A Case Study: PR in Mexico

Mexico has been characterized by sex trafficking, drug cartels, and tainted alcohol at resort locations.

The “Mexican drug cartels and the gruesome media coverage portrayed around the world, horrifying potential travelers to the country’s beautiful beaches and historic cities” (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013). The perception of Mexico to travelers from all around the world was at an all time low. People were too afraid to visit a country that seemed to have a corrupt police force, extensive drug related crimes, and who is unable to contain criminals such as Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the Mexican Drug Lord who headed the Sinaloa Cartel and Mexico’s top drug kingpin, added to this horrifying perception of Mexico. The Sinaloa “gang is the country’s largest cartel, based on the volume of drugs it moves” (Kellner and Pipitone, 2010). El Chapo, was wanted by the United States, even offering money to get him. He had escaped prison in Mexico multiple time, once just by bribing security guards (Wikipedia). El Chapo’s image was not good for Mexico as a whole.

The Mexico Tourism Board was set on changing the perception of Mexico and recovering the number of tourists visiting the country.

The Mexican Tourism Board enlisted the help of multiple different Public Relations agencies in Mexico, as well as the national agency Ogilvy Public Relations (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013).

The agencies decided that “Instead of promoting the typical attractions like Cancun and Tequila, the campaign invested in promotion of swimming with ocean wildlife, beautiful underground rivers and waterfalls, and Mexico’s remote beaches” (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013).

The campaign titled “The Place You Thought You Knew” was a huge success. It showed tourist that Mexico is more than drugs and all-inclusive resorts, it is a place of travel and history, “these environmental factors highlight the importance of the culture as a primary factor” (Garcia, 2016).

This was important because it helped to broaden the world’s knowledge of Mexico. This campaign reached a global audience through news networks: CNN, Newsweek, and Bloomberg, as well as integrating social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and sparking blogs from all over the world (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013).

Highlighting sightseeing instead of partying helped to change the perception of what people think when they think of Mexico. The campaign was a huge success and the year after the campaign was launched “marked the best year in Mexican Tourism with over 27 million international visitors” (It’s Another Tequila Sunrise, 2013).

All in all, Mexico’s Tourism Board did an amazing job showing their audience that Mexico is more than what meets the eye. This case study is extremely interesting since it shows Mexican Public Relations at work across the globe. They implemented their ideals, for a global audience.

 

Sources

Garcia, Cesar. “De-Westernizing Public Relations: A Comparative Analysis of Culture and Economics Structure in China and Mexico.” Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, vol. 17, no. 2, 2016, pp. 9–27., (Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, 2010)

“It’s Another Tequila Sunrise – Mexico’s PR Campaign for Tourism Revival.” bobby1221- Global Communication, 6 Dec. 2013, bobby1221.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/giving-the-media-a-mai-tai-mexicos-pr-campaign-for-tourism-revival/.

Kellner , Tomas, and Francesco Pipitone. “Inside Mexico’s Drug War.”  World Policy Journal, EBSCOHost, 1 Mar. 2010, eds-b-ebscohost-com.ezp.lib.cwu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=9dbdf4b2-e595-4882-874e-5148795f7f63@sessionmgr101.

“Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán,” Wikipedia.          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_%22El_Chapo%22_Guzm%C3%A1n

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A Rant: By Me

Here I sit in a two hour long lecture.
I come only because attendance is a part of my grade.

I sit on my phone the entire two hours. Switching back and forth scrolling through different social media’s.
Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook
Repeat.
Throw LinkedIn in the round every once in awhile just because I’m now bored of my other social media’s.

(and now I writing this blog, so throw that in the mix as well)

You might think I’m wasting my time. And I couldn’t agree more.
I am also wasting my money.
Yet I am required to take this course to graduate.
And I think that’s dumb (for lack of a better word).

The professor teaches me nothing that I don’t already know, yet I am still forced to be here.
I get A’s on all the tests without ever purchasing the book or listening to the lectures.
Again, I am wasting my tuition money in this.

Why are students forced to take classes they do not need?
I can go up in front of the class and give a speech right now. Yet I have to sit through four hours of lecture a week just to get the credits to graduate.

There has to be a better system than this. A system where I can somehow opt out of classes such as this, classes where I am not learning anything, classes where my knowledge is not being expanded.
Now don’t get me wrong. I think college is important and I have learned and grown as a person through many different courses.
Yet I should not be forced to take a class, where all I do is sit in my seat in order to get my grade.

Can you tell I’m annoyed?
Definitely a waste of two hours of my life (every Monday and Wednesday).

I hope you didn’t waste two hours today.

Covey Summary: Installment #3

 

Welcome to the third installment of my Covey summaries:

In this chapter of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the habit discussed is: Put First Things First. Covey discussed how things need to be prioritized. Not prioritized in the way of making sure things get done, but prioritizing things you like to do over things you do not like to do. We need to focus on not what is the most urgent, but what we think is most important.

This chapter builds on the last habit, about determining goals -which I discussed in  my previous blog- this chapter is about actually achieving these goals. Covey talks about managing ourselves, not managing our time. We need to stay on track with our goals and prioritize them in our lives.

I can use this habit in my everyday life to help me prioritize the goals that I have. I am very guilty of missing out on things in order to stay home and do homework, or even stay home and watch Netflix or do something useless.

On the other hand, I am also guilty of going out and doing things with my friends in stead of things that I should probably do first, like homework. Overall, I need to get better at prioritizing things that I want to do, but that also help me stay on track with my goals. I need to know what I want, but I also need to know when it needs to be done.

I think being in college it is important to have fun, and it is important to think about myself before others at times. But it also important to get things done that need to get done, especially my school work. All in all, I can use this habit to help better schedule myself and my priorities.

So there you have it, my third installment of Covey summaries. The next will be coming your way in the near future.

Covey: Installment Two

As promised previously, I am adding to my installments of Covey. If this is the first time you are reading my blog, I have been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and I have done summaries on each of the chapters I have read.

So here is my next summary: 

This week in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey spoke of the second habit. That habit is: begin with the end in mind. Covey started this chapter off by using a thought experiment.

What does your funeral look like? Who’s there? What are people saying about you, etc.

This exercise is used by Covey so that you can think about the type of person you want to be in your life, the type of accomplishments you wish to make, and the impressions you hope to leave on the people around you.

That is his whole idea in the chapter, begin with the end in mind, set goals to achieve, not just short term, but long-term goals that you can strive towards.

If we have these long-term goals ahead of time, we can truly make steps in the right direction, steps that have meaning, not just coating through life without a distinct purpose behind what we do. Covey suggests that we can use this habit in any part of our lives, personal and professional. All in all, the habit of beginning with the end in mind, can be applied to all parts of our lives.

After reading this chapter, I can use this habit in my personal and professional life. I can make goals now, that I can achieve over my lifetime. Goals such as, one day having a husband and children, one day working for a professional sports team, and one day travelling to even more destinations.

If I have goals set, I can also set up how I can achieve the goals. This will help me to be a better student, friend, an employee. Overall, I like this habit because it really makes you sit down and think about what you want from this life.

So there you have it, my second installment of Covey summaries, my next will be coming soon!

Interview

Since I am nearing my last year of college, I decided to interview one of my very best friends, and find out a little more about her job experience, and the best way to land a job post grad. Enjoy!

1. Tell me about yourself, where are you from? What college did you go to? What did you do in college, work, sports, etc?

My name is Hannah Calvert I grew up in Enumclaw, Washington and graduated from Seattle Pacific University. Growing up I loved competing and participating in athletics including basketball, cross-country, and track so I went on to run in college. In addition to running, I had a job as a part-time nanny, part-time sales associate at a running store, and by my senior year a marketing internship. So, a lot of different things at once but I like staying busy, so it worked out.

2. What company do you work for and what is your job title?

I work for Oiselle, a by women for women running company. Oiselle designs women’s running apparel, sponsors professional runners, and has a non-professional club team called the Volée. My job title is Marketing Associate.

3. What kind of things to you do on a day to day basis?

On a day to day basis I attend various meetings including marketing meetings, brand meetings, a weekly one-on-one with my supervisor, and occasional meetings with other company representatives or race executives. When I am at my desk I’m usually building blog content for our website, completing PR requests for product to be sent to various publications, reaching out to our athletes for content requests or social media prompts, or building briefs for the marketing team. I also serve as a project manager for our photoshoots, so I organize photoshoot samples, organize flights and Airbnb’s for our models (our athletes) and manage the shot list. Since we are a smaller company I wear a few different hats so my day-to-day isn’t redundant and I have the chance to take on a variety of projects.

4. Do you prefer your work with marketing or PR, what are the differences in both day to day for you?

I would say they go hand in hand for me. Both involve a lot of creativity and strategic thinking. I get to spend a lot of time brainstorming execution for race expos, product launches, and blog content which I really enjoy.

5. How important do you think are internships, what was yours? What was the biggest outcome?

I think internships are extremely important since that’s what led me to my full-time job post-graduation (also the biggest outcome of my internship).

6.What do you recommend to students that are just now searching for internship possibilities?

Don’t be afraid to be a little annoying. I knew I wanted to work for Oiselle and they didn’t have an internship opening, let alone an internship program, but I still found a connection, introduced myself to someone who worked for Oiselle at a college track meet (literally right before my race) and sent off an email saying I was looking for an internship. They kindly replied they didn’t have interns but had a position at the store available, so I took it thinking at least I have some way in. Four months into working at the store and I got an internship position. Following up is never bad and sometimes persistence really pays off.

7.What is one tip you would give to college students prior to graduation?

Start on a path that leads to your dream job even if the starting point isn’t the most compelling. I watched a lot of my friends weighing the pros and cons of different job offers. Some knew the field they really wanted to end up in, but the starting point seemed intimidating/hard to break into, or they felt like they would have to start at the very bottom. Their other offer was usually something that they had zero interest in but was a big company with a big salary. Needless to say, a lot of those friends that chose the big money spend their weeks counting down to the weekend.

I had zero desire to be a sales associate, but it was for a company I dreamt of working for, so I took it on with excitement and stayed focused on where I wanted to end up. One year later and I am exactly where I hoped I would be.

Covey Summaries- Installment 1

I have began reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey for a class, and have decided to share with you all about what I have thought and what I have learned from each chapter.

Though I am only two chapters in at this point (i.e. installment 1), here is what I think so far.

After reading the first chapter, “Inside-Out”, I believe the main point of the chapter is: how we think and react on the inside effect what happen to us on the outside. Covey, went through multiple personal stories in this chapter about how the way he reacted to a situation, effected the outcome in that situation. Then he would speak of how in hindsight he would react differently, and how that in turn would help the situation play out differently. He spoke a lot about our personal paradigms, and how those effect how we communicate and act, and how if we change those paradigms, this around us will change as well. All in all, Covey discussed how we communicate and act, effect the things and people around us.

I can use this message in my everyday life, by thinking before I react. This will help me to develop better relationships with my friends and family, as well as classmates and coworkers. I think that sometimes I come off very sarcastic, so when I am serious people may not take me seriously or think I am just trying to be funny. If I take time to think about what I say before I say it, I think that people will start to take me more seriously. Overall, I think I can use his idea about personal paradigms, in my own life to cultivate better and truer relationships.

The next chapter, and the first habit Covey has introduced, was all about the idea of being proactive. Not proactive like doing things before they need to be done, but reacting to things in a proactive way. Instead of blaming situations on outside factors, he suggests deciding on how you can handle them or how you can change them. He went through many examples of ways people have done just that, or ways that people can do that. He spoke of how our stimulus is not the reason for our response, that we have a choice of how we respond.

I think I can use this in my personal life, as well as in my school and work life. In terms of school, I tend to complain about classes and work load based on how much do or do not like my teachers. If I have a lot of work in classes with teachers I do like I do not care as much. But when I have a lot of work in classes for teachers I don’t like, I get easily annoyed. In terms of stimulus and response, I need to treat all classes the same, focus on my learning, not focus on the professor.

I can use this at work to, on days that my boss isn’t very nice, I have worse days at work. But instead of reacting to him as the stimulus, I can just focus on getting my job done and making the most if it. All in all, I think I can learn to not react right away, and focus on the situation as a whole, not just one thing that annoys me.

Overall, Covey has intrigued me more than I thought he would.

Be looking for my next installment of Covey summaries in the next few weeks.

Spring Cleansing

With the beginning of spring comes spring cleaning.

Well I’ve decided to do some spring cleansing instead.

I chose to purchase the Advocare 10-day herbal cleanse, because I have used Advocare products before, and loved the result, and the way the program worked.

I started my 10-day cleanse last Monday, so that means I am on day 8 of the 10 days (almost done YAY).

Even though a “cleanse” sounds like a very difficult thing to do, and not a very fun thing to do, Advocare makes it very easy and honestly kinda fun.

Here is what the cleanse has looked like for me thus far:

Every morning you begin your day by taking two probiotic pills along with a glass or Spark. Spark is a drink that is mad up of amino acids and vitamins, and during the cleanse takes the place of coffee, at least it does for me. (Because sadly you are not supposed to drink coffee during the 10 days).

Then, 30 minutes after you take the probiotic pills, you dink a fiber drink right before breakfast. I don’t really know how to describe this drink other than its kinda gross, but if you chug it, it is tolerable.

For breakfast I have been eating two scrambled eggs, and a protein shake made of frozen berries, natural peanut butter, cashew milk, and protein powder. Sounds weird but is very yummy.

Then about two hours later you are supposed to have a small snack to keep your metabolism going, I opt for almonds and an apple, or celery and some hummus.

Than again about two hours later, or whenever you decide to have lunch you are supposed to eat a protein, a complex carb, and a fruit or a vegetable. My go to lunch is a Greek salad, loaded with greens, cucumber, tomatoes, and chicken that I try to have prepared the night before. (I love this salad and HIGHLY recommend it). I usually have a Spark with lunch as well.

Two hours later, you guessed it, a snack!

And finally, for dinner, a protein, complex carb, and a fruit or a vegetable. My got to has been sautéed veggies with sweet potato, with an over easy egg on top and some turkey meatballs. Might sound weird, but it is SO good.

The last step of the cleanse is to take two herbal tablets right before bed with a glass of water.

The cleanse is as easy as it gets. For me the hardest part has been not drinking alcohol (I know its only 10 days, but I’m in college and get major FOMO), drinking enough water (you are supposed to have over a gallon each day), and being prepared. On the cleanse or whenever you are trying to eat clean preparation is VERY necessary.

Overall, I feel healthier, have lost a couple pounds, and just have a good head start on my health this spring.

I recommend a good spring cleanse to anyone and everyone.