Production Management

Production management, also called operations management, planning and control of industrial processes to ensure that they move smoothly at the required level. Techniques of production management are employed in service as well as in manufacturing industries. It is a responsibility similar in level and scope to other specialties such as marketing or human resource and financial management. In manufacturing operations, production management includes responsibility for product and process design, planning and control issues involving capacity and quality, and organization and supervision of the workforce.

 Characteristics of production management

1. Production Management is the process of effective planning

It helps in regulating the operations of that section of an enterprise which is responsible for the actual transformation of materials into finished products.

2. Related to the production process.

goods and services are produced in accordance with the quantitative specifications and demand schedule with minimum cost.

3. Production Management is a set of general principles for production

Production management has a set of certain principles like economies, facility design, job design, schedule design, quality control, inventory control, work study and cost, and budgetary control.

Planning And Control

Although the five M’s capture the essence of the major tasks of production management, control summarizes its single most important issue. The production manager must plan and control the process of production so that it moves smoothly at the required level of output while meeting cost and quality objectives. Process control has two purposes: first, to ensure that operations are performed according to plan, and second, to continuously monitor and evaluate the production plan to see if modifications can be devised to better meet cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, or other objectives. 

Happy Learning!

Anamika Gupta

IAAN

Difference between Public Relations and Advertising

Public Relations is a strategic communication tool that uses different channels, to cultivate favorable relations for the company. It is a practice of building a positive image or reputation of the company in the eyes of the public by telling or displaying the company’s products or services, in the form of featured stories or articles through print or broadcast media. It aims at building a trust-based relationship between the brand and its customer, mainly through media exposure and coverage.

Advertising is described as a paid, non-personal, one-way public communication that draws public communication towards a product, service, company, or any other thing through various communication channels, to inform, influence and instigates the target audience to respond in the manner as desired by the advertiser.

1- Paid vs. Free

2- Controlling the Message vs. Influencing the Message

3- A 10-second Spot vs. Perpetuity on the Internet

4- Target audiences

5- Duration of coverage

Many businesses believe that advertising and public relations play the same role for their business and if they do advertising they don’t need PR, and vice versa.

However, PR and advertising have completely different roles for your business, which are important to understand to help you reach your target market and achieve your business objectives.

Advertising is creating paid announcements to be promoted through different types of media including online, print, TV, out-of-home and radio.

 PR, on the other hand, is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and the public.

HAPPY LEARNING!

ANAMIKA GUPTA

IAAN

Investigative Reporting/Journalism

 Investigative Journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters go in-depth to investigate a single story that may uncover corruption, review government policies or of corporate houses, or draw attention to social, economic, political or cultural trends. An investigative journalist, or team of journalists, may spend months or years researching a single topic. 

Investigative journalism is finding, reporting and presenting news which other people try to hide. It is very similar to standard news reporting, except that the people at the center of the story will usually not help you and may even try to stop you doing your job.

There are several reasons why societies need investigative journalism.

 1- Investigative journalism provides truth about people from government and other entities such as corporations who attempt to keep their often illegal activities secret.

2-  Investigative journalism simply does in a more detailed and comprehensive way what all journalism should do, namely act as a watchdog in the public interest.

3- People have a right to know about the society in which they live. They have a right to know about decisions which may affect them, even if people in power want to keep them secret.

4- Journalists also have a duty to watch how well people in power perform their jobs, especially those who have been elected to public office. Journalists should constantly ask whether such people are keeping their election promises.

5-  Investigative journalism should be able to uncover the truth and not be selective in its revelations. It should not be tainted by people and/or organizations that do not want the truth revealed.

Investigative journalism is a type of journalism that uncovers what others don't want uncovered. Investigative journalism is also called watchdog journalism. An investigative journalist digs deep into one story, whether it be corporate financial corruption, violent crime, or other topics that might not get covered in everyday news.

The final story should reveal new information or assemble previously available information in a new way to reveal its significance. A single source can provide fascinating revelations, access to insights and information that would otherwise be hidden.

A journalist may need to seek grants to support an investigation and learn to tap the skills of individuals outside the newsroom to help with specialist expertise.

Happy Learning!

Anamika Gupta

IAAN

Media Planning

Inventory - a term that is used often interchangeably with ad placements. It can also describe the amount of ad space a publisher has to sell or a media buyer chooses to buy. It applies to ads in traditional and digital advertising.

Media Mix - the entire combination of media channels an individual or agency uses to achieve their specific marketing objectives. *If you use social media, radio, and TV to promote your marketing campaign, that’s your media mix. If you’re using direct mail, SEM, and online videos, that’s still your media mix.

Request For Proposal (or RFP) - a document submitted by an agency (in our case a media planner) often via a bidding process; intended to express interest to a supplier (or media vendor) in buying particular ad inventories.

Scheduling - the specifications a media planner and buyer puts around a marketing campaign that indicate what time and day certain ads will be served across their various media. Typically depends on target audience.

Guaranteed Inventory (or Direct Buys) - this strategy allows a media planner and buyer to secure bulk inventory (or ad placements) at a fixed CPM. There are situations when this method makes most sense, like when a business wants the security of knowing that a certain number of eyes will be on their ad and they have the budget to support the higher cost of that guarantee. *It’s a “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” type mindset.

Targeting - the act of identifying the ideal audience that should receive a marketing message. Part of the internal and external market research portion of media planning.

Manual Bidding - this is the act of manually changing the bid on a particular set of ads based on factors such as keyword performance, engagement, cost, etc. *This is the opposite of automation or programmatic buying.

Real-Time Bidding (RTB) - allows media vendors to sell ad impressions (views) through an ad exchange platform where each impression is sold as it becomes available, in real time. Advertisers can automatically adjust their bid based on changing market conditions.

Happy Learning!

Anamika Gupta

IAAN

Types of Letter

A letter is a written message that can be handwritten or printed on paper. It is usually sent to the recipient via mail or post in an envelope, although this is not a requirement as such. Any such message that is transferred via post is a letter, a written conversation between two parties.

Now that E-mails and texts and other such forms have become the norm for communication, the art of letter writing has taken a backseat. However, even today a lot of our communication, especially the formal kind, is done via letters. Whether it is a cover letter for a job, or the bank sending you a reminder or a college acceptance letter, letters are still an important mode of communication. 

Formal:- A formal letter is any letter written in the professional language, with a prescribed format for a formal purpose, i.e. it can be a recommendation letter, inquiry letter, complaint letter, cover letter and so on. All business letters are formal, but vice versa is not possible. Such letters are used for a variety of reasons like a formal invitation, proposal, reference, making a complaint or inquiry, applying for a job. 

Informal:- An informal letter is a letter written to someone; we know fairly well. The letter can be used for some reasons like conveying message, news, giving advice, congratulate recipient, request information, asking questions, etc. It is a personal letter, written to whom you are familiar with, like friends, siblings, parents or any other closed one. There is no specific format prescribed for writing this letter.

Official:- When letter are written by business or non- business concern on official matters then it is known as official letters. In other words, official letters means correspondence between two or more institution on matters other than business.  

Business:- This letter is written among business correspondents, generally contains commercial information such as quotations, orders, complaints, claims, letters for collections etc. Such letters are always strictly formal and follow a structure and pattern of formalities.

Social:- The Social Letters which are written to relations and intimate friends should be written in an easy, conversational style. The Social letters are really of the nature of friendly chat: and, being as a rule unpremeditated and spontaneous compositions, they are informal and free-and-easy as compared with essays. Just as in friendly talks, as in friendly letters, we can touch on many subjects and in any order we like.

Circular:- Circular letter is one of the oldest types letter. This kind of letter originated in ancient time when people felt the necessity of circulating any message to a large number of people at a time in the same way. Generally, the letter that is used to circulate any special message to a huge member of audiences at the same time is known as circular letter. It is one of the cost effective means of circulating information or introducing new products to mass people.

Happy Learning!

Anamika Gupta

IAAN

TYPES OF MAGAZINES

Magazine journalism uses the traditional journalism tools of interviews, background research and writing to produce articles for consumer and trade magazines. Magazine journalism differs from newspaper journalism in at least five ways. Newspapers have a very broad audience with widely varying ages and interests confined to one metropolitan area.

Scholarly magazines:

Such magazines focus on academics. You can get in-depth information on many subjects. The format of providing information in a scholarly magazine is serious and so the text book alike. You will find more of graphs and charts rather than pictures. Teaching and providing help in researches is the main purpose of scholarly magazines.

Sensational magazines:

You will find sensational magazines in a newspaper like format. They are thin, but large in size as compared to other magazines. Sensational magazines are said to thrive on creating a stir. Flashy headlines are used for attracting attention of the readers and the main focus is on stories related to celebrities or any other amazing stories. Freelancers or staffers write these articles, which are usually more picturesque than stories that are included in sensational magazines. These are also known as tabloids.

Magazines of general interest: 

These magazines cater the need of entire population and have large circulation. In Pakistan Lailo nihar, Zindagi, Urdu digest, Quomi Digest, Family, Akhbare jahan are the examples. The world famous reader digest is also in same category.

News Magazine: 

A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or newscasts, and aim to give the consumer an understanding of the important events beyond the basic facts.

Film Magazines:

Film periodicals combine discussion of individual films, genres and directors with in-depth considerations of the medium and the conditions of its production and reception. Their articles contrast with film reviewing in newspapers and magazines which principally serve as a consumer guide to movies.

Happy Learning!

Anamika Gupta

IAAN

How to write for Web

Good website writing is the key to beating these statistics. Well-written content that’s optimized for the web rises to the top of search results and holds readers’ attention.

with so much content being published online every day, it is harder than ever to capture the attention of online readers. You must be able to produce relevant, interesting copy that can be easily read—or more likely, skimmed.  Know what your readers want and which of their problems you can help solve with your content. Plan to engage your readers by providing content for each stage of their customer journey.

Plan Before You Write 

 Know what your readers want and which of their problems you can help solve with your content. Plan to engage your readers by providing content for each stage of their customer journey.

Put your most important information first

 On web pages you have to do the opposite: your most important points always come first. Information that's most important to your web visitors is often a simple statement of what you do. Once they understand what you do, they might want to know some important details. And then- maybe they'd like to know some background information.

Write short, simple sentences

Long sentences are for Charles Dickens—the short attention span of today’s reader demands sentences of 35 words or fewer. So website content that’s accessible and easy to read will naturally reach a wider audience. Focus on using nouns and verbs; use adverbs and adjectives sparingly. Don’t use words like “equanimity” or “obfuscate” when words like “calm” or “confuse” will do.

Make a visual impression

Web copy and web design should work together. You can’t write your words, you can’t compose your sentences, you can create your bullet points, without considering how your web page will look. The visual appeal of your website impacts the readability of your text; and influences whether web visitors can quickly get what you’re about.

Expect people to arrive anywhere on your website

People usually read a book from chapter one, via chapter two to three and four etc. Now, imagine people pick up a book and start reading somewhere completely at random. Possibly at the beginning of the last chapter, maybe in the middle of chapter three, or at the last page of chapter one.

Happy Learning!

Anamika Gupta

IAAN