The Superheroes of Brand and Business Management
By Jessie Abarques | September 22, 2021
They are everywhere, and they need help. They can be on your phone, down the street, in your malls or right next to you on the beach, and you might not even know it. No, not the FBI. I’m referring to small businesses, or simply just their brands. They are everywhere, and the world is missing out on so many of them. Sure, apps such as TikTok and Instagram provide some level of support, but not every owner is savvy enough to maximize efficiency on such platforms.
There’s a particular small business in my local area of Santa Clarita called that I have frequented over the last couple of years. It’s a sports memorabilia shop that has its regular customers who keep the establishment going. At least, that was the case before the pandemic hit. I’ve gotten to know the shop owners pretty well and during one of my visits in the last year, they approached me and said, “I need some help.” They further explained that they needed to “get with the times” and get online or else they weren’t going to stick around much longer. We talked and I set them up with the basics: launch a social media platform where new products can be posted on a regular basis, create a website simply for accumulating orders and get regular customers to follow and promote the business. A year later, the shop is now a known staple in the community and thriving with new customers, and all it took was a simple PR plan.
The owners were right, all they needed was some help. They did not need a budget, an extravagant marketing scheme or anything of the sort. They never lacked product, nor regular customers. All they hoped for was to stay alive and flourish, and evolving with the times did that for them. It was heartwarming to slowly see them begin to pop up on my social media feed, especially when people who I had no clue knew about A Card Connection created posts dedicated to them.
Public relations is more than just posting on social media, website management, etc. It is about giving someone’s aspirations the chance to become reality and thrive. The world is filled with people wanting to get their ideas out there, and as a public relations major, I love doing what I can to help a fellow dreamer out. How does that old saying go? “With great power, comes great responsibility.” If you could help even just one person carry out their dreams, wouldn’t you?
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Author’s Bio: Jessie is a current senior here at CSUN and Agency 398’s very own Assistant Director! Fully immersing himself in the world of public relations and communications by holding multiple roles as one of the journalism department’s PR student assistants and the current RTDNA chapter’s president, he aspires to become a creative director in marketing as part of the comic or entertainment industry.
Photo By: Jessie Abarques