I love PR

Entering university, I was extremely bewildered with the new environment. As a first-year student, I had to study general subjects such as Philosophy, Psychology, Economics, History of Civilization, etc. These subjects were not interesting at all, I asked myself: "Will these subjects help me in the future?" or are they just like "pounding rice and spinning sand in the East Sea"? But the deeper I studied the specialized subjects, the more I realized the importance of general subjects. That was the foundation of knowledge for me in the future, so I devoured the textbooks to be able to understand the most deeply the lectures of the teachers in class. Thanks to Psychology, I understood more about human psychology through attitudes and gestures, studying History of Civilization helped me know about many civilizations of humanity, studying Philosophy helped me have a coherent way of thinking about life issues. These are the first provisions that I am collecting for my career.

Along with studying general subjects, I was exposed to the first knowledge about PR. I understood what internal PR, corporate PR, government PR were, and then step by step planned a PR campaign,... At first, I really found it very difficult and not as interesting, fun, and dynamic as I thought, but the more I studied, the more I loved it. It was the difficulty that motivated me to dive into learning about PR and from there found out the nature of the PR profession, a profession that quietly creates success for brands or organizations without needing a word of praise, that is silent dedication.

We were taught PR by Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen (Vice Dean of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, University of Social Sciences and Humanities). She is very dedicated to her profession, she always finds new teaching methods to help us absorb the lessons best. In each lesson, she incorporates real-life examples and current events into her lectures so that we have the most correct and comprehensive view of each lesson. I still remember the day we learned about media crisis management, she gave us an example of the Cat Tuong beauty salon incident. She told us: "If your client was the Ministry of Health, how would you advise them to help them overcome this media crisis?" That day, our whole class discussed very enthusiastically, everyone had their own opinions and then we also found a way to handle the crisis that the Ministry of Health was facing, the only regret is that we were not employees of the Ministry of Health so our crisis handling strategy was not implemented. Also through studying, I understood how the iPhone captured the hearts of customers. In addition to being equipped with leading technology inside a stylishly designed phone, the iPhone also has an extremely smart PR strategy. That is also the reason why the iPhone does not need to spend a lot of money on advertising but still wins the hearts of consumers, this is clearly shown in the sales of the iPhone always ranked number 1 in the smartphone field. The two PR strategies of the iPhone are: One is to rely on the media to create rumors about the company's products through positive reviews. The other is to arrange for the company's products to appear in TV shows or movies. This is the golden key to the success of the world's number 1 phone brand today.

She let us choose a group to present about the campaigns of the father of modern PR “Edward Louis Bernays”. In his great career, there were many great campaigns that had a very strong influence not only at that time but until now, their mark has not faded. He has become an immortal monument of the PR industry all over the world. When mentioning him, we cannot help but mention campaigns such as the PR campaign for the Russian ballet troupe in 1915 when they came to America to perform. At that time, Americans hated ballet, but with his efforts, the ballet troupe sold out all tickets. Ballet became something new and interesting to the American people. Ballet skirts became a fashion trend at that time. In 1929, with his talent, he helped the American tobacco company sell “Lucky strike” cigarettes to women - “helping them dig a big gold mine”. At that time, women smoking was not only for entertainment but also an act of “lighting the fire of freedom”, demonstrating the equality of women in American society. In addition, he also carried out many other major campaigns such as “IVORY” soap, Phico radio station… Each story, each lesson, was truly a unique and new way of learning, moreover, it helped to improve the ability to work in groups for classmates, especially presentation skills.

In addition, she also took my class on a field trip to ancient pagodas in Bac Ninh. For the first time, we learned about Dau Pagoda, the birthplace of Buddhism in Vietnam, the mausoleum of Nam Giao Hoc To Sy Nhiep, the Dong Ho folk painting village, etc. Just like the saying "traveling a day, learning a basket of knowledge", through this trip, we learned more about the history of the nation as well as the beauty of folk culture. The trip contributed to enhancing the spirit of solidarity of the whole class, helping us, strangers, to bond together more.

But to gain an understanding of PR, I also had to go through many difficulties. While my classmates had many good books about PR, I only had one textbook. I am not good at English, so it took me a lot of time to understand an article in English. In the past, I rarely used the computer, but now I have to use the computer every day to always update information to serve my lessons. I went from someone who did not know what group activities were to now I have to try to adapt to group activities. Because I had no experience, the first time I presented in a group, I was scolded by Ms. Huyen. She said that my group's presentation was not convincing because the group activities were not effective. At that time, I was extremely discouraged, but knowing that if we made a mistake, we had to correct it, so we asked her to let us do it again and this time my group did well. Her reprimand was the motivation for me to try harder.

After 6 months of studying, I went from being a stranger to my classmates to now being able to get along with everyone. I suddenly realized that people live together with “love”, friends are willing to help each other in difficult times, teachers are willing to lend a hand to students and always give us sincere advice in both studying and life. To us, teachers are not strangers but like senior colleagues, always teaching us on the path of our career as well as how to behave.

My family's circumstances were not very good, my mother had to support the whole family by herself. For me, owning a computer was too far away. I used to think that I would have enough money to buy one in my 4th year of university. Knowing my family's circumstances, Ms. Huyen asked Khoa to lend me money to buy a computer without taking any interest. When I received Khoa's support, my throat felt like it was choking, I was extremely touched. At that moment, I suddenly realized that this was a family, a real family.

PR in me now is completely different from 6 months ago. Before, PR in me was a dynamic, fun and profitable profession. I would work side by side with politicians traveling all over the world, advising big bosses to help them build their brand image in the hearts of the public, contributing to bringing the image of Vietnam into the hearts of millions of people on this planet. But now I understand the difficulties in the PR profession, how to make a brand stand in the hearts of the public when there are thousands of competing brands out there, how to regain the trust of the public after a crisis? ... I really realize that PR is an art and to master this art, you have to try very hard, make more efforts, and most of all, you have to love it, because when you love it, you will do everything. PR is really a very hot profession now, with great job opportunities. According to statistics, there are about 370,000 businesses in Vietnam, and each business needs at least 1 PR staff, so it will not be too difficult for PR students to get a job after graduation, and the starting salary is from 5 to 10 million VND/month. These are really attractive numbers, proving that PR is gradually asserting its position.

To me, PR is like a magical box of colors with many colors of life. I hope that I will become a PR expert, be as talented as E. Bernays, and assert myself in the PR field. And now, to me, time is really important, I am racing against it, I hope that each day has 24 more hours, then I will learn more, know more about PR.