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To get started with the assignment our group named Colossal, went to visit Letsema

Communications, a public relations agency, to discuss how to develop a communication

strategy and plan. We also discussed the breach between theory and practice and what we

can expect once we graduated.

For the theory we studied Corporate Communication Strategy by Benita Steyn and Gustav

Puth and implemented it on the way Letsema Communications is doing business. We will

thoroughly discuss all steps and aspects covered in the communication strategy and

planning models developed by Steyn and Puth (2000:62; 82).

Letsema in Sotho, means a number of people coming together for a common goal, a

specific purpose. Letsema Communications goal is to empower their clients

communication, ensuring that the message reaches the right people at the right time

causing a mind shift and giving their brand better recognition.

Letsema Communications combines professional experience aspects such as

management, communication, journalism, finance and technology among others to ensure

a collaborated environment. It focuses entirely on the client and achieving their needs.

The core services of this firm are to provide public relations, personal profiling, specialist

writing services, brand building and design, and issues and crises management.

A strategy can be defined as:

The art or science of affording maximum support to adopt policies.

An organisations pro-active response to an ever-changing environment: the

instrument that enables an organization to find synthesis between its goals and

resources in view of the risks and challenges of the changing environment. An indication of an organizations positioning for the future, the whatrather than the

how.

The thinking, the logic behind the actions.

Doing the right thing, rather than doing things right.(Steyn&Puth, 2000:29)

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Objectives can be defined as explicit outcomes within support of the broader goals

(Steyn&Puth, 2000:31).

The foundation for all of our work at Letsema Communications is strategy. This means thatat the commencement of all client relationships Letsema Communications works with

clients to put together a comprehensive strategy that clearly defines objectives for the year,

target audiences and messages. This strategy must link directly to the business objectives

of the client and must also include a clear means of calculating return on investment in

relation to meeting the strategic objectives.

SWOT analysis

Environmental factors that are internally important to the firm can be classified into

strengths and weaknesses, and those factors that have an external influence on the

agency can be classified as opportunities and threats.

According to QuickMBA a SWOT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching a

firms resources and capabilities to the environment in which it operates.

In our visit to Letsema Communications we found that their strengths are that they are

relatively new and unique. Letsema Communications specializes in strategy formulation

and return on investments. Employees have good working relations with a variety of

distribution channels they have an extensive government, business and community

network. Present clients are long-term clients and satisfied with the work they have

received.

In assessing weaknesses, a weakness may be observed when particular strengths are

missing. In Letsema Communications case a weakness can be viewed as over

specialization there is a large part of the industry they are not covering.

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When an external environmental analysis is conducted certain opportunities can arise for

the growth and profit increase. New technologies can fill customer needs to a certain extent

and becoming aware of unfulfilled customer needs.

Threats can be detected when change in the environment occur.

Consumer analysis

According to the Marketing Site, Professor Philip Kotler teaches us that marketing comes

first. Marketing plans usually starts with examining the consumer and their possible needs

closer.

The objective of a consumer analysis is to identify segments or groups within a population,

with related needs so that the marketing efforts can be directly aimed to achieve these

desired objectives.

According to Letsema Communications, a consumer analysis of a companys

performances should also be conducted by a specialist market research company,

especially when the company operates in the retail or Fast Moving Consumer Goods

(FMCG) part of the industry. Where the company has a very specific type of consumer,

Letsema Communications could elect to conduct a survey or customer interviews. Here

each customer or a sample group of customer would be contacted to be asked a variety of

questions relating to their perceptions of the clients brand, communication etc. These

answers would then be analyzed and collected a comprehensive feedback report

developed with a number of recommendations being made.

In developing a corporate communications strategy, its necessary to firstly analyse the

environment your company needs to work in. In analysing your environment there are 3

areas internally to look at. Lets take a look at Letsema Communications environment:

1. Corporate profile:

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Letsemas corporate profile exists out of a few short points. Such as, the fact that they are

a company that realises that every organisation has a story to tell and they have the

necessary tools and network to help to communicate the right story to the right people at

the right time. They are complimented on their variety of services like public relations,

personal profiling and issues and crisis management, just to name a few. They areengaged in a broad range of private and public sector organisations. They comprise out of

a medium team, led by a chairman, director and a managing director. Letsema

Communications believe greatly in giving opportunities to the underprivileged communities.

2. Vision/Mission:

Letsema Communications vision and mission is to empower communication as a tool in

any organisation. They want messages to reach the right people and that it will be heard.

Their aim through this is to get people to think and change their mindsets in everydays life

thinking methods.

3. Corporate Culture:

A blend of the values, beliefs, taboos, symbols, rituals and myths all companies develop

over time.Letsema Communications corporate culture is a feel of casual yet with class.

They all share a great passion for their everyday work. Their logo shows great creativeness

and flow of energy, just like in their team.

4. Enterprise:

Letsema Communications enterprise is just what the name says: coming together for a

specific goal and purpose. The environment analysis doesnt end there. We looked at

Letsema Communications much deeper. We identified their stakeholders and publics in the

internal and external environment. We took a look at this not only because the theory says

so, but because that a company such as Letsema Communications should anchor their

selves around their stakeholders.

Stakeholder map of Letsema Communications

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Stakeholder perceptions of Letsema Communications

Familiarity in the external environment of Letsema Communications

When a company has its stakeholders laid out, they now need to identify and prioritise key

strategic issues as advised by Steyn and Puth. In theory, strategic issues can be divided

into 2 types. The 2 types are:

1. Organisational issues, where communication is not the cause of the problem, but a

solution can be provided.

2. Organisational issues where communication is still not the cause of the problem, but

the issue can be explained because a solution cannot be provided.

This type also has under-categories such as

Corporate communication issues

Management communication issues

Tactical communication issue

Letsema Communications does comply with these categories where they do public

relations, personal profiling,specialist writing services, band building and design,

issues and crisis management.

5

LETSEMA

Employees

Employees

Media

Media

Clients

Clients

Employees

Employees

Clients

Employees

Media

Media

Media

Media

Media

Media

Media

Media

Media

Media

Media

Media Media

Media

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Set Communication Goals

This is the last step in analysing the environment and it means that its the destination

to be reached by means of the organisations communication. (p70)

Letsemas communication goals are:

Cutting through clutter to reach the right people with the

right message at the right time and place no matter the

medium or market. They believe every brand has a

meaningful presence.

Corporate communication strategy, done previously, is the link between communication

campaigns, programmes and plans. Therefore, a company needs a communication plan

which is a detailed written document developed around the companies specific objectives

and goals. This is usually annual and it specifies a company response time scales and the

budget to work with. (p80).

Looking at appendix A, you will see that the first step is to do research. Research is

needed first and foremost because the company, whether it is Letsema Communications or

another company, needs to know why action is required at a specific point in time.

Letsema Communications gets a call from a client or they notice some dispute about one

of their own existing or future clients. Theyll set up a meeting with them and discuss the

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need for their assistance. Asking them a few research questions to broaden their insight on

the situation. After that, Letsema Communications team starts to brainstorm about this

issue and researches it. After having some plans of action ready, theyll present this to their

client, getting the yes or the no on the plans.

After they get the go ahead, then they start to research the clients external or internal

environment, whichever may be the cause. Letsema Communications uses mostly Google,

the internet search devise available to all internet users. They also use a database called

IBIS Media Manager. This software is only available if your firm buys the software. Giving

you access and reports on what media to use, what is available, in what genres, and giving

reports on whether an applicable article has been placed that your firm should take note of.

After finding the necessary information about the clients issue, Letsema Communications

does an in-depth examination of the situation that triggered the communication action

needed. They have a variety of older magazines wherein previous articles for their clients

where published.

Letsema Communications also have a very informal way of research where they socialise

with their stakeholders. This helps them to study their stakeholders and their behaviours

and opinions in depth and still do this on a casual way. Socialising helps in crisis situations.

They analyse the issue quicker because they know how they think and react on situations.

Having a good relationship with your stakeholders helps for a quicker response when there

are unforeseen circumstances luring.

Market Analysis and Brand Analysis:

Market Analysis:

Its important not to get confused between Marketing and Market Analysis. Marketing

involves the whole process of promoting or advertising a product whereas A Marketing

analysis is a documented investigation of a market that is used to inform a firm's planning

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activities particularly around decision of: inventory, purchase, work force

expansion/contraction, facility expansion, purchases of capital equipment, promotional

activities, and many other aspects of a company according to Wikipedia (16-07-2010).

The goal of a market analysis is to understand the firms evolving opportunities and threats

as they relate to the strengths and weaknesses of the firm and to determine the

attractiveness of a market.

One of the many reasons why Letsema communications conduct a market analysis is to

better understand their client. Letsema Communications do not just jump in to something

before they conduct a market analysis because it can easily fail. Its important for them to

conduct a market analysis because it provides them with key information that will help them

to better understand their client.

Letsema Communications draw upon the services of specialists to conduct a market

analysis, if the client should wish to have a formal analysis of either their market or their

brand. The reason why Letsema Communications outsource the Market- and Brand

Analysis is to ensure that the appropriate research and research techniques are used to

effectively assess the current scenario and that the analysis truly reflects the realities

currently facing the client. If however, the client does not have the finances available to

conduct a formal analysis, Letsema Communications undertakes the analysis and do

research of its own, using various means like internet research, surveys etc. ( as specified

in the model to develop a communication plan, see Appendix), to conduct a comprehensive

analysis as possible on behalf of the client.

One of the reasons why Letsema Communication outsource their market and brand

analysis is because they realize they cannot specialize in everything they do and they want

to provide their clients with the best possible service they can. This means that the

organisation uses external companies that specialises in the analysing of markets more

than Letsema Communications does in itself, or sometimes Letsema Communications is

just too busy with major projects to do it their selves This does not mean that Letsema

Communications neglects the client thats not financially equipped to pay for the

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outsourcing of the market and brand analysis, contrariwise, they do this to focus specific on

their clients and their needs, giving them more and effective outcome of their message.

Some of the reasons for conducting a market analysis are:

For the organization to determine if there is a market for the product or service, to establish

the needs for developing a market plan and to ascertain whether market information will

assist in the sale of the product or service.

When conducting a market analyses there are a few steps an organisation must follow:

First, the organisation has to define the problem. Too often the organisation focuses on

the wrong problem and waste valuable time and money doing research for that problem.

Second, the organization has to analyse the situation. If there is any uncertainty then this is

an important step because it is important to understand the problem area so that the

organization can find the appropriate solutions. The analysis should focus on both primary

and secondary data. Third, the organisation must obtain data that is specific to the

problem. Its important to collect primary and secondary data for the areas of the problem

thats unclear or vague. When all the data has been collected it must be analysed and

interpreted. The organisation must find the data thats relevant to the problem and

separate it from the information thats not useful. Not all secondary data will be useful

because it was not collected for the purpose the organisation collecting the data. The

organisation must also determine what the data mean to the organisation and how it

relates to the problem. When the organisation has obtained and analysed the data, the

organisation can use the data and come up with new ideas and solve the problem. The

last step is designing a plan. Now that the organization know what the problem is,

collected the data that will help with the solving of the problem, and solved the problem

they can use all this information to write the business plan.

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Brand Analysis:

Brand analysis is conducted to reveal the organizations true personality, brand awareness

and the market position and produces the market position and the brand equity.

It is important to conduct a brand analysis to see if the target market will use the service or

buy the product of the organization. If a brand analysis is not conducted the organization

can lose time and money developing the wrong brand.

The image and brand should not be confused. Image of a brand involves the look of the

brand whereas the brand involves the perception and feeling a consumer has towards the

brand.Brand analysis means that the organization wants to find out what the consumers

perception or feeling is towards their brand.

Letsema Communications realise the importance of a brand analysis and conduct the

research by outsourcing it to professionals so that nothing is neglected that could influence

the organisations brand in a negative way.

Analysing a brand involves three major components: the Who, which refers to the target

consumer group. The what, which refers to the belief advertisers establish to make the

consumer group favour it. And the why, not all brands have a why but its important to

know why the consumers prefer the organizations brand above the competitor. (du Plessis

et al., 2007:109, 110).

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When the brand analysis has been conducted it will identify the brands weak positions and

where it can be improved. This is important because the organization can improve upon

their brand.

Letsema Communications makes sure that their clients logo or the signal that the

consumers recognise about their client is visible everywhere so that the public can become

more aware of the organisation.

Competitior Review

Competition is one of the major issues that a company deals with in everyday operations.Every company that gets to the top has to go through competition in order to gain a

competitive advantage in the industry. Letsema Communications speed of expansion

relies on the uniqueness that the company offers to the public or its clients which is

different from what its competitors should offer. Letsema Communications might also be

treated as a small firm but it is a medium organisation that deals with public relations,

which means that the level of competition in the communication agencies is not that high;

so Letsema Communications can still manage to differentiate its uniqueness based on the

return on investment (ROI). The firm proved its uniqueness by working with big companies

such as Shell Lubricants, Chemcity, which is part of Sasol. Currently they are working with

MTN for their Yellow Magazine. Working with MTN is a big opportunity for the company

because MTN is operating in many countries in Africa, which will not require too much of

marketing costs for its brand as a public relations agency. It can also improve their chances

of expanding throughout the continent and throughout the world. The agency has also

worked with Denell, which appreciates Letsema Communications onboard by giving them

a strategy edge that helps them to focus on the external exposure, building brand

awareness and creating awareness. Brand awareness can be built in many ways rather

than the profitable activities. The agency has worked with Mandela-Rhodes scholarship

programme, business map foundation, and maths centres for primary teachers, African

leadership initiative, Anglo chairmans fund, and Endeavour. The organisation can take into

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account the communication strategy to evaluate their clients and competitors by evaluating

their progress. There are few public relations agencies that offer or invest in the community

like Letsema Communications. Evaluation research is used to measure awareness,

knowledge, opinions and behaviours of stakeholders before the communication plan is

executed and after it has been executed (Steyn & Puth, 2000:93). It is most important thatan organisation should be able to evaluate its awareness in the market, which can be used

to improve the effectiveness of the programmes offered to their clients. The HIV and

education projects Letsema Communications launched has had a good impact in building

the organisation awareness in the country and can also result in attracting more clients

who are not even under the areas that they offer their services.

Letsema Communications ensures that it reaches the clients expectations by

accomplishing what was set out to be done. It can evaluate their progress by focusing on

three stages. First, in-process research which monitors the campaign, programme or plan

while it is being implemented, and by appraising unforeseen circumstances that might have

a positive impact in the organisation. Letsema Communications is well recognised by the

big companies in the country that its competitors would want to work with. The agency has

proved its effectiveness and determination in accomplishing what they are requested to do.

Most of its long term clients call the agency to perform a specific task for them whichproves the success of the agencys loyalty to their performance. Secondly, internal

evaluation which helps the company to improve what has not worked in the solution

provided. Lastly is the external evaluation, which looks at the effect of the campaign on

factors outside the organisation (Steyn & Puth, 2000:159).

Communication Analysis

According to Arizona State University (ASU), communication provides a window to the

thoughts of the team. They analyse communication data (flow and content) to assess team

cognition and have developed several techniques for automating communication analysis.

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They also explain that communication can be understood easily by making use of drawings

such as stakeholder maps, mind maps, and graphs (www.certt.com). In this topic, the focus

is on Letsema Communicationss internal and the external environment with its clients and

their employees. The corporate communication strategys effectiveness for Letsema

Communications can be evaluated internally and externally.

Internal communication:

In the internal environment, the agency can evaluate it by focusing on corporate profile,

vision, mission, corporate values, corporate culture, and corporate philosophy (Steyn &

Puth, 2000:63). Corporate profile focuses on the organisations financial status, its

reputation in the field, its product or service, and its overall competitive environment. The

location of the organisation also determines the rapid recognition of the organisation. If an

organisation chooses to be far away from its clients or those they think they can work with,

the risk of losing its clients is very high. Letsema Communications is based in

Johannesburg, where most corporate companies are based. It is an advantage for the

agency because it is close to many companies and it is easy to find from search engines.

The corporate communication manager should understand the formal structure of the

organisation in detail and how the functions are related to one another. If the corporate

manager fails to understand the structure, this might lead to an ineffective communication

in the organisation that can also harm its performance to reach their clients needs.

To be strategic and successful in corporate communication, public relations should pass

one basic test that everything done must be aligned with the corporate vision or mission. It

is essential that the employees or the internal functions of the organisation understand

what is meant by a vision and mission which are the basic things that can encourage the

company to perform better if everyone understands. A vision represents a realistic,

credible, and attractive future state of affairs. It also indicates where the organisation is

going and what it wants to achieve (Steyn & Puth, 2000:55). This is a good factor that can

improve the effectiveness of the communication in the industry. Letsema Communications

managing director mentioned that the communication flow in the agency is very effective in

such a way that it becomes a culture to them that everything that has to go to their major

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clients, has to pass through the managing director in order to grant a full permission to

secure its loyalty to their clients. This is to prove that they understand the goals and

policies have a great chance of exposure to the huge market.

The mission statement of the organisation is to define its role in the society and in the

economy. It also explains the organisations identity and ambitions. Letsema

Communications can show its ambition to achieve by focusing on dedication and

commitment amongst the internal part of the organization. Corporate values are sets of real

beliefs that determine standards of practice. A good communication structure of an

organisation comes from the corporate values. This includes teamwork in the organisation,

customer service, and the respect for the individuals. When an organisations values are

defined in the mission statement it helps organisational members to face issues squarely

and to make policy decisions (Steyn & Puth, 2000:55). Corporate culture is the way in

which organisations do things. Letsema Communicartions should expose its procedures

that should be highly followed by the internals staff on what is right or wrong about our

clients. Corporate policies are guiding principles for behaviour that furnish an underlying

and continuing basis for specific actions. They also constitute a practical set of principles

for contacting business, in contrast to the longer scope of the philosophy, mission, goals

and objectives continuum. Policies and procedures differ. Procedures are specific series oftasks to be followed in performing work or accomplishing an activity. Rules are specific

requirements that often relate to employee conduct.

External communication:

Letsema Communications commitment to complete communication counsel and integrated

campaign design and implementation has positioned them as a respected leader in our

profession. An organisation with its own well-structured communication model always

survives many obstacles because they have more power against them. Organisational

issue type one is where communication is not the cause of it, but can provide changes to

the communication failure to the clients. Letsema Communications as an agency must

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ensure if they will ever work with their clients again by receiving the feedback and plan on

improving the manner in which they communicated to their clients. Organisational issue

type two is that some companies can just leave the problem the way it is by not blaming it

on a bad communication structure or coming up with a solution. Letsema Communications

is a hard-working and a well-determined agency because they take everything seriously.The third strategic issue is the corporate communication issues where a little conversation

with the external environment or stakeholders is the problem. The organisations structure

of communication is in order in such a way that one of the team members would prefer to

consult the agency by talking to media with their organisations permission. In Letsema

Communications, the information that has to be sent out must be approved by the

managing director by making sure that the information will not affect the organisations

proposals. The fourth priority is management communication issues. This occurs when

there is a tension between the managers and their employees whereby the information that

has to reach the employees or managers does not get there. Letsema Communications

uses a Local Area Network (LAN) connection in their workplace which makes it easy to

communicate and exchange information easily. The network connects all the instruments

that are required to fulfill a specific task.

For many marketing managers and directors, one of public relations most unappealingfeatures is the fact that its very difficult to determine its actual return on investment, says

Lorrine Araujo, managing director of Letsema Communications.

At the present moment, the commonly used means to measure media publicity is the

Average Value Equivalent (AVEs). This method weighs against the space or airtime of a

free publicity piece to the cost of an advertisement that is paid for. Recently there has been

a trend whereby communication practitioners are adopting towards a more meaningful

reputational analysis leaving behind the much used quantitative way of measurement. Most

of the time public relations practitioners have to prove their worth, to provide evidence to

how public relations activities will realise and support business purpose. The entire yield

from public relations (PR) has to be measured against the business purpose.

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Four types of organisational goals that should be measured to observe if public relations

achieved its impact on the business intent are:

Financial

Reputation and brand equity

Employees and other figures

Public policy

Letsema Communications, our adopted agency gave us an inside scope on how they

measure their effectiveness and success. What they said was that they measure their

success in terms of how content their clients are of the manner Letsema Communiucations

attain their communications and business objectives. Letsema Communications has their

own direct way of determining their success in that they base all their work on the

strategy. Strategy forms groundwork for all the effort and work they do. Every specific

objective that was outlined in the strategy needs to have a connection to the public

relations and communication activities. A strong link must be clearly visible to see the

achievement of the PR and communication activities in demonstrating the objectives of the

strategy. For example, if a press release has one of its objectives as to increase product

awareness leading to increased sales, monitoring the press release would be a starting

point. This would be more viable if the people responsible for sales have obtained

enquiries or sales leads. Letsema Communications approach to their success is to make

sure they have a good working relationship and consult their clients regularly while

accomplishing responsible, credible PR activities. These they believe far more outweighs

the value clients put on publicity.

Letsema Communications uses IBIS Manager, an external service provider to calculate

Average Value Equivalent (AVEs). This is an online service provider that has a lot of the

popular South African publications and radio stations advertising rate cards, these helpswith calculating the AVEs.

Globally many companies seem to be choosing other methods to measuring media

publicity than calculating AVEs. Chris Atkins, vice President of Standard and Poors, an

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American company, deviced a new technique to measure AVEs. Instead of focusing on

measuring the quantitative aspects he also made sure it covered the qualitative side of

media publicity. Main criticism of AVEs is that it focuses on advertising rate that is free

publicity because none of it is paid for. Atkins technique wants to ascertain a scorecard for

the media placement in terms of the reach, type and importance of the story, as well as thepositioning of the story.

A big fallacy about public relations is that on its own it is able to contribute to increased

revenue and show instantaneous end result. Many public practitioners agree with Letsema

Communications approach to PR activities that comprehensible goals, adjectives and plans

alongside a partnership with the clients are very important. When the PR plan is put

together accurately, it can be measured for effectiveness and the force it impacts on the

business intent.

It can be quite useful to look at the following list to have a successful PR company:

The client should have clearly defined business objectives so that the PR company

can properly link the PR activities to the clients public relations needs. Participation

from the key roles in the clients company should be taken seriously.

As the PR company, continuous evaluation and monitoring of your own efforts is of

outmost importance. The staff of your company should pay attention to detail when it

comes to the PR requirements of the clients.

Make sure the clients are always briefed on new information that they need to know

about that may affect the daily activities of their company. It could also be of use if

you visit the offices of your client to get inspiration for the communication plans you

will be planning for them.

Be as creative as you can in your PR plans but remember timeliness is of theimportance as this often drives many activities. Remember to keep to deadlines.

How much budget you use will affect the relationship you have with your client

company. Try to keep to the budget they provided as close as you can.

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Top management must be informed of all the projects they need to approve on time

to give you enough time to perform the projects and buy materials on time.

Remember clients will be keeping their eyes on how you consider their business

objectives. They will base their reasons to work or not to work with you based on

how you link your PR activities to their companys goals. Companys might find the need to be on the lookout for new PR companies, make

sure you remind clients why they need to stay with you (for existing clients) or pick

you (for new clients).

How to calculate return on investment (ROI)

ROI calculation seems to give an advantage when you want to place ads on the internet,

as media placements that form part of your online marketing. This can be done daily,

weekly or monthly. Actual returns are better given as a percentage from return on

investment calculations. This does not mean the discarding of the daily, weekly and

monthly statement of financial position and statement of comprehensive income is advised.

Experts advice that when paid advertising is used, it is essential to calculate your return on

investment. This due to the fact that ROI as a percentage communicated as actual returns

is a superior than just looking and analysing profits.

A general formula for calculating return on investment:

ROI = Total income produced (in Rand) Advertising spend (in Rand) *100

Advertising spend (in Rand)

Return on investment of Letsema Communications is calculated at the end of the year.

Brenda from Letsema Communictions says return on investment is calculated by theamount one invested in Letsema Communications compared to the value of the coverage

generated during that particular year. Letsema prouds itself in that they believe they

differentiate themselves from their competitors through their competitive advantage they

get form calculating return on investment. They also believe that their approach to public

relations, factually based and responsible work gives them an added advantage to a

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certain extent. They maintain that they prefer to reach business objectives rather than

merely producing coverage. This helps them to count their strong focus on strategic PR to

be used as one of their differentiating factors.

Five reasons why it helps to increase your return on investment are:

1) A clearly defined business direction helps to support business objectives to bring

in new business.

2) Make sure your companies name comes first when clients think of a PR

company; this will be testament to your trustworthiness.

3) People in the PR and communication industry and the relevant target audience

must be aware of the events or campaigns you have planned.

4) Focus on having strategic affiliation with the clients.

5) Find a differentiating factor to put you ahead as an industry leader.

If a PR company wants to know the different costs of different media, they use the Media

Inflation Watch. What is Media Inflation Watch? It uses certain categories to compare the

costs and performance of different types of media. These can be segmented in:

to help clients to budget properly for the different media the PR company wants

to use for the clients. This initiative will be appreciated by the clients as the

company shows to be going the extra mile. If changes are witnessed information

about the increase or decrease in costs of the media, contact is made to the

client.

data collected from the findings is used to negotiate with the media companies.

Media Inflation Watch is used mainly by the people in advertising agencies, PR and

communication companies and big media owners. Letsema communication told us thatpublic relations must always be armed with a ruler as this helps a lot to measure the size of

the publication they want to send to be printed on magazines or newspapers. For example

newspapers charge per centimetres of a publication as quoted on the rate cards.

According to the media manager a black and white simple column can cost R40 per

centimetre. A rate card is a publication of how a certain publication will cost for a company

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to place the ad or press release in a certain media, either on newspaper, television or

radio. Many rate cards can be viewed on the media manager website on

www.mediamanager.co.za and other trusted websites.

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