Carat as personal, flexible, loyal, honest and quality. The key message which both Laura and Andrew want Carat Catering to represent is “Simple but elegant”. It was important that our campaign message tied in with this balance as Carat Catering cater for both family occasions such as christenings, birthdays and engagements as well as for weddings. Up until this point their clients have been fairly limited. They havedone one charity event in Alloathis summer but received no business from it. They have a few clients booked in at the moment. One is a wedding and the others are christenings. They got these clients through friends and family spreading the word. Carat Catering had a very basic website with mixed messages throughout. They had created a Facebook but it was not integrated with the website. A Twitter account had been set up but not used. They had no media coverage at all. They had three platforms online with no key message or integration of communication materials. Carat Catering has no written business plan. However Laura and Andrew informed P-are that they are unique to other catering

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companies in East Kilbride as they offer an event planning service to customers. It was therefore essential that our public relations strategy at P-are allowed Carat Catering to build relationships with other relevant successful businesses within the party planning and wedding markets in East Kilbride and surrounding areas.

Business Objectives (long term)

Following a meeting with Andrew and Laura we helped them devise some long term business objectives for Carat Catering.

To become a market leader in East Kilbride. To expand their business for them to work full time for Caratand have a shop. To move into the wedding market. To have a reputation for their personal and flexible service. To create and build a strong brand identity To have a strong online presence.

Potential Issues

As Carat Catering is a new business they currently have very little to no market share. They are not well known with only a few friends and family currently aware of them. As catering is a business based on trust, quality and word of mouth it is difficult to generate new consumers with a very small previous client base. Therefore the campaign was focused on building relationships amongst both potential consumers and businesses in order to raise awareness of Carat Catering and give them validity in the form of peer approval from competitors. There are already a few established catering companies in the surrounding local area so it could prove difficult to get consumers to try Carat Catering. Andrew and Laura are currently running Carat part time so the time and budget that they could afford to give us for the campaign was very little.

SWOT Analysis

StrengthsCarat Catering have over 25 years combined experience.They offer a unique and flexible service.

WeaknessesThey are a new company with no reputation.Poor online presence.Time, budget and resources available.

OpportunitiesDifferent Packages.Community and Business to Business approach.

ThreatsCompetitive market.

PEST Analysis

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PoliticalRecent cuts in the spending review have further affected economic state.

EconomicDue to the economic climate change people will be looking to save money.

SocialAt the moment the local area of East Kilbride are unaware of Carat Catering and their excellent service and products.

TechnologicalThe internet will have a massive impact on the campaign especiallyonthe website and social media.

Summary

The thirteen week campaign was proactive taking into account both short term and long term objectives of Carat Catering. The campaign ensured that there was raised awareness of Carat Catering’s unique services and brand identity within the local community of East Kilbride as well as the surrounding area. The main aim of the campaign wasto build positive sustainable relationships within the East Kilbride area. This was achieved by implementing both consumer and business to business strategies.

Campaign

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The campaign ran for thirteen weeks starting Wednesday 21st September until Wednesday 21st December 2011. We decided this would be the best time for the PR campaign to run because it gave P-are a full month in October to research and plan, devise potential ideas and tactics and to have regular client meetings to ensure we came up with the most suitable and achievable campaign for Carat Catering. A long term business objective of Carat Catering is to move into the wedding market so Carat Catering is attending the East Kilbride Wedding Exhibition on Sunday 26th February 2012. For this event to be successful it is essential that they establish themselves with communities and businesses within the local area of East Kilbride and surrounding area in order for the wedding event to be a success.Launching throughout the festive period gives Carat Catering the perfect opportunity to build relationships with the local community as well as building contacts with other businesses.

Aim

The overall aim of the campaign was to raise awareness of Carat Catering’s unique catering service within East Kilbride and the surrounding areas amongst potential new clients and businesses, resulting in positive relationships.Additionally itwasenforced thatthe brand image of Carat Catering isquality, personal service, communityand flexibility.

Campaign Objectives

Create and integrate a brand identity for Carat Catering across all communication platforms online and offline by December 2011

Enforce Carat Catering’s unique event planning service throughout all campaign messages by December 2011.

Raise awareness of Carat Catering by 200 peoplefrom East Kilbride and the surrounding area by December 2011.

Gain 5 positive media articles within local and regional media by December 2011. Update and manage Carat Catering’s social media platforms and website

consistently from September 2011 until December 2011. Link up and build relationships with 5 businesses from East Kilbride and the

surrounding area by December 2011. Attract 100 people to the Carat Catering Christmas craft fair on Sunday 11 th

December

Publics

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The key publics this campaign communicated with are:

Customers Community Businesses Media

Customers

As Carat is a new company they currently have little to no previous client base, so we have broken down the potential customers this campaign communicated with into two groups, Local and Regional.

Local Customers Overview

A key objective for the campaign was to raise awareness of Carat Catering within the local area of East Kilbride. By integrating offline and online tactics and media exposure, this campaign communicated with the local people of East Kilbride about the unique service of Carat Catering and that they are community orientated.

Local Customers Objectives

Create and integrate a brand identity for Carat Catering across all communication platforms online and offline by December 2011.


Raise awareness of Carat Catering by 200 people from East Kilbride and the surrounding area by December 2011.

Link up and build relationships with 5 businesses from East Kilbride and the surrounding area by December 2011.

Gain 5 positive media articles within local and regional media by December 2011. Attract 100 people to the Carat Catering Christmas craft fair on Sunday 11 th

December

Local Customers Tactics

Carat Caterings Christmas Fair Business to Business Link up Flyers and Posters Press Releases

Local Customers Media

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Local Media (East Kilbride News) Online Media (East Kilbride Local) Social Media (Facebook, Twitter and Blogs)

Regional Customer Overview

Although a key objective of the campaign was to raise awareness of Carat Catering in the local area of East Kilbride they felt that they didn’t want to “pigeon hole” themselves by just catering for customers in East Kilbride. So this campaign also communicated with potential customers in the surrounding area such as Glasgow and Renfrewshire using primarily online tactics such as social media as well as try regional media.

Regional Customers Objectives




Gain 5 positive media articles within local and regional media by December 2011. Link up and build relationships with 5 businesses from East Kilbride and the

surrounding area by December 2011.

Regional Customers Tactics

Carat Catering Christmas Fair Business to Business Link up. Flyers

Regional Customers Media

Regional Media (Glasgow Evening Times) Online Media (This is Renfrewshire) Social Media (Facebook, Twitter and Blogs)

Community

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As previously stated a key objective of the campaign was to raise awareness of Carat Catering in the local area of East Kilbride as well as creating the brand image that Carat Catering is the community caterer for East Kilbride. This was achieved through the use of online and offline tactics such as social media and The Carat Catering Christmas Fair at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in East Kilbride, as well as online and offline local media.

Community Objectives






December

Community Tactics


Community Media


Businesses

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Carat Catering is keen to establish relationships with both local and regional businesses in the form of a link up, where Carat Catering will have a link on their website to a business and the business will put one for Carat Catering on their page in return. This gave Carat Catering some peer validity if they are seen to be associated with local and regional businesses, as well as additional exposure. This will especially be evident within the event planning side of the business as it lets Carat Catering have a portfolio of trusted business that they would be able to use or recommend to customers for different events. This campaign also allowed for these other business to recommend Carat Catering to their customers if they are looking for a local caterer or an event planner. This public has been divided into two groups, local businesses and regional businesses.

Local Businesses Overview

Carat Catering linked up with local businesses from East Kilbride within the wedding, party and crafts market. By linking up with the local business it created the image that Carat Catering is the East Kilbride community caterer, as well as exposure to new potential customers by being able to leave flyers in their shops (if they have one) or a link to Carat Catering on their website. By inviting local business to the Christmas Fair it portrays Carat as being community orientated and trying to help other local business. The local businesses will also be asked to recommended Carat Catering if any customers are looking for a caterer or event planner and carat will do the same for them in return.

Local Businesses Objectives




Communicate that Carat Catering is a community focused company in the local Area of East Kilbride by December 2011.



December.

Local Businesses Tactics

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Local Businesses Media


Regional Businesses Overview

Although a key objective of the campaign was to raise awareness of Carat Catering in the local area of East Kilbride they felt that they didn’t want to “pigeon hole” themselves by just catering for customers in East Kilbride. So by extending the Business Link up to include businesses from surrounding areas it allowed Carat Catering to widen their potential consumer geographic and not just be “pigeon holed” to consumers in East Kilbride.

Regional Businesses Objectives






December.

Regional Businesses Tactics


Regional Businesses Media

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Media

The media is a key public that was communicated with to promote key aspects of the campaign to a wider audience. We aimed to gain media exposure in the online and offline local media for East Kilbride. We also aimed to generate media coverage in both online and offline regional media. The appropriate media for each event within the campaign was sent press releases. This public has been divided into two groups, local and regional.

Local Media Objectives






December.

Local Media Tactics

Carat Caterings Christmas Fair Business to Business Link up Press Releases

Local media


Regional Media Objectives

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December.

Regional Media Tactics

Carat Caterings Christmas Fair Business to Business Link up Press Releases

Regional Media


Campaign Message

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The campaign message for Carat Catering was ‘Catering with you in mind’. This was chosen as it sums up Carat Catering as a company and it stated exactly what the campaign is about. The idea behind the theme for the campaign came from Carat Catering informing us that one of the main things that make them stand out from competitors as well as their event planning service is the fact they tailor to the customer’s needs.

Campaign Strategy

The overall PR strategy for the campaign was to ensure that Carat Catering was to raise awareness both online and offline. In addition to this we kept the local media, the local East Kilbride community, local businesses and customers interacting throughout the campaign through online and offline tactics.

Media Strategy

The media strategy was crucial to the success of the campaign. It was put in place to ensure that the local media such as East Kilbride News and STV Local East Kilbridewere aware of Carat Catering and their activities.

The social media element within the campaign wascritical as it kept potential clients and the appropriate people up to date with the campaign and Carat Catering in general. Carat Catering Twitter and Facebook accounts were updated continuously throughout the campaign and media relations also took place via these platforms such as mentioning STV Local East Kilbride on Twitter. The Blipfoto blog was updated on a weekly basis to showcase some of the food that Andrew created. In addition the website was maintained and updated regularly with photographs throughout the campaign. In addition a blog was created on the website to keep it active. This online media strategy built relationships and enforced an online presence for Carat Catering and the campaign.

Media releases were sent out to the local and regional media regarding Carat Catering’s services and Christmas Craft Fair (See Appendix H).

Carat Catering Brand Identity Process

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A key objective of the campaign was to create a brand identity for Carat Catering. So we had a meeting with Carat Catering to establish what sort of idea they already had in mind for the identity of the company. The key words and phrases they used to some up Carat Catering were flexible, quality, elegant but simple and family run. When asked about colours for the Carat Catering brand identity they responded purple and Laura stated she liked professional fonts. Regarding the logo they said they would like something along the lines of the Coco Chanel logo to incorporate the two C’s of Carat Catering.

From these answers we went on to create Carat Caterings Brand Identity and communication materials.

The Logo

So the visual idea Carat Catering already had in mind was along the lines of the Coco Chanel logo incorporated with the colour purple and a professional font.

With this in mind some potential Carat Catering logos were created.

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These potentials were then sent to Laura to see if any were close to what she had envisioned. She got back to us and said that she like numbers 3 and 4 but wondered if she could see them with a handwritten font.

The two potentials were then forwarded to Laura and she replied almost immediately saying “number two is the one”.

So this became the Carat Catering brand logo and it was featured on all P.R materials.

The Tagline

The key words and phrases that Carat Catering used to some up their company were flexible, quality, elegant but simple and family run.

From this we came up with the tagline for the company “Catering with you in mind” to emphasise the flexibility of the service they are providing. Laura was more than happy with the tagline and said “It sums up Carat and what we are all about perfectly”. The tagline appeared across all P.R materials.

The Website

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Carat had previously created a website but there was no integration of marketing messages or branding of any kind. As there was no budget for the website we had to make the best of what was already in place. The website was used as a platform to send potential consumers to for more information about Carat Catering and it was updated throughout. Here is a screen shot of the landing page of the website before we took control.

The main focus of the landing page was the cupcake which gave the impression that they were a cupcake company. There was no mention of the event planning side of the company either.

We decided we had to put the new Carat logo and tagline on each page of the website as well as replacing the cupcake with a photograph that better represented the image and services that Carat Catering provide.

All the text on the existing pages on the website was redone and some new pages such as About us, Events, Buffets, Cakes, Weddings and a Blog were added (See Appendix I).

The Carat Catering Flyer

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The only physical promotional material that Carat Catering had previous was some business card which is now dated because they have an old contact number on them.

We were asked to design and create a Carat Catering flyer that they would be able to hand out when they are at events such as the Shawland’s Christmas Fayre, The Carat Catering Christmas Fair and The East Kilbride Wedding Show or to give to a client when there order is delivered.

To ensure the flyer was integrated with the brand identity of Carat Catering a few key characteristics have to be present on the flyer such as the logo, the tagline, the “type” of events they cater for, the Facebook and website address, handwritten font, elegant but simple, family orientated and the colour purple.

This is how the flyer looked with just the basic communication message and branding necessities.

There was a space left at the left hand side for an image but we were not sure what. We wanted an image that could some up “celebrating” without being too cliché or specific to a particular event for e.g. a champagne bottle for a wedding. We came up with the idea that a universal image for celebration and general happy times was balloons.

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We found this image of balloons online but thought it looked a bit plain so we coloured it in purple.

The coloured balloons were then added to the flyer.

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The flyer was still lacking a bit of shape and elegance. So a simple border was added.

Laura and Andrew were both very happy with how the flyer looked and how it represented Carat Catering.

The Carat Catering Christmas Fair Flyer/Poster

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As Carat Catering is running their own Christmas Fair we had to design and produce a flyer to promote the event offline. To ensure the flyer is integrated with the brand identity of Carat Catering a few key characteristics have to be present on the Christmas flyer such as the logo, the type of businesses at the fair, where the fair is, when the fair is, how much entry is, elegant but simple, family orientated, easy to read and the colour purple.

The handwritten font was actively avoided as it is harder to read on the coloured background especially in passing if the poster is on a wall.

When brainstorming ideas for the Carat Catering Christmas Fair flyer/poster we decided that it was best to stay away from Santa Clause images because the fair is at a church hall and we didn’t want to be seen as going away from the real reason of Christmas. So we came up with the idea of a neutral jolly snowman.

Laura and Andrew were both very pleased with the flyer to promote their event.

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Campaign Tactics

Strategy

We currently have two communication strategies, online and offline. The offline strategy is primarily focusing on the local area of East Kilbride area and the online strategy has a much broader geographic communicating with those potential customers and businesses from the surrounding area but still keeping community spirit image of Carat Catering.

Website

The Carat Catering website was used as a branding platform to send potential customers to for more information about Carat Catering and it was updated throughout. It was also used as part of Business link up tactic and a link to the participating business was put on the links section of the website. The website was base the base of all our communication materials and social networking channels. The Twitter and Facebook accounts were linked to the website to help drive more traffic to the social networks. There was also a link to the Blipfoto account and a link from the Blipfoto account back to the website.

A blog was integrated with the website so that any viewer/ potential customer would know that the website and Carat Catering is still active and that the website is not just a dead space. It was also used to keep customers updated about what was going on with Carat Catering and more specifically the Christmas Fair as well as used as a tool to promote the Carat Catering business link ups.

Blipfoto

Blipfoto is a daily photographic social media platform based in Edinburgh. It gets 13 million page views per month and 40% of its user base is in Scotland. The concept of Blipfoto is to upload a photograph every day to the website. Throughout the campaign one photograph was uploaded per week. As Andrew is the head chef at Carat Catering we created a photographic diary documenting the food he cooks at work, at home and for Carat Catering. This platform gave Carat Catering the opportunity to promote their services to a wider audience and was integrated with the rest of the campaign as the journal was called “Catering with you in mind” the campaign key message and there was link back to the Carat Catering website (see Appendix J).

Blipfoto.com has a section called groups which users of the site become members of based on their interests. One of the groups is called food. Every image uploaded to Blipfoto was tagged to the food group so that those interested in food were more likely to see it. Another

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positive aspect of this tactic was that it allowed Carat Catering to upload lots of food images in a user friendly format which can be used as a portfolio.

Facebook

After the Carat Catering brand identity was created and the website updated, the Facebook was then integrated with the same brand identity, communication message and a link back to the Carat Catering website.

Both the client and the group had control over the Facebook account keeping the page updated by liking pages, adding messages to the new likes, walls, liking comments and tagging Carat Catering in the messages so that people would notice the Carat Catering link.We also created photo albums for Carat Catering such as ‘Food’ and ‘Christmas Fair’. We participated in several page hops with Top 100 UK Wedding FB Pages, Handmade For You UK and Fan Page Promote. A page hop is Facebook pages devoted to promoting other businesses so you submit your business by tagging your business on their page and hope that they will include your business in a ranking order of the businesses they think are worth people having a look at and liking. Carat Catering ranked high in these page hops and gained many new likes from them as well as wall posts.

We promoted the Shawlands Park Hotel Christmas Fayre that Carat Catering had previously booked, by creating an event explaining where, when and what time the Fair was, inviting friends to it and sharing it on our personal Facebook pages promoting the Fair. However, we predominantly promoted the Carat Catering Christmas Fair by creating an event explaining where, when, what time, and displaying information on the businesses attending the Fair and the reason why the Fair was taking place. Again this event was re-posted repeatedly on the Carat Catering Facebook page as well as pages concerning events taking place in South Lanarkshire that people might come across such as What’s on East Renfrewshire, East Kilbride (www.eastkilbride.co.uk) and Explore East Renfrewshire. We also shared the event repeatedly on our own Facebook pages and the businesses attending also shared the event on their own pages.

The special discount of 10% off on orders over £100 was also promoted also Facebook page. We did this by mentioning the discount in repeating status updates and directing likes that might be interested in the offer to the website for more details, and the terms and conditions of the discount. The special discount offer was also posted on the Facebook page ‘Hike Those Likes’ in order to gain more coverage.

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http://www.eastkilbride.co.uk/

Twitter

After the Carat Catering brand identity was created and the website updated, the twitter was then integrated with the same brand identity and a link back to the Carat Catering website. The Carat Catering logo was updated as the Twitter profile image and the bio was written to communicate the campaigns key message, “catering with you in mind”.

We wrote tweets telling Carat Catering’s followers to visit the new look website to see the changes and find out about what services Carat Catering can offer them.

We took part in Follow Friday and Wedding Wednesday on Twitter, this basically involved us tagging several businesses or people that Carat Catering follow in a post every Wednesday and Friday and suggesting that people follow them too. By placing the hash tags #ww and #ff we suggested several businesses to Carat Catering’s followers and in return most of these businesses returned the favour, which helped to raise the number of followers on Carat Catering’s twitter page.

We promoted the Christmas fair by explaining where and when it would be held and included a link to the Facebook event page and hash tagged the words #East Kilbride to allow others searching for East Kilbride to find it. Several of these posts were retweeted by STV East Kilbride and East Kilbride.co.uk (See Appendix K).

We posted tweets promoting the special discount of 10% on orders over £100 which features on the Carat Catering website. We did this by mentioning the discount code and directing followers to the website for terms and conditions.

Business to Business link up

A critical part of our public relations strategy for Carat Catering was our business to business tactics. Due to our limited timeframe we chose to target businesses within the wedding market as well as local crafts businesses from the local and surrounding areas. The main aim of this tactic was to build relationships which could lead to potential customers through word of mouth in the long run.

Firstly we researched potential businesses and these were approved by Carat Catering. We then created copy for an email which we then sent to Laura from Carat Catering to email to all the businesses (See Appendix L). We believed it would be best for the businesses to be in direct contact with Laura herself.

The first business to reply to Laura was Nuvo Limousines, a limousine hire service for weddings and special occasions in Glasgow and surrounding areas. Laura forwarded this email on to us at P-are and one of our team then liased with Chris from Nuvo Limousines via email. Chris offered to do a blog post for Carat Catering. We accepted this offer and in return added his company to the Carat Catering ‘links’ page on their website.This

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relationship has further developed with regular Twitter and Facebook interaction with Nuvo Limousines (See Appendix M).

The second business to reply to Laura’s email was The Kilt Company who specialise in kilt making and hire. Charlie who is in charge of the franchise accepted the offer to ‘link up’ with Carat Catering in return for a link on their website. They kindly returned the favour and asked for some flyers for the East Kilbride store which is located in The Village, known as EK Kilt Company. We then contacted Laura from Carat Catering and we agreed that a cake giveaway would be a nice gesture. On Wednesday 7th December 2011, two members from P-are collected a tray of mini cupcakes and Carat Catering flyers from Andrew. They then delivered the cakes and flyers to the EK Kilt store in the Village. This was a success and the woman who runs the store was more than happy to promote Carat’s Catering services to her customers. She also allowed us to take a photograph of her store for a blog post. P-are then posted a blog post on Carat Caterings website. This will help build Carat’s relationships with other businesses (See Appendix N).

Thirdly the campaign as a whole was approached in a business to business sense. The Christmas Fair tactic that follows, was also a business tactic as well as community based. The businesses that attended the fair now have a good relationship with Carat Catering and maintain regular contact on both Facebook and Twitter. Facebook in general with our regular daily updates and interaction has evolved and even businesses who did not attend the Christmas Fair are also bonding with carat Catering and recommending to their friends such as Beautibelle. A mobile bridal make up and beauty service (See Appendix O).

Carat Catering Christmas Craft Fair

As part of the community approach to our campaign Carat Catering ran its ownChristmas craft fair in Our Lady of Lourdes parish church in East Kilbride. We invited 18 local businesses from South Lanarkshire (See Appendix P) to exhibit at the fair. The businesses were charged £10per table and all proceeds were donated to the church minus the £70 hall charge. The sole purpose of this tactic was to not only spread community cheer and raise awareness of Carat Catering to the locals of East Kilbride but to also showcase Carat Catering’s unique event planning service to the community.

We suggested this idea to both Laura and Andrew and they agreed it was a good idea. They mentioned that prior to our meeting they had been chatting similarly and agreed that this would be the perfect opportunity to launch them in East Kilbride.

Our next step was to help Laura and Andrew source small craft businesses from South Lanarkshire. Laura used her own contacts in the business and we at P-are used our own contacts as well as Facebook and Twitter to locate and promote the fair to potential stall

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holders. This proved successful. The week beginning 14 th November 2011 we managed to reach our target number of 19 businesses including Carat Catering themselves.

We then designed and created a promotional flyer for Carat Catering’s Christmas Fair. After this was approved by Carat Catering we then created a Facebook event for the Christmas Fair and began to promote on both Twitter and Facebook regularly. As well as through the Carat Catering page we also did this through our own Facebook accounts. The Carat Catering blog was also updated with the Christmas Fair post(See Appendix Q)

Media relations

The next important stage of the Christmas fair was to gain appropriate media coverage. Our first media release was sent out on Monday 21st November 2011, two weeks prior to the Christmas Fair. This was covered by one newspaper, The Evening Times and three online news websites, STV Local East Kilbride, Eastkilbride.co.uk and The Evening Times Community News Page. In terms of media relation tactics the following two weeks we focused on Twitter and Facebook promotion. P-are contacted What’s On East Renfrewshire who agreed to post weekly updates and then a daily countdown to the Christmas Fair. A similar tactic was used on Twitter, in particular with the editor Kayleigh McLeod from STV Local. This was achieved by mentioning STV local many times on Twitter and then receiving retweets and creating a relationship online with the editor and Carat Catering. Our second media release for the Christmas Fair was sent out the week of the fair on Monday 5 th

December 2011. This was covered by Eastkilbride.co.uk. On Wednesday 7 th December 2011 we contacted Camglen Radio who then mentioned our Christmas Craft fair on air during their 3:00-4:00pm show and dedicated a Christmas song to Carat Catering. This was a success as Camglencovers Rutherglen and Cambuslang, two areas which surround East Kilbride. A final media release was sent out to highlight the success of the Carat catering Christmas Fair at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church with the professional photographs taken on the day. This was sent to East Kilbride News, Evening Times, STV Local East Kilbride, and eastkilbride.co.uk. We are still waiting to see if the media run with the story.

Offline

Another important stage of promoting the Christmas Fair to the East Kilbride community was via offline public relations tactics. This involved contacting key people from specific East Kilbride areas such as libraries, community centres, schools and the church itself (See Appendix R). These calls and emails were made in advance to the actual poster hand out day that took place in East Kilbride. After approval we went out as a team on Wednesday 23 rd

November to flyers these specific places. These were St Louise primary School, St Andrews and St Bride’s high schools, The Village Community centre, the East Kilbride centre central

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library (John Barr kindly took three extra to place in all remaining East Kilbride libraries), Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church and East Kilbride shopping centre community notice board.

On Sunday 4th December, exactly one week before the fair, we then handed out flyers at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church. We handed out around 200 flyers between the 10:30am and 12 noon mass. This was a great success. After finishing this we then as a team had a look at the hall where the fair would be taking place in Our Lady of Lourdes the following Sunday. This was so we could get a good idea of size and facilities and begin our events planning an organisation for the actual day.

Event planning and organisation

During the week beginning 5th December 2011, P-are contacted Carat Catering to find out what they needed help with in terms of Christmas decorations and props and also suggested a community friendly idea. This was a free raffle where the local businesses could donate an item of their choice. This was a success. Another member of P-are also arranged for a photographer to come free of charge to document the event for Carat Catering. This added to the company’s portfolio and will help to establish them as an event planning service on their website and Facebook page.

The Fair

At the fair P-are members helped to decorate the hall and helped organise the event in general. We put up posters on the day outside the church, handed out flyers at the mass times and also arranged and announced the free raffle prizes. The fair was a great success raising a total of £100 for Our Lady of Lourdes Parish church. A member of P-are then went home and uploaded the photographs from the day on to the Carat Catering Facebook page.

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Timescale of events

Timescale Activity

Week 1

21st September – 28th September

We met with Andrew and Laura from Carat Catering on the 21st September to find out about the company and discuss the possibility of running a PR Campaign for them.

We confirmed with Carat Catering that they had selected them as their client and arranged to meet with them again.

Week 2

28th September – 5th October

We met as a group on 28th September and discussed ideas, potential tactics and came up with key questions to ask Carat Catering at the next meeting.

We met again as a group on the 3rd October to prepare for a meeting with Carat Catering later in the week.

During this week, P-are researched Carat Catering, local media and competitors both in East Kilbride, the surrounding areas and online.

Week 3

5th October – 12th October

We met with Laura on 5th October from Carat Catering to discuss key questions and potential campaign ideas.

The group did some research into the Village Centre and Our Lady of Lourdes, both in East Kilbride.

Week 4


We met with Andrew and Laura from Carat Catering to discuss the campaign and received login details for the Carat Catering website and social media accounts.

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We met as a group and set objectives for the campaign.

As a group we wrote a proposal document to present to Carat Catering.

We began branding Carat Catering by discussing what they would like their logo to look like, Ryan designed several options and Laura and Andrew agreed on one.

Week 5


We met with Laura in the Village Centre on 19th

October to discuss the campaign and give her a proposal document for the campaign.

We met as a group on the 20th October to discuss ideas about the village centre and decided it would be best to focus on the Christmas Fair.

Work began on the rebranding of the Carat Catering website.

Week 6

26th October – 2nd November

A barrier was raised on 27th October when Carat Catering decided they didn’t want any media coverage and this delayed the media relations side of the campaign temporarily.

During this week Laura informed us later in the week that it was OK to proceed with sending out media releases.

Louise met with Laura from Carat Catering on 30th October at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church to look at the venue and discuss final tactics.

We met as a group on 31st October to discuss the website, offline and online tactics, flyers for the Christmas fair, link up tactic and the potential discount idea.

Carat Catering gave approval on the website and the changes were published and promoted on Carat Catering’s Facebook and twitter accounts.

Week 7 The discount was discussed with Carat Catering

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2nd November – 9th November

and set up.

First introductory press release was sent out to the media list

Flyers were designed for the Christmas fair and Carat Catering.

Several businesses were sourced and confirmed for the Christmas fair via Facebook.

A blog page was created for Carat Catering to allow them to keep their website up to date.

We met as a group and discussed the discount, link up and Christmas Fair.

Week 8

9th November – 16th November

A media release was created and sent out to the press.

We continued to source and confirm businesses for the Christmas fair via Facebook.

We met as a group on the 14th to discuss the progress of the campaign as well as numbers for flyers/posters and the link up.

An event page was created for the Christmas Fair on Facebook and promoted on both Facebook and twitter. The image of the Christmas Fair poster was added to the Carat Catering Facebook page.

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We sent information to Nuvo Limousines who expressed a desire to promote Carat Catering on their blog page and website.

Week 9

16th November – 23rd November

A media release was created and sent out to the press. The Christmas Fair article was picked up by The Evening Times and was also publicised on the STV Local East Kilbride website and the Evening Times Community Event website. What’s on East Renfrewshire also promoted the Christmas Fair via Facebook. The Carat Catering Facebook and twitter pages were updated to promote this coverage.

We met as a group on 21st November to discuss the Christmas fair, possible media coverage and posters for the Christmas Fair.

The remaining spaces for businesses at the Christmas fair were filled and confirmed.

Week 10

23rd November – 30th November

The group met with Andrew from Carat Catering on 25st November to collect posters and went around local schools, churches, shops and libraries to hand in posters to be displayed.

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church publicised the Christmas Fair on their bulletin. A press release was created and sent out to relevant media.

The East Kilbride website picked up the Christmas fair. We promoted this on the Carat Catering social media pages.

Week 11

30th November – 7th December

We met as a group on the 30th November to discuss the Christmas fair and continued to promote all relevant aspects of the campaign on Facebook and twitter.

We went to Our Lady of Lourdes as a group to hand out flyers to members of the congregation as they came out from the various mass services

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being held during the morning.

We met as a group on 5th December to discuss plans for the Christmas fair and the campaign document.

The writing up of the campaign document began.

The Christmas fair was uploaded on to the STV Local website and the East Kilbride website picked up the Christmas fair again.

Ryan and Louise visited EK Kilt Hire as part of the link up campaign. The Christmas fair received a shout out on Camglen Radio.

Week 12

7th December – 14th December

We continued to prepare for the Christmas fair by sourcing decorations, music and printing flyers.

The Christmas Fair was held on 11th December.

We helped set up the hall, helped businesses prepare, took charge of the free raffle, decorated the hall. Flyers were handed out to members of the congregation coming out of the church and were handed in to houses in the streets surrounding the church who were invited to come along to the event.

Final press release was sent to appropriate media.

The project documentation was finalised and submitted.

Week 13

14th December – 21st December

The success of the event was publicised and promoted via Facebook and Twitter.

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Budget

The budget for the campaign was extremely limited as Carat Catering are currently running as a part-time venture and had little to no disposable income for the campaign. They stated that the budget was £0 but if something had to be bought then they would cover the minor costs but we were asked to work as though the budget was £0.

Items Required

25 A4 Christmas Fair Posters £0 400 A5 Christmas Fair Flyers £0 50 Carat Catering Flyers £0 Mini cupcakes for the Business link up with The Kilt Company £3 Christmas decorations for the Christmas Fair £0 Raffle Book for the Christmas Fair £2 Prizes for the free raffle £0 Our Lady of Lourdes Church Hall £0

Total Spend £5

Item Breakdown

25 A4 Christmas Fair Posters

These were printed by Laura and Andrew at home using their own paper and ink that was not bought specifically for the campaign.

400 A5 Christmas Flyers

These were printed as a team effort. Members of P-are and Carat Catering both used their own printer’s, paper and ink as well as asking friends and family to print some.

50 A5 card Carat Catering Flyers

These were printed at the home a of P-are member using their ink and paper not bought for the purpose of the campaign.

Mini cupcakes for the Business link up with The Kilt Company

£3 was spent by Carat Catering to make a tray of 20 mini cupcakes to take into the Kilt Company in East Kilbride along with some Carat Catering flyers. This was part of the Business link up tactic.

Christmas decorations for the Christmas Fair

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Team members of P-are and Carat Catering all brought along different Christmas decorations that they already had in the house to decorate the Our Lady of Lourdes Church Hall for the Carat Catering Christmas Fair. No decorations were bought for the sole purpose for the campaign.

Raffle Book

There was a free raffle held at the Christmas Fair so a raffle book had to be purchased from WH Smiths for £2.

Prizes for the free Raffle

As it was a free Raffle no money would be earned to cover the price of the prizes. So the prize for the winner of the free Raffle was given a Christmas Bag (which was brought in by a P-are team member) full of items which were donated from the 19 participating stall holders at the Christmas Fair. So as the prizes were donations by the stall holders this resulted in no cost.

Tea and Coffee for the Christmas Fair

£10 was spent on tea, coffee, sugar, milk and paper cups at the local pound shop. The tea and coffee was given out free as a good will gesture and to also keep the visitors of the fair present longer. People were asked to make a donation when receiving a tea or a coffee which would be donated back to Our Lady of Lourdes Church. This again emphasises that Carat Catering is community business.

Our Lady of Lourdes Church Hall for the Carat Catering Christmas Fair

The hall cost £70 to rent for the afternoon. Carat Catering charged each of the 18 other business participating £10 per stall. This gave Carat Catering a total of £180. £70 of this was spent to cover the cost of the hall and the other £110 was donated to the Our Lady of Lourdes church to again emphasise that Carat Catering is a community focused business.

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Evaluation

The success of the campaign was evaluated by investigating if each of the individual objectives were met.

1. Create and integrate a brand identity for Carat Catering across all communication platforms online and offline by December 2011

This objective was met as a visual brand identity in the form of a logo, tagline, corporate colours and font were created and integrated across all communication platforms such as the Website, Facebook, Twitter, Blipfoto, blog, posters, flyers and press releases within the set time frame. The tone in which all communication materials were written remained the same in order to create the brand image that Carat Catering is a community oriented company.

2. Enforce Carat Catering’s unique event planning service throughout all campaign messages by December 2011.

As the USP that differentiates Carat Catering from their competitors is that they have a fully integrated events planning service. Before the campaign Carat Catering looked more like a company who sold individual cupcakes. This objective was met by changing the profile pictures on the Website Facebook, Twitter from a pink cupcake to a more events and professional looking image. This image was a line of plates with A la carte food on them and this was integrated with the carat catering logo and tagline.

As well as the visual identity enforcing the event planning service of Carat Catering the message was also integrated with key tactics. A key reason for the Carat Catering Christmas Fair was to showcase Carat Caterings event planning service. As the Christmas Fair was a great success with 104 people attending. This enforced this message within the local community as well as proving to the other business attending that they have excellent event planning skills so they would have no problems with linking up with Carat Catering and recommending them to their clients.This objective was met.

3. Raise awareness of Carat Catering by 200 people from East Kilbride and the surrounding area by December 2011.

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As Carat Catering was a new venture they had very little to no awareness within East Kilbride or the surrounding area with only a handful of family and friends aware of the company. So it was essential to raise awareness of Carat Catering within East Kilbride and the surrounding area. This objective was met through the use of social media, media, posters, flyers, Carat catering Christmas Fair and the Business Link Up.

On TwitterCarat Catering had 36 followers, Carat Catering now have 92 followers. On Facebook Carat Catering had 321 likes, Carat Catering now have 419 likes. 104 people attended the Carat catering Christmas Fair. We put up 25 posters in well-populated areas. We personally handed out 400 flyers. 5 articles were published online and offline

To modestly evaluate the raised awareness of Carat Catering we will only be taking into account how many new followers and likes we have on Twitter (56) and Facebook(98) as well as how many people came to the Carat Catering Christmas Fair.

This objective was met as we had a total of154new social media followers and 104 people attended the Carat catering Christmas fair. So in total awareness was raised with 258 people.

4. Gain 5 positive media articles within local and regional media by December 2011.

This was a key objective in order to communicate with a large audience within East Kilbride and surrounding area regarding the brand identity and activities of Carat Catering.

This objective was met as we gained media coverage on STV East Kilbride online, Eastkilbride.co.uk twice, Evening Times both online and offline and on Camglen Radio.

5. Update and manage carats online presence on social media platforms and website consistently from September 2011 until December 2011.

This objective was met as Carat Caterings online presence was managed and updated on a regular basis resulting in an increase in 56 new twitter followers and 98 new Facebook likes

6. Link up and build a relationship with 5 businesses from East Kilbride and the surrounding area by December 2011.

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This objective was met as we built a positive relationship with 18 businesses from East Kilbride and the surrounding area due to the success of the Carat Catering Christmas Fair. We also linked up with two businesses who were not Stall holders at the Christmas Fair. These were Nuvo Limousines and The Kilt Company East Kilbride. Nuvo Limousines put a link to Carat Catering on their website as well as writing a blog post. The Kilt Company Glasgow are going to put a link up on their website and let Carat leave some Carat Catering flyers and some mini cupcakes in their East Kilbride store for them to give out to their customers.

7. Attract 100 people to the Carat Catering Christmas craft fair on Sunday 11 th

December.

The Carat Christmas Fair was a massive success despite the weather with 104 people attending. This was evaluated by giving each person who entered the fair a free raffle ticket that way it was very easy to keep track of how many people attended the Fair. The objective was met as 104 people attended the Fair across the day.

Evaluation Conclusion

In conclusion we feel that the Carat Catering “Catering with you in mind” campaign was a success as every objective that we set out and agreed with Carat Catering was achieved. There were no major problems along the way and we had a fantastic team and client relationship. Following this campaign, which was primarily about raising awareness and the validity of Carat Catering and their services, they would be able to build upon this and are on the right track to achieve their long term business objective of being a market leader in the Catering and Event Planning market within the East Kilbride and Surrounding areas.

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