PR i det dolda
en studie om Redaktionell PR
The fashion industry is a line of business which is characterised by tough competition. Often the consumer target groups exposed to advertisements identify them as attempts by the fashion industry to persuade them. When this happens, the consumer disregards the information due to selective attention. Faced with these conditions, companies need to find new, creative ways to market their product lines. This essay is about Public Relations, in particular Public Relations that appear in editorial spaces. In Stockholm, Sweden, it is common that companies appear frequently with their garments in the fashion pages of popular press. In this essay the term used to describe this phenomenon is Editorial Public Relations.Within the realm of this essay, the two dominating questions that this qualitative essay will attempt to shed some light on are; what constitutes Editorial Public Relations and how does Editorial Public Relation function?To answer these questions, a deductive approach was applied and an organisational chain containing six companies, three press agents and two fashion editors were interviewed and studied. The purpose of this was to conclude why they used Editorial Public Relations, how the dynamics between the chosen players work, will the company brand be affected and, if so, how? Furthermore, how are the Editorial Public Relations efforts of the companies and press agent being followed up, are there any differences or similarities between the companies examined in this essay and last but not least, is Editorial Public Relations preferred to advertising as a marketing tool?The sub questions above were concluded in order to describe the two overriding questions. Consequently, Editorial Public Relations is described in this essay as the work companies perform when they send sample garments to magazines in hope of appearing in the fashion pages. This work is usually performed by a press agent hired by the company with the motive for wanting to appear in fashion magazines being that Editorial Public Relations has higher credibility than paid advertising in the eyes of the consumer.