Holly Grande: Short and Sweet

The semester has been passing by so quickly: I can't believe it's February already! My classes have been going well, and I am enjoying them despite the heavy workload. Two of my professors I have taken courses with previously in the International Relations department. They are both very, very good and I am happy to study under them again. My third course is Communications Research, a fairly basic but absolutely necessary class for my Public Relations degree. My professor is hilarious, but she is also very knowledgeable in the field. My fellow students and I have already begun work on our semester project: a research campaign for a preassigned client. My group, made up of three other public relations students and myself, will be designing a plan for Honda, specifically for their line of hybrid cars.

Before I say anything further, let me confess how much of a car person I am not. The car I drive is a 98 Saturn. I love it, it's fantastic, but that is all I can tell you about it. Sure, I can change the oil and refill the antifreeze or any of the other topics covered in my dad's "This is what you do when the car dies on the road" speech (which proved to be very useful when my Saturn did die on the road in afternoon traffic), but when it comes to horsepower and technical specs, it is Ash who you want to talk to, not me. With that out of the way, let's continue.

It is amazing just how much information is out there. Our first step is to use background research to form a hypothesis to further research, but in the process of sifting through press releases and articles from car magazines, it is becoming very clear to me just how much research goes into any publicity or advertising campaign. These people know what they are doing. At the same time, I am becoming more aware of campaigns where something went amiss in this crucial step.

So, kudos to you, article clippers and survey implementors, and thank you. Campaigns would simply not be possible without the hard work provided by researchers in the communications field. And kudos to you, Honda, for continuing to provide innovation in automobiles.

I am very much looking forward to this semester. :)

Posted by Holly at 4:45 PM  

Labels: college