Blog Post #4

The first classmate’s blog I will react to is Kayla’s blog about Fashion Research Results.  Kayla talks about how bridal shops target women between the ages 25-30 because this is the average age of women to get married.  She says that once the store knows who they want to target, they must advertise in the right places like magazines, Facebook, television, etc.  The bridal shop that she focused on decided to use a source of social media in order to get their name out there.  The store created a blog where they gained followers such as brides to be and other bridal based blogs.  By creating this blog the store has been able to gain more customers which is the outcome that they wanted to come up with.

The second classmate’s blog that I will react to is Alyssa’s blog pertaining to the fast food industry.  I knew that PR was important in this industry but not to the extent where McDonalds needs it immensely.  For example Alyssa talks about how McDonalds has donated a sum of two million dollars to the Scripps Institute in order to find out what is really causing children to become obese.  I agree with her one hundred percent that McDonalds is only doing this to get out of the spotlight because if they did not do something there could be numerous lawsuits against the company.  By the company donating money to the institute to do research about the cause for obesity in young children, McDonalds is actually, what it seems like, trying to hide their failure by giving this money to get the spotlight off of them.  As Alyssa said, “if McDonalds really wanted to stop this epidemic they would stop advertising and marketing their fatty foods towards children.”    

The two of these blogs I have found very interesting.  In the first one I can see how PR research is important with in the Fashion world and in the second blog I can see that in the fast food industry there are times where research can be used to hide things and times where it can be used for positive things. 

Research Results

Research is needed in all fields of public relations.  Without it, we would not know what we know today.  One would think research is not needed for the national hockey league but it turns out they use it quite often.  When reading in our text book, it says in order to get great research results; one must conduct a research report first.  By making a research report, it will not only help us understand what is going on in the hockey world but it will also help the entire league and everyone that is a part of it. 

When looking online, I was able to find an article about the NHL coming up with a Research, Development and Orientation Camp for some potential NHL draft picks.  The point of this camp is to test out different rule changes, rink modifications and strategic innovations that could potentially take place in the hockey league.  When looking at another article about the same exact camp, Shanahan is curious to see what will happen during this camp.  Shanahan is the NHL’s Vice President of hockey and business affairs.  Throughout this article it states some of the tests the young boys will go through.  A few examples are, instead of dropping the puck and then blowing the whistle at faceoff, the whistle will be blown first or not letting the second referee on the ice when the players are out there or not letting the teams change lines after they were just offside’s.  These two articles show an interesting aspect of research because after so many years of having the same rules, one would not think that the NHL would want to change their rules. 

Neither of the articles really talk about the outcome of the camp.  The last article does say how they will have a group of statisticians at the camp in order to quantify the many ways the game can be changed but it does not talk about the ending result.  Like our text book says, one should not include all our research statistics in a report because we might have to use them at a later time or to even prove that the research was actually done.   

Research Ethics in the NHL

Our reading this week focused on research ethics.  Throughout the chapter it has mentioned that there are a great number of ethical issues that researchers tend to get themselves into.  When doing research, the researcher has to remember that they are dealing with people and that they have the choice to participate in a study if they want or do not want to.  The research process goes as usual.  Once the study is done than it is the researcher’s job to gather and process the data in order to come out with an answer.  Though, the researcher has to make sure that the data is accurate.

A code of ethics is considered to show the good and the right behavior held by a group.  Through researching online, I have found an article about ethics in the National Hockey League and how one coach was studied.  The study was done on Mike Babcock who is the coach for the Detroit Red Wings.  He is often named as one of the best coach’s in the NHL right now and he has also set a new record on the most games won on the road. 

The article reads that effective coaching is not only about technique and tactics but it is also made up of ethical principles.  In fact the Coaching Association of Canada has set up an ethical test or checklist on their website so that they can find out more information about ethical issues and coaching.  The article states four ethical principles that Babcock thinks should form the foundation to becoming the great coach you want to become.  These four principles are: integrity in relations to others, respect for athlete’s, coaching responsibility and honoring sports. 

At the end of the study, Babcock scored 95 out of 100 on the test but just because he did really well on the quiz, he still insists that every coach should take this in order to see what they need to work on.  It seems that a coach is not only a coach but is also a mentor to their players, to their fans and to their staff so if there seems to be something missing than there is no way to perform the way a coach should.  No matter what level you coach in, ethics is very important because it helps develop great people as well as great players.

PR 332 The Focus of My Blog

For the longest time I have had a love for hockey.  So for my blog, I will focus on Sports Public Relations, specifically in the National and American Hockey League.  I will be able to show how the jobs that are done, scandals that have taken place in the two leagues and the problems that come on to some of the players, the teams and even the entire league.  I was able to find an article pertaining to the National Hockey League's lock-out that took place in the 2004-2005 season and how one lady was able to use her PR skills to overcome the crisis. NHL Communications Executive Receives PR Pro of the year Honors from PRSA 

Sports public relations, deal with informing the press, the fans and the public information pertaining to the entire team or just a single player.  This information can range anywhere from the statistics of the team or players to the different events that they players will take part in.  The teams public relations crew, is in charge of getting the fans and the public's interest in the team.  Some events that could take place are the players visiting a hospital, a school or even going to the beach in the summer to promote their team so that the public will look forward to seeing them at their games in the fall.

I have been around sports my entire life and this is why I am very interested in sports public relations.  Being a figure skater for 17 years has led me to love the game of hockey.  Since my senior year of high school, I have worked for the New York Islanders organizations where I was an Ice Girl.  Now that I am away at school, I work for the minor league team in the American Hockey League known as the Bridegport Sound Tigers located right here in Connecticut.  Having worked with both teams, i ahve been able to see some of the stuff that goes on but I would love to look more into the problems they have and find ways to fix them.  in the end I think that sports public relations is a great topic to explore.  Yes I have been around the game for a while but I have never really looked into it the way I hope to through this blog.