Final Meeting

Our group, met today for a final run through aheads of tomorrows presentation deadline. We finalised the capaign name: Animate to Educate-Keep kind in mind. We felt that this clearly showed the creative and interactive elements to the campaign while highlight the main aim wish is education and encouraging kindness to dolphins.

Emilie and I were working on the pitch document together, so we devised what should be included and split the list sharing the work. Below is a list of what we felt should be included, as a support to the verbal presentation:

• Cover page-Emilie
• Contents page-Aimee
• Campaign brief-(compiled by Georgia and Ruth)
• Targeted media-Aimee
• Our Campaign-Aimee
• Budget-Emilie
• Timeline-Emilie
• LBB information-Aimee
• Contact information-Emilie

LBB, is the name of our PR agency. We have tried to create a brand image for this by using a logo and the contents page.

L.B.B- Who we are


LBB are an international Business 2 Business, Conservation and Technology PR agency, with an outstanding work ethic, dedicated to personalised services that ensure your needs are met at the highest standard. We have vast contacts in Business to Business, technology and conservation fields, which will enable us to portray a direct, educated and interesting campaign.

We are experienced in working across cultures, overcoming cultural limitations and bridging the gap between cross cultural audiences.

LLB, believe technology is a focal point of Japanese society which is why we aim to deliver a detailed campaign relevant to the target culture of Japan, educating the target demographic of young people via an interactive digital campaign. Our area of caution, to better prepare this campaign, is to recognise previous mistakes which resulted in cultural imperialism. LBB are acutely aware of how to integrate amongst the Japanese culture and people, to propel the success of this campaign.

Meet the team:

Account Director Emilie Hickling

Account Director Georgia Pitt

Account Executive Ruth Anderson

Account Executive Rosie Beck

Account Officer Aimee Rowe-Best

Account Officer Caitie Parrott



We are a dynamic, enthusiastic, creative team committed to delivering a highly skilled, professional and effective campaign strategy.







The Campaign:

Animate to Educate-Keep Kind in Mind

Technology is the central communication channel for the campaign; we will create a micro-site as the hub for information and resources, in relation to the Sea Shepherds main web site. In support of these websites, social media will play a crucial role. The sites listed below are Japanese social media we will target:

Social Media Site/ Hosted /Users

Mixi Japan 21.6 million

Gree Japan 22.5 million

Mobage-Town Japan 21.7 million

Facebook U.S.A 2 million

Twitter U.S.A 10 million

Nico Nico Douga Japan 18.9 million

Youtube U.S.A 21.7million



• Mixi is a social media platform that allows users to post photographs, share comments and links and has vast forums of discussion.

• Gree is still continually expanding; it differences itself from others by focusing on gaming. By providing a free game platform for mobile phones, which users play using Manga style avatars.

• Mobage-Town offers a similar mix of avatars, games and accessories but it also enables users to earn virtual money by clicking on advertiser’s websites.

• Facebook is not as widely used in Japan, as it is used by 2% of the Japanese online population.

• Twitter has enabled micro-blogging to become a key trend in Japan, partly due to user’s identity not being required.

• Nico Nico Douga is a video hosting website based in Japan, 5.6 million access this via their mobile phones, while the 1.1 million pay a monthly subscription entitling them as a premium user.

• Youtube reaches 35% of Japan’s population.

Competition:

We will launch a competition aimed at educating the target demographic about the value of Dolphins and the hunting that occurs on and offshore in Japan.

A film will be created that will feature one of our campaign ambassadors, filmed in the style of Manga to explain and promote the specifics of the competition. This will be launched as an online viral.

We are inviting young people aged between 16-25, to create a film or animation portraying the issues and opinions surrounding the campaign. These video’s will then be uploaded onto the micro-site and shared using the social media channels. Discussion and opinion sharing can be upon the micro-site forum and on the social media platforms.

The ambassadors of the campaign will select the top twenty films entered into the competition. Thus creating the shortlist of finalists, that the public will then vote on for the first, second and third prizes.

By engaging the target demographic through an interactive campaign, it is designed to generate online conversation and increase search engine optimisation, through its appearance on many differing social media platforms. Also, the continual progression and conversation will generate further supply for media coverage.

Posters will support the competition detailing the micro-site address, campaign information and a first response 2D barcode. The purpose of the barcode is because accessing the internet via mobile phones in Japan is a flourishing market; to capitalise on this trend we will create an accompanying App. By scanning the barcode on the posters, the public will be directed to develop and design their own personalised dolphin. By doing so they must sign the petition, to prevent the hunting of dolphins in Japan.

The second purpose of the App is to host an online swim through. So all the dolphins designed via the App, will form an online community and create the stage for the online stunt. The dolphin avatars will appear across websites, similar to an online protest. People can also click on the swimming dolphins, where they will be directed to the micro-site.

This will not only generate media attention and coverage, but visually symbolise the importance of keeping kind in mind and educating the wider demographics of the campaign aim.

Measurability:

We at LBB recognise the importance of measurable results, so we will provide monthly updates to keep you informed of the campaign progression throughout the campaign. The aim of the brief is to reflect the good qualities of dolphins and raise awareness of the dolphin hunting around Japan. To measure the results we will be issuing surveys at the beginning and at the end of the campaign, which will clearly establish the thoughts that Japanese people have on dolphins and the awareness that they have of the hunts. As you can see the questions are rather broad but give respondents the opportunity to elaborate on their thoughts. This may only be useful towards the end of the campaign when awareness has been raised. Yet the results from the initial survey will give us an idea of where there are gaps in the Japanese public in terms of their knowledge surrounding the issues of dolphin hunting.

We shall also measure how many people use the quick response barcode, how many people go to the micro-site, how many people sign up for the app as well as looking at the number of people that are part of the social networking groups. This shall give us a clear impression of how infectious the campaign was and how effective it was. We will provide specific statistics to illustrate how many people has become a part of the campaign across all the avenues.

All that is left to do now, is print the pitch document, press pack and presentation slides to submit tomorrow.

presentation delivery

To ensure that the presentation flows well and runs smoothly with the best delivery we have decided that Ruth will introduce our group and the brief, Georgia will then continue with the surrounding information about Japan and our research, followed by Cate and Rosie explaining the specifics of the campaign itself. As Emilie and I aren't talking we are compiling the pitch document. Three of these will be printed and put into folders as supporting information for the three on the panel.
We have a final meeting tomorrow, ahead of the presentation on friday-the structure of the meeting will see us working in two sub groups for the presentation and the pitch document.

Our group is also keen to show consideration as to how people learn and engage with presentations. We have worked under the premise that people engage through three modes:

• Auditory
• Visual
• Kinethestic

So we need to consider what our audience is seeing, hearing and how we actively engage them by doing something. The presentation itself will cover what they see and hear, however we will provide pens and paper for them to take notes on or scribble down questions they may wish to ask at the end.
As we are the last group to present, we are also going to give complimentary dolphin shaped sweets, as another method of engaging our audience and perking them up with a sugar hit to ensure maximum attention.
Helium Balloons in the shape of dolphins were also considered, as they were going to visually represent the App idea included in our campaign, but giving each table a different coloured dolphin balloon which at the end we would put together to signify the union of opinions our campiagn hopes to create. The main idea of them was that it would also draw attention by adding movement and dynamics to our pitch for the audience and the panel. However, these balloons have been harder to locate than I previously imagined!

Image of our Dolphin themed sweet bundles.

Sea Shepherd PR brief

Dolphin Awareness

The aim from PR activity:

To increase the education among the youth population in Japan on the value of dolphins as well as the dolphin hunting that happens around Japan. Create an interactive campaign that young people can get involved with and learn from.

About the business:
Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Our mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.
Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations.
http://www.seashepherd.org/

Japan:
Japans relationship with dolphin hunting is steeped in history, in 1600 Taiji sent the first boats out for whale hunting in Japan. But in recent history there has been marked concern about the health implications of consuming dolphin meat. It has been noted that dolphin meat contains high mercury content and this has caused a 50% rise in the death toll, in areas where the meat is consumed on a regular basis.
The implications of the dolphin hunting on the eco-system are notable; dolphins do not spawn as rapidly as fish thus there population is being depleted. It is estimated that every year 20,000 dolphins are hunted in Japan for blubber, meat and fertilizer, there has been strict regulations enforced to help prevent unnecessary killing of the mammals. However there is a lot of the meat left over and despite cutting prices by up to 50% there is a great deal of waste.
The Cove, a documentary filmed in Taiji has caused outrage amongst westerners, yet there is still very little knowledge of the hunting throughout Japan. A year after the release of the film, it was dubbed in Japanese and sent to every house in Taiji in an attempt to raise awareness. This caused some outrage for those who watched it but it was ignored by a significant number of people.

Marketing Activity:
Currently activity from the Sea Shepherds has been to gather information on the fishermen’s activities and ensuring that no international laws are broken.


Target audience:
The audience is broad looking at 16-26 year olds in Japan.


Timescale:
This is a long-term campaign over two years.


Budget:
The budget is £10,000 for the two years

Campaign Ideas

We had a group meeting yesterday, and we worked together on the specifics of the campiagn ideas.
after much deliberation we decided that the campaign must target the younger generations, and the best way to do this is capatalise on Japan's love of technology and use a social media strategy.

So we propose to create a Manga inspired film, which would be shown in Universities, educating students to enter our competition to create an animation/manga/animae short film. This films, would highlight the issues surrounding the killing of Dolphins in Japan and could be shared online as virals.
The idea behind this is that where previous westernised attempts to target the japanese public about the killing of dolphins have failed it is because it has been done so in an agressive and emotional fashion. As the Japanese are very passionate about their culture, this campiagn aims to intergrate with the Japanese people, invite them to contribute and share their opinions making this an interactive viral campaign that does not insult them on mass, or presume they support the killing of dolphins.
We also felt that mobile phones should be included as many Japanese access the internet via their phones more frequently than other sources. 2D barcode scanning is also very popular in Japan, so a poster campaign supporting the competition, would enable the scanned barcode to direct the audience straight to our website.
The contents of this website would be:

• Film submissions
• Film examples
• Tips/Hints on how to create your film
• Posters available to download
• Sign-up to our newsletter
• An educational section about Dolphins
• An educational section about the environment in relation to Dolphins
• Petition
• Dolphin avatar animation

Using mobile phones, or rather smart phones we thought that we could make an App. One that allowed you to create your own dolphin, name it, care for it and allow it to swim free with others. This dolphin, is an animal avatar of it's owner. As well as actively involving the audience in a 'fun' way to learn, love and save the Dolphins. It will also attract other people, and be a talking point around the wider issues of the campaign.
The Dolphin avatars, could swim together  across computer screens throughout Japan-like a protest, but online and removing humans so that dolphins are the key point.

This idea is similar to the Beat Bullying 'The Big March' campaign that allowed the public to create avatars of themselves and walked across 60 websites online-to protest the bullying of young people.

However, issues surrounding using this idea is that in the Beat Bullying campaign, those websites where partnered with the campiagn and gave consent. We would have to further investigate whether Japanese websites would be so willing.

Over all it is important to appraoch this campiagn as if we were Japanese, to assume that they are not supportive of the killing and to treat the masses as ignorant not guily. By asking for their involvement we should provide a creative platform to showcase our beliefs without hostily or cultural imperialism.

It is also important that we include the logo's and information about the umbrella groups fighting to save dolphins, on all the campaign material.

This blog was also quite interesting.
/http://morganvhs5.edublogs.org/2010/10/06/of-interest-to-me-introduction/

http://www.adpunch.org/entry/wwf-uses-guerrilla-marketing-to-save-maui-dolphins/

Japan's Dolphin Economy

As a group, roles were allocated into three teams of two, so we have two research groups and the third is the campaign research and assembly group. These individual research areas have been passed between the groups, so that the presentation is a communal effort.

Georgia and I met last week, to research the brand with specific interest to Dolphins and the work of the Sea Shepherds.

Taiji is a village located in the Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Japan which is recognised as an area where dolphins are chased into a cove and killed with handheld spears knives and iron hooks. The population of this town is estimated at 3,225 with a population density of 541 persons per Km. Taiji is the reported as the smallest local government by area in Wakayama because unlike others it has not experienced a merger since 1889 when the village merged with Moriura. The Village is at the tip of the Kli peninsula South of Kyoto.

However, it is the annual dolphin hunting that has attracted international criticism and awareness of the town on a global scale.

Historically, Taiji is known as a whaling town with traditional Japanese whaling techniques developed here in the 17th century. Revenue is reportedly the commercial hunting of dolphins remains a major source of income for its residents. The people of Taiji have been killing and eating the contents of the sea around their village for generations and reject that dolphins are special and should be considered different from other fish. It is reported that the fisherman, are bewildered that anyone could find the killings of dolphins cruel.

The key point here is that Dolphins are mammals, and a possible campaign idea could be educating the Japanese people of the significance of dolphins to raise awareness and establish this difference. Also, it is the brutal and violent killing of dolphins that has been called to question since the release of the Oscar winning film the cove in 2009. As a result it has raised the awareness of the dolphin hunting in Taiji, and as a result has generated global criticism of the dolphin culling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRD8e20fBo

Ric O’Barry is an ex U.S Navy diver who went on to train the five dolphins who played flipper in the television series. However, in 1970 turned against animal captivity. He travels to the town a few times a year to film the annual dolphin hunt for a coalition of environmental groups.

He was quoted to say: “Boycotts are completely useless because the Japanese people don’t even know about this. They tends to be a blanket condemnation of the Japanese people and the dolphin hunt is led by just 26 fisherman”

The Japanese government are fiercely protective of their culture and tradition. In relation to efforts to protect the dolphins, have resulted in the Japanese people feeling condemned by western influence, which has led to cultural imperialism.

“We will pass down the history of our ancestors to the next generation, preserve it. We have a strong sense of pride about this,” Mayor Kazutaka Sangen told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. “So we are not going to change our plans for the town based on the criticism of foreigners.” http://www.japantoday.com/category/commentary/view/taiji-mayor-defends-dolphin-hunts

However, due to international pressure and the raised awareness of the killing of dolphins the government now issues permits so selections of fisherman are allowed by law to do so. Sixty permits are in existence in the whole of Japan and 26 are held in the village of Taiji.

Image of Dolphin meat from Taiji

I also found that the smell of dolphin meat is highly unplesant and they the taste is not favourable amoungst many.


Dolphin meat is sold and eaten in Japan and especially in the village of Taiji, however there are now concerns for the mercury levels contained in the dolphin meat that it passed on into humans. These health concerns have been raised because of Minimata disease, which is a neurological syndrome cause by severe mercury poisoning. In extreme cases, insanity, coma and death follow within weeks on the onset of symptoms. The disease was first discovered in 1956, when a highly toxic chemical bio accumulated in fish, which when consumed by people resulted in mercury poisoning. Cat, dog, pig and human deaths were recorded, with little action from the government. There have been 1,700 human deaths as a result of minimata disease. Other health concerns include; cadmium, the pesticide DDT and contaminants like PCBs. As a result of these health risks, the price of dolphin meat has fallen with the demand.

This story was in the Guardian Newspaper last year- This story was in the Guardian Newspaper last year- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/09/dolphin-meat-mercury-levels-japan


It is reported in this story that the Taiji town council Chief Katsutoshi Mihara, rejoiced as he dipped raw slices of a striped dolphin into soy sauce.

"This may seem nonchalant, but I have absolutely no concerns, and I want to be able to keep my lifestyle," he said.

This apparent lack of regard for the mercury levels in dolphin meat has to some degree changed on the broader scale of Japan. On August the 1st 2007 elected officials openly condemned the consumption of dolphin meat especially in school lunches on the grounds that it was contaminated with mercury.


Taiji City Assemblymen Junichiro Yamashita and Hisato Ryono broke ranks to condemn the consumption of ‘toxic’ dolphin meat.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fe20070801a1.html

It would appear through this research that Japan as a whole is not aware of the dolphin killing in Taiji, so we cannot presume that they support it. However, the village is know globally recognised and the target for animals rights and environmental campaigners. However, the arguement of the fisherman and villagers of Taiji is that:

• Dolphins are not special, they are viewed as big fish
• The meat is used a revenue for the village
• The killing of dolphins is part of their tradition and history

However:

• The smell is off putting about Dolphin meat and not many like the taste
• mercury posioning has rasied health concerns
• Decreased demand of dolphin meat have reduced sale value
• The town of Taiji's economy does not rest of the income generated by the sale of Dolphin meat, however it does still continue to be sold in local supermarkets

Visits

During the time I was at Children's Hospice South Wests Precious Lives Appeal, I went on a visit with both Ella and Mary.
The first was with Ella, the press officer. We visited a group that had raised over a thousand pounds in a lottery scheme. As a press officer it is Ella's responsibility to investigate what exactly they had done by representing the Charity and speaking with the group. It was interesting to observe her in action and she how she spoke about the charity and her professional role outside of the office. I swiftly noticed her abilty to multitask, taking notes, asking questions and meeting people. It became apparent that organisational skills are very important in her role. Once we had meeted and greeted all the members of the group, making sure to take note of there details, names and any other information that may be useful we returned to the office to begin typing the press release. I was given this task, when I got back to the office. Although I have had experience with this before it was really helpful to draft a copy that would actually be used and get some feedback on how it could be improved.

The second visit that I went on was with Mary, on a community based project. Mary was giving a presentation about the charity, its ethos and what it is hoping to achieve in the future. It was again very interesting to see how she interacts with members of the community that are so influencial at raising money for the hospice. Mary beleives the reasons why the friend groups are so successful is because no one has appraoched them to do it, it's all on a voluntary basis because members of the community want to help support a project that benefits the community.

It was also helpful to interact with the member of the group, so that I could gather what they thought of Marys presentation and about the charity as a whole.

Media Relations

Ella, is the press officer responsible for all the press releases and media relations for the region. I was surprised by her workload for just herself but it was very interesting to observe her working. She has been with the charity for a new of years, after gaining a degree and a masters in Advertising.
I worked with her for the majority of time, watching how she selected stories and chose which angle to use when writing press releases. She also showed me the database, with all of her contacts and lists of publications that she sends to in the region. They were sub devided by media type, and then also by readership and circulation figures. The majority of press releases are sent to newspapers, sometimes magazines although Ella explained that they seem less likely to publish feature articles. The most successful way she said, was if there was an editioril piece or an interview then they are more inclined to feature the Children's Hospice South West Precious Lives Appeal.
It is only for occasional major stories that she contacts BBC Spotlight or ITV West country as television appears to be the most difficult to get coverage. In terms of other media, Radio is working very well for the appeal, they have Pirate FM as their media partner which last for one year and they get unlimited free advertising on the station.
They have recognised the importance of social media also, however its not widely used within the P.R strategy as the facebook group has a limited amount of members, updates are not very frequent and they are not on Twitter.

First day-Work experience

My first impressions of a charity that was building a childrens hospice that is costing five million pounds was that there would be lots of people involved in making it happen.To my surprise, I found a team of just three, with modest offices all working busily. Emma is the over all manager within the region which is from Plymouth through Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
When I arrived, I met her and immediately liked her as she offered me a cup of tea. She began to tell me the basic history of the charity; that it was founded by Eddie and Jill as there own two children were life limited, meaning they would never reach adulthood. My knowledge of childhood cancer and genetic diseases is quite slim, however I was surprised to learn that there are 1,200 life limited children in the region and that the closest children's hospice is Helen's House in Oxford. Emma went on to explain that after losing his sons, Eddie felt compelled to help other children and their families which is how the charity began in 1991.
 I met the other two staff members, Ella the press officer and Mary the community fundriaser. I didnt really understand the difference between their three seperate roles and exactly what they did. However, after the morning with Emma she explained that her role is focused upon gaining corporate donations which also help to improve their CSR. She also targets very wealthy individuals with personalised communication so that they feel compelled to make a donation also.
After my conversation with Emma, she showed me some of the events that they have organised for the charity, I saw photos and learnt about some of the families that used the facilities of the hospices that are already open, Little Bridge House and Charlton Farm.
After Lunch, I spent the afternoon with Mary and Ella. They both ran through what their roles included. I learnt how Mary's role as a community fundraiser involves meeting many different types of people and actively engaging with the public. She has establish friend groups which range from just a few members to many in larger towns across cornwall that host meetings and events to raise money to donate to the Precious Lives Appeal. One of the largest is the Falmouth group which as raised a quarter of a million pounds for Children's Hospice South West since it began supporting the charity over ten years ago.

At the end of my first day, I felt slightly over loaded with infornation but I also understood a brief history of how and why the charity was founded and what it wanted to achieve with a basic understanding of the communications differing roles.

The Daily Mirror

The most recent figure from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, for The Daily Mirror was 1,295,972. This is its average net circulation, for the UK the figure is 1,183,450. From the National Readership Survey it appears the The Mirror has a readership of 3.49 million, which reflects 7.2% of the adults in the survey.
5.1% of these readers are of the social class ABC1, while 9.9% are C2DE.

The majority of readers are over forty-five with 8.5% and are also male 7.9% compared with the 6.6% readership of women and those aged under 45 with 5.9%.

The Mirror adopts the political stance of central yet slightly favoring the Labour Government.

The Editor of the daily Mirror is Richard Wallace. He has upheld this position since 2004 following Piers Morgan's resignation from the role. Other Editors of the paper are listed below:

• Features Editor- Matt Kelly
• Business Editor- Clinton Manning
• News Editor- Andy Rudd
• Sports Editor- Dan Silver
• Showbiz Editor- Jody Thompson
• Political Editor- Bob Roberts

• Consumer Editor- Ruki Sayid
• Advice Editor- Hannah Wood
• Fashion Editor- Amber Morales
  

Astrazeneca Task Force

Astrazeneca are a global pharmaceutical company. However on January the 17th 2009 the Medicines and Health care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) complained about a Zoladex advertisement issued by Astrazeneca UK Limited which had appeared in the Pharmaceutical Journal.

Pharamceutical companies in the UK comply with the codes of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) . This is the trade association for a vast majority of companies in the UK producing prescription medicines for human use, supplying 80% of the medicines used through the National Health Service.

The MHRA alleged that the reference in the advertisement by Astrazeneca about the MHRA was in breach of clause 9.5 of the code. Astrazeneca's response to these allegations was an unreserved apology to the MHRA, and that the breach of clause 9.5 of the code was a genuine error. This issue came to light when a complaint was registered on the 27th of January and the case was marked completed on the 24th of February 2009.

This is one type of issue that face large Pharmaceutical companies, which is why roles and responsibilities are assigned to successfully manage issues that may arise.

These are the members of the Astrazeneca task force:

• Philippa Rodriguez- President of Astrazeneca UK
• Simon Moore- Head of UK Corporate Communications
  
• Samantha Pearce- Specialist care director UK (Leading over 200 staff across the UK who manage the sales and marketing of commercial brands used in specialist care therapy.)
  
• Pinder Sahota- Primary Care Director ( He is responsible for primary care field force, respiratory and cardiovascular marketing and established brand marketing.)
• Beatrice Ronsle-Nadaud- Finance Director (She is responsible for finance, I.T, supply chain and all insight and analytical activity.)
• Kieth Wilson- HR Director (He is responsible for employee relations, HR administration and HR Business partner.)
• Guy Yeoman- Medical and Regulatory Affairs Director ( He is responsible for negotiating between businesses and the stockholder to ensure the medicines reach the consumers.)
• Luke Talbutt- Legal and Corporate Affairs Director (He is responsible for legal, compliance, government affairs and communications within UK marketing communications. Overall with his team their job is to safeguard the reputation of Astrazeneca.)
• Pete Digger- Government Affairs team leader
• Martin Coones- Scottish Affairs Manager
• Audrey Wernaut- External Affairs Manager
• Saj Shah- Head of Legal UK Marketing Company

Marks and Spenser's Corporate Sales Responsibility Plan

In January 2007 Marks and Spenser launched Plan A, setting out on hundred commitments to achieve in five years. They claim they are doing so because it is what the customers want and also what is the right thing to do. Plan A is broken down into five key areas that M&S believe faces them as a retailer:

• Climate Change
• Waste
• Sustainable Raw Materials
• Fair Partner
• Health

Climate Change:
M&S' goal is to be carbon neutral by 2012 in the UK and Republic of Ireland operations. They plan to achieve this by reducing energy consumption and increasing the use of renewable energy sources. They have also established a relationship with Westbridge Furniture to develop 'a truly sustainable factory'. They have also opened their first Eco factory in Sri Lanka.

Waste:
Their aim is to try and make sure that none of M&S' clothing or packaging ends up as landfill. To prevent this they are reducing packaging, improving recycling and cutting down on the use of plastic bags.

• They have established a relationship with Oxfam to generate the 'clothing exchange'.
  
• Last January they introduced the Christmas Card recycling Scheme with the Woodland trust and together collected 175 tonnes of cards which is equivalent to almost 9 million cards.
• Since 2006 they have reduced 12% of all non-glass packaging and in 2008 ran 335 packaging reduced products. In 2009 they reduced packaging of Easter Eggs by an average of 30%.
• In 2008 125 million hangers were collected for reuse or recycling.

Sustainable Raw Materials:
To ensure high standards M&S have focused on animal welfare, sustainable fishing and Farming as well as the manufacturing of polyester, wood and water use. They have done this by:

• Providing Free range fresh turkey, duck and Geese and are currently trailing fresh free range pork in 100 stores.
• Introduced ranges of clothing made from organic cotton.
• Used plastic bottles to make Polyester instead of oil for use in the homeware, bedding, lingerie and children's wear ranges.
• M&S have worked with the WWF to establish a water footprint and have identified 'hotspots' of water use and are working with suppliers to reduce them.
• M&S also aim to ensure that all wood they use is Forest Stewardship Council certified or recycled.

Fair Partner:

• Marks & Start is a programme established in 2004 to help groups such as the disabled and the homeless to get into work via placements in M&S stores. 40% of those who completed their placements have gone on to find employment.
  
• M&S now stock over 300 lines of fair trade products and food sales are up 38% since the launch of plan A.
  
• M&S have sold over 8 million fair trade cotton garments and home products.
• Customers and employees raised over 2 million pounds for the breakthrough breast cancer charity last year. M&S plans to continue its support to the charity.

Health:

• M&S use the Food Standard Agency's traffic light labels on food.
• The number of products with a red label has fallen by 30%.
• M&S have removed all artificial colours and flavouring from their food and soft drinks production as of the 1st of April 2008.
• They have also introduced 1,500 healthy eating assistants in stores with the plan to extend knowledge across the entire food section employees.
• M&S are the sponsors for the Royal Parks half Marathon.
  

Issues management works around a framework of structure to govern how best to resolve issues that may occur. There are five main roles and responsibilities :

• Strategic Analysis
• Tactical Programmer
• Opinion Facilitator
• Advocate
• Counselor

Following these methods leads to successful and effective issues management which can increase market share, enhance corporate reputation, save money and build important relationships with stakeholders.

Key IM functions:

• Identify the issues and trends
• Evaluate their impact
• Set priorities
  
• Establish customer position
• Design the corporate action and response to help achieve the position
• Implement the plan

It is possible to assume that Royal Mail have failed to put in place these functions, as currently their stakeholders, in this case the employees are planning to strike later this week despite last minute negotiations with the workers union.

In accessing the seriousness of an issue it is important to recognise the key players and to which coalition they belong to. Another aspect is threat management and who possible trouble makers may be, for example:

• Associates
• Government
• Employee
• SIGs
• Public
  

With the focus remaining on closing the gap. This can be achieved by establishing where 'we', the management team, are and where we want to be and how it is possible for this to be achieved.

P.E.S.T- Political, Economic, Social and Technology
S.W.O.T- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

These are two methods of recalling the important aspects to consider and effectively negotiate.

Marketing and Public relations are integrally linked, however their roles do differ. Marketing focuses on bringing a product to market based on it being the right price, placement and time. The other element is promotion, this is the one aspect that P.R is predominately involved with.
Using S.I.V.A ( Solution, Information, Value, Access) P.R is a delivery of a message designed to stimulate awareness and raise interest. Advertising does the same job, however the main difference being that P.R is financially more efficient.

The old world, existed upon the foundation of an industrialised economy. This has since replaced by the New world ideology of economies based on intangible assets such as reputation and knowledge. Issues management has become an ever more dynamic and necessary measure in securing brands especially in the unforgiving times of economic recession.

Issues Management has been described as:

"The process used to close the gap"

Businesses invest significantly in manufacturing and maintaining a successful brand. To make it successful, one component is to capture the market with a brand that appears truth worthy and credible.

Regester and Larkin have summarised keys to successful Issues Management:

• Treat Stakeholders respectfully
• Always confront situations, not avoid them
• Listen to your consumers
• Design Clear and Robust management systems
• Create your own code of good behaviour

As a result of the economic downturn the level of issues management cases is steady while the economy is struggling. With the decline in so many businesses and economic scandal, for example Our MP's expenses, consumer confidence is at an all time low. Due to this effective Issues management is believed to be crucial in the survival of companies.

Forces Shaping Issues Management:

• The speed of Global Information
• Politics, economies, social and technological (PEST)
• Influence of broadcast multimedia of the public
• Competition for consumers

Key Concerns within Society that will Shape the Issues Management businesses:

• Economic Security
• Job security
• QSV & VFM issues
• Accountability

These concerns are contributing to a significant increase in consumer activism. A recent case study of this was the media attention caused by Beckie Williams when she challenged M&S for charging £2 more for larger cup sized Bras- Busts for Justice successfully exposed M&S on a national scale causing them to take out full page colour advert in the Newspapers with promotional offers as an expensive apology.

M&S failed to address the needs and requirements of that particular Stakeholder.

Below are four key functions of Issues Management:

• Anticipate and analyse issues
• Develop organisational positions on issues
• Identify key publics whose support is vital to the public policy issue
• Identify desired behaviours of Key Publics

Issues Management is a strategic proactive approach designed to monitor the tipping point and be maintained rationally with significant attention being dedicated to the consumer, stakeholder and general public opinion of the brand, for without that interest the business will not succeed.