Question

In writing your paper (5-7 pages), please take the role as the Public Relations professional in the organization that you work for or an organization that you belong to. The organization needs to be real, but you may use false names if you would like.

Your paper should present a brief overview of the organization and then you should analyze your public and the issues you face when dealing with each public.  

Answer 1

Organization: Virgin Media Limited.

Organization Brief:

Virgin Media Limited is a British company that offers telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Headquartered in the Hampshire United Kingdom. Since 2013, Virgin Media has been a subsidiary of Liberty Global Plc, an international television, and telecommunications company headquartered in London. The company was listed on the NASDAQ and LSE. Just to clarify Virgin Media is not a sister company of Virgin Mobile USA of Sprint Corporation.

In November 2006, Sir Richard Branson signed a deal with NTL-Telewest to license theVirgin brand for the combined business and the company’s consumer services were rebranded under Virgin Media in February 2007.

Virgin Media Operates a fibers optic cable network in the UK along with many other diversified business lines like Virgin Poker, Virgin Energy shot, Virgin money, Virgin soft drinks, Virgin Digital and many more.

Background:

• Founded in 1970 in Richard Branson’s bedroom.
• Started as a mail order record shop.
• Expanded into travel, entertainment, lifestyle and beyond
• Incorporated in 1989 as a holding company.
• Revenues of £19.5bn in FY2016.
• Approximately 70000 employees
• The group has grown strongly and consistently in last 10 years

Operating Practices:

• With such a diversity of businesses, operating practices are varied and complex
• Clear separation of operating companies
• The brand name is often licensed
• A Very small head office team
• Very complex holding structure

As a Public relations professional working for Virgin media, it becomes very vital to communicate the mission and operating practices of the group to create a positive brand image in the competitive market such as:

• Maintaining and updating information on the organization's website, engaging with users on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook; Preparing the content for promotions such as brochures, handouts, direct mail leaflets, promotional videos, photographs, films and multimedia programmes.
• Responding to inquiries from media, individuals and other organizations and managing potential crisis situation which can damage the brand image.
• Organising events including press conferences, exhibitions, open days and press tours to foster community relations.
• Planning, developing and implementing PR strategies.

Due to the vivid personality of Sir Richard Branson, Virgin media has been a hot topic across Forums.

• Promotion: The promotion of Virgin media has always been supported by vibrant red, depicting enthusiasm and aggression in the business model which is clear from our financial results and the industry reputation. Some people call the business diversity a result of massive diversification while few name it as a massive ego trip. The other side to this is the entrepreneur mindset, which at a particular instance made Sir Richard Branson buy the company back at a very competitive price as he wanted to operate without the public eye minutely viewing how he ran his various companies.

• Controversies: Whether it be any controversy like “Net Neutrality, Crackdown on illegal filesharing of copyright material, charging extra fees, data pimping; Virgin media has always distanced themselves from the controversial system and would continue to do so providing a customer-oriented service across the diversified portfolio.

• Ad Campaigns: Virgin Media Launched a major new campaign that brought unparalleled entertainment for its customers to enjoy through the ultrafast connectivity. The campaign unveiled the new Virgin fiber brand, run over 14 weeks across TV, online, print and OOH. To put forth, all the ad campaigns and marketing for Virgin media is closely monitored to provide a world-class consumer experience.

• Organising events: Sir Richard Branson does not ever hesitate to provide world-class service to the market, for instance, he himself served drinks and food in the aircraft by dressing up like an air hostess/ crew member. In his opinion, we work as a big team trying to make consumer experience the best. This is the message being communicated to all the stakeholders as a part of public relations that whether we are directly involved or not at the client-facing interface but it is every one's utmost responsibility to create a positive environment at workplace, customer-centric ends.

• Strategies: At Virgin Media, less diversification is possibly in the future and more concentration on sustainability and making profits taking more conservative approach overall to Rationalise the existing loss-making businesses.? Some Virgin companies continue making large losses and we are working continuously to turn it into positive by diversifying vertically and horizontally both to boost the confidence of founder retires.

Virgin megastores ... “the business was losing a lot of money. We did not make a speedy exit in part because I resisted closing the business. I was worried about losing the flagship stores' presence in Times Square and on Oxford Street since they were so important to brand recognition and our link with the past. But the scale of the losses meant that we had to sell the business to its management and focus our attention on markets where we could be the disrupter, not the disrupted” Sir Richard Branson’s words, he never hesitates to speak publicly which is an important factor to have an impact on target audience.

Thanks.