Free «Public Relations Campaign Project: Seal Swim School» Essay

The long-term success of a company depends on its ability to build and maintain a corporate image. Notably, public relations help an enterprise deal with negative publicity facilitating a trust-based relationship with their clients. Nevertheless, for this to happen, a company should conduct successful public relations campaigns. As such, a careful and strategic evaluation of public relations activities in an organization is critical for the facilitation of planning, implementation, and evaluation of measurable public relations strategies (Seitel, 2017).  A public relations strategy for Seal Swim School would help the company gain more newly registered customers and establish their brand.

First swimming pools were represented by open water basins. Later, some individuals began constructing pools for their private needs, and hotels adopted this trend, having included it in their marketing strategies. Today, numerous studies have proved that swimming pools significantly improved their services to cater for the needs of the customers (Bartram, 2015). The advantages of starting a business in this sector include a low barrier to entry, limited startup risks and the fact that the product is readily marketable. Other opportunities include the easiness of expanding the business and ability to offer complementary services and products. The possible issues include the ease of competitors to offer similar products, and limited pricing while the threat affecting this industry involves the change in regulations. Besides, safety concerns are also a major threat (Bartram, 2015).

Seal Swim School is an institution that was established to facilitate swimming training for different categories of people. Opened in 1979, the school has undergone tremendous growth and now includes indoor facilities (Seal Swim School, 2017). It offers lessons to both children and adults, and the company’s priorities include family values, integrity as well as learners' safety. Seal Swim School aims at helping students acquire swimming skills regardless of their age. The institution has not had past media coverage. Their target audience is parents with children who would like to learn swimming and also adults interested in swimming lessons. Though this group is aware of the availability of swimming schools, many of them are hesitant to sign in due to safety concerns. Given that the school has trained and certified trainers, they have a better opportunity to expand their services to their operations to other towns around the USA. Also, the school is noticeable for being a modern facility. However, it faces stiff competition from similar institutions. The school carried out a social media PR campaign that involved contests and exhibitions with a goal of unifying professionals at various Seal Swim School locations.

The key message of the campaign is "Swim safer." The message will focus on the school’s trained staff and safety precautions enforced to guarantee the security of swimmers. The campaign aims to reach various institutions and companies. The objectives are expanding the client base and creating brand awareness. At the start of the campaign, the school should expect to see an immediate increase in the number of new registrations. The campaign will run for six months and will also include sponsoring activities at the company’s premises. The trainers will participate in events held at the institution's facilities thereby showcasing their skills. Also, there will be a public relations team conducting a study on customer opinion in the first weeks of the campaign; this team will also distribute fliers and T-shirts while the IT team will add a page on the School's website where updates on the campaign will be posted. The surveys will be conducted in different neighborhoods of the school. In addition, the surveys will be conducted through a set of questions prompting participants to reveal their attitudes towards swimming classes and their opinions on the services offered. Additionally, it will target on establishing the public's awareness of safety in swimming environments.

Establishing effective communication between a business and their clients is crucial for the success of a public relations campaign. Successful implementation of the campaign will include ensuring that the message reaches the target audience (Kazokiene & Stravinskiene, 2012). For this case, the main channel of communication will include the media, billboard advertisements, and newsletter articles designed by the public relations team. The campaign will mainly focus on newsletters in the swimming industry media such as Swim magazine. The message will include the company’s key message. Additionally, it will include press releases made and submitted to media listings relevant to the swimming industry. The adverts will be called "Swim safe, learn to swim with the experts at Seal Swim School." Also, the company will sponsor activities mostly in schools and also in Seal swim School premises to further create awareness of the institution's existence. The media campaign will run for the entire campaign period while the activities will involve a total of four events. The primary aim of the adverts is to create awareness of the institution's existence and encourage more people to sign up while sponsoring activities aim at brand awareness especially in the neighborhoods where the business exists.

The school will sponsor a swimming competition. For this event, Seal Swim School will have to cooperate with the management of the institution to allow them to assist school students as they prepare for the event. At the event, the customer relations team will give fliers with information about the business to parents. Since sponsoring events is one of the effective ways of building awareness, the institution should see increase registration especially for the young learners (Macnamara, 2011).  The public relations campaign aims at building awareness and increasing Seal Swim School clients. The event will help achieve two objectives and keep the cost down. The expected cost for the event includes printing cost for the fliers, t-shirts, and caps and also that of awarding prizes to the winners of the competition.

A public relations campaign is not complete without an evaluation of the success of the campaign. The assessment plan measures the outcome of the campaign against the expected results (Seitel, 2017). Evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign will involve measuring the level of meeting the objectives, efficiency of the communication strategy and the outcome of the overall marketing (Kazokiene & Stravinskiene, 2012). Evaluating the success of the campaign will include examining of the possible increase in registration rates and understanding if any institutions and companies signup for group activities in Seal Swim School. Also, it will include a survey to determine whether the message reached the target audience. Additionally, it will evaluate the effects the message had on the people it was designed for and whether it changed their attitude, particularly on safety concerns. Currently, there are proposals for continued research into the perception and attitudes of the clients. Also, the institution should continuously make updates of their activities through announcements on their website, newsletter articles, and press releases.

In conclusion, a public relations campaign helps the company build and maintain its corporate image. The stiff competition in the swimming schools business necessitates conducting public relations campaigns that facilitate the exploitation of the numerous opportunities in that sector. In the case of Seal Swim school, a public relations strategy aims at acquiring more customers in the short run and building brand awareness in the long term. The target audience for the campaign would involve young children and adults interested in taking up swimming lessons. The school's strength lies in their trained and certified trainers, modern facilities, and the fact that they cater to the particular needs of learners. The campaign would run for six months and would include media campaigns and events sponsorship. On the other hand, the evaluation of the campaign would involve measuring the objectives, the communication effectiveness and well as the outcome. Therefore, with a successful campaign, Seal Swim School will be in a better position to handle the tough competition.