When I was attending to my internship, one of my duties is to monitor the media's publications. Having said that, these publication types can range from prints to broadcasts disclosures. When I first started my internship at LEWIS PR Malaysia, I was not aware of the importance media monitoring. At times, I even missed several coverages in regards to my lacking of attention to details. I have always questioned such a task, I mean, why is it so important to know? Personally, I am not a person who would pry into others' business. Therefore, it was really hard for me to need to know about competitors and the trends in the industry.
On the other hand, I am familiar with the importance of knowing your clients' scope of operations. I mean, it is only rational to know your clients in order to succeed in pitching to them any PR plan you have devised. I mean, that is one of the important attempts that brings bread to the table. When I was brought to a pitch meeting with Samsung, I finally realised how important it is to know what your clients' competitors are doing and the trends that are shaping the industry with which your clients are operating in.
My manager was the one pitching to the client and she was asked a lot of questions. She turned to me occasionally for information that she did not have as I was supporting her in monitoring the media. We were asked about Samsung's competitors and of course the evolving trends of smartphone technology. By then, I finally realised that you need to know not only about your clients' competitors, the trends in the industry is just as important as well.
After the pitch with Samsung, I dissected and digested the entire pitch interview and have drawn several conclusions from it. With that said, I believe that if you have the information at your disposal with regards to the industry, you can then devise a PR plan that is much more competitive than what competitors are doing. These competitors include the companies that your clients are competing against and the consultancies that your company are pitching against. When you present a competitive plan to your clients, naturally, they are bound to accept your proposal if it is better than the ones your competitors are presenting.
To make it easier, put yourself in your clients' shoes, think about what you would like to see and hope to achieve over your competitors. I believe this can be related to commitment and empathy as well. In this case, after putting myself in my client's (Samsung) shoes, I thought of wanting to gain a competitive advantage over Nokia, Apple, Hua Wei, and other smartphone providers. With this in mind, I can then effectively come up with a PR plan that is competitive, taking into consideration what the competitors are doing. In a way, this promotes confidence in your clients which guarantees your pitching success over your competitors.
To sum up, after the pitching experience, I started following media publications closely in order to avoid missing any crucial information. At the same time, this is to keep myself updated with the happenings in the industry.
I have added additional articles for you to read at your convenience with regards to my post.
I hope what I have written is useful for you and thank you so much for your time.
Have a pleasant day ahead.
Adrian.
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