IMC Hawks Blog

Category: UNCW

  • The IMC War: Balancing Power and Values

    The aim of college courses is to prepare students for their professional lives.  In our IMC class we have been assigned books that teach us ideas, facts, values, and more.  To teach us more about the importance of values in business we read Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince.

    This book is Machiavelli’s guide to holding and seizing power.  The Prince was written in 1513 for Lorenzo de’ Medici, the prince of Florence.  Despite its age, this book remains popular and important for those involved in government, politics, and positions of power.  Machiavelli uses the book as a way to give calculated advice backed up by examples.  Throughout the book, Machiavelli sets morals aside and focuses on how to attain goals of power.  He teaches readers how to use violence, lies, abilities, and luck to force others under your control.

    How does this book teach us values?  After reading The Prince we wrote a memo to our chancellor to either recommend or not recommend Machiavelli as an IMC consultant based off of his ideas within the book.  We had to decide if we were willing to risk our values and beliefs to accomplish our goals as a university. 

    Machiavelli makes decisions based off of research, forms consistent messages, and knows how to accomplish goals in the most direct, efficient way.  This may seem like the way to go if his suggestions fit the company’s mission and vision.  In other cases, this drive to complete a goal without respecting values could ultimately lead to the demise of the company’s image.  We should ask ourselves if the product really is great or if that is just a claim to get more money?  If being great is just a claim the next question is: is it worth it to be dishonest and ignore values to get what we want?  This decision between honesty and power is something many professionals have to face and we were able to learn this lesson with help from Machiavelli’s The Prince.

    – Carissa Niederkorn, Deji Adeleke, Anna Kate Babnik, Tiffany Evans, & Katie Eagle

  • Dress For Success Fashion Show Pictures

    Dress for Success Fashion Show presented by the Communication Studies Society at UNCW was a big hit! The clothing was donated from Men’s Warehouse, White House/Black Market, and Belk at Independence Mall. Check out some pictures below of our fabulous models! Hope you all enjoyed #COMstudiesday as much as we did!

    (Photos taken by Micaela Fouhy)

  • IMC Rocks the Vote!

    Here at UNCW, SGA elections are in full swing. It seems everywhere you look around campus there are countless banners, flyers, bed sheet banners, and of course…CHALK. Everywhere you look you can see the candidates’ names written big in just about every color of the rainbow! I think just about every UNCW student would agree with me when I say that every student organization and the SGA utilize the abundance of sidewalk space to literally advertise for their organization, or in this case their candidates.

    If you want to advertise on this campus that means chalking, or painting the spirit rock. I myself have painted that rock and chalked this campus more times than…well, a lot. It is a method that everyone can’t help but notice as all you have to do is take a stroll down chancellors walk and especially around the center of campus and you will inevitably see some form of non-technological promotion and advertising. And when it comes to voting on the next student President, chalking up campus along with a Facebook fan page/group or event just might be the perfect combination. After all, basically everyone has access to the internet and everyone walks this campus on a weekly basis so these advertising techniques are without a doubt very effective in reaching out to students.

    Also coming up tomorrow however is Communication Studies Day and that means the fashion  show. Throughout the week, the popular social media outlet Twitter has been home base to creating buzz about the event and the models themselves. The audience will be able to vote on their favorite model via Twitter or in person. So just the fact that they are taking voting for model favorites and putting it online is very interesting and perhaps more intriguing for students. It also presents a way to have fun with the event and spark friendly rivalries. So come on out tomorrow and check out the 9th Annual Dress for Success Fashion Show, then pull up your Twitter and let everyone know who YOU thought was the best model!

    -Maxann Keller, Ryan Kelley, Eric Holtzman, Chad Graves, Katelyn Truss

  • Raise Your Brand to New Heights

      Gina Smith, like many students before her, set out on the collegiate path to a university degree 4 years ago. Whether she knew it or not, by the end of her journey she had created her very own brand. Many things contributed to Gina’s own brand, such as the Communication Studies classes she took, her internship in a PR office, or, more specifically, the student organizations or clubs in which she was involved during her college years. The real question out there is how did these organizations help to form Gina into the final product of alumni?

      The missions of many student organizations include several goals, each pertaining to the success of promoting their own brand through members like Gina. The tough part is how to obtain then keep those handy brand-promoting members, and further, how to promote their organization’s goals? We have the answer. IMC, of course!

      Tomorrow, a group of students from our Advanced IMC class will be addressing the themes of recruitment and retention of members, how social organizations can properly use media in order to reach both their members and the public, and finally, how to plan events for each organization in an hour-long information session called Raise Your Brand .

      We have invited representatives from each of UNCW’s student organizations in order to participate in this interactive information session in order to bring more awareness and action to each of their organizations. The final goal is to equip each organization’s representative with the knowledge and tools to be bigger and better on campus and in the community.

    ~Heather Cornman

  • Communication Studies Next Top Model

    Did you know that you can employ Integrated Marketing Communication in any organization? It’s an easy way to reach your target publics and increase membership and participation in your organization. However, few people actually know how to use it properly. Communication Studies Society (CSS) has been heavily utilizing IMC in the past few weeks to increase attendance at the Com Studies Day events, which is this Friday, April 1st. CSS and the entire Communication Studies Department have been utilizing social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter, to build anticipation for Friday! There is even a friendly competition between the professors to see who can get the greatest participation from their students to attend the events.  Our Advanced IMC class will be live blogging and tweeting from all of the events, with voting on who is the audiences favorite model at the Dress for Success Fashion Show. To follow the days events or participate on Twitter, type in #COMStudiesDay in your tweets or follow @IMCClass.

    The use of social media during Com Studies Day creates social capital within the community by allowing everyone to get a front row seat in the action and alumni to see how successful the Communication Studies Department has become.

    Other than using social media, CSS has been posting flyers and taking advantage of the Communication Studies Department newsletter that gets distributed to every Communication Studies major, which is the target audience.

    So be sure to come to all the Com Studies Day events, and if you can’t make it, follow us on twitter. More importantly, be sure to vote for Scott Burgess (@scottrburgess) and Allison Day (@Allisonday32) as your favorite models and send your votes to @CStudiesSociety.

    Happy tweeting!

    -Allison Day, Jessica Berinson, Megan Canny, Melissa Gagliardi, Scott Burgess

  • Let Your Colors Burst

     

    Independence Day is one of the most well known branded holidays in America and arguably the most highly anticipated leisure-filled day of the year. For coastal North Carolina and UNCW it means boat rides and beach trips in the hot, summer sun but for the rest of the country there are parades, carnivals, fairs, barbecues, picnics, concerts, baseball games and any other event commemorating United States history and traditions. Oh, but I forgot to mention possibly the greatest highlight of every Fourth of July celebration…Fireworks! Yes, fireworks are the most easily identifiable brand feature of Independence Day and its how Americans cap off every Fourth of July night. It is the trademark of Independence Day and unless you work, visit, or live in Disney it’s probably the only time you will see them each year.

    Almost every major city in America has a fireworks show, unless their state bans fireworks or limits the use. Macy’s in New York City traditionally has a spectacular fireworks show and even if you’re not in NYC you can catch a broadcast of the show from your television on NBC. Back in 2009, Macy’s put on the largest fireworks display in the country, with more than 22 tons of fireworks exploded from the Hudson River! Macy’s even has an interactive website where spectators can go upload and share their photos after the fireworks event:

    http://social.macys.com/fireworks/?cm_mmc=VanityUrl-_-fireworks-_-n-_-n#

    If you do attend an Independence Day event, you will most likely see the colors of red, white, and blue on decorations and even on clothes. These patriotic colors are in representation of the US flag which symbolizes America’s freedom. These colors hold traditions and values and create brand recognition for Independence Day. Without these colors it would be difficult to distinguish this holiday from other holidays.

    With all the celebration sometimes Americans can forget the reason for celebrating and lose the core meaning of the brand. Independence Day isn’t just about fireworks; it commemorates July 4th, 1776, the day the thirteen colonies declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. With that in mind, fear not, the original signers of the Declaration of Independence did intend for Americans to celebrate our Independence. On July 2nd, 1776 when the second continental congress voted to approve a resolution of independence, John Adams wrote regarding Independence Day, “It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” His only mistake would be that he thought July 2nd would be the celebratory holiday not July 4th, however even so he was a great forecaster for how America would shape Independence Day into a nationally branded holiday of great celebration and fun.

    -JC Salter

  • Putting us two steps ahead of the competition

    As advanced IMC-ers, we know that Integrated Marketing Communication and branding is quickly rising and becoming increasingly important for organizations to master.  The success of a product can be traced all the way back to the planning stages of market research, market development, and (before all of this) back to the perspectives customers have on the brand itself.

    As most of us are about to graduate and begin our new careers (in IMC!), it is crucial to the success of our organization and to our own personal success that we fully understand the brands we represent.  For starters, the term “brand” has countless definitions.  The one that we have personally adopted may not necessarily work for our new company.  We are currently focused on how we are branding ourselves, and how our personal narratives read within our resumes or to potential employers.  In a few months this will all be changing. This is where we take everything we have learned about IMC and put it to good use.  We research and we ask questions to get a better grip on who we now are as employees instead of students.  We find ways to deliver clear messages, to create loyal customers, and to fortify our company’s credibility.  We are already taking these steps for ourselves, now we think ahead to how we can apply these same ideas to our future jobs.

    Because IMC is still on the rise, we, as students of AdvIMC, are already two steps ahead of our competition just by knowing what we have already learned.  We have the fundamental tools to build upon a new stretch of marketing that is making or breaking organizations these days.  We will prove to be valuable assets in our new work places.

    -Katelyn Truss