Pamphlets / Brochures: Use them wisely or leave them at home!

Upon reading the title of this week’s article the creative side of my brain had a complete and utter freak out. Typical?! What happened to innovative, original, colourful and inspirational public relation?! As with al of my reactions to this course I have been promptly settled by the fact that although I have outrageously exciting ideas of public relations, the practice of it also requires hard work and more knowledge than how to update a Facebook status or how to retweet on Twitter.

This week’s reading opens with what I believe should be stuck to the desk of every public relations practitioner in Australia, if not the world. It reminded me of a hospital waiting room I was in recently. I took notice of the pamphlet section of the wall which was overflowing with health warnings and parenting how-to’s then I noticed that everyone was either reading a hundred year old issue of National Geographic or Women’s Day or watching the muted television in the corner. I find myself unable to elaborate on or paraphrase what the author has written so I have included the series of questions that one should have an answer to before designing any pamphlet or brochure.

Set objectives:

Why are we producing it?

Who will receive/read it?

What do they think now?

What do we want them to think/do?

Plan and budget:

How often should it be produced?

What should it look like: how big, how think, how glossy?

What will it cost? Steps involved and timings.

Implement program:

Who will produce it?

Who will provide material for it?

How will we distribute it?

Evaluate:

How will we measure the readers’ response?

How often will we check progress?

Reading: Article from" The new Australlian and New Zealand public relations manual, Tymson & Lazar", 5th rev. and updated ed., Chapter 4, 2006, pp. 74-116