The First Lady of fashion; Michelle Obama

Lupasin ajastaa uuden muoti-PR -aiheisen postauksen tälle päivälle blogiin, joten tässäpä tulee! Kommentit tämän postaussarjan kirjoituksista ovat minulle edelleen tärkeitä, joten jos jotain ajatuksia herää, tulkaa kiltit kertomaan siitä kommenttiboksiinkin :)! Tällä kertaa tarkastellaan USA:n presidentin vaimon vaatekaappia ja muotimaailman suhtautumista Valkoisen Talon ykkösnaiseen;

"The First Lady of fashion

picture: Michelle Obama / DWS Celebrity News

Michelle Obama is the wife of the president of the United States of America. Now she has also gained the title of "The First Lady" of fashion too and has been said to be one of the best dressers in the world. Michelle Obama is an elegant woman who is known for her great sence of style and has become a huge fashion icon. Do you still remember Jackie O's affect in the fashion business? Yes, every woman (and why not a man too) seems to know what the First Lady of USA is wearing.

And when a fashion icon wears something, it will most propably soon be sold out in every store. Especially when Michelle Obama wears not only luxury fashion designer clothing, but also clothes or accessories from very affordable brands. You can imagine the competition between all the designers and fashion corporations all around USA to get to dress Mrs. Obama. Whatever she wears, people and media will notice. This gives fashion designers and corporations a huge chance to upgrade their sales and make their brand better known or more popular within their target groups and stakeholders. What an easy way and effective tool one t-shirt can be! "

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 "

Ajatuksia muoti-PR:stä (in english)

Heippa vaan pitkästä aikaa! Pieni blogiloma tuli tässä pidettyä, sillä takana ovat viimepäivien ajalle sijoittuneet tentti, kouluhommat ja muut työjutut, juhlahumua ja liian lyhyitä yöunia. Nyt hieman helpottaa, paitsi että en tiedä kuinka maltan odottaa ensi viikonloppuun, jolloin olisi oikeinkin mieluisaa menoa ja puuhaa tiedossa kiitos lupaavien synttärisuunnitelmien.

Päivän asut ovat jääneet kuvaamatta, syystä että olen ollut kotona vain nukkumassa, muulloin viilettänyt ympäri kaupunkia polkupyörän selässä ja harvoin jaksanut kameraa raahata koneen ja muiden tavaroiden lisäksi mukana. Tänään asuni on melko simppeli, mutta mieluisa ja sisältää pari uuttakin juttua, joten tulen julkaisemaan sen vielä myöhemmin täällä.

Mutta, itse asiaan. Kerroin jo aiemmin aikaani vievästä "koulublogistani", joka liittyy tällä hetkellä menossa olevaan kurssiini; PR processes and development worldwide. Tehtävänäni on pitää kurssin (loppusyksyn) ajan blogia, jossa kirjoitan PR-prosesseista ja kehityksestä valitsemani aihealueen alla. Ei varmaankaan ole vaikeaa arvata, että valitsin aiheekseni juurikin muotialan, sillä olen tainnut aiemminkin mainita haaveilevani muodin ja PR:n sekä viestinnän yhdistämisestä tulevalla urallani. Tajusin ihan vasta, että vaikka tuotan muotiin liittyvää sisältöä koulujuttujen puolesta, mikä minua estää julkaisemasta tuotoksiani täälläkin! Tästä starttaa siis uusi postaussarja, joka tulee löytymään PR in fashion -tunnisteen alta jatkossa.

Syystä että osa kurssimme opiskelijoista, sekä professorimme ovat ulkomailta lähtöisin tai vaihto-oppilaita, kirjoitan englanniksi. Jos siis teksti englannin kielellä, tai viestintä aihealueena itsessään ei tahdo kiinnostaa, niin nämä postaukset voi suosiolla sivuuttaa. Päinvastaisessa tilanteessa taas suosittelen oikein lämpimästi tutustumaan itselleni hyvin läheiseen ja minua todella kiinnostavaan aihealueeseen. Kommentit erityisesti tähän postaussarjaan ovat minulle sitten kultaa kalliimpia, eli mikäli keksitte jotain (siis ihan mitä tahansa) sanottavaa aihealueesta tai postauksista niin antakaahan paukkua!

Ja tästä se lähtee! :)



" Can you even work with fashion PR?

Everyone knows that worldwide there are a lot of people and even a bit more people working within the fashion industry; there are of course designers, models, photographers, stylists, hair and make-up artists, the media and so on. But were do communication and public relations experts step in? Is there anything we can do? Let me help you out with this one; of course there is. And yes, even in Finland, not just in those trendy city blocks of Paris, Milan or New York.

Star PR is a good example when talking about fashion PR in Finland. It is a Scandinavian Public Relations agency that is specialised in five categories: Food & Beverages, Home & Design, Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle. Star PR was founded in Stockholm in 2001 and works in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm of course.

Felicities-showroom, picture from here

"As part of our fashion service Star has show rooms adjacent to its offices. The Show room is an inspiring PR-tool for exposure of brands, concepts and products and it can be used for any activity ranging from Embassy programs to concept presentations and sample lending.

Twice a year we arrange the Star's Fashion day - an open house event for media workers and opinion formers where our customers and their new products are represented jointly during one day. This is a highly appreciated event both among our customers, who often tie new business contacts, and among media workers, who get a good overview of what will come onto the market. "

source: Star PR website

What does this mean then? Besides more traditional PR methods in fashion business there are also new possibilities for public relations, for example using the show room (which usually are like a combination of a clothing store and an art gallery) or fashion theme days for press and media as effective PR-tools. Communication professionals get a chance to be creative and innovative at times in fashion, which sounds like a good deal to me! "