02.26.08
Is there such a thing as being “too niched?”
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this recently, especially in connection with the PCOS magazine and other information marketing that I do around the syndrome. The first edition of PCOS Today Magazine was a moderate success. I was proud to see my first publication royalties from it. However, it didn’t seem it reached nearly as much of the PCOS niche as I thought it would…hence my question, is this a question of a niche being too small?
With this question in mind, it’s propelling me to think about how to expand the niche. I’ve also been wondering how you position health communication products for such a specific niche like this in the market? What IS the PCOS market, for that matter? IS there a market?
I apparently think too much. I’ve also been trying to learn more about information marketing. There seems to be a strong focus on “tangible” product marketing. However, my expertise, my focus, my capabilities have ALWAYS been focused on providing information (whether it be desktop published, blogged, spoken, etc.). I want to find a way to connect my passions (many, varied, broad though they are…public relations, health communication, polycystic ovarian/ovary syndrome, and many, many more) with this idea of information marketing. I think I have more to learn, but probably already know a lot about it. Just have to connect the dots.
09.10.07
How PR Touches Every Part of Our Lives
The couples that surround me…my best friends from my college days, a former K-State grad student (and her hubby) who has gone on to UTAustin…they’re all having babies. Over the summer, strangely enough, a former PR student of mine e-mailed me to let me know what she was doing as part of her new, after-graduation job. Lo-and-behold, part of her responsibilities is to peruse blogs about motherhood, parenting and the what-not, to help her firm’s client determine what new mothers find to be vital, right here and right now.
Then there’s a health advocacy group I’m a part of, and we’re trying to find ways to draw more of those we serve to our Web site’s forum boards. The plus is that we’re new and fresh; the minus is that we have competition, successful competition at that. At the same time, we’ve established virtual offices in Second Life, a virtual community (check it out if you’ve never heard of it (http://www.secondlife.com). We’re trying to draw people to our virtual presence, so we’re holding a pseudo-event on 9/23 (if you’d like more details, give me a yell). I’M SURROUNDED BY PUBLIC RELATIONS!!!
09.22.06
All over the place…
This post is probably going to sound like a ramble. A few things have crossed my mind as I’ve read my PR student’s blogs, as I’ve started working on my Ph.D., as I’ve just sat here reading e-mail.
Po Bronson is an author I ALWAYS love to read. He wrote a book sometime in the past five years about professions…who loves what, who hates what, who does something truly unique to put food on the table. On his Web site is a rant about the Gen X generation, a cohort I belong to and am firmly esconced within, since the day I was born. His rant almost takes on a 1960s Ginsberg-esque quality to it, in the “I’ve seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…” sort of way. Except Po’s bent is that Gen X has replaced integrity with money and stature, and we are focused on culture consumption instead of good ol’, honest-to-goodness political, economic and societal values. I don’t know. In some ways I think he’s right. He says we don’t vote. We don’t read the newspapers. We walk around like a bunch of birds with our chests puffed out in a proverbial “who’s better” contest. And, being a professor teaching classes in public relations, it got me to thinking…does my generation have an image problem? Or, perhaps, do all generations following the one in current establishment have image problems? I think if this in the “I had to walk to school, uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow” talks our elders have always given us. Anyone younger than the person speaking is considered irresponsible. I joke with my mom about this. I’m in my mid-30s….but I could be 80 and she’d still be “mom.”
Regarding getting my Ph.D., I have to admit I’m tired. I’ve been tired for a while. But I’m very much enjoying what I’m learning. My biggest struggle is that I feel as if I’m meeting myself coming and going. I expected this, so I cannot complain. I’m just ready to be completely done with school and permanently on the OTHER side of the lecturn. 
I’ll continue on later, as more thoughts come to mind.
09.15.06
The Gods, and my students, probably think I’m crazy.
I threw my PR Techniques students into the deep end of the visual communication pool this week by having them dive right in to create a brochure for an organization connected with the School of JMC in which I teach (how many swimming cliches can I cram into one sentence?). Although I’m sure a few of them are cursing my name right now, and most likely digging out voodoo dolls in effigy of me, I really do think this is the best way for them to learn how to create the materials they will be responsible for producing once out in the harsh world of public relations and mass communication post-college.
The production of these designed visual communication tools for use in public relations, I think, is one of the most fun challenges of communications. Why? Because the designer is thrown into the tug-of-war of fitting all the necessary copy into a rather defined amount of space, coupled with the knowledge that it must be visually appealing and grab attention so it will be ultimately read. The great thing about creating brochures and flyers, at least in their purest and most simple forms, is that the guidelines are fairly “cut-and-dry.” You can only set forth so many rules about a brochure until the creativity of the design and the message become rote, dry, and you’ve essentially wasted time and money to produce something that isn’t going to read.
The other reason I provide my students to basic guidelines and ask them to dig into a project like this is because it gets them out into the world of visual communication and looking around. I hope they’ll start keeping their eyes open for other brochures that really seem to “work” and will try to emulate the designs they think meet the challenge. This also gives me the opportunity to work a little more one-on-one with them during classtime, as to provide them a bit of facilitation on this journey through visual communication.
So, for my students who might be reading this, BREATHE! I trust in your ability, your creativity, and your enthusiasm to create something that will be great. You have a fun opportunity here to help out an organization that can use it for great benefit. I truly look forward to seeing what you produce, and remember, THIS IS A PROCESS! I’m not expecting Picasso (or Monet) to come flying out of our design software. I expect you to learn and grow as the great public relations practitioners you are and will be.
