tiistai 9. marraskuuta 2010

H&M's website and PR (in english)

Ups, en sitten päässyt aiemmin julkaisemaan näin pitkää postausta, kiitos nettitikkuni. Mokkuloista sen verran, että mikäli olisin tajunnut aiemmin tutustua niiden todelliseen toimivuuteen, olisin hankkinut itselleni tikun sijasta suorana langattoman laajakaistayhteyden...

Tämänkertainen muoti-PR:n aihealueen tekstini on arkiselta tasolta, muodin alan yrityksen verkkosivujen tarkastelua. Kohdeorganisaationi sivut lienevät kaikille tutut jo ennestään, mutta tässä niihin tutustumista nimenomaan PR:n ja viestinnän opiskelijan näkökulmasta:


"Visit to a fashion organization's website


I surfed in the web earlier today, checked my e-mail and opened a newsletter, then right after found myself visiting the website of H&M, an organization called Hennes & Mauritz. H&M is known for their affordable prices in clothing, shoes, accessories and home decoration textiles such as sheets or towels. As their customer I get weekly newsletters about their new offers or products for example. Newsletters seem to be an effective way for organizations to get both new and old customers visit webstores frequently and feel special or happy about special offers for customers only. This is one PR tool that might be very useful for them in the internet.

At first, the newsletter got my attention. Then I decided to check if there's anything else on H&M website that might have something to do with public relations. Immediately links named as "Social media room", "Press", "Investor relations" and "Corporate responsibility" caught my eye. At this point I'm starting to get excited, public relations and communication strategies on some level don't seem to be as invisible in the web as I had imagined before.



I open the "Social media room" link and a new page opens in front of my eyes. Here you can find posts from either H&M or their fans from different social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Blogs or Lookbook (which is a website where it's fashionable users can post pictures of their daily outfits). On the page there are also links to H&M's own pages on those different channels of social media that I mentioned before. Being linked to social media gives the organization many chances to communicate with it's stakeholders trough huge networks of people; send and be able to receive online messages, news about the organization, arrange different kind of competitions or campaigns for exemple.



Behind the "Press" link there are of course press releases of the organization and some press images available also. Press materials are mostly also available for everyone who has interest in them (you can even sign-up for the mailing list of the latest press materials) and gives information about what's happening in H&M at the same time. The releases are categoried in two groups: fashion and corporation. Organizations can control the content of these messages and bring all the "good news" out to public. This is an effective way for a corporation to build their image and reputation.



Relations with investors are a very important part of PR for organizations. As it is said on their website, "H&M endeavours to engage in open dialogue with the stock market, the media, customers and other stakeholders." Behind the "Investor Relations" link there are financial reports, shareholder information, financial calendar and all other information that is or might be important for H&M's investor. Being open and sharing this information with financial stakeholders is important in building good relations between the organization and the investors.



Corporate responsibility and taking care of it is an obvious part of good PR. Telling people how H&M is doing it's own part of work in today's social causes plus respecting and taking care of the enviroment gives a good image of them. Hennes & Mauritz has been criticised a lot during the last few years on using child labour in Africa and Asia so giving the information about their corporate responsibility and actions for the public audience must be especially important for them. On the site there's also a link to their suistainability report of year 2009 called "Style and Substance".

Of course all of this are general and important PR strategies and tools for every organization, not just for those working in the fashion industry. This means that corporations in fashion don't differ that much from the other kind of organizations in the end as good public relations are just as much important for them. I just wanted to have a closer look to a website of a corporation that is working especially in the fashion business as it is the sub-topic of my blog.



All the pictures used in this post are screen shots from the website of Hennes & Mauritz "

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