Public Relations Business Plan

PRfect Greens will primarily serve three different target segments within the environmental PR space: gas companies, mining companies, and lumber companies.  These different industries will be targeted because they represent a large amount of business activity in this region and because they have struggled in the past to maintain an ideal/reasonable public image. 

These segments will be targeted through an advertising campaign and networking activities tailored to each industry customer.

4.1 Market Segmentation

PRfect Greens has three distinct groups of customers:

• Gas companies. These companies are performing subterranean drilling in search of natural gas reserves.  They might utilize PRfect Greens to help strengthen their image as an environmentally friendly provider of energy (the burning of natural gas releases far fewer pollutants, specifically CO₂ than other fossil fuels).  Additionally they may need PRfect Greens for crisis management services or promotional activities. 
• Mining companies. The mining companies have a negative public environmental image due to the general destruction of the land that occurs when evaluating the mineral deposits below the land as well as the release of tailing into water sources and the general destruction of the land that occurs during mining operations.  A perfect example of a company that could have used PRfect Greens’ service was the Kinross Mining Company, a company that was mining copper in Willamette National Forest. Kinross had to endure a public relations fiasco when multiple environmental groups were bringing legal claims against Kinross due to the release of effluents into the Santiam River, the main source for the Santiam Watershed, the source of water for Salem and other nearby cities. 
• Lumber companies. There are a lot of lumber industry jobs in Oregon.  Both Georgia Pacific and Willamette Industry are two multinational corporations that 1) do a lot of logging as well as processing 2) and have struggled to maintain a environmentally friendly public perception.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

The selected customer segments will be targeted in a specific advertising and networking campaign.

• Advertising. This campaign will target each of the prospective customers.  The advertisements will generally be placed within the appropriate industry trade journal.  The advertisements will be used to communicate the message that PRfect Greens is a specialized environmental PR firm that can work hand and hand with the company, providing them with both proactive, as well as reactive PR services.  The advertisements will detail the different services PRfect Greens provides as well as the experience the founders have in this niche.
• Networking. Since both of the founders have a long history in this market space, they have a long list of contacts that they have developed over the years.  PRfect Greens will leverage these contacts to raise visibility regarding PRfect Greens and establish relationships so PRfect Greens can began to serve them.  Because this market niche is fairly small and specific, people in the space tend to know each other and a lot of business is transacted among acquaintances.  This nature of the industry will make networking activities all the more effective.

4.3 Service Business Analysis

The PR industry in Eugene has many different competitors, however few have the specialized skills for environmental PR work.  The competitors generally take the form of general communication firms, small local PR firms, and large national firms.

PRfect Greens will rapidly gain market share in their specific space by leveraging their competitive edges.  These edges consist of a specialized skill set honed for the demands of environmental PR and the high degree of flexibility.  As a small specialized firm, PRfect Greens is able to address any need generated by a client. 

4.3.1 Competition and Buying Patterns

Competition takes many forms:

• General communications firms. These firms practice a wide range of communication services from press releases, to promotional materials, to corporate imaging.  Some of the general communication firms are large and have dedicated departments for different types of communications, others have generalists that do everything.
• Small, local PR firms. These companies are small, typically one principal, and their clients are from the surrounding area. 
• Large national firms. These firms are quite large and they serve national clients.  The clients are usually very large companies and these national firms travel to wherever to support the account.

Buying patterns for companies typically take the form of RFP’s for the larger companies, and informal referrals/networking for the smaller clients.