POLITEHNICA UNIVERSITY TIMIŞOARA

FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCES

MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal
of Communication
EDITORS
Muguraș MOCOFAN, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Electronics and
Telecommunication Engineering
Mugurel Gabriel DRAGOMIR, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication
Sciences
Lavinia SUCIU, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences

GUEST EDITOR
Vasile GHERHEȘ, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences

ASSISTANT EDITORS
Marcela FARCAȘIU, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences
Annamaria KILYENI, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Cosmin BĂIAȘ, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences
Mariana CERNICOVA, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences
Mugurel Gabriel DRAGOMIR, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication
Sciences
Vasile GHERHEȘ, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences
Muguraș MOCOFAN, Politehnica University Timişoara, Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering
Mihai ONIȚA, Politehnica University Timişoara, Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering
Lavinia SUCIU, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences
Sorin SUCIU, Politehnica University Timişoara, Faculty of Communication Sciences
Radu VASIU, Silviu VERT, Politehnica University Timişoara, Electronics and
Telecommunication Engineering

PUBLISHER
FACULTY OF COMMUNICATIUON SCIENCES
POLITHENICA UNIVERSITY TIMIȘOARA

EDITORIAL ADDRESS
MASTERCOM - Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Faculty of Communication Sciences, Politehnica University Timișoara
Str. Traian Lalescu 2a, Room 301, 300223 Timisoara, Romania
Web: http://sc.upt.ro/ro/contact
Email: sc@upt.ro
DISCLAIMER: The authors are solely responsible for the content of their articles.
ORIZONT FSC 2020

MASTERCOM - Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 1, 2020
ISSN 2734 - 7087 ISSN-L 2501 – 949X
MASTERCOM -
Politehnica Graduate
Student Journal
of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

EDITORS
Muguraș MOCOFAN, Mugurel Gabriel DRAGOMIR, Lavinia SUCIU

GUEST EDITOR
Vasile GHERHEȘ

EDITURA POLITEHNICA
TIMIȘOARA – 2020
Copyright © Editura Politehnica, 2020

No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made

without written permission.

EDITURA POLITEHNICA
Bd. V. Pârvan nr. 2b
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Tel./Fax 0256/403.823
E-mail: editura@upt.ro

Editorial advisor: Prof. dr. ing. Sabin IONEL

Redactor: Claudia MIHALI
DTP: Vasile GHERHEȘ

Printing date: 16.12.2020

Printing paper: 7,5
ISSN 2734 - 7087
ISSN-L 2501 – 949X

Printed in Romania
Printing order: 36
Printing center, Politehnica University Timişoara
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Contents
Banca Transilvania and Banca Comercială Română
in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Social
Involvement Actions...................................................................... 7
Ana-Lăcrămioara Rebeli-Szabo

Sustainability in the Activity of the Retailers in Romania… 21

Adela Lăcrămioara Lazăr

Ecological Concerns in the Discourse

of the Fashion Industry................................................................. 27
Iasmina-Andreea Lele

The Role and Importance of Communication

in the Doctor-Patient Relationship…......................................... 36
Andreea Maria Pașca

Ethical Aspects Concerning Inditex’s Business Practices........ 46

Camelia-Viviana Vișan

Ethos and Strategies for Strengthening Credibility

in Leaders......................................................................................... 53
Miruna-Narcisa Pașca

5
Graphical Design in Public Speaking.......................................... 65
Bleoju Marioara

Digital Products for Children. UXUI Design............................. 78

Isabela Lavinia Răpeși

Aesthetic and Functional Features of Book Cover Design…... 92

Adina-Lorena Smarandache

Face-to-face Communication vs. Digital Communication.

Case Study “Cărturești” and “Două Bufnițe” Bookshops…... 101
Ramona-Valeria Giurgiuca

The Role of Online Communication in the Start and Growth

of a Micro-enterprise. Case study: Dumblegift S.R.L………………... 107
Cristina Budea

Online Communication Channels in a Company.

Case study: Bosch Service Solutions.............................................. 120
Alexandra Diana Rafila

Online Promotion Strategies Used by Iulius Town Timișoara... 128

Georgiana - Maria Sîrca

Social Media Advertising During the COVID-19 Pandemic…… 138

Lorena Dumitru

Online Social Networks and Social Capital.

Case Study: Facebook...................................................................... 146
Anka-Roxana Șuba

Communicating Social Issues through Social Media:

Strategies to Increase Visibility on Social Media……………… 158
Andreea-Mihaela Cepoi

6
Instagram: from a Social Network to a Marketing Tool……..… 166
Amalia Cristiana Popovici

Communication Techniques for Brand Promotion in

the Digital Environment Case Study: Favisan and Gerocossen.. 175
Ioana-Roxana Toth

Public Relations in the Online Environment.

Transilvania Bank’s Online Promotion final…………………… 186
Maria Diana Ungureanu

The Impact of Using Online Questionnaires

with Instant Response in the Educational Environment.
Digital Interactivity during a Pandemic…………………… 197
Maria Dorca Marițescu

Crisis Communication in the Age of Digital Media…………….. 211

Flavia Mezzetti, Ana-Maria Popescu

7
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Banca Transilvania and Banca

Comercială Română
in the Context
of the Covid-19 Pandemic:
Social Involvement Actions
Ana-Lăcrămioara Rebeli-Szabo

Abstract: This paper approaches a sensitive subject to the whole world nowadays: the
impact of the Covid-19 virus on our lives. Focusing on corporate social responsibility
(CSR) actions that were run by two banks in Romania after the state of emergency was
declared, this paper aims at presenting the manner in which both Banca Transilvania and
Banca Comercială Română have chosen to get involved. To go even further, a comparative
analysis of the actions that were taken during this troubling time has been carried out to
show that any help, no matter the overall impact, counts. By observing the manner in which
these banks have chosen to change their priorities in such a short period of time, the long-
term outcome of their CSR measures can be discussed. Even more so, the subject of
continuing the already planned CSR actions for 2020 has been discussed and the manner

8
in which the banks are handling this issue has been presented. Predicting the direction and
the manner in which these CSR actions will evolve after the end of this pandemic, is also
an issue that will be brought to the readers’ attention.

Keywords: CSR, banks, donations, COV-19, helping the community

1. Introduction

The crisis situation that made its debut with the first case of an infection
with COVID-19 and then progressed with the spread of this virus globally,
has triggered a series of problems that are still affecting important sectors,
such as the economy, the medical system, the educational system, and even
the population that is being faced with an unprecedented situation.
Being a matter of actuality, this analysis of the CSR actions that were
taken in a record amount of time (because immediate help was needed),
lays the groundwork for the future studies that will develop on this topic,
while also guiding those who want to find out concrete data about the
involvement of BT (Banca Transilvania) and BCR (Banca Comerciala
Română) to fight the negative effects of the new coronavirus.
The purpose of this paper is to observe and analyse the way in which
the two banks have offered their help and managed the financial aid
directed to the causes that they chose in the context of the crisis situation
that has been taking place since March 2020.

2. Research method

To analyse the data available at the moment of doing the research, the
method that was used in order to write this paper is the comparative
analysis.

9
 The data that have been analysed come from the BT’s and BCR’s
official websites, which have specific tabs/sections that are specific to the
topic of interest, particularly those that mention the fight against the new
coronavirus. In what follows, the paper will present the statements that
were made by these financial institutions regarding the amount of money
that was donated, the manner in which the financial help was distributed,
the cities that benefited from these CSR actions, but it will also touch upon
other relevant data to this research.
Therefore, the following items will be highlighted:
- The date of the first donation made in the context of the COVID-
19 crisis
- The amount of money that was donated
- The way in which the sums of money were used
- The way in which the donations were targeted
- The cities in România that benefited from the banks’ help
- The statements that were made by the bank representatives
regarding the involvement in the fight against COVID-19
- The promotion of the CSR campaigns that are aimed at
combatting the new coronavirus on social media
In this comparative analysis, the actions that were taken by Banca
Transilvania and Banca Comercială Română right after the state of
emergency was declared, i.e. during March 2020, will be presented. The aim
of this analysis is to showcase the power of the CSR action type of
involvement when help is needed and when it has to be delivered urgently.
The analysis has shown that both BT and BCR have specific sections on their
websites that are aimed at the same cause: fighting against the new
coronavirus. These websites provide insight and information on the
donations that were made, having an established and similar format, which

10
contains the date, the amount, and the distribution of the measures that are
meant to help in this context

Fig.1. Banca Transilvania’s website section – Help against COVID-19

Fig.2. Banca Comercială Română’s website section – Help against COVID-

19

11
 Before this crisis situation has made its debut, both banks were already
involved in CSR actions in various CSR areas, as it will be illustrated in
figures 3 and 4.

Fig.3. CSR involvement, Banca Transilvania

Fig.4. CSR involvement, Banca Comercială Română

12
 In the following pages, the data available at the moment of doing the
research, regarding the amount and form of support that was offered by the
BT and BCR banks, will be also presented.
Due to the negative evolution of the number of people infected with
the new coronavirus globally and nationally, a state of emergency was
declared in our country under a decree published in the Romanian Official
Gazzette (Decret privind instituirea stării de urgență pe teritoriul României,
2020) on 16 March 2020.
Thereby, the first CSR measures that the two banks have implemented
from 16 March will be observed and examined since the research will be
focusing on how fast they responded, on how fast they acted and on the
manner in which they used the budget that was directed towards each
bank’s CSR department.

Banca Transilvania
Donation Contribution Object of donation Beneficiary Beneficiary
declaration amount location
date
16.03.2020 300,000 EUR Mechanical State Romania
ventilation devices, hospitals in
equipment România
17.03.2020 93,000 EUR Medical equipment Unspecified Unspecified
(e.g. Trilogy 100
Ventilator)
17.03.2020 30,000 EUR Test kits, Unspecified Unspecified
ambulance repairs
18.03.2020 39,000 EUR Disinfectant, Emergency Cluj
videolaryngoscope, county
ultrasound machine, clinical
FFp2 masks hospital

13
 18.03.2020 1,000 EUR Travelling costs for Elderly Cluj
the volunteers that
go grocery shopping
for the elderly
18.03.2020 2,000 EUR Masks, disinfectant, Emergency Botoșani
protective suits county
hospital
Mavromati
Table 1. (The first) 6 aid actions declared by Banca Transilvania

As it can be noticed in table 1, BT declared their first aid action on 16

March 2020, which was followed by donations for various purposes and to
various locations in the next days. These aids went to multiple hospitals in
counties, such as Cluj and Botoșani, in the first phase. The focus was to help
with the supplies such as masks, protective suits, test kits for COVID-9,
disinfectant, but also with the medical equipment.
With the help of this table (table 1), it is easy to notice that the first
donation made by Banca Transilvania took place on the exact same date that
the emergency state was declared in Romania.
The BT’s involvement has continued even further than the period that
was included in this analysis; therefore, the impact at the present moment
is considerably larger, but in order to focus on the immediate actions that
were taken, a relevant timeframe that would illustrate the importance of
getting involved in a record amount of time needed to be selected. It was
observed that, on 18 March 2020, 1,000 EUR were donated to cover the cost
of travelling for the volunteers that were helping the elderly population
living in Cluj county. This type of action is not seen very often, but in the
context of this pandemic, the focus fell on the elderly people. The World
Health Organisation has reported that, based on the evidence that exists
today, people over 60 years old represent a risk group, because when
contacting the virus, they have a higher chance of developing complications

14
(World Health Organisation, 2020). That being said, measures were taken
to reduce the risk of getting the virus for this age group, by limiting their
outings and offering assistance at their own houses.

Banca Comercială Română

Donation Contribution Object of Beneficiary Beneficiary
declaration amount donation location
date
23.03.2020 5,000 EUR Equipment, Asociația Doctor Victor Timișoara
hygiene and Babeș (Doctor Victor
protection Babes Association)
materials
24.03.2020 10,000 EUR Hot meals Doctors, nurses, people Unspecified
that are in isolation
(through the Act For
Tomorrow Association)
24.03.2020 20,000 EUR Protective Through - Salvați Copiii Unspecified
suits, supplies, (Save the Children)
medical
equipment
25.03.2020 2,000 EUR Patient Institutul Inimii Nicolae Cluj
treatment Stăncioiu
products, (”Nicolaie Stancioiu”
equipping Heart Institute)
medical staff
25.03.2020 1,000 EUR Gloves, Asociația Medici pentru Unspecified
masks, Viața Copiilor (”Doctors
protective for Children’s Lives”
equipment Association)
25.03.2020 15,000 EUR Medical The large public through Unspecified
education Asociația Observatorul
campaigns Român de Sănătate
(Romanian Health
Observatory Association)
Table 2. (The first) 6 aid actions declared by Banca Comercială Română

15
 The data that are used in this research come from the statements that
both banks have posted on their own internet pages. Therefore, the first
known action that BCR took, in order to help combat the COVID-19
negative effects, was declared on 23 March 2020. With that being said, the
first donation made by BCR comes 7 days after the first donation that was
made by BT, with the purpose of lowering the impact of COVID-19. The
help that was being provided by BCR transformed the amount of money
directed to CSR actions into protective equipment, medical equipment, hot
meals, but also into educational campaigns.
Considering the fact that a comparison of the amounts of money that
were donated requires a more profound research of the matters regarding
the BT’s and BCR’s capitals and their power on the market, and that this
paper does not aim at delving into these issues, the way in which both banks
chose to distribute and use the amounts of money that they had made
available in order to fight the new pandemic will be compared.

The help consisted of: Banca Banca Comercială

Transilvania Română
Protective equipment X x
Medical equipment X x
Disinfectant X x
Hot meals x
Medical educational campaigns x
Test kits to detect COVID-19 X
Covering the costs of the travelling for the X
volunteers
Table 3. Comparative analysis of the aid management granted by BT and
BCR

The comparative analysis shown in table 3 presents the actions that BT

and BCR have in common (they both helped by providing protective

16
equipment, medical equipment and disinfectants), but also the differences.
The fact that they (BT and BCR) responded to a need that was continuously
growing and that they got involved in the prevention of the spread of this
virus is very important. They offered their support to the hospitals, to those
working on the front lines that were spending so many days a week around
those who were infected with COVID-19.
Looking specifically at the way in which BT got involved, it can be
noticed that the aid came in two different ways compared to BCR, meaning
that Banca Transilvania put an effort into supplying the hospitals with test
kits meant to detect the COVID-19 virus, but also covered the costs for the
volunteers who ”donated” their own time with the purpose of helping the
people in the risk groups who were above 65 years old.
Looking at BCR’s actions, it can be seen that they got involved by also
making medical educational campaigns available for the society, as it is
known that education is one of the elements that play a crucial role in
lowering the odds of spreading any viruses and not only the COVID-19
virus. Banca Comercială Română also showed support to the doctors,
nurses and the people who were being isolated by providing them with hot
meals.
The help that both banks gave goes beyond appearances and beyond
just offering medical equipment and protective equipment, both caring for
aspects that could have easily gone unnoticed because of the panic created
due to the current state of affairs. That is why, these actions are more than
just CSR activities, they are actions that bring people closer to other people
through the effect of the emotional and educational impact that they have.
The quick reactions of Banca Transilvania (that got involved since 16
March) and of Banca Comercială Română (that offered its help since 23
March), prove that priorities can change drastically, no matter if you are an
institution, a company, or the society as a whole. The most important thing

17
is to get involved when it is needed, because that is when the impact will
be the strongest.

Conclusions

Based on the research that was conducted and presented above, it can be
concluded that both Banca Transilvania and Banca Comercială Română
were quick in responding to the growing issues by implementing CSR
measures in a timely manner, considering the fact that the world found
itself in an unprecedented situation that developed rapidly and that left
little to no time for a reaction before it provoked major shifts in the entire
society.
The financial institutions that are the subject of this paper are still
continuing their helping actions in the present because it is expected that
this difficult situation will not be over anytime soon (Kolata, 2020),
considering the fact that we are dealing with a new, dangerous and
aggressive virus that proves to be very tough to handle. The help that could
have not been predicted and that will go on for an indefinite period of time
is most certainly an effort than not many entities could be able to provide,
but when a set of actions with such a big impact are being taken, the
appreciation from the community is considerably larger.
Concretely, as it has been mentioned at the beginning of this paper,
both banks got involved in the past by implementing their own CSR
campaigns and both of them did their part on at least one of the four types
of CSR that exist. At the present time, Școala de Bani, which is one of the
financial educational programmes ran by BCR, is carried out now
exclusively online (CSR media, 2020). This programme was one of BCR’s
most successful programmes. The information that is available at the
moment shows that starting from February 2020 and until now, Banca
Transilvania and other banks that operate in Romania are involved in a
campaign that wishes to provide useful information about credit cards and

18
other issues to the public, this action bearing the name of
#DreptulLaBanking (Banca Transilvania, 2020).
The differences between the actions that were taken by them are
important, because through these differences the help that is provided ends
up being far more complex. Most certainly, these concrete acts of
involvement will end up benefiting their image in the society and in the
consumer’s mind, but considering the current situation, it cannot be told for
a fact that they had this in mind when they offered to help; still, we have to
admit that we will be able to notice a high ROI (return of investment) rate.
After all, the trust that the people have in these banks is what makes them
want to have a long-term collaborative relationship. With this being said, it
can be assumed that the trust levels of the society regarding both BT and
BCR will be much higher because their actions proved that they are able to
get involved in a fast and meaningful way, changing their previously set
priorities for the year of 2020, transforming them into CSR measures that
respond to the immediate needs caused by the COVID-19 crisis situation.
The research developed around the corporate social responsibility will
become ”richer” in content that can be analysed, because starting with
March 2020, many companies, financial institutions, small- and medium-
sized enterprises have gotten involved in the fight against the new
coronavirus. Each of them has contributed in the way they could, and
without their support, the situation would have certainly been more
difficult to manage.

Webography:

1. Banca Comercială Română (2020) Alături de comunitate în lupta cu

COVID-19. www.bcr.ro. Available at:
https://www.bcr.ro/ro/presa/informatii-de-presa/alaturi-de-comunitate-
in-lupta-cu-COVID19. Accessed on 13.05.2020.

19
2. Banca Transilvania (2020) Știri. www.bancatransilvania.ro. Available
at:https://www.bancatransilvania.ro/bt-social-media-
newsroom/stiri/?cat/15. Accessed on 13.05.2020.
3. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 51.
www.who.int. Available at: https://www.who.int/docs/default-
source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200311-sitrep-51-covid-
19.pdf?sfvrsn=1ba62e57_10#:~:text=The%20virus%20that%20causes%20
COVID,provisions%20and%20social%20care. Accessed on 14.05.2020.
4. Decret privind instituirea stării de urgență pe teritoriul României.
www.onrc.ro. Available at: https://www.onrc.ro/documente/Decret.pdf.
Accessed on 15.05.2020.
5. Kolata, G. (10, May 2020). How pandemics end. www.nytimes.com.
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/health/coronavirus-
plague-pandemic-history.html. Accessed on 16.05.2020.
6. SPECIALCSR: Claudia Oprescu – Expert CSR, Banca Comercială
Română. www.csrmedia.ro. Available at:
https://www.csrmedia.ro/specialcsr-claudia-oprescu-expert-csr-banca-
comerciala-romana/. Accessed on 18.05.2020.
7. Valoarea tranzacțiilor cu cardurile de credit emise de băncile diin
România s-a dublat în 4 ani. www.bancatransilvania.ro. Available at:
https://www.bancatransilvania.ro/bt-social-media-
newsroom/stiri/valoarea-tranzaciilor-cu-cardurile-de-credit-emise-de-
bncile-din-romania-s-a-dublat-in-4-ani-/. Accessed on 18.05.2020.

20
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Sustainability in the Activity

of the Retailers in Romania
Adela Lăcrămioara Lazăr

Abstract: In this paper, “Sustainability in the Activity of the Retailers in Romania”, we

aim to study the measures and actions taken by three retailers in order to have a sustainable
activity, that is, all the processes that have led to a sustainable company and implicitly, to a
sustainable society and environment. Moreover, we bring into discussion the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Agenda 2030, which is the perfect context for both
retailers and this study, as well as the connection between communication and digital
media in this situation. In this study, we want to analyse the GRI reports published on the
websites of Profi, Lidl and Kaufland. The reports are made in accordance with the GRI and
we want to identify the common points used by the three retailers in order to make a
relevant quantitative research based on the sustainable elements identified in the reports,
such as the measures taken by the retailers in order to fight pollution, to reduce the use of
plastic or food waste and so on. In order to do a relevant research, we administered an
online questionnaire to all the possible clients (both women and men) of these retailers. The
questionnaire has 15 main questions and its purpose is to find out the level of awareness
when it comes to the measures that concern the concept of sustainability, as seen in the
supermarkets by the clients.

Keywords: sustainability, GRI reports, website, digital media, communication

21
1. Introduction

The main objective of this paper is to evidence the importance of

sustainability nowadays, when we face changes in nature due to climate
change and also a lot of negative effects caused by pollution and the use of
plastic in a global world. Globalization is a good thing because we, as a
society, need to develop, but in order to achieve our goals we also need a
balance - the balance between nature and our actions. We use natural
resources in order to evolve but these resources are not going to be here
forever. In this context, we chose the retail area for this research because
they use a lot of resources through their activities, but they can also reach
a lot of people, irrespective of age or social status. They can provide
sustainability and they can teach sustainability by using digital media in
order to communicate with their clients. They can provide the key to a
sustainable country or even to a sustainable world in the context of Web
2.0.

2. Research method

Comparative analysis: the object of this research involves three retailers

(Profi, Lidl and Kaufland). These retailers have something in common, the
GRI reports for sustainability. We performed a comparative analysis on
the three reports in order to identify the measures taken by the companies
in order to improve their impact on the environment and to see which are
the practices used in the supermarkets that can be also observed by their
clients. In order to identify the common points, we took the following
aspects into account:
- the use of the Internet to communicate with the community;
- the actions taken to improve or to reduce the energy used in their
activity;
- the presence of recycling programs;
- the use of plastic;

22
 - the actions taken to prevent food waste;
- the approached communication style through the Internet and the
social media;
- the products that come from a sustainable source;
- the approached GRI standards;
- the measures taken concerning local supplies;
- the presentation of the report.
In light of the above, we performed a comparative analysis of the
retailers’ sustainability reports, in order to identify the most important
elements, the common points, and also those points that differentiate them,
in order to find out what can still be done and to highlight what the
companies report and what can be seen by clients in the supermarkets.
We took into consideration only the common points found in the
reports, so that we could do further research.
According to the website of the European Union, “sustainable
development aims to meet the needs of present generations without
jeopardising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It
provides a comprehensive approach bringing together economic, social and
environmental considerations in ways that mutually reinforce each
other.”(https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/international-strategies/
sustainable-development-goals/eu-approach-sustainable- development_en
accessed on 08.06.2020).
Quantitative analysis: Here we use the questionnaire as an
investigative tool. We created a questionnaire with 15 questions, which was
administered to around 60 people through the online platform Isondaje. The
first questions in the questionnaire are more general, in order to find out
whether the clients know the concepts of sustainability and CSR, while the
following questions are more direct and specific, so that the clients may
respond and choose from several given examples. The aim of this analysis is
to find out what the clients notice about the sustainable measures in the
supermarkets in contrast to what the retailers report in the GRI reports.

23
3. Results

After the analysis of the reports, it can be concluded that all the three
retailers (Profi, Lidl and Kaufland) have somehow the same orientations
and objectives when it comes to the measures and actions concerning the
sustainability process. In fact, even though they share the same objectives
and somehow the same actions, such as reducing the plastic used in
product packaging, installing a LED lighting system in order to reduce the
energy used or even better, using digital media to communicate in a very
sustainable manner with the clients, some retailers have still have to do
more in this area of action. There is a very good connection between what
they promote and inform online and the actions seen in the supermarkets.
For exemple, Lidl has built a huge online community with more than 2
million people on Facebook (https://www.lidl.ro/ro/cataloage/raport-de-
sustenabilitate-2019/view/flyer/page/72).
The answers to the questionnaire have led to the conclusion that,
while most of the clients are familiar with the concepts of sustainability
and CSR, their knowledge of these two concepts is rather vague.
When the respondents were asked how important it is if the products
in the supermarket come from a sustainable source, on a scale from 1 to 5
where 1 means – very important and 5 means – totally unimportant, the
opinions were split; however, most of the clients do not really find it
important (Fig 1.). This means that there is still room for more actions that
have to be taken.
The answers to the questionnaire have led to the conclusion that,
while most of the clients are familiar with the concepts of sustainability
and CSR, their knowledge of these two concepts is rather vague. When the
respondents were asked how important it is if the products in the
supermarket come from a sustainable source, on a scale from 1 to 5 where
1 means – very important and 5 means – totally unimportant, the opinions
were split; however, most of the clients do not really find it important (Fig
1.). This means that there is still room for more actions that have to be

24
taken.

Fig. 1

In what concerns the question about the importance of an annual

report done by the retailers, 37 respondents think it is very important,
whereas 15, important (Fig.2). The same result was received when the
clients were asked if they thought that the retailers could change the actual
status in the context of global warming by taking serious measures. Most
of the respondents think that it is very important.

Fig. 2

25
 To conclude, we definitely think that the concept of sustainability
and the GRI reports are very important to the activity of the retailers and
we also believe that at the same time, the retailers can make a change and
that this change can be made through education and communication.
Digital media and communication are of utmost importance, because we
need to step forward towards a world where everything can be done
without harming the environment.

Webography:

1. http://dezvoltaredurabila.gov.ro/web/despre/ - accesed on
30.5.2020.
2. https://www.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx - accessed on
19.05.2020.
3. Implicarea face diferența: Investim în viitor. Raport de
sustenabilitate Kaufland România 2017. www.media.kaufland.com.
Available at:
https://media.kaufland.com/images/PPIM/AP_MarketingDocumen
t/rum/25/95/Asset_6492595.pdf. Accessed on 30.
4. Lidl România (n.d.). Raport de sustenabilitate 2019. www.lidl.ro.
Available at : https://www.lidl.ro/ro/cataloage/raport-de-
sustenabilitate-2019/view/flyer/page/72. Accessed on 08.06.2020.
5. O Europă durabilă în perspectiva anului 2030. www.ec.europa.eu.
Availablea at:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/publications/reflection-paper-
towards-sustainable-europe-2030_ro. Accessed on 28.04.2020.
6. Raport de sustenabilitate 2019. www.profi.ro. Available at:
https://www.profi.ro/companie/raport_sustenabilitate.html.
Accessed on 01.06.2020.

26
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Ecological Concerns in the

Discourse of the Fashion
Industry
Iasmina-Andreea Lele

Abstract: In this paper, I address the issue of ecological concerns in the discourse of the
clothing industry, focusing on Andreea Raicu and A List Magazine. The latter is a fashion
magazine, whereas the former is a well-known fashion blogger, whose influential blog deals
with many fashion-related topics. My study focuses on the techniques used to inform the
public on this topic. Sustainability in the field of clothing can have a very big impact on
consumer behavior. Protecting the environment is for the benefit of future generations and
is one of the major challenges nowadays. For a single coat in our closet, important resources
of our planet are depleted. According to its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the
UN put forth a plan to increase and promote sustainable clothing among consumers.

Keywords: Textile Industry; Pollution; Sustainability; Economic.

The textile industry is the world’s second largest source of pollution, to

which each of us contributes when we throw away a piece of clothing or
buy another. However, more than three quarters of the clothes used

27
worldwide are not recycled. There should be more responsibility
throughout the chain of use of a garment, from its purchase to the end of its
life cycle. Consumers influence all stages, hence the obligation to act
responsibly. The aim of this paper is to analyze the behavior of
manufacturers and how information reaches consumers.
The textile industry also has a massive impact on the environment, as
it produces about 20% of the world’s wastewater and 10% of global carbon
emissions and other waste. The major impact of the textile industry, which
is less noticeable to humans, is the pollution of water with plastic fiber, as
about 60% of the materials used in the manufacture of clothing are made of
plastic (Nayak, 2019). Every time they are washed, clothes release an
impressive number of small plastic fibers that researchers call microfibers,
which end up in lakes, rivers, oceans. Water treatment plants are not
required to capture them. But the chain of negative effects produced by
microfibers is not limited to sewage treatment plants. They can be easily
confused with food by marine life, thus having a devastating effect on
underwater animals, causing endocrine and digestive disorders. They can
even slow down the development of some species.
Pollution is not caused only by the finished product. It starts early in
the production cycle. The process of cultivating materials such as cotton or
hemp requires equipment that pollutes the air, eliminating emissions. Later
in the process, the development of plant oil-based pesticides also
contributes to air pollution. Harvesting also contributes to the degradation
of the environment. The processing of raw materials needed by the textile
industry also involves the use of water resources. All these mean that the
textile industry makes use of a series of processes that negatively influence
the environment, and the finished product has a short life, ending up in the
garbage, thus contributing to the issue of waste management. (Nayak, 2019)
People have realized the importance of ecology and of taking care of
the surrounding environment. Although this is a relatively new trend,

28
ecologists make their voices heard on the importance of protecting the
planet and of limiting the negative influence of human activities on the
environment. More recently, ecological concerns have been tied to the
concept of sustainable products. Sustainability has been paramount to most
production sectors and supporting it is a commitment to the company and
the community of customers, respectively the environment. “The term
sustainability was coined in 1987 in the Brundtland report, which means
'meeting current needs without verification finds the needs of the next
generation'” (Keeble et al., 2003).
The big textile companies are channeling their way towards
“ecofriendly” production, which will lead to sustainable fashion. The
chemical processing of fabrics in an environmentally friendly way is being
developed through the adoption of new technologies such as the use of
natural dyes and dye lasers.
Non-profit and governmental international organizations put
pressure on fashion companies to adopt the concept of sustainability. In the
past, most factories focused on profitability, not on community wellbeing.
However, more recently, under the influence of political and moral factors,
several brands have taken the path of sustainable fashion in clothing, by
adopting practices that support and care for the environment. Economic
sustainability is defined as “the ability of an economy to sustain different
levels of production to the end” (Thwink, 2014). Economic support focuses
on the search for alternative sources of materials, which are natural, bio-
degradable and recyclable, which rely on wind or solar energy, low energy
consumption as well as a low amount of water. “The third aspect of
sustainability is corporate social responsibility (CSR), which ensures that
corporate societies follow the approaches and creates minimal harm in the
event of non-compliance, thus contributing to social improvement while
generating profit. Identifying a series of CSR rules makes it difficult for
corporations to comply with CSR concepts that need to be implemented in

29
business. One of the widely used definitions provided by Bowd, Harris, and
Cornelisen: CSR is the responsibility to hold companies accountable
through explicit social contracts or implicit contracts with beneficiaries in
compliance with government laws and regulations and operates ethically.
(Bowd et al., 2003).”
In the last decade, the concept of fast fashion has revolutionized the
clothing industry system, where new styles appear weekly. Fast access both
online and in stores at an acceptable price only strengthens young people’s
habit of buying clothes very quickly. Besides, clothing retailers such as Zara
and H&M sell clothing that can be used less than 10 times, thus supporting
“throwaway fashion” culture. We can talk about ethics in the consumer
clothing industry and that plays an important role in having an impact on
the environment, people and animals. Clothing consumer ethics should
focus on sustainable, practical, environmentally friendly products, but
studies show the opposite. Indeed, when fashion trends are alert, the
support of techniques capable of protecting the environment is low. It is
often difficult for consumers to meet certain ethical standards because
information on the topic is difficult to get. Therefore, the concept of
“throwaway fashion” becomes a “fad” that may become an upward trend
in the future (Nayak, 2019).
The clothing industry needs to focus on raw materials that have a
more efficient recycling process and do not require a major effort, i.e. much
processing, water, energy and many human resources, which affect the
environment. In the paper Opportunities and Barriers to Textile Recycling,
AEA Technology, Recycling Advisory Unit, the author Cupit claims that
although some natural fibers are biodegradable in their production process,
they require significant water consumption. Water consumption for the
production of synthetic fibers has a lower percentage of water use
compared to cotton. However, on the other hand, synthetic fiber involves
consuming a larger amount of energy.

30
 In recent years, researchers have studied the replacement of
biodegradable natural fibers and found solutions to replace some of them,
such as the cultivation of biodegradable and renewable soybean, bamboo
and polylactic acid (PLA) fibers that are more environmentally friendly and
do not affect the environment. Clothing made of soy fibers is soft, similar to
cashmere, and elastic, but less durable than cotton. In the book Thermal
properties of knitted fabrics made from cotton and regenerated bamboo cellulosic
fibers, Majumdar et al. claim that organic cotton is more resistant and
durable, with a higher moisture absorption level than cotton. A big plus of
organic cotton production is the lack of pesticides and fertilizers to grow
the plant (Nayak, 2019).
One of the main points of learning transformation theory is the
continuous dialogue. The fashion industry is not just the consumer, but the
union between educated consumers and the industry itself, an assumption
based on the historical law of supply and demand developed by Adam
Smith. Much of his theory has been to argue that everything we value, such
as the functioning of the economy, can be found in people’s demand. Thus,
a lot of responsibilities are assigned to the consumers, an idea that can be
easily overshadowed. While most economists tend to argue for consumer
sovereignty, increasing their satisfaction as the ultimate goal to be achieved,
nowadays, some claim that consumer behavior is cultivated more as a
means for business owners. A complicated point, given that the priority of
businesses is to make money, not to make a better world. This is why it has
become even more critical for consumers to take a second key role on the
path to more sustainable fashion. If consumers continue to buy only
sustainable products, then the entire supply chain will change according to
the diffusion model. And as a closed loop, consumer patterns will influence
the action of producers, who will push consumer behavior to change. Thus,
consumers have a responsibility to send signals to make consumption
evolve while businesses have to listen to and answer these calls.

31
 Sustainability in fashion is also a topic of major interest in the financial
environment. Transforming the economy is possible. Europe has made
significant progress in increasing resource efficiency. Several UN strategies
and legislation include framework directives on consumer information and
behavior change. According to the provisions of the UN’s 2030 Agenda,
consumers must be educated, and brands must also inspire consumers,
leading them and guiding them towards the process of change, which is
vital for the future.
In Romania, the idea of recycling clothes is less developed. Second-
hand clothing stores are the only way we act. A possible model is the one
proposed by Tonelli and Cristoni’s “MUD Jeans”, which offers customers
the opportunity to repair or recycle jeans, as well as the service of renting
jeans for a monthly fee. After one year, customers can return the product or
choose a new pair. It is the brand’s decision whether to provide vintage
jeans in exchange or to recycle the jeans. More promotion campaigns are
needed to popularize sustainability in Romania and to teach people to
protect it. In the stores that sell sustainable clothing such as the ones
mentioned above, customers should be able to choose the material, fabric
or color and to customize their clothes in an environmentally friendly style,
which creates a connection between the store and the consumer. This kind
of action takes place in India, under the campaign entitled “Fashion on
Demand”, which invites the customer to choose from some options, e.g.
styles, fabrics, colors, sizes, to create a unique design, using the mix-and-
match concept. The order takes three weeks in which the customer enters
into an emotional connection with the specially tailored product, thus
motivating the buyer to use the product for a longer period, while also
contributing to the sustainable creation of the product.
According to Maslow’s Pyramid, all needs are grouped into deficiency
needs and growth needs. Deficiency needs are fulfilled, but growth needs
are unstable and require more once a segment is met. In the case of

32
physiological and safety needs, function is the most important, such as the
purchase of a winter coat in the winter season. After physiological and safety
needs comes the need for love and belonging, in which the consumer is
attached to the family, colleagues, roles and status; for example, the need for
a T-shirt by a teenager. From street fashion to suits, the entire clothing
spectrum is affected by the need for esteem and the need for self-
actualization. In the case of self-actualization, the consumer moves to
another stage and wants to show their creativity and individuality to stand
out from the others, but still receives the extraordinary acceptance of his
social environment. Here the consumer maintains social uniqueness and
image improvement. These needs of the individual or the consumer play an
important role in the consumer’s decision-making and purchasing process.
Fashion has become an integral part of the history of life/personality,
culture and position in society. There are some possibilities to improve the
situation and engage Romanian consumers in the eco-friendly trends. In
what follows, I will share some of my proposals and thoughts:
Through social media. “Trait” theory is more appropriate for styles
that gain adoption over time and in socioeconomic groups. Leaders and
celebrities play an important role in fashion. Romanian influencers such as
Alina Ceușan, Carmen Grebenisan, Laura Giurcanu and Laura Charaba (to
name only some) are people who care about fashion and represent a
potential partner in promoting sustainability among young people.
1. In the traditional media, the best-known fashion show is "BRAVO
AI STIL". It could be used as a promoter of sustainability. For
instance, the producers could encourage young competitors to choose
“green” outfits and launch challenges designed to stimulate creativity
and sell the clothes to followers who could create or update the
apparel, rearrange them for their consumption.
2. Through education and experiential learning. I propose the creation
of personalized kits; more precisely, people can choose the materials,

33
 colors as well as everything necessary. Of course, there may also be
standard kits. These kits will encourage consumers to tailor their own
creations, thinking Of course, I can reuse them. These kits can be
available on a website for easier access or through partnerships with
companies promoting this new trend in Romania. Similarly to the
“Fashion Week” event, an “Ecological Fashion Week” may be
organized, where producers will show consumers and potential
consumers how to produce clothes, from beginning to end, on social
media. Transparency towards people is something that many
companies should address.
3. Through educational policies. At the local level, I believe that
associations for children and youth can teach children about the
environment and eco-friendly approaches, e.g. what they are, why
such an approach is good, etc. It is better to act preventively, during
the personality formation period.
The full implementation of such policies would offer many benefits.
Fewer resources would be used for production and this would contribute to
the protection and conservation of the environment. At the same time, the
economy would benefit from fundamental innovations and greater
competitiveness for European companies.
All these are extremely important to the economic and financial
environment, to the natural resources, to improving people’s lives and to
raising living standards. We need to learn how to spend our hard-earned
money and how to generate profit in this process. The purchase of small
quantities should lead to the creation of more innovative services and the
production of less disposable products. We need to create a new kind of
consumerism, based on shared authentic values and greater needs.

34
Acknowledgements

This study in the field of communication campaigns would not have been
possible without the help of Assoc. prof. Mariana CERNICOVA - BUCĂ,
PhD, my dissertation coordinator, whom I kindly thank for her suggestions,
patience and understanding.

Bibliography

1. Choi, T.-M. & Cheng, T. C. E. (2015). Sustainable Fashion Supply Chain

Management: From Sourcing to Retailing, Berlin: Springer International
Publishing.
2. Muthu, S. S. (2017). Textiles and Clothing Sustainability Recycled and
Upcycled Textiles and Fashion = Recycled and Upcycled Textiles and
Fashion, Berlin: Springer.
3. Muthu, S. S. (2018). Models for Sustainable Framework in Luxury Fashion:
Luxury and Models, Berlin: Springer.
4. Muthu, S. S. (2019). Consumer Behaviour and Sustainable Fashion
Consumption, Singapore: Springer.
5. Muthu, S. S. (2019). Fast Fashion, Fashion Brands and Sustainable
Consumption, Singapore: Springer.
6. Muthu, S. S. (2019). Sustainable Fashion: Consumer Awareness and
Education, Singapore: Springer.
7. Nayak, R. (2019). Sustainable Technologies for Fashion and Textiles,
Sawston: Woodhead Publishing.
8. Parthiban, M., Srikrishnan, M. R.,&Kandhavadivu, P. (2018).
Sustainability in Fashion and Apparels: Challenges and Solutions, New
Delhi: WPI Publishing.
9. Sansom, I. (2014). Hârtia O elegie, București: Antalis.
10. Sinclair, R. (2014). Textiles and Fashion: Materials, Design and
Technology, Sawston: Woodhead Publishing.

35
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

The Role and Importance of

Communication in the
Doctor-Patient Relationship
Andreea Maria Pașca

Abstract: Communication is the main ingredient of healthcare. Effective communication

can build a close relationship between the doctor and the patient and this can have
therapeutic benefits for the patient. The way in which the message is conveyed and the
advice given can change a patient's feelings forever. As regards the method of
communication with the patient, 73.8% of the respondents chose open communication as
being the most effective one. As in any process, barriers are present in this context as well.
In general, medical terms are one of them, and only 58.5% of those questioned said that
they understood the doctor’s medical terminology. Unfortunately, many post-graduate
doctors cannot meet their patients’ demands due to the lack of training in communication
skills.

Keywords: Communication, doctor-patient relationship, the role of communication,

barriers in communication.

36
1. Introduction

The doctor-patient communication

Effective communication between the doctor and the patient is the central
function in establishing a therapeutic relationship between the two, which
is the heart and art of medicine. The relationship between the doctor and
the patient is one of the most complex interpersonal relationships. This
implies interaction between people in unequal, often involuntary positions.
While sophisticated technologies can be used for medical diagnosis and
treatment, interpersonal communication is the primary tool in which
information is exchanged between the doctor and the patient (Ong, De
Haes, Hoos & Lammes, 1995, p. 903).

The characteristics of the medical communication

The communication between the doctor and the patient is a direct, face-to-
face communication, which is not mediated and formalised. The purpose of
this communication is to obtain information that both subjects want: to find
answers that relate to the patient's health, the remedies proposed for
improving the patient’s health and the practical ways to be set in action.

The DONA communication ”window”

In his book, Medical psychology, Florin Tudose (2007) presents the manner in
which the doctor-patient communication is conducted using the concept of
the “communication window”. It is described as having four square areas
through which the two subjects communicate face-to-face. The D zone
represents the behaviour known to himself and others. It shows to what
extent two or more people can freely give and receive, work together, and
enjoy common experiences. The O zone, the blind area, represents the
behaviour that is not known by the self, but is obvious to others. The N zone

37
is the area of unknown activity where the behaviour is not known to the
individual or others. The A zone represents the behaviour that is known to
himself but hidden from others. Without a good communication, a
qualitative medical encounter could not be carried out. This is necessary to
make the process of finding the patient's problem and its cause,
reformulating it into a diagnosis and then communicating it to the patient
in the simplest way. The quality of the doctor-patient relationship depends
largely on the patient’s satisfaction and acceptance of the treatment and of
the results (Tudose, 2007, pp. 132-133).
This study focuses on the doctor-patient communication. The study
had three main objectives. The first objective was to identify the most
effective way of communicating with the patients. The communication
process is important for the professional interaction with the patient. The
second objective was to identify the existing barriers in the communication
process between the doctor and the patient. Their existence is not at all
limited. The barriers to effective communication are the medical terms used
by doctors, the lack of time, and the haste during appointments. The last
objective considered the role and importance of communication in the
relationship between the doctor and the patient. The role of communication
is very important in the relationship between the two actors and, therefore,
simply recognising the need for a good communication is not enough;
doctors must strive to obtain the skills for an effective communication.
The opinionated survey was used as a study tool to achieve these
goals. It was applied to a sample of 115 individuals and the sampling was
a non-probability of convenience one.

38
2. Research method

The opinion poll is an indirect method of data collection. These data are
collected from people with knowledge of the field of research, who are
called respondents. The opinion poll is a quantitative method. However,
this does not exclude the fact that qualitative data can also be collected. The
survey can conduct several types of study, such as exploratory, descriptive,
or explanatory (Sandor, 2013, p. 108).
For this study, an opinion poll concerning the most effective way to
communicate between a doctor and a patient has been created. The
questionnaire is made up of a set of 16 questions addressed to the
respondents. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of 163 respondents
(48 males, 115 females) aged between 17 and 76 years old. After the
application and interpretation of the questionnaire, the achieved results will
be presented for each question separately, because it is believed that each
of them is important in finding out the objective. A non-probability sample
of convenience was used.

3. Results

Following the interpretation of the questionnaire, the answers to the

proposed objectives outlined at the begining of the study have been
extracted. The first goal was answered in question number seven, where
73.6% of the respondents stated that they would like the doctors to
communicate with them in an open way (Fig.1.). This way of
communication gives patients the courage to open up to the doctor and
gives them the confidence that the treatment they will be given will help in
treating the condition they have. This is how real communication begins
and even the least possible situations are solved. Speaking openly to the
patient will help him/her to describe his/her illness and the doctor will be
able to understand the problem better.

39
 How would you like a doctor to communicate with you?

In a serious manner In a friendly manner In an open manner Other

Fig.1. The mode of communication

Any communication has its barriers. However, in the medical field,

technical terms are very often found even in the dialogue with the patients.
Many of those questioned say that a problem in communication is due to
the use of medical terms that doctors often do not even bother to explain to
their patients. 58.5% of the respondents said that they encountered medical
terms in the doctor’s speech (Fig. 2.). Doctors should, therefore, explain to
the patients during the examination all the procedures in a manner that
could be understood by everyone regardless of age, cultural knowledge,
social status, and ethnicity. Another barrier in communication is the lack of
knowledge of the communication skills as far as the doctors are concerned.
They do not have very good communication skills, fact confirmed by 17.3%
of the respondents (Fig. 3.).

40
Did you encounter medical terms in the doctor’s speech that you did not

Yes No Sometimes

Fig. 2 Medical terms in the doctor’s speech

Do you think that some doctors have difficulties in explaining?

1- On a smaller scale 5- On a larger scale

Fig. 3. Explaining the diagnosis with difficulty

41
 The role of communication in the doctor-patient relationship is very
important. 72.6% of the respondents consider it to be the most important
process in the relationship between the two of them (Fig. 4.). Besides being
important, the doctors’ professionalism depends very much on how
competent they are in communication. Therefore, 93.3% of the respondents
believe that doctors should attend a training course at least once a year in
order to develop the skill of communicating more efficiently with the
patients.
To what extent do you think communication is the most
important process in the doctor-patient relationship?

1- On a smaller scale 5- On a larger scale

Fig. 4. Communication – the most important process in the doctor-patient

relationship

Conclusions

The doctor's job is not an easy one, to say the least. Patient diversity makes
this profession even more difficult. Therefore, doctors need to have very

42
effective communication skills and to know very well how to approach
every patient differently. The primary purpose of communication between
the doctor and the patient is to exchange information so that both the
diagnosis and the treatment plan could be determined correctly. In addition
to the information exchange, communication also aims at creating a good
interpersonal relationship between the doctor and the patient.
This research has achieved its proposed objectives. As far as the
method of communication with the patient is concerned, 73.8% of the
respondents considered that speaking openly was the most effective
method in this respect. This method of communication is advantageous for
both sides. The relationship between the doctor and the patient becomes
more relaxed; therefore, everyone says what they have to say. The doctor
finds out what s/he wants to know from the patient, and the patient from
the doctor. This type of communication can be defined as communication
without inhibitions.
As in any process, barriers are present in this context as well. In
general, medical terms are one of them and 58.5% of those questioned said
that they encountered these terms in the doctor's speech. Another problem
that occurs in the doctor-patient communication is the short time that is
provided for the patient’s consultation. Some doctors’ lack of empathy is
also a barrier in communication. If doctors cannot put themselves in the
patient's shoes, the communication process will not be hindered.
Communication is indeed the process that plays the most important
role in the relationship between the doctor and the patient. This is
emphasised by 72.4% of the respondents, who consider communication to
be a neccesary process for both of them "to a very large extent". As this is so
significant for the relationship between the two of them, communication
must also be effective. The more effective the communication is, the more
easily the medical act can be performed, the needed information will arrive

43
to the doctor in a much shorter period of time in order for him/her to choose
the most effective treatment for the patient.
A solution to overcome the doctor’s communication difficulties and
the communication barriers would be to participate at least once a year in
specialised patient communication courses. 93.3% of the respondents
considered that doctors should take part in such courses.
In conclusion, communication is the first link between the doctor and
the patient, through which important data are conveyed in order to give a
correct diagnosis and, by extension, an appropriate treatment. However,
the barriers in such a relationship are unavoidable and numerous. These
barriers will not be easy to overcome, but by simply choosing the right
words, a calm and a patient tone of voice, and accurate and complex
information, the communication with the patients can be improved. These
positive attitudes and skills can be applied without great effort by any
doctor in almost any situation and can generate a major improvement in the
doctor-patient bond, which greatly influences the effective result of the
medical act.

Bibliography:

1. Șandor, S. (2013). Metode și tehnici de cercetare în științele sociale, Cluj-

Napoca: Tritonic.
2. Tudose, F. (2007). Fundamente în psihologia medicală. Psihologie clinică și
medicală în practica psihologului, Ediția a III-a. București: Editura
Fundației România de Mâine.

Webography:

1. Khan, T. M., Hassali, M. A. & Al-Haddad, M. S. M. (2011). Patient-

physician Communication Barrier: A Pilot Study Evaluating Patient

44
 Experiences. Journal of Young Farmacist. Vol. 3, Nr. 3, pp. 250-255.
DOI: 10.4103/0975-1483.83778.
2. Ong, L. M. L., de Haes, J., C., J., M., Hoos, A., M. & Lammes, F., B.
(1995). Doctor-patient communication: A review of the literature.
Social Science and Medicine. Vol. 40, Nr. 7, pp. 903-918. DOI:
10.1016/0277-9536(94)00155-M.

45
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Ethical Aspects Concerning

Inditex’s Business Practices
Camelia-Viviana Vișan

Abstract: Fast fashion has boomed as an industry over the last few years. Little do
people know though about the negative impact it has on our planet. The article presents
the results of an online conducted survey, that aims to discover people’s buying habits
and perception of this industry, with main focus on the ethical issues around one
particular company - Inditex. The results show that people have the will to make a
change, but it takes some educational effort and probably some time. Although most of
the respondents (90%) still buy from brands owned by Inditex, a great percentage of
68% are willing to give local brands a chance. The study offers an overview of the fast
fashion consumer behaviour and the importance assigned to ethical aspects, in hope
that it encourages people to be part of the change.

Keywords: fast fashion; business ethics; applied ethics; Inditex.

1. Introduction

We live in a culture of consumerism. Everything happens so fast, that

we don’t realize the impact it has on the world. But sometimes
investigations reveal the dark side of this culture. In "The new black
book of corporations", Klaus-Werner and Hans Weiss detail the less
known ethical issues in the activity of many multinational corporations.

46
 The fast fashion industry is one of the worst, being responsible for
10% of all carbon emissions globally. Because of the poor quality and the
rapidly changing trends, the lifespan of fast fashion is nonexistent. The
clothes are treated like disposable pieces, usually ending up in landfills.
And everything comes with a price. The increased carbon footprint, the
large consumption of water and the enormous waste led to a growth in
the number of natural disasters and disease.
Furthermore, there is a question that fast fashion retailers prefer to
avoid: ``who makes the clothes?``. In order to keep production costs low
and to increase the rate of production, these giants outsource parts of the
production process to Third World Countries, where the lack of laws
and regulations allow them to pay lower wages to workers and to
pressure these into meeting unreasonable deadlines. Moreover, labor
standards are so low that they lean towards exploitation, sometimes
even of children (child labor).
Inditex, owner of the brands Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti,
Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho and Zara Home, is one of the world's
largest (fast) fashion retailers. Targeting various types of consumers
with the multitude and the diversity of its brands, alongside sales,
promotions and hard to resist prices, the company sure knows how to
ensure its way to people’s closets.
As a response to the rising concern for environmental issues, the
Spanish group invests in strong PR and several campaigns aimed to
promote its efforts to be more sustainable. But truth is, a fast fashion
company can’t be sustainable by definition. Therefore, the theme
addressed in this article is sadly a very present one in today’s reality.
The study aims to discover peoples' perceptions of the company
and of its ethical issues, as well as to identify their buying habits when
it comes to clothing.

2. Research methods

The method used for this research is a questionnaire-based survey. The

survey gathered a total number of 60 respondents in 4 weeks and was

47
conducted online, mostly due to its convenience and efficiency. Chelcea
(2001, p. 177) defines the questionnaire as “a technique, and
correspondingly a research tool, consisting of a set of written questions
and perhaps graphic images, arranged in a logical and psychological
order, which administered by operators or by self-administration
determine answers from respondents, answers that are to be recorded
[in writing].”
The objective of the survey is to find out the extent to which people
acknowledge the ethical issues of fast fashion and how willing they are
to change their behaviour as consumers who play a part in the market
mechanism by buying certain goods.

3. Results

The results of the survey show that nearly all the respondents (90%) buy
clothes from brands that belong to Inditex, although the frequency of
purchase varies from one brand to another. Some of the reasons behind
this habit are the clothing style, the accessible locations and the cheap
prices (all in equal percentage of ~30%). Other reasons are the desire to
keep up with the trends (18%) and the brand loyalty (only 3%).
However, the people who participated in the survey have also
noticed some less pleasant aspects when buying from Inditex’s brands,
such as the mass effect (31%) and the poor quality of the products (26%).
9% of the respondents consider ethical issues a good enough reason not
to buy from these brands anymore.
Ethical and environmental issues are generally important for the
majority of the questioned people (38%), for some even very important
(43%). Either way, only half of the respondents try to find out more
about the history and the values of a company before making a purchase
and just about the same percentage (55%) knew about Inditex’s ethical
issues. What triggers people the most is apparently child labour (63%).

48
 Fig. 1
Most people who were part of the survey are willing to change
their buying habits when it comes to clothes (68%), but they hardly know
any local, sustainable brands. There are also factors that could determine
them to look the other way: low prices (43%), spreading and location of
the stores (25%), the “I can’t change much about it anyway” mentality
(17%) and the distance to the third world countries (15%).

Fig. 2

49
 If they were to choose local brands, the reasons for their choice
would be the high quality of the materials (24%), the wish to support
local business owners (19%), the unique pieces (17%), the adjusted sizes
(16%), the attention to details (14%), and the ethical reasons (10%).
The respondents live mainly in urban areas (80%) and have an
average income of 2,000-3,000 lei (42%) or 1,000-2,000 lei (23%). 87% of
them are women, aged 18-25 (92%) or 26-35 (8%).

3. Expert sources consulted

The topic addressed in this paper is part of the business ethics field.
Business ethics is “a particular form of applied ethics, a set of rules and
moral norms concerning the conduct of traders in the economic activity,
both at an individual and at a collective level” (Bădescu, 2014: 79).
Although it used to be believed that ethics and business cannot go
hand in hand, the general perception of the business environment has
significantly improved lately. Even corporations had to adapt to a
growing concern about the welfare of the planet and its inhabitants.
New concepts have appeared, revolutionising the way people do
business. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is such a new concept
and it refers to the “set of actions, principles and practices through which
a company engages in the society in order to ensure a positive impact of
its activity and to contribute to the development of that society” (Ștefana,
2012).
Still, there are many issues that have to be fixed within the business
world and labour conditions in the fast fashion industry is one of them.
When speaking about the ethical issues that Inditex and other similar
companies refuse to address, we refer to low wages, long hours, child
labour, insanitary conditions, and the undermining of factory standards.

Conclusion

Not only should customers be aware of the business practices of these

big corporations (including Inditex), but they must also take action and

50
change their buying habits. Some brands, such as Zara, have started to
make little improvements, e.g. launching sustainable collections with
clothes made out of recycled materials, but that must be just the
beginning.
Following the study, it can be agreed that people have the potential
to start the “revolution” in the fashion industry themselves. It only takes
some research to find out how ethical a company actually is and to find
alternatives, preferably on the local market.

Bibliography:

1. Bădescu, V. S. (2014). Etica în afaceri. București: Pro Universitaria.

2. Crane, A.; Matten, D.; Gozer, S. & Spence, L. J. (2007). Business ethics
(ed. a V-a, rev.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3. Chelcea, S. (2001). Metodologia cercetării sociologice: metode cantitative
și calitative. București: Editura Economică.
4. Morar, V. Etica în afaceri și în politică. București: Universal Juridic.
5. Morar, V; Macoviciuc, V. & Crăciun, D. Etica afacerilor. București:
Paideia.
7. Sternberg, E. (2018). Just business: Business ethics in action (ed. a IV-a,
rev.). Amonines: Phronimos Press.
9. Werner, K. & Weiss, H. (2004). Noua carte neagră a firmelor de marcă.
Intrigile concernelor internaționale. Oradea: Aquila ’93.

Webography:

1. Sanders, L. & Mawson, J. (n.d.). The 2019 Ethical Fashion Report:

The truth behind the barcode. www.baptistworldaid.org.au.
Available at: https://baptistworldaid.org.au/resources/2019-
ethical-fashion-report/. Accessed at 29.05.2020.
2. Ștefana, A. (5, September 2012). Ce înseamnă responsabilitatea
socială corporativă?. www.blogunteer.ro. Available at :
https://blogunteer.ro/2012/09/ce-inseamna-responsabilitatea-
sociala-corporativa/. Accessed on 07.06.2020.

51
3. White, J. (n.d.). What is Business Ethics? Definition, overview and
example. www.thestreet.com. Available at:
https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/what-is-business-
ethics-15026364. Accessed on 03.06.2020.

52
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Ethos and Strategies for

Strengthening Credibility
in Leaders
Miruna-Narcisa Pașca

Abstract: Overall, I can summarize all the work for my paper as a fight for some principles
I believe in. It can be called a wake-up call, as we should not follow someone based on their
earnings, but based on what they stand for, on who they truly are. As with all human
endeavours, ethos is a part of business. I have learned that, if something you have to say
might influence at least a small percentage of the world, you should speak your mind with
every chance you get.

Keywords: ethos, leader, credibility, fairness, follow, believe, trust, analysis.

1. Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the need to use more
trumps when we want to strengthen our credibility. For a more thorough
nalysis, I will only focus on two attributes, namely those that I consider,
perhaps, the most important in influencing the public: ethos and credibility.

53
 Therefore, in my paper, I present what ethos and leadership mean
and, of course, how they can be used in speeches. The reason I consider
them the most important features in delivering a speech is that they
incorporate a multitude of imperative features. Whenever I reflect on these
terms and their use, most of all, I run into the need for intelligence.
To prove my hypothesis that “a speaker must represent in the public’s
eye both an ethical character and a true leader”, I have chosen to analyse
and compare the speeches of Nelson Mandela and those of Donald Trump
- both leaders, recognized by the whole world.
The topic I am addressing is of real, eternal importance. Speeches have
not begun and will not end with our era. Speeches have existed since the
beginning of the world and will continue until it ends and in one way or
another they represent a part of our lives. At least, when we are the
speakers, we shall do it by the book, and when we are part of the audience,
we shall know how to identify the pros and cons most objectively.
To be as close to the truth as possible, I have decided to consult all the
sources that address this topic, in order to support the various hypotheses
that I will present in the present paper.

2. Research methods

I have decided to use neo-Aristotelian criticism and the interview as

methods of validating all the statements made in the theoretical part of my
paper. The former might be closer to philosophy, to the human side, whilst
the latter, certainly closer to business.
Neo-Aristotelian criticism involves listening to the speaker’s voice.
The Neo-Aristotelian method was the first formal method of rhetorical
criticism developed in the field of communication. It is called Aristotelian
to make a direct reference to Aristotle’s Rhetoric, preceded by “Neo”, and
has been adapted to the 20th century. (Foss, S., 2009, pp. 21-29)

54
 The idea of traditional rhetorical criticism is to analyse the method
used by the speaker, by describing their personality, describing the
audience and the adequacy of the speech to it, formulating and organizing
the main ideas, analysing the evidence provided by the speaker, the manner
and style of expression, the testimonies of the public or the recordings that
can provide further evidence in this regard. In its traditional conception, it
must appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos as the main standards of analysis.
Based on the Neo-Aristotelian structure, Sonja Foss (2009, pp 24-28)
describes the three stages in the actual analysis of a speech: the
reconstitution of the context, the application of the 5 dogmas and impact
assessment.
Rebuilding the context helps the critic better understand the speaker,
the occasion and the audience. At this stage, information is gathered on the
formative influences that have determined the speaker’s principles and
motivations; information about the speaker’s experience on the subject;
identifying the speaker’s motivation.
Gathering information about the present or targeted audience helps
the critic understand why the speaker has chosen certain strategies to
achieve their goal, identify the speaker’s reputation while also taking into
account the public’s knowledge of the speech topic.
The second stage concerns the application of canons, since the critic
must meet the requirements of the five dogmas: invention, disposition,
style, utterance and memory; they may summarise their analysis only on
invention and/or disposition.
The first dogma, invention, refers to the critic finding the ideas,
arguments and fundamental content of the speaker. Therefore, they can use
the two major types of evidence: external evidence, also called non-
artistic/non-technical evidence, such as witnesses and various documents
and respectively, internal evidence, also called rhetorical

55
evidence/artistic/technical evidence, which is used by specialists and which
incorporates ethos, pathos and logos.
In the case of logos, we can identify two types of reasoning that need
to be analysed: inductive reasoning, in which one departs from a particular
case to arrive at a general conclusion, and deductive reasoning, in which a
general statement implies a particular statement.
The second dogma, disposition, refers to the way ideas are structured
and organized in the speech. One can identify the idea that dominates the
speech, why it is placed where it is, and the repeated ideas. The purpose of
the critic is to determine whether the structure of the speech is consistent
with the subject and its purpose, as well as whether it is appropriate for the
public. Moreover, the critic must identify the general method of
organization. The main types of organization are as follows: chronological
order, problem-solution order, problem-cause-solution order, comparative
advantages order, and sequential-motivating order/motivating scheme for
the organization of persuasive messages, which has five parts – attention,
necessity, satisfaction, visualization and action.
The third canon, style, has to do with the language used by the
speaker, i.e. the use of certain words or symbols to create various rhetorical
effects, and with an analysis of the general effects: common, robust or
ornate.
In the fourth dogma, uttering or delivering the speech, the critic
identifies the presentation mode (spontaneous/read); body language and
vocal skills.
Memory, the last rhetorical canon, is not mainly used in the neo-
Aristotelian analysis, because most contemporary discourses are rendered
by reading. Even so, the critic can identify the relationship between memory
and presentation.
The third and final stage, impact assessment, lies in drawing a general
conclusion about the speech. The critic has to determine the effect of the

56
speech, or, in other words, whether it has succeeded in achieving its
intended purpose or not.
“The interview is a social situation of conversational exchange
between two persons to gather information within a specified framework.”
(Weil-Barais, A., 1997, p. 99). The primary purpose of the interview was to
find out to what extent people consider ethos relevant as a characteristic of
a leader and to what extent they let themselves be led by it when they decide
whether to follow a person or his/her example, or not.
Similar questions can be found in the interview, just to check
consistency in answers and to discover new information that may arise due
to different wording. The questions asked in the interview are specific and
focus on the subject. They are also concise and do not suggest an answer,
precisely so as not to influence the interviewee.
Given the nature of the interview, which is grounded in a desire for
knowledge, we can say that information is the crucial element in this
equation. Thus, for the accuracy of the results, I interviewed subjects having
different backgrounds.
The number of questions is small, given the desire not to deviate from
the subject, but at the same time, the questions give freedom of expression
to the interviewee. Even though I started from the assumption that ethos is
important to all of us when evaluating any person we meet, I wanted to find
out how important it is to the interviewees.
I tried to identify all the links between ethos and the natural need to
follow and empathize with someone characterized by this particular
quality. I also figured out what made the interviewees attracted to this
attribute or not. Motivation is as important as validating the assumption
itself.
Similar words, positive or negative reactions, responses leading to a
similar conclusion were also evaluated in parallel. The identity of the

57
interviewees remained anonymous so that they could express themselves
freely.

3. Results

In my dissertation paper, I used discourse analysis to compare a general

and a political leader. The reason I chose this fine analogy between political
and business leaders is that I do not believe that there is a distinction in this
regard.
Hence, based on the analysis of some of Nelson Mandela’s and Donald
Trump’s speeches, it can be concluded that ethos is very important when
we want to gain the trust of the majority. Of course, as I mentioned in the
course of the analyses, it is not the only element a leader, be they political
or business, should take into account. A complete leader, a leader in the
truest sense, should harmoniously frame everything that means ethos,
pathos and logos, and give the proper importance to each, in various
contexts.
We can easily see the differences between the two protagonists. While
Nelson Mandela builds his speech based on the principles he truly believes
in, Donald Trump builds his speech on simple but powerful words to create
the illusion that he has a valid point of view, even when he supports
racist/sexist practices. This characteristic of Trump is representative
throughout his entire career as a businessman. Even so, contrary to general
opinion, I believe that he can be seen as an intelligent man, to some extent,
precisely because of his ability to be as good as a spin doctor, presenting his
ideas as being as ethical and as well-intended as can be.
Thus, the greatest difference between the two lies in ethics, honour
and good intentions. The fact that Donald Trump won the elections does
not necessarily illustrate the fact that he managed to win the trust of the
majority. It rather shows that the $5 million invested in Cambridge
Analytica to analyse the data, in September only, was well spent.

58
 If we analyse the results of the interviews, we can see that an
overwhelming majority, i.e. seven out of eight respondents, would rather
choose Nelson Mandela over Donald Trump, while only one respondent
prefers Donald Trump, in virtue of the drastic measures he dared to
establish.
If we focus on what the majority asserts, we can notice that Nelson
Mandela is appreciated precisely for what Donald Trump lacks, i.e. for his
ethics, for the “stubbornness” specific to his fight against racial segregation,
for equal rights regardless of the underlying human aspect.
Five out of eight respondents claim that ethos is the most important
feature in a leader, while three believe that logos comes first. Even so, we
can see that two out of the three respondents who support this lean towards
ethos in subsequent questions.
When it comes to performance at work and the attitude of the boss,
opinions are divided equally. Some respondents claim that their work
would be affected by their boss’s attitude, while some believe that this
would not represent an issue. Even so, the latter answer comes in all cases
with an addition or a condition: “the boss should be professional/should
have common sense”, “the respondent should find joy in his work/should
do what he likes”.
For out of eight respondents claim that if they were given the
opportunity to be leaders, they would be ethical leaders. However, in this
category we can also include the majority of respondents, who, even if they
did not use the term “ethical”, used terms that revolve around this concept,
such as “balanced”, “fair” and “transparent”. Furthermore, the majority
claims that they would choose to be informed leaders, using attributes that
revolve around this term, such as “logical”, “calculated”, “rational” and
“professional/performance excellence”. These answers emphasize the idea
that ethos and logos go hand in hand when it comes to an ideal leader.

59
 The majority of respondents would be willing to change their beliefs
if evidence and arguments were presented to them, instead of suggested
hypotheses. Nevertheless, experts in the field are the primary choice in the
process of forming an opinion.
In light of both the content analysis and the answers provided by the
interviewees, I can strongly affirm that ethos is an indispensable attribute
in leaders, an attribute without which Nelson Mandela would have been
just another ordinary name, not a name that made history and still serves
as an example, even after his death. Without ethos, therefore, we cannot
speak of leaders, but only of managers, organizers and bosses.

Conclusions

The fact that my study draws on a previously defined theoretical

framework does not mean that I have eliminated the novelty factor. This
study was launched on certain premises that I wanted to demonstrate and
emphasise in my case studies by means of both discourse analysis and the
interview. I cannot possibly imagine this study will be used as a cornerstone
in business and beyond. This study can, however, be taken into
consideration in any company, any business. It is not an unknown situation
that people are more or less similar in certain aspects. Even diversity itself
is a conglomeration of similarities. It is well-known that information is
power, but I believe that we are still in the incipient phase in terms of ethical
practices and conferring importance to it when it comes to manager or
leaders, even if progress has been made in recent years in this branch. It is
also noteworthy that the interviewees value both ethos and logos, to more
or less the same extent. An employer, someone who runs a team or a group
of people, should, therefore, in the first place, ask themselves what they
hope to get from those people. If the answer, among other things, is respect,
admiration, to be a role model, to enjoy maximum performance, to be able
to work as a team, to solve problems in the most effective way, then they

60
should consider this study, or any other similar study in the field, which
emphasizes the importance of a criterion that has not been particularly
prominent in the past.
I must admit that it is a concise study that aims to highlight certain
configurations, certain aspects, more or less known. Its limits are obvious
when it comes to novelty, given the large number of previous studies on
the same topic. However, I have not been able to identify any other work
focusing on the antithesis between Nelson Mandela and Donald Trump. As
for the interview part, the guide was created entirely by me.
For better understanding, I would recommend an experiment carried
out by companies based on the information provided in this article.
It is said that employees are perhaps the most important part of
stakeholders because they are the most viable source of information that
inevitably makes contact with the outside world. In other words, an
employee who is satisfied at work represents an employee who adds value
to the company’s brand. By analogy, an employee will recommend the
company they work for and will bring a favourable reputation only if they
are satisfied with what they are experiencing at work.
I am not sure if the theoretical (not empirical) studies in this direction
are redundant or vital to establishing certain irrefutable bases in business
practices and beyond. On the one hand, I am convinced that all studies in
this regard are sufficient to demonstrate the effectiveness and need of ethos,
but on the other hand, I feel that this way of thinking is not shared by
everyone. This can only highlight the fact that this should not represent an
end, but just a means to an end.
Paradoxically, I consider this work to be a meaningful one, but at the
same time, just another work that succeeded (I would dare say) in
demonstrating something that is already known; the assimilation of new
opinions is never in vain, the practical meaning finally sealing some utopian

61
concepts, which on the surface are defined by fairness, ethics, and
perseverance. In a word: ethos.

Bibliography:

1. Ariely, D. (2012). Adevărul (cinstit) despre necinste. București: Publica.

2. Băiaș, C. (2015). Arealul criticismului rhetoric. Timișoara: Eurobit.
3. Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends and influence people. New York:
Pocket Books.
4. Eco, U. (2017). Cum ne construim dușmanul. București :Polirom.
5. Foss, S. K. (2009). Rhetorical Criticism. Exploration and Practice, 4th
edition. Illinois, Waveland: Long Grove.
6. Griffin, E. A. (1997). First Look at Communication Theory, 3rd edition.
New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
7. Nagel, T. (1979). Mortal Questions. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
8. Nietzsche, F. (2012). Dincolo de bine și de rău – Genealogia moralei
(Scoradeț, V., Ianoși, J. & Stanca, H.). București: Ideea Europeană.
9. Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why. New York: Penguin Group.
10. Wood, L. A. & Kroger, R. O. (2000). Doing Discourse Analysis: Methods
for Studying Action in Talk and Text. London: Sage Publications.
11. Wooffitt, R. (2005). Conversation Analysis & Discourse Analysis, A
Comparative and Critical Introduction. London: Sage publications.

Webography:

1. Anderson, C. (March 2016). TED`s secret to great public speaking –

TED Studio. www.ted.com. Available at:
https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_ted_s_secret_to_great_public_
speaking.

62
 2. Brown, G. (July 2009). Global ethic vs national interest– TEDGlobal
video. www.ted.com. Available at:
https://www.ted.com/talks/gordon_brown_global_ethic_vs_national_inter
est.
3. Torres, T. (October 2013). What it takes to be a great leader –
TED@BCG San Francisco. www.ted.com. Available at:
https://www.ted.com/talks/roselinde_torres_what_it_takes_to_be_a_great
_leader.
4. Treasure, J. (June 2013). How to speak so that people want to listen –
TEDGlobal video. www.ted.com. Available at:
https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how_to_speak_so_that_people
_want_to_listen.

Interview guide

1. When you choose to follow a leader, which of the three specific

characteristics matters most in this endeavor (ethos – ethical argumentation,
pathos – emotional argumentation, logos – logical argumentation > ethos –
credibility: intelligence, virtuous character, goodwill; pathos – emotions,
feelings, affects; logos – inductive examples, deductive reasoning)? There
are ten points that you need to distribute according to the importance each
characteristic has in your opinion.
2. Have you heard of Nelson Mandela? If so, what do you know about
him?
3. Have you heard of Donald Trump? If so, what do you know about
him?
4. Regarding questions 2 and 3, please choose one of the above-
mentioned leaders you would follow and mention three representative
features that made you choose him.

63
 5. Do you think that your work is influenced by your boss’s attitude?
If so, can you mention the features that should define a boss so that you
work to your full potential?
6. If you were a leader who has influence over many people, what
characteristics would you focus on? What kind of leader would you be?
(e.g. an ethical leader, a fair leader, an informed leader, an emotional leader,
etc.)
7. In your opinion, what could a leader do to gain credibility? What
criteria should they meet? (e.g. virtuousness, righteousness, intelligence,
emotion, being informed, etc.)
8. Regarding the previous question, once a leader has managed to
become credible, what could make them strengthen that credibility? (e.g.
maintaining the same practices, developing other features, improving what
they have already built, etc.)
9. Which characteristics of a leader would make you give up on your
own beliefs and follow theirs? (e.g. virtuousness, righteousness,
intelligence, emotion, empathy, being informed, etc.)
10. Do you think you become more susceptible when someone you
trust tries to convince you of something? Please motivate your answer.
11. If you don’t have a clear opinion on something, who would you
listen to and follow? (e.g. an expert’s opinion, a friend’s opinion, a
journalist’s opinion, media’s opinion, etc.)
12. In the decision-making process, do you settle for information
coming from a single source to form an opinion or would you rather listen
to both pros and cons from various sources? Please motivate your answer
and, in case you prefer to consult multiple sources, please mention some of
them in order of importance.

64
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Graphical Design
in Public Speaking
Marioara Bleoju

Abstract: This paper aims at presenting some new and futuristic insights into public
speaking from the point of view of the modern means of speech delivery and
contemporary graphic methods that help communicating new information. The new
graphic methods represent an easier way of communication for both the sender and the
receiver. This article discusses not only the methods and techniques of speech delivery,
but also their efficiency in capturing the public’s attention and in mastering new
information. At the same time, it takes into account the impact and the efficiency of a
well-built and structured speech that is delivered to a specific audience that needs action
and interaction, i.e. children. With the ever-growing evolution of technology, we can
talk about digital public speaking, which is the art of speaking using digital multimedia,
such as images, audio, and video. This paper is very useful in changing the perspective
on the role of public speaking and, in a more specific way, on the teaching methods in
the digitalised era.

Keywords: communication design, audience, graphic design, public speaking, speech

delivery

1. Introduction

Studies on the ability to attract the receivers’ attention during a speech

show that the sender can capture their attention more easily if, during

65
the delivery of the speech, the receivers’ senses are stimulated. In other
words, you need to simultaneously add to your speech the multimedia
transmission: images, sound, and motion. In the case of public speaking,
it is necessary to involve emotions and feelings as much as the context
allows.
Unlike traditional communication, the added visual support
relying on the graphic representation of the message has the specific
purpose of amplifying the impact of the message. Also, the
communication design involves the assignment of meanings to images
and the interpretation of the whole semantic ensemble as a part of a
communicational process that is more complex. Therefore, in the digital
era, the sender will not focus just on building and delivering the written
message, but also on the graphic representation of the new
communication. An image that resonates with the target audience can
elicit joy, appreciation, sadness, shock, fear, or anger. Through the
power of a visual message, the content is more likely to reach the
audience.

2. Research methods

This paper presents two research methods:

a) The comparative analysis was carried out by studying the
methods related to teaching the public speech in public schools vs
private schools, during a limited period of time of 45 minutes. The goal
of this comparative analysis was to find the usage of the graphic
methods of the public speech in different environments as well as the
obtained results.
Therefore, the following elements have been taken into
consideration:
• The level of interaction with the audience.
• The level of the receiver’s attention through the entire speech.
• The receiver’s reaction to the message delivered by speech.

66
b) The quantitative analysis was carried out by using a questionnaire
about the learning styles. The following elements have been taken into
consideration:
• The respondent’s expectations as far as the delivery methods are
concerned.
• The way in which we can assimilate the new information at an
individual level.

2.1 Methods and techniques of public speech delivery

The following example is part of a category of the comparative analysis

of public speech delivery methods, the result being the effect that the
message has on the receivers.
The first category of receivers, the children in the public schools,
had mastered the theoretical level of a set of information about feelings.
The second category experienced feelings with the help of the senses.
The method of delivery for the first category was the verbal message
accompanied by a worksheet.

Figure 1: Verbal message accompanied by a worksheet

The method of delivery for the second category was the verbal
message accompanied by a lesson with an object. This method refers to
the use of additional helping tools that can support the verbal message.
This is a widely used method in public speech delivery in the
educational field. The mostly used method, the cube, will be taken as an

67
example. A situation with many perspectives, allowing questions and a
complex approach of a subject. The following steps are recommended:
building a cube that has the following words written on the sides:
describe, compare, analyse, associate, apply, and argue. This method
helps both the receiver and the sender. In this example, the cube was
accompanied by coloured balls that represent the basic feelings. Every
receiver received a ball that represented a feeling and then proceeded to
analyse it with the cube as homework.

Figure 2: Coloured balls

The surprising element (a guest or a reward):

This method is considered as one of the most effective methods in
capturing the public’s attention and in maintaining the thrill if well-
prepared. Used mainly in the educational environment, it consists of the
introduction in the speech, at a very well-planned moment, of a secret
guest or of a reward. This method has a purpose and that is to give
meaning to the information during the speech. In my example, the
surprise had been announced at the beginning and was left for the end
with the goal of maintaining the children’s attention during the whole
lesson. At the end of the lesson, the audience enjoyed “Joy”, the main
character of the blockbuster movie Inside Out. “Joy” measured the
children’s joy in the room with the help of an emotional thermometer.

68
3. Visual support

3.1 Visual support as text for the public speech designed for children

As it has been presented at the beginning of this paper, the classical

approach involves worksheets with much more space for text. In what
follows, different modern perspectives on delivering the speech in an
active way will be presented.
Depending on the children’s age, when delivering the public
speech, nicely-coloured materials in the shape of a book or a brochure,
being represented by a funny character or a nice mascot, are
recommended. In this case, “Noni’s feelings” book series was used, the
main character being a unicorn that experiences different states that can
be presented to the children. The graphics are very modern, printed in
an A6 format, so that they could be easily handled by the children.

Figure 3: Noni’s feelings

There are many types of books or educational brochures for children,

depending on their age or their subject of interest. Some of these have an
interactive content using 3D, inks, or codes that children can decode
using their mobile phone (D’Vari & RoAne, 2005, p. 32).

69
3.2 Visual support based on a video

In the digital era, video materials have a significant meaning for the
public speech delivery. Video materials also have a big contribution on
specialised platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) or for production
companies (Disney, Pixar, Marvel). The short video materials that are
introduced in the public speech addressed to children can be the most
useful way to deliver a message that they could understand. The
association with the characters, the dynamics, or the graphics make the
video material a key component to the public speech in this digital era.
There are many categories of video materials that can be used in public
speaking with an educational goal depending on the topic chosen for
discussion -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIBlVNtzymU.

3.3 Visual support based on PowerPoint

When the sender turns to a media support for the presentation, s/he
usually uses PowerPoint, Prezi, or Keynote. But no matter what
programme s/he uses, there are some general rules that must be applied
in order to have a good material.

Figure 4: Slideshow 1

70
In what follows, the PowerPoint slide will be taken as an example.
For a clear delivery, that is easily understood from the first seconds,
there are a few important rules that need to be followed:

Conceptualising the message

It is important to mention the fact that the PowerPoint presentation
does not represent the whole message, but only a visual representation
of the message (Duarte, 2012, p. 9). As a matter of fact, the slides
represent the transposition of the written/verbal message into a concept.
The analogy in between the slides and the road signs are perfect for
understanding the replacement phenomenon in the public speech, with
several slides. To avoid the substitution of the speech with a
presentation, it is important to emphasise the fact that, during the
delivery of the speech, the attention is moved from the speaker to the
visual representation just for a few seconds. It is worth highlighting the
fact that it is not recommended to transpose the text message on slides,
but to conceptualise and transpose it into relevant images. The visual
concept could be graphically expressed through a popcorn machine
doing its thing. Nowadays, in the presentation, we can use symbols
instead of classical photographs.

71
 One idea, one slide
The text limitation involves the concentration of the message in one
representative image. The display of the items one by one, but also the
succession of the slides to show the idea bring rhythm and dynamics to
the public speech. The strategy is to focus the attention on a successive
way: image, words. Therefore, it is recommended to show the
constitutive elements one by one on the slide (Wilder, 2008, p. 46). A
piece of information that appears on the screen and is presented
afterwards in words is already expired! It is also useful to use
introductory elements on the slides as if directing a play in which the
actors enter, perform, and then leave the stage.

Colours, shapes, fonts

As far as the topic for discussion is concerned, the coordination of
visual elements in between them is made by using one or two shapes at
the most, complementary colors, and classical fonts. It is recommended
to use the same font in maximum three dimensions (for the title, the big
one, for the main idea, the medium one, and for the content, the normal
one). Finally, an important role is given to the movement of the images
through animations and transitions (Slideshare, 2011).

Figure 5: Slideshow 2

72
3.4 Visual support based on GIFs or funny illustrations

The GIF is a new, modern, and efficient way of capturing and

maintaining the children’s attention during the public speech. GIF
comes from the expression Graphics Interchange Format; it is made up
of 8 bits and has a blush wheel of 256 different shades. It is considered a
useful tool, especially in the public speech addressed to children. It has
a small format, the messages are conveyed and understood easily and,
more importantly, they are funny. GIFs can be made by two methods: a
series of static images that are continually repeated, creating the
movement impression or a short sequence of a video recording
repeating endlessly. GIFs can be used to mark a funny moment during
the speech. They are useful in the humoristic field of the speech
construction and delivery. Another way of expressing the funny
message can be done through the illustrations known as Meme. It
represents a concept or slogan that is quickly spread through the social
media. They are usually found as an image, GIF, or video.
And, finally, another useful tool is video animation. This is a short
material that can convey a powerful message. The video animation is a
project based on audio and visual communication, but also based on the
sequential design. The elements that build the animations can be the
scenes linked by chronological events. Animations are made by several
media elements structured by a specific time frame
(https://medium.com/designers-notebook/12-secrets-graphic-designers-
dont-want-you-to-know-4fb258fd0dd0 accessed April 6 2020).

4. Developed materials

Based on these methods, the following graphical design, useful when

working with children, was obtained.
The materials were created with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe
InDesign graphic editing programmes. While creating the “Adventures
in VIP Land” workbook and the mascot, a palette of primary colours,
predominantly yellow, that are attractive for children, was used. The

73
fonts are Futura book for text, Grinched for title and Jingle bells for
cover. The concept and the movements of the mascot were created on
the round structure.

Figure 7: Developed materials 2

74
 Figure 8: Developed materials 3

The created materials are intended to capture and maintain the

children's attention, the interaction with them but also to understand the
message sent in a dynamic and contemporary way.

Conclusions

In the digital age, people’s attention and focus have changed

considerably. After carrying out this analysis, it can be seen that the
visual content gets messages across faster. This happens because it is
easier for people to understand something that is represented visually.
Taking into account the analysis results, one can understand the
importance of the visual impact for public speaking by increasing the
interest for the message and the audience’s involvement in the message.
The communication design is one of the important communication
processes. This involves a creative and systematic plan to solve a
problem or to reach some objectives using images and symbols which,
at one point, may be a substitute for words. It is about the visual
communication and the esthetic expression of ideas and concepts using
many possible elements and graphical images.

75
The best practices for the graphical representation are the use of a soft
presentation tool as support for the verbal message, the
conceptualisation and representation of images, the use of video
materials or short animations to underline ideas, and the use of tint,
illustrations and diagrams in the learning process.

Bibliography

1. Benoit, P. (1997). Telling the Success Story: Acclaiming and

Disclaiming Discourse, Albany, New York: SUNY Press.
2. D’Vari, M. & RoAne, S. (2005). Building Buzz: How to Reach and
Impress Your Target Audience, Newburyport, Massachusetts: Career
Press.
3. Duarte, N. (2010). Guide to Persuasive Presentations, Brighton,
Massachusetts: Publisher Harvard Business School Press.
4. Duarte, N. (2008). Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great
Presentation, Boston, Massachusetts: Publisher O'Reilly Media.
5. Hobjila, A. (2012). Comunicare, discurs, Teatru delimitări teoretice și
deschideri aplicative, Colectia Universitaria, Iași : Institutul
European.
6. Suciu, L. (2014). În căutarea sensului de la analiza discursului la design-
ul comunicării, Cluj-Napoca : Casa Cărții de Știință ; Timișoara :
Orizonturi Universitare.
7. Wilder, C. (2008). Point, Click and Wow!: The Techniques and Habits of
Successful Presenters, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Webography
1. Agachii, S. (11 Noiembrie 2020). Discursul Parlamentar. Definiții și
Delimitări. www.diacronia.ro. Available at:
http://www.diacronia.ro/ro/indexing/details/A24969/pdf.
Accessed on 04.05.2020
2. Borțun, D. & Săvulescu, S. (2009). Analiza Discursului Public.
www.slideshare.net. Available at :

76
 https://www.slideshare.net/ralucaelenablanariu/analiza-
discursuluipublic. Accessed on 02.05.2020.
3. Cullop, J. (8, July 2016), The Difference Between Branding And
Visual Identity. www.blog.jcimarketing.com. Available at:
https://blog.jcimarketing.com/business-marketing/the-difference-
between-visual-identity-and-branding. Accessed on 28.03.2020.
4. Manolescu, G. (n.d.). Wittgentein, Jocurile de Limbaj, Teoremele de
Incompletitudine ale lui Gödel și Postmodernismul.
www.academia.edu. Available
at :https://www.academia.edu/11004666/WITTGENSTEIN_JOCU
RILE_DE_LIMBAJ_TEOREMELE_DE_INCOMPLETITUDINE_A
LE_LUI_G%C3%96DEL_%C5%9EI_POSTMODERNISMUL.
Accessed on 02.05.2020.
5. Manual de Identitate Vizuală. www.comunicare.ase.ro. Available at:
http://comunicare.ase.ro/Media/Default/documente/Manual%20I
dentitate%20Vizuala%20ASE.pdf. Accessed on 28.03.2020.
6. Metodologia Cercetării. www.cse.uaic.ro. Available at:
http://www.cse.uaic.ro/_fisiere/Documentare/Suporturi_curs/II_
Metodologia_cercetarii.pdf. Accessed on 02.05.2020.

77
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Digital Products for Children.

UX/UI Design
Isabela Lavinia Răpeși

Abstract: This paper aims at studying the educational applications for children used in
Timisoara and around the world to find out what children think about these products and
the impact they have on them, what they want from an application as well as to compare
their desires concerning the existing applications in order to create a good application for
them and to promote a bookstore. In order to do that, it was necessary to learn about
application design, multimedia content, information layout, children's experience in
applications and the manner in which they interact when using them, the device they are
available for, the age category to which they are addressed, whether they have certain
security options and whether they are related in the offline environment to a bookstore, toy
store, organisation, etc.

Keywords: digital products, user interface, user experience, educational

applications, mobile applications, children’s preferences, bookstore promotion.

78
1. Introduction

Children are increasingly using new technologies and need digital products
that are appropriate for their age group and fit their preferences. As Paul
Osborne (2020) stated, "A UX design that works perfectly for most people,
most of the time, may not work well for children at all". When using an
application, it is important that the user needs to be satisfied both visually
and through the experience provided, even if it is for children or adults.
The objectives of this research are to create an application as suitable
as possible for children, to promote reading among children, and to
promote the "Librarul cu papion" bookstore. The information about the
children in Timisoara was needed in order to respect their preferences when
an application could be proposed for them. Therefore, the children’s
preferences in terms of digital applications needed to be known in order to
find other features that could be useful in developing applications and their
correlation with the needs of the "Librarul cu papion" bookstore in order to
obtain a beneficial product both for children and for the bookstore.
Children differ from adults in dexterity and thinking, so they need
applications designed specifically for them. When making such
applications, certain characteristics must be taken into account: for children,
age groups vary more; children need immediate results; children need an
interface as simple as possible; children need a story to understand;
children act emotionally, not rationally; children need more
encouragement; children learn faster than adults; children do not need to
be loaded with a lot of information; children do not have the same dexterity
as adults, children's applications require special measures for safety;
advertising in children's applications should be avoided; younger children
cannot read or they read with difficulty; testing products for children is
more difficult, etc.

79
2. Research methods

In addition to researching the theory and consulting the existing studies, a

more detailed analysis is needed. For example, even if we found out
information about children's preferences in general, it is important to have
specific data about the children in Timisoara. In addition, it was important
to know what has worked and what needed to be improved on what has
been developed so far in the field of digital products for children. Therefore,
to meet the above objectives, two research methods - the comparative
analysis and the questionnaire - will be used.

2.1. Comparative Analysis

Following the analysis of ten educational applications, the focus was on

some characteristics in order to discover the children’s preferences. In order
to analyse the mobile educational applications for children, certain steps
have been followed, such as identifying the applications to be analysed (by
consulting certain sites and centralised answers after applying the
questionnaire and checking the number of downloads from Google Play
and the reviews), identifying common quantitative and qualitative
characteristics, creating an analysis grid and ticking the characteristics of
the respective applications, analysing the data and formulating the
conclusions. To meet the objectives of the paper, some of the popular
applications in the world and the applications used by the children in
Timisoara have been analysed.
This comparative analysis helps to identify the differences and
similarities between the applications and to find out how a similar
application for the bookstore can be made, as well as the application that
can be used by the children in Timisoara and some elements that would
make it equally attractive or even more attractive than the existing

80
applications. In the analysis grid, the applications used by the children in
Timisoara have been compared with the applications that are very popular
among the international children.
In the analysis of the educational applications, the following will be
highlighted - the subject of the applications, the age category, the number
of their downloads from Google Play, the reviews, the device for which they
have an available version, the safety measures it offers, whether they have
a website or a logo; the design features; the multimedia content; the way
the information is presented; the way of interacting; the assistant; whether
they have game features; whether they offer feedback; whether they have
offline connections; whether they are free or have ads; the languages in
which they have versions and whether children can connect with other
children when they are using them.

2.2. Quantitative Analysis

The questionnaire was applied in order to find out more about the children
in Timisoara, especially about those who use digital products and
educational applications. This questionnaire was applied before having
conducted the content analysis to find out which applications are the most
used in this category, in order to analyse them and observe the children’s
preferences.
The stages of conducting the survey were the following: selecting the
target audience, writing the questions and organising them, and presenting
the necessary information to those who received the questionnaire to
complete it. The questions have been ordered as follows: the first were the
questions about the children participating in the study, followed by
questions about the questionnaire, digital products for children, how they
use them and their experience with such products, and at the end I asked
the questions for parents, through whose answers they were to express their
opinion about these products and the effect they have on their children.

81
 Although the target audience is children from Timisoara aged
between 3 and 14 years old, the questionnaire was sent to parents and they
were asked to complete it with their children, requesting them to answer
certain questions and explaining to them what they have to do.
Some questions only needed to be answered by parents to find out
what they think about the educational applications and the other types of
applications that their children use. It would have been more difficult for
the children to complete it directly because some of them cannot read or
understand the questions, making it easier for them if their parents
explained to them what they were talking about. If the author had met these
children and asked them the questions, they might not have answered so
correctly or they might not have been able to answer some questions at all,
being intimidated by the presence of a stranger. It would have been much
harder to conduct this survey, especially for very young children.
Therefore, the questionnaire was applied to a sample of 60 people (60
parents with their children).

3. Results

When asked what their favorite colours were, most of the children (28.4%)
answered “light blue”, and 13.4% of the children chose purple as their
favourite colour. Surprisingly, black is among the favourite colours of 11.9%
of the children. Light green and pink were chosen as favourite colours by
19.4% of the children.
The most used device by children is the mobile phone (96.7%). The
children's favourite activities when using a mobile phone, laptop or tablet
include games (37.6%), applications for learning or acquiring certain skills
(31.7%), watching videos (25%) and using social networks (6.7%). More
than half of the children who responded to the study prefer interaction
through gestures and voice with applications (61.7%). When asked which

82
applications they prefer, 26.7% of the children chose educational
applications (with stories, mathematics, etc.).
35% of the children who answered the questionnaire preferred an
animal as an assistant. The analysis has also shown that many applications
have animated characters in the form of an animal as an assistant that helps
children. Most children (91.7%) want to be rewarded with virtual prizes
during the interaction with the application. Children get bored quickly,
which is why 95% of the children in Timisoara who were surveyed want
the level of difficulty of the application to be increased at some point.
Following the analysis of the 10 educational applications for children,
several common features that make the applications as enjoyable as
possible for those who use them have been found out. Educational
applications are found in various forms: applications with stories,
Romanian language, mathematics, languages, puzzles, colours, finding
differences, general culture, applications for schools, applications for
learning notions of history, chemistry, and others. A part of this analysis
will be presented as follows.
Table 1 - Analysis of educational applications for children
Povești
Învățarea
Name of the application Duolingo Infinite Lingokids pentru
numerelor
copii

Stories ✓ - - ✓ -
Romanian
- - - - -
language

Application Mathematics - - - - ✓
subject
Foreign
✓ ✓ ✓ - -
languages

Puzzle - ✓ - ✓ -

83
 Application
✓ - - - -
for schools

3-5 years - - ✓ ✓ ✓

6-8 years - ✓ ✓ ✓ -
Age category
9-11 years ✓ ✓ - - -

12-14 years ✓ ✓ - - -

Over Over Over Over Over

Downloads from Google Play
100,000,000 10,000 10,000,000 100,000 1,000,000

Google Play review (from 1 to 5) 4.7★ 4.6★ 4.6★ 4.7★ 4.6★

Number of reviews 9,000,000 294 68,000 2,000 4,000

Internet
✓ ✓ ✓ - -
necessity

External links
✓ - - - -
access

Settings access
without ✓ - ✓ - -
Safety password

Transactions
✓ - - - -
possibility

Ads ✓ - ✓ - -

Security code - ✓ - ✓ -

84
 Login
✓ ✓ - - -
required
Parental
- ✓ - ✓ -
control

Dominant
✓ ✓ ✓ - -
colours

Cold colours ✓ - ✓ ✓ ✓

Warm colours - - ✓ ✓ ✓

Neutral
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
colours
Design
Simple
✓ ✓ - ✓ ✓
interface

Menu ✓ - - - -

Template ✓ ✓ - ✓ -

Playful font - - - - ✓

The children's applications have many downloads, being widely used,

especially the educational ones, because parents consider them useful for
the children's development and are a good way to spend time having fun
and learning something new. The analysed applications have between
50,000 and 100,000,000 downloads in Google Play.
The children in Timisoara prefer applications for learning foreign
languages, applications with stories and applications with mathematics.
Internationally, language applications are less widely used. The children in
Timisoara prefer to have an animal as an assistant in the application, and
internationally, in addition to the animal, a boy or a girl is also preferred.

85
 Both in Timisoara and internationally, toys are promoted through
applications. Therefore, this promotion strategy was used in the case of
“Librarul cu papion” bookstore, to make children buy as many books as
possible and, of course, to read them, contributing thus to their
development.
The characteristics of the analysed applications match the answers to
the questionnaire perfectly. All the analysed applications have a version for
the phone or tablet, the interaction on this device being the one preferred
by the children in Timisoara who answered the questionnaire.
Among the analysed applications, Duolingo is the most appreciated
application, having the most downloads and being mentioned most often
in the answers to the questionnaire. This is an application that is frequently
used by the adults who want to learn a foreign language, so it is the only
one of the analysed applications that offers the possibility of transactions,
without the need for a code that only parents can enter. However, you need
an account and an e-mail to make transactions if you want the Premium
version without ads. Some applications offer the ability to access certain
stories or sections of the application without Internet access, but additional
features are required.
All the applications use neutral colours and do not make a difference
for boys or girls. Both cold and warm colours are used and all the interfaces
contain many colours. Many of the applications have simple interfaces,
with a few characters, to help children navigate as easily as possible.
However, very colourful applications with more complex graphics are also
appreciated.
Half of the analysed applications are free, others have only a version
that can be tested for a short period of time or for an indefinite period of
time, but with fewer interactions than the paid version. The children in
Timisoara prefer to use free applications. Half of the analysed applications
have parental control, allowing only parents to access certain parts of the

86
application and requiring the use of a password, or writing numbers /
letters, which young children who interact with the application cannot enter
only by touch.

4. Expert sources consulted

The topic of this paper is part of the graphic design field and, therefore,
many graphic design books, such as “The principles of Beautiful Web
Design” (Beaird, 2010), “Graphic Design Solutions” (Landa, 2014), “The
Elements of Graphic Design” (White, 2011) have been read. Books for the
UX/UI field, such as “UX for Beginners. A Crash Course in 100 Short
Lessons” (Marsh, 2015), “The Elements of User Experience” (Garett, 2011)
and many specialised articles such as “UX Design for Kids: Key Design
Considerations” (Osborne, 2020) have been consulted. The course notes in
Onița (2018) have been used; valuable information on graphic design and
UX/UI design and on how to create a UX/UI design project could be found
in these course notes.
These studies have been based only on recent and updated books. All
the books and online sources are not older than 10 years. Some of the books
are revised editions of the old books.

Conclusions

After having collected this information, a proposal for an educational

application that should be as suitable as possible for children will be made.
An example is the Webkinz desktop application that can be accessed by
children with a code they receive when they buy a toy. In the application,
the child discovers a world of animals, where s/he can play a variety of
games and participate in various activities with his/her friends, each with
the character of the purchased animal.
A similar idea for the “Librarul cu papion” bookstore in Timisoara
was believed to be a good idea in order to create a connection between the

87
offline (buying and reading books) and online (using an application for fun
and testing the knowledge learnt from books). Children who buy a book
from the bookstore will have access to the application and will be able to
answer questions from the stories they read, playing with their favourite
heroes and deepening the knowledge they have from reading the books.
Of course, children will be helped by their parents from the purchase
of the book to the use of the application. It will also be easy for the children
to use. In this way, they will be able to learn and have fun at the same time.
Currently, there are many applications that take away children's time and
make them have no time to learn or read. Therefore, it was thought that
designing this application will solve two things at the same time: the
children's desire to play and the promotion of reading among them.
This application also promotes "Librarul cu papion", a children's
bookstore opened last year, which already has quite a few followers and
organises a lot of events, but could develop even more in a short period of
time with the help of this application and could increase its popularity. In
addition to the well-known stories, bookstore-specific stories can be
introduced in the app, which are read for children who come to “Librarul
cu papion” or books that can be purchased from there. A message can be
displayed in the app urging children to buy the books from this bookstore.
They will then talk to their parents. It is important for them to know that
there is a place where they will find the book. Maybe they will buy the book,
so the bookstore sales will increase.
By conducting this research and by designing this educational
application several problems have been solved: children who spend a lot of
time on mobile phones will use them in a constructive way, children who
do not give too much importance to reading will be more motivated to read
in order to play with friends in the application, and even though most
applications have ads, children will now be able to use an application
without ads and without referring to external links. In addition, the

88
"Librarul cu papion" bookstore, which has recently opened and needs
advertising, will be promoted in a unique way.

Figure 1: Start page and Home page

Bibliography:

1. Beaird, J. (2010). The principles of Beautiful Web Design. 2nd edition.

Melbourne: SitePoint.
2. Garett, J. J. (2011). The Elements of User Experience. 2nd edition.
Berkeley: Peachpit,.
3. Hamm, M. (2014). Wireframing Essentilas. An introduction to user
experience design. Birmingham: Packt Publishing.
4. Landa, R (2014). Graphic Design Solution. Publisher : Cengage
Learning.

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 5. Marsh, J. (2015). UX for Beginners. A Crash Course in 100 Short Lessons.
Canada: O’Reilly Media.
6. Neil, T. (2014). Mobile Design Pattern Gallery: Ui Patterns for Mobile
Applications. 2nd edition. Sebastpool: O'Reilly Media.
7. Onița, M. (2018). Notițe de curs. www.cv.upt.ro.
8. Wells, J. (2009). Intuitive Color & Design: Adventures in Art Quilting.
New Hampshire: C&T Publishing.
9. White, A. (2011). The Elements of Graphic Design. New York: Allworth
Press.
10. Williams, R. (2015). The Non-designer’s Design Book. 4th edition. San
Francisco: Peachpit Press.

Webography:

1. Duolingo: Learn Languages Free. www.play.google.com. Available at:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duolingo.
Accessed on 02.05.2020.
2. Infinite English. www.play.google.com. Available at :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jernung.infinite.
eng, Accessed on 02.05.2020.
3. Learning numbers for kids. www.play.google.com. Available at :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bimiboo.number
s. Accessed on 02.05.2020.
4. Lingokids – A fun learning adventure. www.play.google.com.
Available at :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=es.monkimun.lingoki
ds. Accessed on 02.05.2020.
5. Osborne, P. (6, January 2020). UX Design for Kids: Key Design
Considerations. www.uxmatters.com. Available at:

90
 https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2020/01/ux-design-for-
kids-key-design-considerations.php. Accessed on 24.04.2020.
6. Povești pentru copii. www.play.google.com. Available at :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.kidsopia.stori
es.ro. Accessed on 02.05.2020.

91
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Aesthetic and Functional

Features of Book Cover Design
Adina-Lorena Smarandache

Abstract: The well-known saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” has become one that
most of us use frequently especially in our day-to-day life, reminding us to see past the
appearances and, perhaps, to help us become better human beings. As a matter of fact, when
it comes to actual books, this phrase could not be more wrong since most of the people do
judge a book by its cover. Even though the way a book cover looks may not be the final
purchasing decision, it is the first thing that people’s attention is drawn to. The aim of this
paper is to present the importance of a good cover for books, the design challenges that have
to be overcome when creating the final look of a book as well as the specific features that
need to be taken into account when designing a book, whether it is a printed version or an
e-book or audio-book, and the differences between them. On the other hand, the ways of
designing a book cover that will draw the buyers’ attention to, the ways of promoting a
book based on its design and, ultimately, the way of discovering how to design a book that
sells will also be explored.

Keywords: Books cover, design, design principles, impact on sales.

92
1. Introduction

The topic of the paper is book cover design, the features and the concepts
used, the importance of the message that is transmitted and finally, the
importance of a cover design in promoting a book and its success.
The first part presents both the general and the specific design
principles, which must be taken into consideration when designing a book
cover. If we were to look at the past, for hundreds of years, the use of the
book cover served as a protective device for pages usually made by hand
as well as for keeping the pages together by linking them. However,
although the cover was a practical object, it did not lack aesthetics, and was
always decorated as a tribute to the cultural authority. Even then, the
design of a book cover was considered, but it was not designed to market
the book itself.
In the second part, the paper will deal with a case study on how
successful a book is based on its cover, on the impact of its design on the
sales and popularity, but also on how well the cover contributes to the
general opinion on the book.

2. Research method

The cover of a book is practically its image, the first thing the reader sees,
and the impact it has on the public is a very important one in the purchase
decision; this, of course, leads to the product’s success. The cover plays a
major role in conveying the message and the style of the book, which can
be decisive for the buyers’ attention.
According to a study conducted by Self-Publishing School, 79% of the
respondents voted "yes" when asked if the design of a book cover plays a
decisive role in the decision to buy it (https://self-publishingschool.com/,

93
accessed on 3 May 2020). The conclusion in this case is that, in fact, we do
judge a book by its cover and it should be no secret these days.
Following this, the study has continued with the aspects of a book’s
cover that are important to take into consideration when designing one;
therefore, some information about a cover’s elements, dimensions and,
ultimately, design styles has been selected below.
The size of a book and, implicitly, its cover, play a role almost as
important as the chosen design. Depending on the style of a book, the genre
and the audience to which it is addressed, the book will have different sizes,
the most common example being the children's book, in which case the
square shape is chosen at the expense of rectangular dimensions - which are
also the most common. Of course, there are several standardised sizes that
are most often used, but they are by no means mandatory for a book and its
cover. However, one of the most popular alternatives is the classic A5 (148
x 210 mm) in the final version.
When it comes to the eBook design, there is no golden rule for cover
sizes, as online bookstores require different sizes and e-readers have
different resolutions. However, it is important to make sure that the right
size ratio is used, based on the requirements of online bookstores and high-
resolution images. One of the most popular platforms of this type is
Amazon, being very versatile in terms of cover design. Still, there are some
recommendations: “The ideal size of the eBook cover is a height: width ratio
of 1.6: 1. This means that for every 1,000 pixels in width, the image should
be 1,600 in height. To ensure the best image quality, especially on devices
with high-definition screens, the image height should be at least 2,500
pixels. The ideal dimensions for cover files are 2,560 x 1,600 pixels "
(https://kdp.amazon.com, accessed on 12 June 2020).
In the case of audiobooks, the most common format is 3,200px x
3,200px or a 1: 1 ratio (https://www.audible.com/blog/, accessed on 5 June
2020). Their covers are most often presented in a square shape like covers

94
of vinyl records - emphasising that they are in audio format, thus making
them easier to differentiate from eBooks.
The mandatory elements of a book cover are on the front cover, i.e. the
title of the book and the author’s name, and optionally a subtitle or
additional information such as “Bestselling author”. On the spine of the
book, the same information is usually included, sometimes even the
publication year, and on the back cover, there will be the blurb, some
information about the author and sometimes even reviews, but these are
again optional.
There are many definitions for the word design. Some examples
would be presented as follows: A discipline that aims at the aesthetic
harmonisation of the human environment; a way of presentation
(aesthetics) of an item or shape; the external appearance of an object
elaborated in accordance with the laws of aesthetics
(https://dexonline.ro/definitie/design, accessed on 10 May 2020). Design is
also defined as an arrangement of lines or shapes created to form a pattern
or decoration, according to Oxford Dictionary
(https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/design, accessed on 10 May 2020).
Because book cover design is a specific type of design, there are some
important aspects that need to be taken into consideration. Such aspects are
the use of images, the colours and, ultimately, the fonts. All these elements
play a very important role in transmitting the right message about the
book’s genre and main subject.
The popular saying “An image is worth a thousand words” seems to
be very true. Images, be they illustrations or photographs, are the most
easily recognised elements by the human mind, they are all around us every
day and this makes their interpretation much deeper and more detailed
than just shapes or words, both rationally and emotionally.
Colours are the ones that influence emotions in most cases, and
through colours we can most easily understand what the design conveys to

95
us. The colours used in a design offer a lot of versatility, but there are some
rules to keep in mind that ensure a design is both correct and aesthetic.
These rules apply to the manner in which the colours are combined and
associated and to the manner needed to find the balance between them.
Ultimately, the font family is one of the most important elements of a
book cover. The cover generally has a few words displayed (title, subtitle,
author's name), and they have a huge influence on the design and on the
reader as well. The fonts chosen for the book cover can improve our design
or make it fail (Nipane, 2018).

3. Results

The cover of a book can tell us a lot - consciously or unconsciously -, about

what we are going to read. For example, if the cover seems cheap or
unprofessional, it will convey that the author does not believe in his/her
work enough to invest in its image, concluding that if the publisher or
author himself/herself does not believe in the book enough to invest in a
qualitative cover, then why should the reader believe in the quality of the
words inside?
Commercial design, in its variety of directions and ideas, is reduced
to two fundamental principles: the design resembles another one or stands
out (Bache, 2018). In most cases, when it comes to the cover image of a book,
the first reaction is for the design to stand out, to be unique and "original"
because this idea equates "visibility" with "more sales", but this theory is not
always valid. In order not to compromise the book, when the cover is
created, some research has to be carried out first.
The cover of a book can decide to a very large extent whether it will
be bought or ignored by the readers. There are so many books on the market
these days and we can no longer rely solely on the quality or originality of
the content to make it successful (https://writingcooperative.com/, accessed
on 24 May 2020). When we are looking for a new reading, whether we go

96
to a traditional bookstore or to an online bookstore, there are so many
options that are presented to us at once that we cannot pay attention to all
at once; something draws our attention over another thing and this is the
cover design.
As an example of why the cover is a powerful tool for promoting a
book, Martin Lake's book series, The Lost King, and more precisely, the first
volume, Resistance, has been chosen. It was first launched in August 2013,
both in print and electronic format. In the image below (figure 1), the first
and second version of the cover launched on the market can be seen.

Figure 1: Before and after examples of the cover design for The Lost King: Resistance

97
 One of the reasons why this book was not successful at the time of the
launch is by no means that it is a bad or poorly-written book, but simply
because the cover is uninteresting. Its execution was certainly not done in a
professional editing programme, the fonts used are not at all attractive and
the photo used is of low resolution and poorly lit; also, there is no
prominent colour and practically nothing attracts the reader's attention.
The sales of the three books in the series tripled after changing the cover of the
first book. Two months later, the cover of the second and third books in the
series was changed to match the first, and sales doubled again, from 15
copies sold per month to 54 per month, and then to 96. These numbers
represent copies sold after the cover has been restored but without
advertising the book or the series of books at all. When the advertising
campaigns and the marketing strategies started, the sales took off - in June
2014, 559 copies were sold per month (https://www.creativindie.com/,
accessed on 30 May 2020). In the image below (figure 2), a record of monthly
sales between November 2013 and June 2014 can be seen.

Figure 2: The sales record of The Lost King series

In November 2013, before the cover of the first book was changed,
only 8 copies of the first volume were sold, followed by an increase in
December 2013 - when the volume with the second version of the cover was
published – of three times higher in sales. In the following months, sales

98
started to increase more and more, reaching a total of 356 copies in May
2014, and in June 2014 - when the series of the books also began to be
promoted, they were sold in a total of 559 copies. Thus, no matter how
important the cover of a book is in its success, we must not only rely on the
offered design, but also on the advertising and on the methods of
promoting a book.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be emphasised that both the aesthetic and the

functional features of a book cover, as complex as they are, contribute
greatly to the finished image of the book in general, as it has the power to
influence the book’s sales and success.
Following the notions presented, it can be stated that, indeed, the
cover of a book plays an extraordinarily important role both in terms of the
opinions that readers form about a book, and in the case of influencing their
decision to buy it. Also, from the design point of view, it is very important
to use elements that suggest and involve the genre of the book and its
subject, but also to make sure that the design has a clean and modern look
that aligns to the current trends.

Bibliography:

1. Bache, S. (2018) Author Guide to Cover Design, 1st edition. Shrewsbury:

Books Covered.
2. Marques, M. (2018). eBook Cover Design - A Case Study About
Improving Book Covers: A detail view of the design process for a eBook
series cover design, Mobile Library.
3. Nipane, A. (2018). Book Cover Design Formula, 1st edition, București:
Diginet.

99
 4. Smith, J. D. (2016). The Importance of Book Cover Design and Formatting.
Kingston, New York: Quinn Publications.

Webography:

1. Lowry, J. B. (18, May 2018). What Your Cover Says About Your
Book. www.writingcooperative.com. Available at:
https://writingcooperative.com/what-your-cover-says-about-your-
book-c353cd930acc. Accessed on 24.05.2020.
2. Murphy, D. (n.d.). Can a new book cover double sale? A case study
with 10 authors. www.creativeindie.com. Available at:
https://www.creativindie.com/can-a-new-book-cover-double-sales-
a-case-study-with-10-authors/. Accessed on 30.05.2020.
3. O’Connor, K. (n.d). Writing for Audio. www.audible.com. Available
at: https://www.audible.com/blog/. Accessed on 5.06.2020.
4. Oxford Dictionary. www.lexico.com. Available at:
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/design. Accessed on
10.05.2020.
5. Self-publish eBooks and paperbacks for free with Kindle Direct
Publishing, and reach millions of readers on Amazon.
www.kdp.amazon.com. Available at : https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US.
Accessed on 12.05.2020.
6. www.dexonline.ro. Available at : https://dexonline.ro/definitie/design.
Accessed on 10.05.2020.

100
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Face-to-face Communication
vs. Digital Communication.
Case Study: “Cărturești” and
“Două Bufnițe” Bookshops
Ramona-Valeria Giurgiuca

Abstract: In this paper, entitled “Face-to-face Communication vs. Digital

Communication. Case study: “Cărturești” and “Două Bufnițe” Bookshops”, we aim to
distinguish as clearly as possible between direct communication and its role in
establishing interpersonal relationships, and technology-mediated communication and
the specific elements it brings in interpersonal communication and information
transmission. In the first section, we focus on some theoretical aspects related to these
two types of communication, as well as on reviewing methodologies for communication
instrumentation, looking at the different tools for mediating the communication act
and at how each instrument influences the act of communication itself. We relied on
the study of organizational forms of communication, in terms of the communication
methods and digital media marketing strategies used by organizations and their
implications in achieving a communication and information relationship that benefits
the organization and its customers. In the case study, we analysed the communication
methods adopted in two organizations, namely, the bookshops ‘Cărturești’ and ‘Două
Bufnițe’, and how their methods of transmitting information to their clients can

101
influence the relationships established with them and the construction of their
organizational image.

Keywords: face-to-face communication, digital communication, local bookstore, chain

bookstore

1. Introduction

The main objective of the study is to analyse two bookstores,

“Cărturești” and “Două Bufnițe”, in order to see how the two
organizations use online and face-to-face communication. “Cărturești”,
as a bookseller well-established on the market, uses more digital media,
while “Două Bufnițe”, being a small neighborhood bookstore that
emphasizes community value, uses more face-to-face communication.
The idea of analyzing the above has also developed due to current
events – being in the midst of a pandemic and forced to move our work
online – and especially because young generations have lately become
more active online and less active in direct interaction. With this in mind,
we thought to come up with a proposal, at the end of the analysis, which
consists in developing online communication for the “Două Bufnițe”
bookstore.

2. Research methods

In the analysis, we used as a research method the analysis grid, adapted

to the type of communication for each bookstore, the grid that was
adapted to the online environment for the “Cărturești” bookstore and to
the communication itself for “Două Bufnițe” bookstore.
The analysis grid on the “Cărturești” bookstore showed that it uses
various online communication tools: the bookstore website, the blog, the
facebook page, the Instagram page, Twitter and the YouTube channel.
The most usual online communication tools used by “Cărturești” are its
website and its blog.

102
3. Results

The layout of the analysis grid:

1. Online communication channels (library website, Facebook page,
"About me" page, frequency of postings, content of postings)
2. Message content – targeting and identifying the topics covered (logo,
how the organization is perceived behind the text)
3. The verbal message (use of certain words, specific address,
subjectivity, language, etc.), where we find:
"Language
- Register (familiar/colloquial or elevated), everyday
language/specialized terms, professional jargon, and language
used: English/Romanian + English)
- Style
- Subjective marks/marks of objectivity (depending on whether
one or the other of these types of brands is present, conclusions
will be drawn on the social distance/with the public)
4.The visual message containing:
- Type of image
- The theme
- The presence of the organization's logo
5.Text-to-image association (attention-caching colours,
moving/sensitizing images, etc.)
6.Marketing strategies in the online environment.

Applying the Online Communication analysis grid for the “Cărturești”

bookstore:
- The “Cărturești” Website, with a pleasant design, with a
harmonious and wide range of vivid colors, complex graphics;
navigation of information is logical, consistent and well-designed.
There are unique animations for every theme or subject, which do
not bother the eye.

103
- The “Cărturești” Blog. On the website: https://Cărturești.ro/blog,
readers can find various valuable information such as: news, events,
contests, promotions, projects, selection section where articles with
various ideas and interviews are posted. As a design, they adopted a
much more simple style, where information is displayed in
chronological order. There is also the search button in the upper right
corner of the page, along with the other online communication tools
(Facebook, Twitter, YouTube).

104
- The “Cărturești” Facebook page Timisoara. After the analysis, we
noticed that the “Cărturești” page has 10.207 likes and 11.389
followers. Those who follow the page frequently interact in the
following ways: like, share, check-in or label in page posts. The
Facebook page was opened for the general public on November 22nd,
2000.
- The About Me Page or „About Us Page” (Romanian translation) is
very well organized; one can find information about the bookstore
address and the location on the map, the company's products, its
story and the prizes that the bookshop has received.

Conclusions

In this paper, we have defined and listed the essential concepts of direct
communication and media communication, as well as the forms of
communication, promotion techniques in the digital environment and
the marketing strategies of organizations.
The “Cărturești” bookstore uses several online communication
channels, such as: the bookstore website, the blog, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and YouTube, the most common among them being the
bookstore website, Facebook and the blog. With these online
communication tools, “Cărturești” achieves better networking with
customers or potential customers, with a very well-developed
marketing strategy.
From the analysis of the two bookstores, it appears that some
methods or techniques used by the “Cărturești” bookstore can be
borrowed and adapted by “Două Bufnițe”. Our suggestion to “Două
Bufnițe” so as to make the virtual bookstore more effective is to improve
its marketing strategies by adding annual promotions, organizing
children's book fairs where price reductions can be made and setting up
a customized loyalty program for loyal customers.

105
Bibliography:

1. Deetz, S. A. (2000). Leading Organizations through Transition:

Communication and Cultural Change, Kindle Edition.
2. Joannes, A. (2009). Comunicare prin imagini, Iași: Polirom.
3. Rieffel, R. (2008). Sociologia mass-media, Iași: Polirom.
4. Suciu, L. (2014). În căutarea sensului. De la analiza discursului la
design-ul comunicarii, Cluj Napoca : Casa Cărții de Știință.

Webography:

1. https://carturesti.ro/
2. https://carturesti.ro/blog

106
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

The Role of Online

Communication in the Start
and Growth
of a Micro-enterprise.
Case study: Dumblegift S.R.L.
Cristina Budea

Abstract: People’s preference for the online environment has become more and more
pronounced lately. Companies have adapted to this tendency by embracing new online
communication channels. This paper presents both the organic and the paid results of
the research conducted on the Facebook page and the Instagram profile of a micro-
enterprise. The research aims at highlighting the role of online communication
(through social media) as well as at arguing about the importance of its strategic
management, by showing how the business's promotion can be improved if certain
factors are taken into consideration. The study outlines that the best organic results are
obtained on Sundays, in the time frame 1200-1300 or 1800-2100, during weekdays, or
simply by using hashtags and other features (location, tags, etc.). Paid results are
always influenced by the ad spend, but targeting also plays an important part. This
paper is meant to serve as a starting point for the future strategy of the micro-
enterprise, but it might also be useful to other small business owners and/or

107
organisations that target a similar audience and want to find a more effective social
media approach.

Keywords: online communication; social media; micro-enterprise; strategic

communication; organic reach; paid reach.

1. Introduction

The new technologies have facilitated the rapid development of the

online environment, bringing significant changes in communication.
Both individual users and organisations have learnt to adapt to the high-
speed digital world. From websites (which are meant for content
sharing) to social media (interactive technologies that allow
instantaneous communication), it was only a step. But now it seems like
there is more to come. These new platforms are constantly evolving,
making it hard to think about what they will look like after each
upgrade.
The digital revolution has radically changed the rules of the game
in the business world. Until recently, a company’s external
communication used to be focused on media relations. Nowadays, social
media allow you to get your message to reach the audience directly. This
way, companies can avoid message distortion, gaining full control over
the shape, the content, and the direction of transmission (Cismaru, 2015,
p. 29). But that is not all. Companies must also keep an eye on the
immediate reactions of their customers, since social media contributed
to a shift towards the two-way dialogue. The new technologies, based
on interaction, opened the door for a two-way communication, in which
feedback and instantaneity play a big part (Săvulescu, 2016, p. 64).
With this freedom of communication in the online space, there
comes a need for continuous monitoring. The consequences are hard or
impossible to prevent. Even though messages are no longer shaped by
the media, people have become so sensitive that everything might
offend someone. It is therefore very important to pay close attention to

108
any distortion of organisational messages that may occur at an
individual level. Companies must learn how to handle (and to address)
negative comments and complaints on social media. Simply deleting
them will not do the work. Quite the contrary, it will make people even
more furious, damaging the company’s reputation and pushing
customers away. A social media response strategy is very much needed
for both preventing and overcoming a scandal.
The rapid evolution of technology has affected the entire business
environment, but micro-enterprises benefit most from the changes.
There are a lot of new opportunities for small businesses and some
entrepreneurs have started to notice it. In the last couple of years, micro-
enterprises in Romania have recorded a positive business growth
(Forbes România, 2019). In a country that encourages entrepreneurship,
without allocating substantial funding for people who want to start a
business, the number of these enterprises will increase due to their size.
Micro-enterprises (also known as micro-businesses) are the smallest
businesses by number of employees, turnover and share capital
(Clasificarea întreprinderilor, 2012).
Since small business owners usually do not have a lot of money
and do not get much help from the state, online communication can be
a life saver. Although some platforms (such as websites) cost quite a lot
to develop, maintain and optimise, others (like social media) are free of
charge (unless you want to invest in ads).
Therefore, the topic addressed in this paper is a very current one,
given the evolution of technology. By integrating online communication
into their strategy, companies (especially small ones) benefit from the
numerous advantages brought on by the digital revolution.
This study aims to investigate the relationship between the results
obtained by a micro-enterprise on social media and the factors that could
have affected these results, differentiating between the organic and the
paid impact.

109
2. Research methods

The research has been conducted on two of the most popular social
media networks at the moment, Facebook and Instagram, by analysing
the content (text, graphics, images, audio, video) of the posts as well as
some of the key performance indicators (KPIs), for a period of three
months (8 December 2019 – 8 March 2020). The posts are aimed at a
target audience made up of residents of Timișoara, aged 25-50, with high
and above-average earnings, who have very little free time (less than 3-
4 hours/working day) and/or do not enjoy buying and wrapping
presents.
The methods used for this research are content analysis and
statistical analysis. Gunter (2000) defined content analysis as “a method
of studying and analysing communication in a systematic, objective and
quantifiable way, for the purpose of measuring variables”. While
content analysis provides qualitative information, statistical analysis
shows what happened by using past data from the platforms’ insights.
Combined, the two methods are used for understanding audience
preferences.
The KPIs included in the research are post reach and engagement.
Reach measures the number of unique people (accounts) who saw the
post within a certain amount of time (how many people it has reached).
Engagement refers to the number of actions performed by users within
a certain amount of time on a post (likes, shares, comments, clicks, etc.)
(Ciorei, 2017). The factors affecting the results on social media can be the
day, the date and the hour when the post was shared, the features that
were used (location, tags, hashtags, etc.) and last, but not least, the
particularity of the content.

3. Results

Organic results

For a better understanding of the problem, a sample of the summarised

data (the last three weeks of February 2020) will be analysed; the period

110
has been chosen in order to avoid addressing the fluctuations caused by
an increase in the number of followers or by the Holiday Season.

Facebook results (10-29 February 2020)

250
227 217
198
200 183
174 174
161 162
149
150 122

100

40
50 20 28 24 20 21 21 26
18 11
0
10-Feb
11-Feb
12-Feb
13-Feb
14-Feb
15-Feb
16-Feb
17-Feb
18-Feb
19-Feb
20-Feb
21-Feb
22-Feb
23-Feb
24-Feb
25-Feb
26-Feb
27-Feb
28-Feb
29-Feb
Reach Engagement

Fig. 1 Post reach and engagement on Facebook (10-29 February 2020)

Hourly chart
19:05 19:22 20:01 20:30
18:23 18:20
15:50
12:09 12:34
10:47

10 feb. 12 feb. 14 feb. 16 feb. 18 feb. 19 feb. 22 feb. 24 feb. 26 feb. 29 feb.

Fig. 2 Hourly chart for Facebook posts (10-29 February 2020)

On Facebook, there are no significant variations regarding the
engagement. The maximum value (40) was reached on 14 February. The
post matches the theme of the day and has all the potential to visually
attract social media scrollers. The image shows a heart-shaped chocolate
in front of the Eiffel Tower and calls for a “Happy Valentine’s Day”.

111
 As for the reach, results prove that mainstream holidays can be a
good time to share content on Facebook. That same Valentine’s Day post
scored the highest reach: 227 unique people. Sundays are also an option.
The second highest reach out of this three-week period was on a Sunday
(16 February), probably because it is officially a free day and people have
more spare time.
As seen in Fig. 1, the reach line forms two positive curvatures, one
with the maximum value on 14 February and another with the
maximum value on 26 February. These two posts were both shared in
the time frame 1200-1300, which is known to be recommended by
specialists as it corresponds to the lunch break (on working days). If we
take a look at the other hours and keep in mind the two curvatures, it is
safe to say that the posts with good results were shared after six o'clock
in the afternoon (1800): 18:20 - reach 183, 19:05 - reach 198, 19:22 - reach
174, 20:30 - reach 161. Apparently, the best time seems to be around 1900,
as the reach slowly drops toward evening.

Instagram results (8 December 2019 - 8 March 2020)

500

400

300

200

100

0
9-Dec 16-Dec23-Dec30-Dec 6-Jan 13-Jan 20-Jan 27-Jan 3-Feb 10-Feb17-Feb24-Feb 2-Mar

Reach Engagement

Fig. 3 Post reach and engagement on Instagram (8 December 2019 – 8 March 2020)

Referring to the same indicators (post reach and engagement), this

time on Instagram, we notice that the two have developed quite

112
differently. In order not to lose sight of the bigger picture, not only a
sample (as above), but the summarised data of the whole period (8
December 2019 – 8 March 2020) will be analysed.
The slight increase in the engagement seems pretty logical due to
the evolution of the Facebook page, although it is somehow slow (it
becomes noticeable only in February - March). The reach, on the other
hand, has had more of a chaotic evolution. Two things stand out: a much
stronger increase at the beginning of March because of a giveaway
hosted by Dumblegift with the occasion of the International Women's
Day and the maximum value of the reach (436) on 10 January 2020. The
insights of the post which scored this reach show that out of 467
impressions (the total number of times a post has been displayed), 369
come from hashtags.
Other factors that affect the results on Instagram are the features
used for every post, such as tagging and location, the number of
followers and, of course, the content. As a platform of photo-sharing, the
main focus is on the visuals. The quality of the pictures, the brightness,
the saturation, all of these influence the organic results, but the extent to
which every single one of them impacts the reach and the engagement
remains uncertain. For my target audience, there is a tendency, though,
to engage more with high quality and warm-tone images.

Paid results

It should come as no surprise that the paid reach is influenced by the ad

spend, but targeting also plays an important part. What matters is not
just how many people your ad reaches, but also what kind of people end
up seeing it. In order to reach the target audience, the micro-business
has narrowed its focus to people located in Timișoara, aged 20-55.
Depending on each paid post, some of the targeting criteria were:
• interests in the business’s field of activity: gifts, gift
wrapping, Christmas gifts, personalised gifts, birthday gifts,
home delivery;

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 •general interests: family, friends, birthdays, holidays;
particular interests: (for instance) cosmetics, clothes,
fashion, beauty;
• interests in: small businesses, entrepreneurship, local
businesses.
Other targeting criteria also included:
• the workplace (e.g. employees of a big corporation);
• upcoming birthdays/anniversaries (e.g. friends/close
friends of people with birthdays within a week/month).

Paid reach on Facebook

(8 December 2019 - 8 March 2020)
6000 5348

4000
1665 1863
2000 1050 1389 1125
848
lei22 lei17 lei17 lei35 lei17 lei43 lei31
0
09 dec. 11 dec. 13 dec. 16 dec. 28 dec. 06 jan. 25 jan.

Reach (paid)

Fig. 4 Reach + amount spent for every paid post on Facebook (8 December 2019 – 8 March 2020)

During the three-month period (8 December 2019 – 8 March 2020),

there has been a total of seven boosted posts on Facebook, all with a
duration of 1-2 days. The average amount of money spent in a day was
16.64 lei. 43 lei (21.50 lei/day) was the largest amount spent by the micro-
enterprise for an ad and it proved to be effective, since the post scored
the highest reach. Anyway, there seems to be more to it. Given the fact
that the differences in the amounts spent are hardly so big, it was
probably the targeting that influenced the results. The post consists of
an image with the quote “Eat cake. It’s somebody’s birthday
somewhere”, which is why birthday-related targeting criteria were

114
used. Except for this specific post, no definite conclusions could be
drawn from juggling different criteria on Facebook.

Paid reach on Instagram

(8 December 2019 - 8 March 2020)
8000
5688 5902
6000 5096
3943
4000
2112 1870
2000 1294 1230
lei16 lei20 lei14 lei36 lei18 lei28 lei14 lei56
0
8-Dec 11-Dec 13-Dec 16-Dec 28-Dec 6-Jan 8-Jan 1-Mar

Reach (paid)

Fig. 5 Reach + amount spent for every paid post on Instagram (8 December 2019 – 8 March
2020)

The best results on Instagram are obviously obtained by the posts

with the highest ad spend. Out of these, however, the smallest amount
(28 lei) brought the highest reach (5902). This is the same post as the one
on Facebook, which means that the targeting criteria were very similar.
Therefore, it can be assumed that (a) this kind of content has a tendency
to go viral, (b) the targeting was done right or (c) both.
Finally, the post, dated 1 March, brought the best long-term results.
It was used to announce the giveaway for the International Women's
Day, hosted by Dumblegift. In order to participate, people had to follow
the business’s account and to tag other users in the comments. The post
had a budget of 56 lei, distributed over 4 consecutive days. Because the
prize was a fragrance for women, some of the targeting criteria were
interests in self-care, cosmetics, perfumes, make-up, perfumery,
shopping, Sephora, etc. The strategy has worked: the contest generated
nearly 1,000 entries, boosting the number of followers for the micro-
enterprise and attracting an average number of 900 profile visits in
merely a couple of days.

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Expert sources consulted

The topic addressed in this paper is part of the online communication

field, but it also touches on digital marketing (mostly social media
marketing).
According to Cismaru, “online social networks are online
communication platforms which use software instruments, but work in
a similar way as natural social networks, based on direct interpersonal
contacts” (2015, pp. 58-59). Social media are seen by specialists as
“extremely profitable promotion tools, but also as means through which
companies can interact with their customers, offering assistance”
(Sălcudean, 2015, p. 135). Social media is a collective term for websites
and applications that enable users to create, post, and share their own
content or the content created by others. Out of the many types, a few
can be mentioned, such as blogging (Blogger), social networking
(Facebook), photo sharing (Instagram), video sharing (YouTube),
microblogging (Twitter), etc.
Since the research was conducted on a micro-enterprise, it is only
fair to clarify this term. In Romania, a micro-enterprise is a business that,
by the end of the previous fiscal year, has had a turnover of maximum
1,000,000 euros, a share capital not owned by the state or by
administrative territorial units and is not in dissolution, followed by
liquidation (Codul fiscal actualizat, 2020).
For such small businesses, social media (as part of their online
communication strategy) present numerous advantages, the most
significant of which might be the reduced costs.

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Conclusion

Not only should companies be aware of the importance of online

communication and the changes that have occurred with it, but they
must also understand the difficulty of managing these new (online)
channels. It is highly required, especially for small businesses, to
conduct tests on social media platforms, in order to see which factors
affect their results most and how they can make use of them. It would
be a shame not to take advantage of the many benefits brought by the
online environment for both communication (direct, two-way
communication, feedback, instantaneity, diversified content, interaction,
etc.) and marketing (e-mail marketing, content marketing, social media
marketing, pay per click, etc.) (Alexander, 2020).
Following the study, it can be agreed that some factors do indeed
influence the post reach and the engagement on social media. The
results, however, are only conclusive for the micro-enterprise in
question. Unfortunately, there are no general rules, mainly because
every company addresses a different audience and needs to see what
works best for theirs. The results confirmed some of the theories, such
as the ones claiming that the best time to post is at noon or on weekends,
but invalidated others, such as those which argue that the peak audience
time is around 2100 (the peak audience time for Dumblegift was around
1900) (Orel, 2020).
Nowadays, we talk about strategic communication, defined as “the
intentional use of communication, by an organisation, for the purpose of
fulfilling its mission” (Hallahan, Holtzhausen, van Ruler, Vercic &
Sriramesh, 2007). Therefore, it is out of the question not to use such
promising channels. Efficiently managing these new online platforms
becomes a must for the micro-enterprises that want to survive on the
market.

117
Bibliography:

1. Cismaru, D.-M. (2015). Managementul reputației în mediul online.

București: Tritonic.
2. Gunter, B. (2000). Media Research Methods: Measuring Audiences,
Reactions and Impact, London: Sage.
3. Gherheș, V., Obrad, C., (2016). The Role and Importance of
Facebook among Students in Timișoara, in Professional
Communication and Translation Studies, 9 / 2016, pp. 21-26
4. Sălcudean, M. (2015). New media, social media și jurnalismul actual.
București: Tritonic.
5. Săvulescu, R. (2016). Brand-urile în era web 2.0. Conținutul generat
de consumatori. București: Tritonic.

Webography:

1. Alexander, L. (2, November 2020). The Who, What, Why & How
of Digital Marketing. www.blog.hubspot.com. Available at :
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-digital-
marketing?fbclid=IwAR0EftMmNWE3rtzqxgb8IyQiZn5U6fSgtu
Ifuwz3CVG-ge3gQ4pM-oGkULQ. Accessed on 07.06.2020.
2. Ciorei, C. (17, August 2017). Reach vs Engagement.
www.rogalskidamaschin.ro. Available at:
https://www.rogalskidamaschin.ro/uncategorized/reach-vs-
engagement/. Accessed on 07.06.2002.
3. Clasificarea întreprinderilor. www.antreprenor.su. Available at :
http://www.antreprenor.su/2012/03/clasificarea-
intreprinderilor.html.%20Accessed%20on%2007.06.2020.
Accessed on 07.06.2020.
4. Codul Fiscal actualizat (2020). ART. 47 - Definiția
microîntreprinderii. www.noulcodfiscal.ro. Available at :
https://www.noulcodfiscal.ro/titlu-3/articol-47.html. Accessed on
07.06.2020.

118
5. Hallahan, K., Holtzhausen, D., van Ruler, B., Vercic, D. &
Sriramesh, K. (5, Decembre 2007). Defining Strategic
Communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication.
Vol. 1, pp. 3-35. DOI: 10.1080/15531180701285244.
6. Orel, A. (n.d.) Când este mai bine să postezi pe Facebook în 2020?
La ce oră? În ce zi?. www.blog-seo.ro. Available at :
http://www.blog-seo.ro/2019/12/14/cand-anume-e-mai-bine-sa-
postezi-pe-facebook/. Accessed at 07.06.2020.
7. Studiu Instant Factoring: Peste 70% din volumul total de
activitate al microîntreprinderilor din România este realizat de
firmele cu o cifră de afaceri de până în 250.000 euro. www.forbes.ro.
Available at: https://www.forbes.ro/studiu-instant-factoring-
peste-70-din-volumul-total-de-activitate-al-
microintreprinderilor-din-romania-este-realizat-de-firmele-cu-o-
cifra-de-afaceri-de-pana-250-000-euro-146626. Accessed on
07.06.2020.

119
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Online Communication
Channels in a Company.
Case study: Bosch Service
Solutions
Alexandra Diana Rafila

Abstract: In the article “Online Communication Channels in a Company. Case study:

Bosch Service Solutions”, we highlight the communication platforms within the IT Service
Desk project, the quality and transmission of information. In many companies, a lot of tools
have been analyzed and made available for people to communicate with each other. At the
moment, there is a need for efficiency and speed in our daily interactions. Effective
communication enables one to send a clear message as soon as possible. Mastering effective
business communication has a positive impact on the management of professional
relationships and organizational behavior. More precisely, to meet the need for
communication and to make human interaction more effective and simple, organizations
provide various platforms where employees can share ideas, debate different topics,
communicate with colleagues, including those from other departments in the organization.
There are many ways of communicating and transmitting information online at Bosch and
each has its own specificities. The way in which messages or information are sent is

120
extremely important. Either in writing or orally, we must consider the type of channel
available. Various platforms and programs are available within the IT Service Desk project,
so that employees can communicate with their colleagues, solve the problems faced by users,
provide feedback, etc.

Keywords: communication, company, chat, information, effectiveness.

1. Introduction

The purpose of our work is to identify the main communication channels

in a company, the frequency of their usage and the level of communication
effectiveness. Analysing the various types of channels, each with its own
characteristics, we were able to find out how specific information is
transferred and how a message is sent from one colleague to another.
Communication channels are tools used by companies to establish a
relationship with their customers or with their employees, and to
communicate with their public. They improve the experience between the
customer and the brand, stimulating marketing, generating company
recognition and sales impact.
Communication channels create a bridge between the firm and its
public. Therefore, knowing what they are and how they work, the chosen
communication channels are essential in attracting the right customer for
the brand, because this will be the foundation for the digital marketing
strategy. There is no specific channel that brings big results. Everything
depends on the business and the customer profile that will take shape over
time. But since there are multiple communication channels, one should
offer customers multiple ways to reach the company.
The following are online communication channels suitable for a
company: Social media, blogs, email marketing, support, videos, forums, a

121
channel for complaints. Depending on the company, these channels may
be aimed at the customers or the employees of the company.

2. Research method

As the co-author of this paper has been working at the same company for
almost 4 years, she is extremely familiar with its channels and she was able
to make a comprehensive analysis of each channel.
As a research method, we have chosen the interview. Interviews can
be defined as a qualitative research technique which involves “conducting
intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to
explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program or situation”
(Boyce, 2016).
The interview consists of 19 open questions and it was administered
to 35 employees at Bosch Service Solutions.
Based on the respondents’ answers, we received concrete examples
and learned more about their opinion. We encouraged the interviewees to
go into detail as far as possible, allowing them to be as free and honest as
possible in their expression, so that we can get an image as close as possible
to the truth.
As for the location of the interview, it was carried out online, on the
well-known platform Skype for Business. We would have liked to take the
interview face-to face at the company, but because of the 2020 pandemic,
we had to rely on an online channel.
The interview lasted 25-30 minutes. Some sessions lasted even longer,
because the respondents wanted to give us concrete examples, and even
ideas for improving some communication channels we use daily but which
are frequently avoided due to flaws. The interviews spread over 2 weeks.
The respondents selected for the interview are colleagues with whom the
co-author of the paper interacts every day, which led to a more informal

122
relationship between the two sides as well as to more honesty and lack of
any constraints on the part of the interviewees.

3. Results

Based on the respondents’ answers, we were able to analyze the following

issues: general problems related to the effectiveness of communication
when they send messages, how they manage to understand a message,
differences in communication between the virtual and the real-life
environment, the communication channels they frequently use, etc.
As for the preferred chat channel, 77,1% of respondents chose Skype,
whereas only 22,9% chose Teams (Fig. 1). The frequency of use of the chosen
channels was as follows: 25 out of 35 interviewees said “always”, while the
rest used 9 or less on a scale from 1 to 10.

Fig.1 – Favorite chat channel

When it comes to sharing important information to a large group (+50
users), most respondents said that they shared information through email,
via Outlook. When someone is working from home, urgent information or

123
very important information should be sent verbally, in Skype meetings.
Under normal working conditions (at the office), this type of information is
best transmitted orally in a meeting.
In what concerns giving feedback, all the respondents considered it
better to submit important information online (via Feedback tracker, e-mail
or chat), in order to have either a sample of what is said or a timeline of
facts. (fig. 2)

Fig. 2 – Preferred way to give feedback

When it comes to solving technical problems or explaining solutions,

respondents chose several tools that are used every day. Whether it is from
a customer or a colleague, the problem or the request must be solved in the
most effective way. The graph below shows what colleagues use to solve
various incidents. Agents who interact with customers benefit from the
diversity of intranet platforms and numerous programs that can make their
work easier, but everything depends on them when it comes to solving a
request. Accordingly, they can choose from links, screenshots, graphs, etc.
to solve the issue in the best and quickest way.

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Conclusions

It was essential for us to make a difference between the two types of

communication in an organization: online channels and face-to-face
communication.
Each program we use is intended to make communication more
effective and to provide various tools that can facilitate good and complex
communication (image sharing, screen sharing, various documents such as
MS Office documents, (video) calls, etc.). The question was: How do you
explain a solution to a colleague or a customer? (fig.3)

Fig. 3 – Tools to solve problems

As for the results of the interview, we have noticed that several

respondents (or all, in some cases), share the same opinion about the same
programs and each is motivated to be as productive and effective as
possible. The message should be sent as simply as possible, whatever the
problem, by avoiding technical vocabulary, so that the other person can

125
understand it easily. Open communication is also effective. If people can
talk openly to each other and in a calm way, without differences, then
communication is as effective. For the message to be understood there must
be no haste in speech and the vocabulary used should be general.
A major result that we have found was the following. Although the
respondents hold different project positions (some 1st-level agents, some
2nd-level and some team leaders), they have similar interests in
communication. They have chosen the same tools in order to solve
problems and they try to explain a certain problem in the same way: using
as many tools as they can, so that the other person can fully and effectively
solve their issue. In the end, we can say that they all want the same thing:
to be understood.
Consequently, the internal online communication channels available
in a company should be used to their maximum potential due to the
significant impact they have on how people create privacy in conversations.
Online communication is more and more popular nowadays, it is
encouraged and makes it easier for everyone to move online, but people
need to interact and will still tend to use face-to-face communication.

Webography:

1. Boyce, C. & Neale, P. (2006). Conducting in-depth Interviews: A

Guide for Designing and Conducting In-Depth Interviews. Pathfinder
International Tool Series. Available online at:
http://www2.pathfinder.org/site/DocServer/m_e_tool_series_indept
h_interviews.pdf.
2. Effective Communication – Process. www.tutorialspoint.com.
Available at:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/effective_communication/effective
_communication_process.htm. Accessed on 13.06.2020.

126
3. Ricigliano, D. (2, May 2019). Face-to-Face vs. Online Communication.
www.semgeeks.com. Available at:
https://semgeeks.com/empower/face-face-vs-online-
communication/. Accessed on 10.06.2020.
4. Santos D. (3, June 2019). 7 most used communication channels.
www.blog.hotmart.com. Available at:
https://blog.hotmart.com/en/communication-channels/. Accessed on
11.06.2020.

127
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Online Promotion Strategies

Used by Iulius Town
Timișoara
Georgiana - Maria Sîrca

Abstract: The starting point of this paperwork lies in the desire to study the way
online platforms are used by the largest business, retail and entertainment hubs in
western Romania. Events are per definition limited in time and space. However, the
social interaction taking place before, during and after the events can continue online.
As the online environment seems to become a priority for promoting different activities,
our intention is to analyse the ways in which such a business retail company is
promoted online, as well as how it interacts with the audience, in an attempt to attract
new customers. The paper “Online Promotion Strategies Used by Iulius Town
Timișoara” aims to develop a framework for online interaction strategies, resulting
from several comparisons made at various periods of time. We will highlight a content
analysis of social platforms, as well as a qualitative analysis by designing an interview
addressed to the marketing specialists working at various companies.

Keywords: events, strategies, online platforms, social media

1. Introduction

The main objective of this paper is to illustrate the online promotion of

a mixed project, an urban regeneration project for Timișoara. Given the

128
fact that nowadays people spend a lot of time online, the information
distributed by a retail business with the help of the internet engages the
online community to interact more, involving them in the company’s
activities. People put their trust in a company, so online promotion is a
very important element which can help the company gain new
customers. Moreover, there are interactions between event attendees
who have met during an event and who maintain their friendship
online, the photographs from the event are shared and commented on,
sometimes publicly, for example on the Facebook page of the event. Our
case study shows the way in which the image of such a large business,
retail and entertainment hub in the Western region is promoted to the
community.

2. Research method

As research methods, we have chosen monitoring the online

communication tools used by Iulius Town Timișoara, the content
analysis of their posts on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube, and the
content analysis of the online press, as well as an interview with an
employee who works at Iulius Town, in the field of marketing.
For this research, two periods of time have been chosen. We will
determine the presence of Iulius Town on online platforms by
comparing two different months: August 2019 and April 2020. Located
in the center of Timișoara, Iulius Town is the most important real estate
project inaugurated in 2019 on the Romanian market.
Content analysis is useful to see how traditional methods are
transferred to the online environment, how often the social media
platforms are used by such a company as the Iulius group, the frequency
of their posts, the number of followers, the number of likes and also the
number of comments.
The interview is a qualitative research tool that we will use to
obtain meaningful information from someone working at Iulius Town
Timișoara and will provide more details about the company’s
promotion strategy. Interviews are the most common and at the same

129
time the most valuable qualitative method of market research. They
involve a conversation based on a large number of questions asked by
the researcher to find out the interviewees’ beliefs and the perceptions
that underlie their behavior. The interview we intend to administer
contains 8 short questions, designed to find out more details about the
promotion of Iulius Town in the online environment as well as in the
traditional one. This will provide us with an overview of their promotion
strategies.

3. Results

The following example is the content analysis of the Facebook page of

Iulius Town Timișoara. The official page of Iulius Town Timișoara
(https://www.facebook.com/IuliusTownTM/, accessed on 20.03.2020)
was created in 2010. This page was originally named Iulius Town, but in
2020 the page name was changed. Currently, the page has 121,533 likes
and 128,384 followers, and the number is increasing steadily.
By analysing the Facebook page of Iulius Town Timișoara we
noticed that the page is very active and posts on average twice a day
about the projects that take place, the services it offers to the customers,
the events that will take place and it also informs about promotions
inside the Iulius Town restaurants and shops.

130
 The main page contains a section with the specific buttons
“Follow”, “Like”, “Send message”, “Contact us”, but there are also the
following categories: “Home”, “About”, “Subscribe to the newsletter”,
“Events”, “Posts”, “Instagram”, “Photos”, “Videos”, “Reviews”,
“Community”, “Groups”. These buttons help users to follow what they
are interested in more easily.

Also, we noticed that the category “Subscribe to the newsletter”

appears on the main page, which is a good strategy for promotion using
the email marketing method. If the section is accessed, the user is
redirected to a registration form. Once accessed, it can be seen that the
platform used for email marketing is MailChimp.
The concept of multichannel is applied within the Facebook page.
The phone number of Iulius Town, its address, its location on the map,
its web page address and its operating hours are displayed. Comparing
the two time intervals, August 2019 and May 2020, some significant
changes have been noticed. Iulius Town was active on the Facebook
page both month. In August, there was a total of 81 posts, while in April
the total number of posts was 68.

131
 In August 2019, 80% of the posts were about to the inauguration of
Iulius Town, in contrast with april 2020, when Iulius Town was affected
by the crisis period caused by Covid19 and the messages referred only
to Auchan promotions or to the "Donate today, smile tomorrow!"
campaign. This campaign, launched by IULIUS company, provides the
community with a platform that allows anyone to donate any amount of
money, supporting the hospitals in Timișoara in the fight against the
Coronavirus. All of them were multimedia content posts.

132
 In August 2019, a very good way to promote was relying on posters
and personalized photographs created by the specialists in charge of the
official Facebook page. There were a multitude of photos designed to
make the inauguration of Iulius Town known to the community. On
August 31st, Timișoara broke a new Guinness World Record when the
most LED lights lit simultaneously.
Iulius Town Timișoara also has an Instagram page that currently
has 10,800 followers and 806 posts. Specific contact information has been
added, such as the link to the website, the address, but also a short
description in bio: “My Town”.
In the charts below, it can be seen that in August there were a large
number of Instagram posts. Similarly to Facebook, all posts covered the
Iulius Town inauguration and the three-day festival full of events for the
community. Thanks to all these posts, the public can find out in advance
about the events taking place and they can also share the information to
their groups.

The official Youtube page of Iulius Town

(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWe1xsQMb6cEv7p38U6iwxQ/f
eatured, accessed on 14.04.2020) was created on July 1st, 2019 and has
1,043,136 views and 311 subscribers. Currently, Iulius Town has 32
uploaded videos. During August, Iulius Town had 15 videos uploaded
on Youtube. The figures in the table below show that the most

133
widespread video was “Stabilim un nou Record Mondial – 31 aug”, with
a total of 498,867 views. In contrast, no videos were uploaded on
Youtube in April.

Video title Views Likes

1 Record Mondial - Tutorial - Folosire Bratara 945 4
2 Stabilim un nou Record Mondial - 31 aug 498,867 18
3 Luminăm #TimișoaraÎmpreună 245 5
4 Iulius Town - Iulius Gardens 2,351 33
5 UnderTown 4 165 0
6 UnderTown 6 57 1
7 UnderTown 7 49 0
8 UnderTown 1 57,752 2
9 UnderTown 2 61 1
10 UnderTown 5 27,730 2
11 UnderTown 3 37,196 2
12 IULIUS TOWN - YOUR NEW SHOPPING DESTINATION 327,323 6
13 Iulius Town - United Business Center Timisoara 2,469 46
14 Iulius Town - Iulius Mall Timișoara 2,331 36
15 Oamenii IULIUS 1,526 20

To conclude, Iulius Town uses online communication tools to a

great extent. However, the analysis of the two different periods of time
shows that the content of the messages has changed significantly over
time. August was a month full of events, the company attracted
customers and enjoyed notoriety, whereas April was a time of crisis and
this was felt as well by Iulius Town.

4. Expert sources consulted

The topic addressed in this paper highlights how a company can use
social platforms in a good way to promote itself. Everyone uses social
platforms to communicate, spread information and find out about a
variety of things. Promotion is a complex process, which has a decisive
impact on the effectiveness of an organization's activity. Promotion is the
effort made by an organization through which it can present its offer in a
positive light, so as to sell as much as possible. However, this approach

134
is considered simplistic, and the true power of promotion is to create a
certain image of an event, product, service or organization (Zbuchea,
Pînzaru & Galalae, 2009, p. 24).
In ,,Event Marketing. How to successfully promote events,
festivals, conventions and expositions”, Leonard H. Hoyle (2002, p. 30)
states that, regardless of the nature of the event, its success will largely
depend on the promotion. Promotion is vital to creating awareness of
the event, to instilling the desire to participate in the public and the
feeling that the investment of time and money validates the benefits
offered by the event.
Camelia Cmeciu (2013, p. 133) argues that the strategies used in
online public relations campaigns are diverse. There are three campaign
strategies addressed to the online public: the information and
interactivity strategy, the connection strategy, and the participation and
mobilization strategy. The message is a key element in promotion
campaigns. It must be designed to elicit a reaction from the target
audience, such as purchasing products, participating in various actions
and changing behaviour. The communication for promotion must be
addressed both to those in the internal environment of the company and
to those in the external environment.
In the article “Placing Romania on the map: the quest for
recognition through Guiness Book Records”, Mariana Cernicova (2017,
p. 5) points out that Timișoara is considered “a city of premieres” and
exemplifies many significant initiatives that happened there. Timișoara
has succeeded in securing three records: one registered by the cartoonist
Ștefan Popa and two linked to the identity of the city. Thanks to all these
premieres, the city caught media attention.
In “Digital Marketing Excellence: Planning, Optimizing and
Integrating Online”, P. R. Smith (2017, p. 33) points out that the use of
the Internet has led to the creation of the new concept of online
marketing, with a new model of buyer and seller. This type of marketing
helps businesses be present where the customers are always present:
online. There is no doubt that digital marketing can help build a brand.

135
Many analysts see digital marketing as a way to build both the brand
image and the overall company value.
Content strategy on Facebook should focus on the following steps:
finding the audience’s interests, the topics covered, the content, the
length of the texts, the frequency of the posts, the right time to post.
When the interests of the audience are known, it is easier to
communicate a message of interest. Content strategy needs to include
the times to post various photos, videos and links. An effective way to
attract as many users on a page can be to post daily about the company’s
activities. It is recommended to use keywords to write online texts. For
example, for trading strategies on Facebook, some keywords can be:
“event”, “win”, “winner”. Posts that generate comments are the ones
that contain questions, and it is usually a good idea to ask the question
at the end of the text (Bădău, 2011, pp. 144-154).

Conclusion

This research has helped us realise the impact promotion can have on
organizing different events, the workload needed and the importance to
have well-defined strategies to contribute to development of the
business.
By using content analysis, we found out that the online
environment is a means of communication used a lot by Iulius Town to
promote itself among the online community, and the social media is
used as a way to promote existing events but also to attract customers.
The newsletter is another strategy that Iulius Town uses to promote
itself. We are living in the age of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, but
email is still a promotion channel that brings sales to retailers, especially
when it comes to customer loyalty.
The city of Ti mișoara enjoys a distinct identity, the inauguration
of Iulius Town offering the city the chance to present itself as different,
in a positive way. We can say that it was a city branding strategy.

136
Bibliography:

1. Bădău, H. M. (2011). Tehnici de comunicare în social media. Iaşi:

Polirom
2. Cmeciu, C. (2013). Tendinţe actuale în Campaniile de Relaţii Publice.
Iaşi: Polirom.
3. Hoyle, H. L. (2002). Event Marketing. How to successfully promote
events, festivals, conventions and expositions. New York: John Wiley
& Sons.
4. Smith, P. R. (2017). Digital Marketing Excellence. Planning,
Optimizing and Integrating Online Marketing. Abingdon: Taylor &
Francis.
5. Zbuchea, A., Pînzaru, F. & Galalae C. (2009). Ghid esențial de
promovare. București: Tritonic.

Webography:

1. Cernicova, B. M. (2017) PLACING ROMANIA ON THE MAP:

THE QUEST FOR RECOGNITION THROUGH GUINNESS
BOOK RECORDS. www.sgemsocial.org. Available at:
https://sgemsocial.org/index.php/conferencetopics/jresearch?vie
w=publication&task=show&id=3047.
2. https://www.facebook.com/IuliusTownTM/. Accessed on
28.05.2020
3. https://www.instagram.com/iuliustowntimisoara/. Accessed on
26.05.2020
4. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWe1xsQMb6cEv7p38U6iwxQ.
Accessed on 4.06.2020.

137
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Social Media Advertising

During the COVID-19
Pandemic
Lorena Dumitru

Abstract: Social Media is the place where we share ideas and thoughts. It is the place
where we go when we want to read the news, entertain ourselves or just talk to our
friends and family. For businesses, Social Media is the place where they can reach out
for customers very easily using all the tools that platforms have to offer. But what
happens with all of these when a lot of people become unemployed or they have to work
from home? Or when traveling is banned? Everyone turns to technology and online
communication undergoes some changes in this context. The aim of this article is to
analyze how COVID-19 has changed the way businesses communicate and how we can
adapt and respond as a brand during these uncertain times.

Keywords: social media, pandemic, advertising, marketing.

I. Introduction
1.1. Definition of Social Media

Social media is a collective term for websites and applications which

focus on communication, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.

138
On these networks, people can contribute by posting different kinds of
content such as: personal information, documents, videos and photos
(Rouse, 2019).
While there are a lot of marketing strategies that businesses can use
to promote themselves, only one is successful in almost every case:
Social Media Advertising. Social Media Advertising can increase sales
and brand awareness, businesses can keep in touch very easily with
customers and they can see what their competitors are doing and how
(Newberry, 2018).
There are a few social media networks where advertising can be
very successful (Statista, 2020):

• Facebook – with 2.45B active users/month

• Instagram – with 1B active users/month
• Twitter – with 330M active users/month
• LinkedIn – with 310M active users/month,

1.2. Regular posts

Even if businesses are aware of the impact of Social Media, many of them
are still not making full use of these platforms. For the benefit of the
business, brands have to invest time, effort and money. This means that
regular posts on Social Media can increase brand awareness and
visibility and customers can see more of the brand. Between 3-5 posts
per week on Social Media will build loyalty and credibility (Fyfee, 2020).

1.3. Paid ads

On these Social Media networks, especially on Facebook and Instagram,

marketers create paid ads with different objectives: brand awareness,
store traffic or website traffic, reach, app installs, engagement, video
views and many more. Depending on the subject of the post, we can
choose the one objective that suits our strategy, create an audience,
choose the duration of the ad and add a budget. Regular posts on Social

139
Media and ad campaigns for almost every single post are the key to
success for brands, because those ads will always reach to new clients
and regular posts will keep the relationship strong with the actual
clients.

II. How the pandemic has changed the way businesses

communicate
A lot of brands and businesses teamed up with their advertising
agencies and used their creativity to make sure that they are spreading
powerful messages and that their communication with their customers
is correct and efficient during the pandemic (Wikipedia, 2020).

2.1. Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola wanted to make sure that people understand that social

distancing is very important and that they observe the rules (Schultz,
2020). To send their message, they changed their logo and they used a
billboard on Times Square, New York, to show the new logo with
extended spaces between letters + the headline: “Staying apart is the best
way to stay united” (Figure 1). Also, the campaign was very successful on
social media, given the number of shares.

Fig. 1: Times Square Billboard. Source: adage.com

140
2.2. Ikea

Because of the pandemic, a lot of people moved their offices at home and
parents needed to homeschool their children. Ikea knew that when you
have to stay at home for several days, things can get boring especially
for kids, so they shared a few ideas of do-it-yourself (DIY): castles,
houses, fortresses - all of these, with the help of their products (Burton,
2020) (Figure 2).

Fig. 2: Castle plan. Source: Ikea

III. How can we adapt communication during the pandemic?

3.1. Pivot and adapt

What we had planned before the pandemic cannot be used anymore.

Many ideas and campaigns need to be paused because they are
inappropriate or irrelevant at this time. Even simple posts on Social
Media must be modified: in a Facebook post, for example, we have to
stop using call-to-actions (CTAs) like “Come visit our shop”; instead, if
the business owns an online shop or a website, we need to say “See more
online”. The messages were adapted for the Spotlight Heritage
Timișoara too (Figure 3).

141
 Fig. 3. CTA adapted
3.2. Keep in touch with customers more than ever

Social Media is the place where people can interact with brands, posts
or services, but most important is the fact that they can interact with
businesses to ask questions for which they can receive a quick answer.
Even if we have a conversation about a review, a comment or a message,
we have the possibility to shape the view of the customer about our
brand or product (Gregory, 2019).

142
3.3. Interact more

Questions like “How was your weekend?” to a text post, or posts like a
video or a poll can easily increase the interaction and therefore, the
credibility. Also, there is a big chance for them to answer and interact
with the brand/business (Figure 4).

Fig. 4. Poll added on a video

Use the channels where the audience spends the most time on

Most people spend a lot of time on social media and they have an
account on more than just one platform. To avoid losing them, find out
which are the platforms that the audience is on. Maybe they use just
Instagram and Facebook, or they have just discovered TikTok and they
love it. A brand has to consider all the platforms in order to reach to new
customers or keep in touch with the old ones.

Conclusions

Business were not prepared for times like these, but with some
creativity, experience and strategy, things can work very well on Social
Media even in these times. Social Media has managed to keep some

143
businesses on top during the pandemic, and if some business somehow
closed, or paused for a while, maybe they should have used Social Media
and not just give up. Social Media is the place where we can share
opinions and experiences and it is very important to know what it can
offer us and how we can use it.
Based on my research, I have proposed 5 steps to successfully adapt
communication during the pandemic:
• Pivot and adapt
• Keep in touch with customers more than ever
• Interact more
• Use the channels where the audience spends the most time on.

Webography

1. Burton, B. (2020). Ikea shares instructions for building comfy

homemade forts and tents. www.cnet.com. Available at:
https://www.cnet.com/news/ikea-shares-instructions-for-
building-comfy-homemade-forts-and-tents/. Accessed on
06.06.2020.
2. Fyfee, Z. (2020). The Benefits of Posting Regularly on Social Media
for your Business. www.themarketingfolks.com. Available at:
https://themarketingfolks.com/social-media-benefits/. Accessed
on 6.06.2020.
3. Gregory, S. (2019). 6 Key Elements of Using Social Media for
Customer Service. www.freshsparks.com. Available at:
https://freshsparks.com/using-social-media-for-customer-
service/. Accessed on 06.06.2020.
4. Newberry, C. (2018). 23 Benefits of Social Media for Business.
www.blog.hootsuite.com. Available at:
https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/. Accessed
on 05.05.2020.

144
5. Rouse, M. (2019). Social media. www.whatis.techtarget.com.
Available at: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-
media. Accessed on 6.06.2020.
6. Schultz, E. J. (2020). Coke puts social distancing message in times
square. www.adage.com. Available at:
https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/coke-puts-social-
distancing-message-times-square/2245631. Accessed on
6.06.2020.
7. Statista. (2020). Most popular social networks worldwide as of
April 2020, ranked by number of active users. www.statista.com.
Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-
social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/. Accessed on
6.06.2020.
8. Wikipedia. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic on Social Media.
www.en.wikipedia.org. Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-
19_pandemic_on_social_media. Accessed on 06.06.2020.

145
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Online Social Networks

and Social Capital.
Case Study: Facebook
Anka-Roxana Șuba

Abstract: The use of online social networks is increasing significantly in terms of the
number of users, as the technological infrastructure is constantly evolving, causing
certain effects on student behavior. This paper presents and analyzes how online social
networks shape and change human behavior through the exchange of messages that it
facilitates. Previous research has shown a link between perceptions of social capital and
the use of the online social network Facebook. To identify the positive and negative
effects of online social networks, we used data from 217 students at the University of
Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Banat "King Michael I of Romania"
in Timisoara (USAMVBT), Faculty of Management and Rural Tourism. Facebook is
frequently used by students for many purposes; overall, the highest percentages are in
the range "Very often" - "Often" (51.58% for women and 43.95% for men, taken
together). With this paper, we want to develop and empirically validate a research
model on intentional social action in online social networks and social capital. As a case
study, we chose the most popular online social network, namely Facebook, because this
online communication platform (and not only) has an increased impact on students'
motivation to learn, on emotional learning and classroom climate.

Keywords: online social networks, social capital, students, communication, Facebook.

146
1. Introduction

Online social networks are an essential component of the virtual space,

being defined as “online applications that help connect friends, business
partners and interest groups” (Mitruţiu, 2005, p. 1). On the other hand,
the traditional (offline) social network is defined as a “map of
relationships between individuals, which points to the ways in which
they are connected through various degrees of social familiarity, starting
from accidental acquaintances to strong family ties ”(Mitruţiu, 2005, p.
1). Through online social networks, the socio-economic dimension is
highlighted, the virtual environment having a major social impact, in a
context characterized by the permanent evolution of the contemporary
society. Facebook is one of the most popular online social networking
platforms.
Social capital is created by the patterns of interdependence and
social interaction that appear in a modern society. Previous research has
shown a link between perceptions of social capital and the use of the
popular social networking site Facebook. Reciprocity is a key facet of
social capital. The expectation of reciprocity is an inherent component of
building social capital, although expectations can be violated (Teevan,
2011). One way in which social capital is maintained is through social
care activities and other relationship maintenance behaviors that signal
attention to one's own network. Facebook is an effective context for
achieving these types of social interaction.
Social capital describes the benefits that individuals can access
through their social network; these benefits may include emotional
support, material support, and new information (Putnam, 2000). Thus,
the establishment of one’s own social network is directly related to the
level of perceived social capital. The relationships between perceived
social capital and activities with the online social network have been
examined by many social media studies (Burke, Marlow & Lento, 2010).

147
2. Material and methods

The first stage of the study consisted in studying the bibliography to

which we could have access, given the conditions of the pandemic
period: we relied on online foreign bibliographic sources almost
exclusively, as the effects of online social networks on social capital do
not seem to be of much interest to Romanian researchers.
As one of the requirements for the master's dissertation is to use
only recent bibliography from the last ten years, we have analyzed only
synthesis studies and thematic studies from 2010 on. Reading this
bibliography has helped us better understand what social capital looks
like from an information and communication technology perspective
and why online social networks in general, and Facebook in particular,
are a threat to privacy because of their influence on communication.
At the same time, the bibliography we consulted helped us outline
the questionnaire we used for the case study, which we administered to
students at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary
Medicine of Banat "King Michael I of Romania" in Timisoara, Faculty of
Management and Rural Tourism. The questionnaire contains 17
questions related to the topic of the study and 2 demographic questions
(related to the age and sex of the respondents). The 17 questions on the
topic are general questions designed to identify the place and role of
social media in the lives of users (e.g. confidence in social media,
evaluation of social media, social media used, preferred social media,
the flow of information posted on Facebook and if closing the social
network Facebook would affect respondents).

3. Results and discussion

The results expected at the end of this research concern the identification
of the positive and negative effects of the Facebook social network on
students.

148
 In order to illustrate the impact of the social network Facebook, we
further present the results obtained after administering the
questionnaire (only the questions related strictly to Facebook).
Asked to give grades from 1 to 10 to the social network Facebook,
USAMVBT students gave grades that show the generally upward trend
of grades up to 8 given to the Facebook social media (regardless of
gender), but also a decrease in high grades (9 and 10) (for both sexes),
which indicates a decrease in the popularity of this medium of
socialization among young people in favor of other means of
socialization, a fact found after the synthesis of the answers to Question
no. 2. This clearly shows the third position of Facebook (after YouTube
and Instagram) and respectively, the fourth position (after YouTube,
Instagram and Pinterest) among the respondents (Figure 1).

41

27 27 27

15 15
13
11
7 7 6
5
3 2 3
1 0 1 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Barbati Femei

Figure 1. The answers to question no. 2: Please give marks from 1

to 10 to the social media Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter
and YouTube

149
 The answers to the question "In a normal work week, how often do
you use Facebook?” show that respondents have an average degree of
Facebook use compared to respondents: men outperform women in the
categories “Often” (28.57% vs. 25.39%), “Moderately” (29, 67% vs.
23.01%) and “Seldom” (20.87% vs. 18.25%), while women outperform
men in the “Very Often” (26.19% vs. 15.38 %) and “Never” (6.34% vs.
4.39%) categories. Overall, however, the highest percentages are in the
"Very Often" - "Often" range (51.58% for women and 43.95% for men, by
cumulating percentages), and the lowest percentages are in the range
“Seldom” and “Never” (25.26% for men and 24.59% for women by
cumulating percentages) (Figure 2).

29.67%
28.57%
26.19% 25.39%
23.01%
20.87%
18.25%
15.38%

6.34%
4.39%

Foarte des Des Moderat de des Rar Deloc

Barbati Femei

Figure 2. Question no. 4: In a normal working week, how often do

you use Facebook?

The answers to the question “How many friends do you have on

Facebook?” show that the number of “Facebook friends” for men is higher
than that for women in the segments “Under 1000 ”(56.04% vs. 51.58%)
and “Under 4000 ”(10.98% vs. 6, 34%), but it is lower in the segments

150
“Under 2000” (23.01% vs. 15.38%), “Under 3000” (8.73% vs. 6.59%),
“Under 5000” (3 , 86% vs. 1.09%), “I don't know” (5.55% vs. 4.39%) and
“None” (2.38% vs. 1.09%). One female respondent explained that she has
no “friends” because she does not have a Facebook account. It is
interesting to note that more than half of the respondents (regardless of
gender) have less than 1000 friends on Facebook: even so, their number
is big and cannot cover the traditional, dictionary meaning of the word
“friend” (“a person with whom someone is connected through special
affection, based on mutual trust and esteem, on common ideas or
principles; friend”- cf. DEX). We also wonder how someone can say that
they have under 2000, under 3000, under 4000 and even under 5000
“friends” on Facebook without being a public person, i.e. a person with
notoriety, who is appreciated by the national or international public
(artists, celebrities, etc.) (Figure 3).

56.04%
51.58%

23.01%

15.38%
10.98%
8.73%
6.59% 6.34%
3.96% 4.39%5.55%
1.09%2.38% 1.09%

Zero Sub 1000 Sub 2000 Sub 3000 Sub 4000 Sub 5000 Nu stiu
Barbati Femei

Figure 3. Question no. 6: How many friends do you have on Facebook?

As for the question "How many of your Facebook friends have you met
in person?”, the percentage of men who personally know their friends on

151
Facebook is higher than that of women only in two cases: “All” (16.48%
vs. 13.60%) and “None” (1.09% vs. 0.80%), while the percentage of
respondents who know their friends on Facebook personally is higher
than that of respondents in the following cases: “Most” (45.60% vs.
41.75%), “About half” (27.20% vs. 25.27%), “Some” (14.40% vs. 13.18%)
and “No answer” (0.80% vs. 0%). Only one respondent did not answer
this question because she does not have a Facebook account (in which
case the calculations were made according to 125 answers). It is,
however, hard to believe that over 40% of men and over 45% of women
know “Most” of their “friends” on Facebook (Figure 4).

45.60%
41.75%

27.20%
25.27%

16.48%
13.60% 13.18%14.40%

1.09% 0.80% 0% 0.80%

Pe toti Pe cei mai multi Aproximativ Cativa Pe niciunul Nu raspunde

jumatate

Barbati Femei

Figure 4. Question no. 7: How many of your Facebook friends have

you met in person?

The answers to the question “To what extent does the flow of
information posted on Facebook influence your decision-making?" are
not surprising, given that most Facebook users use this social media
either to post their own photos and / or texts, or to see how their

152
acquaintances, friends and relatives are doing, not to inform or, if they
are informed, they do it accidentally (anyway, the weather forecast can
be checked on the phone): this explains the percentage of over 49% men
and over 35% women who say that they are influenced to a very small
extent by the information flow on Facebook when they have to make a
decision. It is worrying, however, that only 2.19% of respondents and
respectively 0, 79% of respondents admit that they are greatly influenced
by the information on Facebook in decision-making, although
experience shows that, at least in the fields of fashion, gastronomy and
health, the degree of influence is high. Worryingly, but not surprisingly,
it is known that young people are not interested in economic, political
or social news in print (newspapers, magazines), broadcast (TV, radio)
or online media (newspapers, magazines) (Figure 5).

40.65%
37.30%

30.95% 31.86%

24.60%

18.68%

6.59% 6.34%
2.19%
0.79%

In foarte mica 2 3 4 In foarte mare

masura masura

Barbati Femei

Figure 5. Question no. 18: To what extent does the information flow
posted on Facebook influence your decision making?
When men were asked why they use social media, they surpass the
women only in the cases “Fighting injustice” (30.28% vs. 22.42%), “Event

153
planning” (9.85% vs. 7.62%) and “Charity ”(6.33% vs. 6.27%), while
respondents feel more strongly the need for “Socializing” (40.80% vs.
39.42%), “Making friends” (8.96% vs. 4.22%), “Shopping based on
promotions” (6.27% vs. 6.33%) and “Job hunting” (4.93% vs. 3.52% )
(Figure 6).
As with any study based on Facebook interactions, the specific
characteristics of the system can influence our results. Because the
Facebook Edge Rank algorithm selects the content that appears in
Friends’ News Feeds, we do not know how many people saw the
requests posted by our respondents. The reasons why some requests
were more successful than others were most likely affected by the
variables we measure here, but may have also been influenced by their
visibility in the news network of our participants’ networks.

40.80%
39.43%

30.28%

22.42%

8.96% 8.96% 9.85%

6.33%6.27% 6.33% 7.62%
4.22% 3.52%4.93%

Nevoia de Nevoia de Nevoia de Nevoia de Nevoia de Nevoia unui Alte motive

prietenie socializare caritate promovari planificare loc de munca

Barbati Femei

Figure 6. Question no. 13: Why use social media?

Finally, the answers to the question "To what extent would the
decision to close the Facebook social network affect you?” correlate with the
answers to question no. 2 (“Please give marks from 1 to 10 to the
following social media”, where the grades 9 and 10 were fewer than the

154
grade 8 for both men and women): in the case of this question, there is a
decrease in the number of those who would be greatly affected by the
closure of the social network Facebook - in close connection with the
greater popularity of other social networks, of course. Thus, the number
of respondents who would not be affected at all by the decision to close
the social network Facebook is 10 times higher than the number of
respondents who would be affected by this decision (30% vs. 3%), while
the number of respondents who would not be affected at all by the
decision to close the social network Facebook is more than 4 times the
number of respondents who would be affected by this decision (33% vs.
8%). The difference between men percentages and women percentages
could be explained by the tendency of women to post (photos, texts, etc.)
on Facebook more often than respondents (Figure 7).
33
30

19
17
15 15

11 11
9 8
7
6
4
3 3 3
2
1

Deloc 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Foarte
mult
Barbati Femei

Figure 7. Question no. 19: To what extent would the decision to close the
Facebook social network affect you?

155
Conclusions

In light of the results presented above, the following conclusions can be

drawn regarding the identification of the positive and negative effects of
the Facebook social network on students:
- using Facebook has positive effects:
• making “friends”, which allows introverts to overcome, to some
extent, their fear of socializing;
• information in areas such as gastronomy, fashion, health;
- using Facebook has several negative effects:
• although the grades given to Facebook (below the grades given to the
social networks YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest) show a decrease
in the popularity of this social medium among young people in favor
of other social media, they simultaneously show an excessive use of
some media at the expense of other concerns (hobbies, reading,
sports, etc.);
• In a normal working week, the high frequency of Facebook use
(51.58% for women and 43.95% for men) is double the low frequency
of using this social media (25.26% in the case of respondents and
24.59% in the case of respondents), which indicates excessive use of
Facebook at the expense of other concerns (hobbies, reading, sports,
etc.);
• the number of “friends” on Facebook, if real (it is hard to believe that
someone can have thousands of “friends” on Facebook without being
a public person, i.e. a person with notoriety, who is appreciated by
the national or international public), worryingly points to the
superficiality with which our respondents call “friendship” a
relationship that has nothing to do with it;
• it is hard to believe that over 40% of men and over 45% of women
know “Most” of their “friends” on Facebook, which makes this social
environment a social danger (our respondents could fall at any time
victims of cyberbullying, manipulation, blackmail, etc.);

156
• most Facebook users use this social media either to post their own
photos and / or texts, or to see how their acquaintances, friends and
relatives are doing, information being purely accidental.

Bibliography:

1. Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică (2009). Dicționarul

explicativ al limbii române (ediția a II-a revăzută și adăugită).
București: Editura Univers Enciclopedic Gold.
2. Gherheș, V., Obrad, C., (2016). The Role and Importance of
Facebook among Students in Timișoara, in Professional
Communication and Translation Studies, 9 / 2016, pp. 21-26
3. Mitruţiu, M. (2005). Analysis of social networks. Bucharest: ASE.
4. Tyson, J. (2009). Connecting Through Facebook: The Influence of Social
Networking on Communication. MA Thesis. Winston-Salem, Nort
Carolina: Wake Forest University.

Webography:

1. Collins English Dictionary. Available

at:https://www.collinsdictionary.com/. Accessed on 26.03.2020.
2. Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C. & Lampe, C. (2007). The Benefits of
Facebook “Friends”: Social Capital and College Students' Use of
Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, Vol. 12, Nr. 4, pp. 1143-1168. DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-
6101.2007.00367.x.
3. Jones, H. & Soltren, JH (2005). Facebook: Threats to Privacy.
Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/246157624_Facebook_
Threats_to_Privacy. Accessed on 24.03.2020.
4. Valenzuela, S., Park, N. & Kee, KF (2009). Is There Social Capital
in a Social Network Site? Facebook Use and College Students' Life
Satisfaction, Trust, and Participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, Vol. 14, Nr. 4, pp. 875-901. DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-
6101.2009.01474.x.

157
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Communicating Social Issues

through Social Media:
Strategies to Increase
Visibility on Social Media
Andreea-Mihaela Cepoi

Abstract: This paper sets out to study the manner in which some social issues can be
communicated through social media. Companies choose to get involved in social
campaigns for various reasons: to improve the company's image, to support a social cause,
and to try to change the public's opinion about the company. There are many ways in
which an organisation can get involved in social causes: a company either chooses to get
involved only financially in certain campaigns by donating sums of money or chooses to
develop and organise its own campaigns concerning social issues in order to support a
certain cause. This paper will first present a comparative analysis of two campaigns
concerning social issues, whose topics are related to people who have a complicated life
due to problems with their physical appearance, in order to highlight the type of the
transmitted information, the used methods, the type of the images that are used and the
communication techniques that are applied. Second, a questionnaire addressed to the
audience will be applied in order to see whether the message was received correctly or not.

158
Therefore, the paper deals with a topic of interest as it highlights the methods needed for
the communication of social issues and the manner in which a gap between the message
sent and the message received can be avoided.

Keywords: social media, strategy, visibility

1. Introduction

The main purpose of the paper is to highlight the methods that can be used
to increase visibility in communication and to reduce the gap between the
message sent by the company and the message received by the public. The
paper comprises the theoretical notions about the communication of social
issues and about the visibility in communication and the practical part to
exemplify them.
The main objective of the paper is to draw attention over the main
elements that makes us to pay more attention to visibility in communication
and the most important reasons why this aspect is relevant for
communication specialists. Social media is a new channel that can be more
than useful while trying to increase visibility in communication.
This paper is based on the hypothesis that people spend a lot of time
in the virtual environment, so that makes social media the perfect way to
increase visibility in communication campaigns.
There are several specialists that approached this subject in his works.
I`ve decided to use multiple research methods like: an analysis grid, a
questionnaire and some more.

2. Research methods

1. The comparative analysis: The subject of the research are two campaigns
concerning social issues that address the same topic: how to improve the

159
lives of people with physical difficulties after a series of surgeries,
treatments at beauty salons and hair changes. One of the campaigns is the
one started by TopLine Romania and the second one is a TV show
produced by Pro TV.
The analysis grid consists of the following criteria:
• Presentation of the campaign
- Campaign type
- Purpose of the campaign
- Duration of the campaign
• The information transmitted during the campaign
- Information type
- Explicit information
- Default information
• Graphic elements with an informative role about the sender's
intention
• Images with an informative role about the sender's intention
- The power of suggestion
- The degree of affectivity that the image can transmit
- The degree of demand of the receiver to understand the
message
• The association between the text and the image

Thus, this analysis has been designed in order to identify the main
elements used to convey the message, the ways of communication, the
differences between the two campaigns, but also to emphasise the
importance of using appropriate techniques and strategies.
2. The quantitative analysis: a questionnaire will be used in this
respect.
The purpose was to build a questionnaire with a series of
approximately 12-13 closed questions, which is addressed to the public

160
receiving the message transmitted during the show and the social
campaign. On the one hand, the percentage in which the message was
received correctly must be found out, and on the other hand, the parts that
attracted the most attention and that were of the greatest interest to the
public must be highlighted. Following the analysis of the two elements, the
social campaign and the television show, but also the application of the
questionnaire, my purpose is to find out the communication methods and
techniques used by those who organised the campaign and the show, but
also the manner in which the public received and assimilated the
information to see if there were any differences between the information
transmitted and the one that was received.

3. Results

Following the application of the criteria of the analysis grid on the materials
used and distributed to the public during the social campaign and the
television show, a conclusion has been reached and the data related to the
transmission of the information have been extracted. The results obtained
after having applied the analysis grid are the following:
• Both the "There is no can't" social campaign and the "Beauty on the
edge of a knife" television show deal with social issues. Both refer to
how a person's life can be changed as a result of surgeries, body
treatments at the beauty salon and haircuts. The people
participating in the campaign and the show have problems related
to their physical appearance and their purpose is to remedy them
and restore their self-confidence.
• The information in the distributed materials is transmitted both
explicitly and implicitly. This means that the information is either
explained overtly or that it is implied. Explicit information is related
to the physical changes, the surgeries and treatments that people
undergo and the products used while the implicit information refers

161
 to the emotional changes that people experience. These changes are
those related to self-confidence, the perception of oneself, the
perception of others, the way people relate to the others and to the
society.
• In the materials distributed during the campaign and the television
show, images with a high suggestiveness, a low degree of affectivity
and which do not demand too much from the receiver are used.
Images are frequently used during the campaign and the show and
convey a large amount of information.
• In the text materials, the graphic elements are used with a low
frequency in order to emphasise the transmitted information. These
elements refer to the use of the colours, punctuation, the bolding of
certain words or to the use of capital letters.
• The text-image association is used in the social campaign and the
television show, but not in a quantity that is large enough to be able
to influence the information transmitted.

After obtaining the results about the manner in which the message
was sent, it is important to get information about the manner in which the
message was received and understood as well as about the information that
was sent. These results have been obtained after having applied the
questionnaire, i.e. 105 responses from 88 women and 17 men, of an average
age of 27 years, coming from urban areas.
The obtained results are the following:
• Every person who responded knew the show and the campaign and
watched them unfold.
• Most people stated that the purpose of the two was to change the
participants’ physical appearance, without emphasising the
emotional changes to which they were subjected.

162
 • Most of the respondents were attracted by the participants’ life
stories.
• The part that attracted the most attention was the one related to the
presentation of the participants and the surgeries they underwent.
• The greatest interest was for the physical changes that those who
participated went through.
After analysing the results obtained from the application of the two
research methods, it is easy to see that there are significant differences
between the message that the campaign’s and show’s organisers wanted
to convey and the one received by the public. This difference may be due
to several causes.

Consulted specialist sources

The topic researched in this paper is related to the communication of social

issues, emphasising the way information is transmitted as well as the
methods that were used. The theoretical notions the research is based upon
refer to the communication of social issues, social campaigns, the
transmission of information about social issues in the online environment
and the increase of visibility in communication.
Sandra Oliver describes the relationship between the public relations
specialist and the target audience in this way: "Public relations specialists
communicate with all relevant types of internal or external audiences, to
develop positive relationships and create a cohesion between
organizational goals and societal expectations. They shall develop,
implement and evaluate organizational programs that promote the
exchange of influence and knowledge between the constituent elements of
an organization and the public " (2009, p. 35).
Referring to the social campaigns, Doug Newsom and his co-workers
state that "A campaign is designed and developed to raise a problem, solve
one, or improve a situation. Campaigns solve these things by changing a

163
behavior, a law or an opinion, or causing a desirable behavior, opinion or
law" (2001, p.152).
As far as the communication visibility that a brand needs is concerned,
a specialised site believes that "The visibility of a brand is the level of
familiarity that consumers have about a company. Its name, features, logo,
or any other element that may be associated with it. But the visibility of a
brand also means the goods and services it offers. It is essential, from the
first days of a brand's existence, for it to be able to indicate and predict the
opening on the profile market. But also its market position, compared to
direct and indirect competitors" (https://banner-rollup.ro/blog/sfaturi-la-
inceput-de-cum-sa-cresti-vizibilitatea-unui-brand.html, accessed on
15.04.2020).

Conclusion

Following the theoretical notions that were acquired and mentioned

earlier, a research on how the information is transmitted within the "There
is no can't" social campaign and the "Beauty on the edge of a knife" TV
show has been carried out. The research has focused on the message sent
by their organisers and on the manner in which the message was received
by the target audience.
After having analysed the obtained results, it was noticed that there is
a difference in communication between what the broadcaster wanted to
transmit and what was received by the audience. The main part of the
message that did not reach the audience is the one related to the emotional
changes that the participants went through.
The dissertation paper will assess the need for a proposal to streamline
communication in the case of the show and the campaign and a proposal
will be formulated, if necessary. In order to minimise the communication
gap, it is important to implement and use appropriate communication
techniques and strategies.

164
Bibliography:

1. Oliver, S. (2009). Strategii de Relații Publice. Iași: Polirom.

2. Pringle, H. & Field, P. (2011). Strategii pentru brandingul de succes:
Notorietatea și longevitatea unei mărci. Iași: Polirom.
3. Newsom, D., Vanslyketurk, J. & Kruckerberg, D. (2010). Totul despre
Relații Publice, Iași: Polirom.

Webography:

1. Design Grafic. www.digitalmarketingboureau.ro. Available at:

https://digitalmarketingbureau.ro/infografice/. Accesed on
28.04.2020.
2. Modalități de creștere a vizibilității businessului tău.
www.manager.ro. Available at:
https://www.manager.ro/articole/companii-si-firme-34/5-
modalitati-de-crestere-a-vizibilitatii-businessului-tau-99082.html
accesed on 12.03.2020.

165
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Instagram: from a Social

Network to a Marketing Tool
Amalia Cristiana Popovici

Abstract: Communication is the most important aspect of people’s lives and it is

considered a fundamental need. Human interaction has always happened and it has
evolved with society. The evolution of modern media devices has resulted in the shift of
interaction to the online environment. Together with the actions of communities,
companies and businesses have been constrained to be part of the social media as well.
This modern way of showcasing products on social networks has generated a whole new
branch of media creators and advertising. Instagram, the platform meant to be a photo
sharing album, has soon transformed into a new sales market, including brands and
business profiles all over the world. Online creators put a lot of skill and imagination into
creating suitable content for this particular social network. Brands invest in quality
advertising to reach potential customers and improve their public relationship with their
customers. The aim of this paper is to prove that nowadays Instagram is more than a
social network, and can be used as a marketing tool as well, with the right
communication strategies and visual marketing. Therefore, the proposed topic represents
a new approach to marketing communication with the help of digital media.

Keywords: communication, Instagram, brands, advertising, marketing, digital media,

social network.

166
1. Introduction

As smartphones have become part of our lives nowadays, it is no surprise

that most people use them to communicate. To facilitate interaction
through the internet, developers have come up with social networks for
the public. Naturally, humans have started to create virtual communities
and share content with their online friends. The need to interact online has
resulted in the first platforms created for the public to socialize, such as
Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. From old to young, everyone has found
their place in social media and created a virtual profile to reach friends,
relatives or to find people with similar interests and hobbies.
Carr and Hayes (2015) define social media as Internet-based channels
that allow users to opportunistically interact and selectively self-present,
with both broad and narrow audiences who derive value from user-
generated content and the perception of interaction with others. Social
networks therefore allow users to filter their content according to their
preferences and this feature helps in creating groups based on similar in-
terests. Among the most used social networks, Instagram is based on the
visual aspect and is well-known for the quality content shared on the plat-
form. Here, people manage to be creative but also to interact with artistic
content; beautiful images are posted, but one also expects innovation and
an interesting feed.
With digital media, people have created a whole new life for them, at
just one click away. Companies and small or big businesses felt the need
to be part of people’s lives even online. Wanting to maintain their relation
with their customers or looking for attention for their business, brands
have started to become visible on social networks. Nowadays, people can
interact with their favorite products and companies using Instagram, fol-
lowing the activity on the brands’ profiles, watching different types of ads
or tagging them in photos. This way, companies can easily maintain their
relations with the public and can communicate with them through the

167
mentioned social network. The way a brand chooses to display itself on
social media should overlap with the company's ideals and personality.
The virtual profile is the online image of a company and consequently, it
will count in the buying decision process.
As companies are now part of social media, the content shared on the
business profiles interacts with the customers; this is corporate communica-
tion. The aim of public relations is to create, develop and multiply the rela-
tions between organizations and their communities. These relations are
characterized as a set of expectations shared by all parties with respect to
mutual behavior (Kim & Rader, 2010). Marketing communication on In-
stagram has to adapt to the content shared on this platform and the way
companies promote products to the customers has to match the whole
content shared. In social media, traditional commerce must be reconsid-
ered and product placement should be more creative than ever. Online
filters can help companies gather audiences around them and can also im-
prove user experience.
The main purpose of this paper is to examine the degree to which
people realize how exposed to advertising they really are on Instagram and
to determine which type of advertising users prefer. Along with the hy-
pothesis that people interact with companies using social networks, we
aim to share some documented proposals for future approaches to the use
of Instagram as a marketing tool. The last part of the paper provides a se-
ries of factors that improve online presence and contribute to the success
of a post.

2. Research methods

While the first section of the paper states the reason companies are nowa-
days part of social networks, this section focuses on different examples of
marketing strategies on Instagram and on the ways in which people react
to online advertising.

168
2.1 Examples of successful moves

In what follows, a series of examples will be analysed in an attempt to

support our research and to determine what can be changed in order to
make the public interact with a product. We shall take a look at three dif-
ferent scenarios where the companies have managed to sell the product in
a suitable manner, without disturbing the users.
The first ad shows a post of someone well-known in social media,
taking a sip of an iconic drink. The picture has got more than 7 million
likes and is known to be the first ad that features an influencer. Once the
singer Selena Gomez shared the photo to her followers and the photo be-
came visible to anyone online, she associated her image with that drink.
The popular company gained trust with this post as well as potential cus-
tomers.
The second example is not a traditional promotional material, but a
marketing strategy aimed at drawing people’s attention to the brand as
well as to the company's profile. Taking advantage of the attention created
around the royal wedding and using the event hashtag, the LEGO compa-
ny shared a photo of the royal couple together with the #RoyalWedding
hashtag. This way, they gained more followers and comments compared
to a regular post.
To really show the power behind Instagram, the last example is actu-
ally a world record. The newly created profile @world_record_egg got a
huge number of likes and followers faster than anyone. The marketing
campaign behind the project invited Instagram users to become part of
breaking a new world record for likes, by liking a photo showing an egg.
Gaining people’s attention and making them interact with the account, the
creators have revealed the brand behind the marketing campaign and now
the account is used to attract members to the platform.

169
2.2 Market Research questionnaire

In order to succeed in elaborating a reference method for the current mar-

ket, the questionnaire was chosen as the method of investigation. The sur-
vey starts from the premise that social media users make their choices
based on the influences from the online environment and aims to find out
the most effective way to reach the public. Using 14 questions, the method
of approach with which the local market can interact will be determined,
in order to later propose a successful Instagram marketing strategy.
The results of this study show that well over a third of social net-
work users also follow the activity of public figures, companies or media
creators. More than 60% of Instagram users noticed the advertising on In-
stagram. Among the most popular forms of advertising material exposure
are video ads and photo or story ads. Users interact moderately to seldom
with ads that send to the location; instead, the most popular posts are
those which also contain a link to the purchase site. The research has re-
vealed that the public is largely familiar with the notion of influencer. More
than half of the respondents claim that they are often influenced by online
reviews. This is accompanied by a high percentage of users who choose to
research the company on social media before choosing a product. Howev-
er, the most effective aspect depending on which users choose to interact
or not with a post is the discount codes provided to the public on Insta-
gram.
The answers provided by the respondents, presented in the table be-
low, helped us determine the way in which they react to different types of
advertising methods and what exactly makes users interact with a post:

170
 Table 1 - Interaction with the ad
Interaction with the ad
Type of ad
Very often Often Moderately Seldom Hardly ever
Story ads 6 9 13 5 20
Ads as intuitive pictures 5 12 15 8 13
Video ads 5 10 13 10 15
Referrals to stores 9 11 11 8 14
Links to purchase sites 13 13 10 4 13
(the figures represent the number of respondents)

2.3 Negative example – a case study

In what follows, a negative example will illustrate where poor public rela-
tions can lead. This case study will show the impact that companies have
through social media and the ways advertisements are displayed to the
public.
An Instagram profile for cosmetic products is well known in the Ro-
manian online environment. Many public figures and influencers have
shared images with these products and have organized giveaways for this
cosmetic brand. The public realized that all these posts were part of a
marketing campaign. Although all these influential people on Instagram
have shared promotional content about these products, followers have
noticed that these creams and lotions were not actually used by the celeb-
rities in the daily routine. Therefore, the lack of trust the users felt towards
the brand came as no surprise. The aggressive manner the product was
promoted in this case is a negative example and should be avoided.
The content creators chosen to be part of the marketing campaign for
a specific brand should be trustworthy but they should also trust the
products they are selling. Followers pay much attention to the products
promoted and they associate the product with the face that is advertising
it.

171
3. Results

In the results section, we present a series of factors that have been demon-
strated to be effective. These tips can improve online presence and can
contribute to the success of an Instagram post.
For a better interaction with Instagram users, content should be post-
ed regularly on social media. Users tend to share content frequently and
react to other content that has been posted recently. Instagram posts
should be particularly innovative and the visual features are more appre-
ciated on this media platform. Instagram is currently a platform through
which companies manage to promote products in a creative way, empha-
sizing the visual aspect.
The users of the platform interact constantly with the products ad-
vertised online and filter their own results according to their own prefer-
ences. Through this platform, individuals can get in touch with new peo-
ple and products. Freedom of expression and people's access to infor-
mation has led to Instagram being used as a marketing tool. The quality of
the posts and the time invested in them has built trustful relationships be-
tween companies and the public, and social media influencers contribute
to the final choice of users.
The online personality created through Instagram is one that mirrors
reality and does not try to mislead the public. The association of products
or companies with certain well-known faces on the internet only reinforc-
es this realistic, human, almost personal image of brands. The way a com-
pany chooses to communicate online and the topics around which it oper-
ates create a brand’s online personality and contributes to its reputation.
With each advertising approach or with each image posted for commercial
purposes, it can be argued that Instagram, the popular social network, is
more than a way of interaction, but a tool through which marketing strat-
egies are put into action.

172
Bibliography:

1. Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2012). Digital Marketing.

Publisher: Pearson.

Webography:

1. Carr, C. T. & Hayes, R. A. (2015). Social Media: Defining, Develop-

ing, and Divining. Atlantic Journal of Communication. Vol. 23, Nr. 1,
pp. 46-65. DOI: 10.1080/15456870.2015.972282.
2. Cohen, J. (5, May 2015). Eight Reasons All Brands Should Be On
Instagram. www.forbes.com. Available at :
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifercohen/2015/05/05/8-reasons-
all-brands-should-be-on-instagram/.
3. Kim, S. & Rader, S. (2010). What they can do versus how much they
care: Assessing corporate communication strategies on Fortune 500
websites. Journal of Communication Management. Vol. 14, Nr. 1, pp.
59-80. DOI: 10.1108/13632541011017816.
4. Mihai, M. (26, May 2020). Noi mărturii ies la iveală de la femei care
au folosit produsele Plush Bio. Ioana: „Mă durea fața, iar coșuri mi-
au apărut mai multe” / Cum se apără fondatoarea brandului?
www.mediafax.ro. Available at: https://www.mediafax.ro/social/noi-
marturii-ies-la-iveala-de-la-femei-care-au-folosit-produsele-plush-
bio-ioana-ma-durea-fata-iar-cosuri-mi-au-aparut-si-mai-multe-
cum-se-apara-fondatoarea-brandului-19185922.
5. Photo of an egg becomes most popular Instagram post ever.
www.irishtimes.com. Available at:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/offbeat/photo-of-an-egg-
becomes-most-popular-instagram-post-ever-1.3757207.
6. Salpini, C. (23, August 2017). Study : Instagram influences almost
75% of user purchase decisions. www.retaildive.com. Available at :

173
 https://www.retaildive.com/news/study-instagram-influences-
almost-75-of-user-purchase-decisions/503336.
7. The quick start guide on how to conduct market research.
www.surveymonkey.com. Available at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/market-research-surveys/.

174
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Communication Techniques
for Brand Promotion
in the Digital Environment
Case Study: Favisan
and Gerocossen
Ioana-Roxana Toth

Abstract: This paper sets out to outline the impact of the online promotion, which
has undergone various changes and transformations with the evolution of the
Internet. In today’s society, the Internet has become the most important tool for
promoting a business. With the help of the Internet, any business can be present in
the online environment with lower costs. Moreover, through this permanent exposure
in the online environment, the company informs the public continuously and it is
more efficient in its relationship with the customers.First, a comparative analysis of
the two Romanian brands, Favisan and Gerocossen, will be presented, being based on
an analysis grid having the following criteria: the general presentation of the brands
and the analysis of their online communication. Second, a quantitative analysis will
be highlighted by applying an online questionnaire on the impact of Favisan’s and
Gerocossen’s online promotion on the general public.

Keywords: Promotion, Online communication, Digital Media

175
1. Introduction

The main objective of the paper is to highlight the impact of the

promotion in the online environment by focusing on drawing the
readers’ attention to the online communication, i.e. websites and social
networks. The field I have chosen to analyze is in a continuous
development, and the number of people who use these social
environments also I believe is increasing as much as possible.
Therefore, this paper is based on the assumption that people spend a
lot of time in the online environment, wanting to be part of a
community, and are putting their trust in companies that are present
online. With the help of the Internet, any business can be present in the
online environment with lower costs. Through this exposure in the
online environment, the company informs the public continuously and
is more efficient in its relationship with customers. Thus, in this article I
will show how online communication has experienced a significant
increase in recent years, being the best way to promote a product or
service. I will also update the society on the impact of promotion in the
online environment, which has undergone various changes and
transformations with the evolution of the Internet.

2. Research method

1. Comparative analysis: the object of research involves two Romanian

brands, Favisan and Gerocossen, which target a similar audience.
In this analysis, the general presentation of the companies, the
analysis of the online communication for the 2 brands (website,
Facebook page and Instagram page), post frequency, post content and
swot analysis of each communication channel will be taken into
consideration.
The purpose of this comparative analysis is to highlight both the
positive and the negative aspects of the two brands’ online
communication.

176
 2. Quantitative analysis: to determine the impact of the online
promotion as a quantitative method through an opinion poll
comprising 18 questions. The opinion poll was created to demonstrate
the impact of the online promotion for the two companies, Favisan and
Gerocossen.
The goals were the following:
- To find out if the audience has heard of these companies;
- To find out where they found out about them;
- To notice which brand is more used by the public;
- To find out where to buy their products;
- To find out what the general public thinks about promoting the
two companies in the online environment;
- To observe what methods in the online environment
influenced the respondents to buy the products.
The questionnaire emphasises the impact of promoting the
Favisan and Gerocossen brands online. After having interpreted the
questionnaire, the conclusion that has been reached is that advertising
is effective in the online environment and that the Favisan brand has a
more limited promotion than the Gerocossen brand. This conclusion is
the result of the respondents’ answers. Thus, it can beinferred that the
respondents knew the discussed subject well and offered plausible
solutions and answers. This questionnaire demonstrated both the
importance of the online promotion and the need for a proposal to
streamline virtual communication for the Favisan brand.

3. Results

The comparative analysis is based on the digital communication for

Favisan and Gerocossen.
On the one hand, the forms of communication of the Favisan
company that have been followed are its website and its Facebook
page. On the other hand, Gerocossen uses the following forms of
communication: website, Facebook page, and Instagram profile. The

177
online communication analysis grid applied for each company contains
the following criteria:
I.1. Favisan’s overview
I.2. Analysis of Favisan's online communication
I.2.1. Favisan’s website
I.2.1.1. SWOT analysis of the website
I.2.2. Favisan’s Facebook page
I.2.2.1. Favisan’s About Us page
I.2.2.2. Frequency of Favisan’s posts
I.2.2.3. Content of posts
I.2.2.4. SWOT analysis of the Facebook Page

II.1. Gerocossen’s overview

II.2. Gerocossen's online communication analysis
II.2.1. Gerocossen’s website
II.2.1.1. SWOT analysis of the website
II.2.2. Gerocossen’s Facebook page
II.2.2.1. Gerocossen’s About Us page
II.2.2.2. Frequency of Gerocossen posts
II.2.2.3. Content of posts
II.2.2.4. SWOT analysis of the Facebook Page
II.2.3 Gerocossen's Instagram page
II.2.3.1. Gerocossen’s page
II.2.3.2. Frequency of Gerocossen’s posts
II.2.3.3. Content of Instagram posts
II.2.3.4. SWOT analysis of the Instagram page

To conclude, a comparative analysis of Favisan’s and

Gerocossen’s online communication tools will be presented.
The research has shown that Gerocossen's website is much better
organised than Favisan's. Gerocossen presents a page with the
ingredients that are used, where various informative articles are
posted. Also, on this site, there is a page where active contests can be

178
found. For example, the company had a Women's Day contest. During
this competition, the campaign, the prizes and the participation
regulations were presented.
In addition, the site also contains articles about the benefits of
some ingredients, well-groomed skin, hydrated skin, effective anti-hair
loss treatments, new product ranges and sun protection.
Another communication tool in the analysed online environment
is the Facebook page. Therefore, Gerocossen’s Facebook page has
53,555 likes and Favisan’s Facebook page, 6,505 likes. The number of
likes that Gerocossen has is much higher compared to that of Favisan’s,
provided that they target a similar public. Gerocossen also posts a
maximum of 3 posts per day, while Favisan does not have a number of
posts per day. Thus, Gerocossen has a much higher visibility on
Facebook than Favisan does.
Moreover, Gerocossen also has an Instagram profile as opposed
to Favisan. The fact that Favisan did not create an Instagram profile is a
drawback as the presence in the online environment on several well-
maintained social networks leads to a much more positive image of the
brand and intensifies the relationship with the receivers (in this case,
the receivers being the fans of that brand).

4. Expert sources consulted

The topic addressed in this paper is part of both the public relations
and the digital media fields, emphasising the way in which a company
can promote itself in the online environment through various forms of
communication. For this paper, the forms of communication in the
online environment that were analysed were the companies’ websites
and Facebook and Instagrampages. Returning to these aspects, the
bibliographic sources that have been used are represented by both
printed books and electronic sources.
With the rise of the Internet, the computer has become a very
important tool in our lives.

179
 "The Internet has become a new way of processing, presenting
and communicating information which allows the implementation of
new models and concepts hitherto unimaginable: from another way of
going through the written information using hyperlinks generated by
hyperlinks to multimedia presentations that include text, images,
animations, and sounds in the same entity; from social surveys and
real-time statistics generated simultaneously with the change of input
data, to the presentation of information and its adaptation to users”
(Graur, 2001:98).
In an organisation, the first step you need to take if you want to
have a good presence in the online environment is to create a website.
Orzan & Orzan (2007) support the idea that for a website to work
properly we must take into account the following aspects:
1. Purpose: Any organisation that opens a website must set its
own goals and priorities. Only when the company has well-established
objections, it is a good idea to create a website.
2. Creativity: A website, like any other means of communication,
must have a creative idea that attracts potential consumers.
3. Address: A good website should have an address that is easy to
remember, which is related to the name of the organisation or the
products it sells.
4. Content: A good website must always have up-to-date and
well-defined information. If it remains unchanged, the company will
lose its fame.
5. Structure: A website must have well-structured information
that must be easily accessible. Customers will give up the site if its
structure is cumbersome.
6. Functionality: Technology is a very important point when it
comes to a website.
7. Uniqueness: In order to always be present in the online
environment and to have as many likes as possible, you must always
bring something new to the communication strategy.

180
 8. Promotion: In order for the website to be as popular as possible,
it will need to be promoted in the online environment to increase the
audience.
9. Cost: If you want to have a good and efficient site, the costs will
be quite high. Also, in order to have a site with a high level of
professionalism, you must have as much knowledge as possible in this
field.
Social networks are also part of the online communication
methods. Social networks are online platforms where users can
interact. There are several types of social networks: Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Youtube, etc.
"Facebook is unmatched in its ability to connect businesses with
their customers in a fast and humane way. It is an ideal platform to
spread the word quickly, to monitor reactions and to collect data"
(Schaefer, 2016: 205).
Also, lately, Instagram has become a very popular social network
among companies. It offers the ability to upload photos, videos, apply
photo filters and share them on other social networks. The visuals also
play a very important role in the contemporary society. Thus, with the
help of an Instagram profile, you can stand out or you can attract new
customers(https://socialweb.ro/ebook-cum-folosesti-aplicatia-instagram.pdf,
accessed on 21.03.2020).
Therefore, the effects that social networks have on people’s
everyday life are visible and they cannot be overlooked given that their
evolution is considered to have radically influenced the evolution of
society and business.

Conclusion

Based on the theoretical elements from the consulted sources, a

comparative study between the two Romanian brands, Favisan and
Gerocossen, has been conducted. The usefulness of the online forms of
communication and the importance of using them as promotional tools
have been taken into consideration. In addition, a proposal will be

181
made in the dissertation paper to help Favisan’s efficiency in the digital
environment as the company does not have a qualitative promotion.
For Favisan, this could be both a method of improvement and a
necessity for achieving its goals in the online environment.

Bibliography:

1. Alain, J. (2009). Comunicarea prin imagini.Iași: Polirom.

2. Bădău, H.M. (2011). Tehnici de comunicare în social media. Iași:
Polirom.
3. Brandon, F. (2013). Social Media Marketing Blueprint.Los Gatos,
California: Smashwords.
4. Cabin, P.&Dortier, J.F. (2010). Comunicarea. Iași: Polirom.
5. 5.Clarke, G. (2020).Social Marketing2019: Instagram, Facebook,
Youtube, and Twitter. Advertising Guide for Influencers in
2019Through 2020.Publisher: Social Media Academy.
6. Dagenais, B. (2003). Campania de relatii publice.Iași: Polirom.
7. Gherghiță, D., Gherghiță, I. &Niculae, T. (2006). Comunicarea
organizațională și managementul situațiilor de criză.București:
Editura Ministerului Administrației și Internelor.
8. Graur, E. (2001). Tehnici de comunicare. Cluj-Napoca:
Mediamira.
9. Haineș, R. (2008). Tipuri și tehnici de comunicare în organizații.
București : Editura Universitară.
10. Hayes, P., Herschel, A. &Richard, T. (1996). Organizational
Communication. Empowerment in a Technological Society.Boston,
Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin.
11. Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the New Media Age. London:
Routledge.
12. Newsom, D.,VanSlyke, J.&Kruckeberg, D. (2010).Totul despre
relații publice. Iași: Plirom.
13. Orzan, G.&Orzan, M. (2007). Relații publice online.București:
Uranus.

182
 14. Safko, L. (2012).The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and
Strategies for Business Success. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
15. Scaefer, M.W. (2016). Rețelele de socializare explicare. Descâlcirea
celei mai neînțelese tendințe din lumea afacerilor. București :
Editura ACT & Politon.
16. Suciu, L. (2014).În căutarea sensului. De la analiza discursului la
design-ul comunicării.Timișoara: Casa Cărții de Știință.

Webography:

1. Avădănei, C. (June 2017). Ghidul utilizatorului de

Instagram.www.socialweb.ro. Avaiable at:
https://socialweb.ro/ebook-cum-folosesti-aplicatia-
instagram.pdf. Accessed on 21.03.2020.
2. Burcea, C.&Hârțescu, I. (n.d.). Transparență și alitate în
administrația publică prin socil media. www. agenda21.org.ro.
Available at:
http://www.agenda21.org.ro/download/Manual%20Social%20m
edia_final.pdf. Accessed on 19.03.2020.
3. Jechiu, A.&Popușoi, C. (n.d.). Rețele de socializare.
www.idsi.md. Available
at :https://idsi.md/files/file/prezentari_practica_studenti/Retele%
20sociale.pdf. Accessed on 18.03.2020.
4. Jones, M. (June 2015). The Complete History of Social Media:
A Timeline of the Invention of Online Networking.
www.historycooperative.org. Available at:
https://historycooperative.org/the-history-of-social-media/.
Accessed on 04.04.2020.
5. Manafu, C. (18, February 2019). Social Media în România.
www.manafu.ro. Available at:
https://www.manafu.ro/2019/02/social-media-in-romania-2019/.
Accessed on 12.05.2020.

183
6. Micu, D. (8, December 2010). Semiotica imaginii vizuale.
www.ro.scribd.com. Available at:
https://ro.scribd.com/doc/44883432/SEMIOTICA-IMAGINII-
VIZUALE-de-profesorul-Dan-Micu. Accessed on 20.03.2020.
7. Miron, I. (23, May 2017).Semnificația figurării: Raportul dintre
limbajul verbal și limbajul visual. www.crevice.ro. Available
at :https://crevice.ro/semnificatia-figurarii-raportul-dintre-
limbajul-verbal-si-limbajul-vizual/. Accessed on 20.03.2020.
8. Rizescu, A. (n.d.). Aspecte teoretico-metodologice privind
comunicarea organizațională. www.armyacademy.ro. Available at:
https://www.armyacademy.ro/buletin/1_2005/a21.pdf. Accessed
on 28.05.2020.
9. Pahon, B.A. (n.d.). Public. Ce este publicul? Clasificări ale
publicurilor. www.stefamedia.com. Available at:
https://www.stefamedia.com/public-clasificari-ale-publicurilor/.
Accessed on 29.05.2020.

184
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Public Relations in the Online

Environment. Transilvania
Bank’s Online Promotion
Maria Diana Ungureanu

Abstract: This paper sets out to study the site as a form of corporate communication
with a role in promoting the company's image. At present, the Internet is no longer just
a new way to build relationships, to search to gain understanding, goodwill, sympathy
and public support by communicating with certain well-defined target audiences; the
Internet is a new living environment, one in which each participant has the potential to
be both a consumer and a sender of messages. This paper aims at presenting, in addition
to the theoretical aspects of the public relations online, a case study showing the
importance of the online promotion in a company that wants things to be well done, ideas
to be capitalised and dreams to be fulfilled, supporting people who have the courage to
do things differently. To exemplify these things, we must first talk about the notion of
the Internet, namely public relations, and only then about promotion. Basically, the case
study highlights a promotion strategy, at this moment Transilvania Bank going through
an intense stage from the beginning of March, when it had to decide and implement a lot
of actions adapted to the new reality.

Keywords: online environment, promotion, online banking, public relations.

186
1. Introduction

The development of the electronic communication, especially the

Internet, has thus opened another way, much easier and offering more
possibilities than all the others, for those who want or need to disseminate
to the public the information about their own organisations. However,
the need to have a website also implies a new type of challenge for the
organisation: by accepting to be more visible through the internet, the
organisation must also agree to become much more transparent, both in
relation to the external audiences and to its own members. Also, the
unprecedented proliferation of the information sources and the
considerable increase in the speed of the information dissemination make
the reputation of organisations more vulnerable in the Internet age, a
threat that requires careful monitoring of the presence of an organisation
in cyberspace. Moreover, unlike the printed material, the Internet is not
something you once browse and then put on a shelf or throw in the trash.
Thus, in addition to the fact that the information on the Internet is in a
continuous process of updating, the internet offers the chance of the
permanent exchange of information, of the interactive dialogue. It is
known that the public relations specialist must act without benefitting
from the advantages of the direct communication, such as eye contact or
non-verbal communication. In addition, the Internet offers an
organisation the opportunity to communicate directly with the audiences
it targets, giving up the contribution of the media. However, this
possibility is both an advantage and an assumed risk: an advantage
because the organisation decides upon the most appropriate ways of
communication and the opportunities it will use; a risk because no one
guarantees that the target audiences will access the information it
provides, just as there is no guarantee that there will not be a very large
proportion of visitors that were neither expected nor wanted.

2. Research

Banking without coming to Transilvania Bank

• The story of Transilvania Bank started 26 years ago in Cluj-

187
Napoca.
• 79% Romanian capital and 21% foreign capital.
• The first Romanian bank with a branch in Italy and the Republic
of Moldova.
• 4 main business lines: -Large Corporate; -Corporate; -SMEs; -
Retail.
It is important to have more time for yourself and at the same time
to know that you have control over your money in a safe, fast and easy
way. Thus, Transilvania Bank has self- banking options, meaning ways to
do banking ‘without coming to the bank’.

BT Pay application – it is free and helps you pay with your Android
phone, and regardless of the phone, it allows you to transfer money,
check your balance and control your cards directly from the phone -
change the trading limits, you can block them or unlock them.

Pay by phone

There is no need to stop talking to your friends or close other applications

that you use when you want to pay by phone. It is enough to unlock the
phone and bring it closer to the POS, without opening the application.

188
Unlock & Pay - fast and simple and you will not be asked for the PIN
code. You can see all the payment methods in the application settings and
it is good to know that you do not have any commission when you pay
by phone.

Do you want to send or request money from a friend?

If your friends also have BT Pay, all you have to do is select the person or
persons in the phone book and fill in the amount you send or request. If
not, it is just as easy to transfer money to them through the IBAN.
You can also transfer money between your cards easily, in one go.

Digital card? Yes, any card is visible for the first time in BT Pay.

What is a digital card? It is your newly issued card, which has exactly the
same characteristics as the one you will receive physically after a while.
Any BT card will arrive in BT Pay for the first time. You will be able to do
absolutely any operation with it - including withdrawals or online
payments.

Save with BT Pay. How?

189
From now on, it is easy to watch how you spend your money. You will
see in the application, for each card, a graph of your expenses, by areas:
utilities, supermarket, transport, leisure, etc. This will make it easier for

you to know where you can save.

Take control of your cards, digitally & physically

Yes, sometimes you want to know that everything is safe and in your
control. From now on, you can change the limit of your online and offline
transactions, cash withdrawals from ATMs and the number of
transactions that can be made with the card.

Easily manage payment obligations on your credit card

Do you write in your calendar when you have to pay your monthly
obligation? From now on there is no need. You can set the automatic
payment of the monthly obligations on the credit card, on the due date or
you can pay when you want, until the due date, through the special 'Feed
190
the card' button.
You will decide whether to pay the mandatory minimum amount or you
will pay the full amount used at the end of the previous month, so that
you no longer pay the interest.
In addition, the chart will help you see exactly what the balance and
payment obligations

Split the Bill

Did you go out with friends in town and realise you did not have cash?
Did you get a gift and want to share the cost with the rest of your friends?
All you have to do is pay by card and request money from the rest of the
people, selecting them from the list of contacts on the phone. The amount
can be divided equally or a different amount can be requested. People
from whom you request money must also use BT Pay.

Transfer between cards

191
 Whether you want to transfer money from your non-BT card to your
BT card or between your BT cards, you have the option to transfer
between cards. It is simple: choose the card you want to send money from,

and then the card you want to send.

Add non-BT card

From now on, you can add cards issued by other banks in Romania. What
can you do with them in BT Pay?
• Instant transfer from these cards to your BT cards;
• You will be able to send money instantly to your friends with BT
Pay.

Cash withdrawal

You will be able to generate a code, which can be used at any BT ATM, to
withdraw a certain amount of money. This functionality helps you in
situations when you do not have contactless ATMs and you do not have
the card with you, but you definitely need cash. Because sometimes it's a
mustache.

192
Expert sources consulted Support your favourite NGO and donate

Now it is easier than ever to donate to the causes you support. In BT Pay
you have a list of partner NGOs to which you can donate money directly
from the debit card, and the transaction is not commissioned. We
encourage good deeds.

Research results

In order to find out the clients' opinion about Internet Banking, a

questionnaire was created, being addressed to all clients, regardless of
age, but who use the bank's services in the online environment.
The questionnaire has 14 questions, with different answers. The first
3 questions are related to age, gender and occupation. The average age of
the 70 respondents is 35.1 years, 27 men and 43 women.
To the first question “How often do you access Transilvania Bank’s
website, 31.4% answered daily and 24.3%, less than once a month.
193
 To the second question, "How long have you been using our
products or services?", 85.7% said that for over 12 months.
To the third question, "When was the last time you bought a product
/ service?", over 32 respondents said they had more than 6 months since
the purchase.
To the fourth question, "What applications do you use most often",
over 50% of the answers were BT Pay.
To the question number 5, “What services do you benefit from BT?”,
almost 50% of the respondents chose the Current Account option.
When asked question no. 6 about the services accessed during the
pandemic, the results were shared almost equally between all the Bank's
online services.
For question 7, where the quality of the bank had to be evaluated,
the result was 6.57 out of a maximum of 7.
Question 8 on the quality of services during the state of emergency
was evaluated with a grade of 6.61 out of a maximum of 7.
To question 9, 23 respondents believe that Transilvania Bank’s
services are much better than those of the competing banks.
When asked question no. 10, 78.6% of the respondents
recommended BT products and services to others.
In questions 11 and 12, the degree of satisfaction with the bank's
products and their quality is over 60%.
For question no. 13, "What are the most important measures taken
by BT for safety and customer support during the Pandemic?", most of
the answers were “BT tried to reduce as much as possible the physical
contact with the clients, guiding them on the electronic channels,
introducing new online methods of enrollment and opening of products
and services, sending cards at home, and in case of physical contact in the
BT agencies, protective measures were taken, masks, gloves, protective
glass, entry into the agency one by one, daily disinfection.”
To the last question "Comments, suggestions and
recommendations", most respondents had no comments to make, and the
suggestion was to further develop the online part.

194
Conclusion

Internet advertising allows any company the chance to be known

internationally, its website can be accessed by users around the world.
This offers targeting possibilities that no other form of advertising can
offer, monitoring, interactivity (the consumer does not only see
advertising, s/he can interact with the product, s/he can find out the other
buyers’ opinions).
• By means of the internet advertising, the company can obtain
various information about site visitors, such as the area of origin, which
captures their attention on the site, the number of clicks and
demographics. Due to these advantages of the online communication,
the website can be adapted to the visitors’ needs, while TV or press
advertising does not allow you to know the exact number of people who
saw the ad.
Given the benefits of the online environment for promoting the
company's products and image, anyone who advertises should also use
online advertising with confidence, and those who already use it, should
give it more importance and a higher percentage of the promotion
budget.
• Transilvania Bank benefits from all forms of promotion; this is the
reason why it was also found on Facebook. At a glance, it could be noticed
the number of users who follow them and the attention their fans receive
every day. Facebook interacts with consumers and customers, knows
their behaviour and receives responses very quickly.
• The useful tricks that were noticed while studying Facebook were
the importance of the profile and cover photo to represent the company
as it is the first impression it leaves on the customer; an introduction
about the company on the profile is very important, as well as updating
the frequency of the state so that people can know what you are doing
and find out the latest news, to be active and interactive by getting
involved in discussions. All these things lead to a better development of
the activity.
Following this analysis, one proposal has been postulated:
Transilvania Bank’s website should try to increase the number of posts
195
per day, so that the public can interact with them more. Over time, this
issue could lead to a loss of readership.
In conclusion, Transilvania Bank benefits from all forms of online
promotion and is a real success, using non-aggressive advertising. In the
current situation, if they manage to maintain and solve their small
problems, they can have the first site in Romania in the banking field.

Bibliography:

1. Allert J. & Zawawi C. (2004). Strategy, Planning and Scheduling.

Public Relations Theory and Practice (J. Johnston & Zawawi C.).
Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.
2. Bădău H. M. (2011). Tehnici de comunicare în social media. Iași:
Polirom.
3. Boutlan J. J. (2003). Comunicare, semiotică și semne publicitare.
București: Tritonic.
4. Scott D. H. (2010). Noile reguli de marketing şi PR: cum să ajungi direct
la clienţi prin reţelele de socializare, bloguri, comunicate de presă, site-
uri video şi marketing viral” (Mircea Sabin Borş şi Irina Henegar).
București: Editura Publică.

Webography:

1. https://www.bancatransilvania.ro/
2. http://btintranet/Pages/category.asp
3. Sondaje. www.bancatransilvania.ro. Available at :
https://intreb.bancatransilvania.ro/ http://isondaje.ro/surveys/.

196
MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

The Impact of Using Online

Questionnaires with Instant
Response in the Educational
Environment.
Digital Interactivity during a
Pandemic
Maria Dorca Marițescu

Abstract: The aim of my research was to assess the impact of online questionnaires with
instant answer in the educational environment. This article aims to evaluate the impact of
using online questionnaires in the educational environment and analyzes the behavioral
trends of the participants in light of the results arrived at. The findings highlight the needs
that Romanian universities have, in order to be included in the top of modern 21st century
universities and shed light on the need for development and maintenance of various types
of online questionnaires used in education. Also, this study nuances how a new
technological solution for interactive communication and collaboration can be adopted in
different situations in the educational environment, in the current and future integration

197
scenarios, as well as the ways in which existing technological solutions can be reused in
order to avoid the individualistic paradigm, especially in this period, when online is the
solution. The results of this study reveal that collaborative learning and the involvement
of participants in virtual classes, through various online questionnaires, can improve
learning performance. The conclusions reflect the potential benefits of these online
questionnaires, both in the favour of those who already use them and those who want to
implement them in the future.

Keywords: online education, online learning, online questionnaires, online educational

tools, digital access, digital interactivity, online teacher, virtual student.

1. Introduction

Lately, in Romania, as well as in other countries, the "online" phenomenon

is experiencing unprecedented growth in a multitude of domains of
interest, from economics, politics, social life to education. For this reason,
most traditional educational functions and activities have moved online,
using applications, platforms and various tools and working methods for
the online educational environment.
Online education, being a major topic during this period, determines
us to reflect more deeply on the role of the teacher and the student in the
educational act, as well as on the interaction between them. Teaching in the
online educational environment requires not only an understanding of the
content, but also a constant concern about how this content is presented and
verified to have been understood by the virtual participants.
I believe that a challenge encountered by most people in the
educational environment, especially during this period, is to catch the
students’ attention and to maintain teacher-student interactivity during
online learning. How to provide the participant in the online educational
event with a relevant learning experience and to be sure that the
information transmitted has been understood?
The main purpose of this paper is to address this challenge, by

198
assessing the impact of using online questionnaires in the educational
environment and analyzing the behavioral trends of participants, based on
the results of the study.
In this paper, I will analyze the impact of using online questionnaires
with instant response in the educational environment, focusing on the need
for digital interactivity during a pandemic, given the current crisis
situation, due to the existing virus. I will conclude the paper with a few brief
general conclusions.
In short, the main outcome of this study is a "theoretical and
evaluative radiography" of these online tools in the educational
environment.

2. Case study - The impact of using online questionnaires with instant

response in the educational environment. Digital interactivity during a
pandemic.

By using the new technologies, teachers can save time, organize courses and
communicate more effectively with their students. The available support
applications allow students to engage actively in the educational act and
teachers to evaluate them as learning happens. By using real- time
querying, aggregating results, and visualizing, we can get an instant
perspective on the levels of understanding.

2.1. The objective of the study

Online learning technologies have been recently developed with speed and
innovation in hardware and software and are constantly evolving in all
areas, especially in education.
As more and more research begins to consider the integration of
pedagogical and technical aspects of innovative online learning
technologies in learning environments, we chose to conduct this study to
assess the impact of using these technologies in a university in Romania.

199
 Recent Internet and Web technologies help higher education
institutions design and provide online educational opportunities to meet
the needs of students and adults, such as convenience and flexibility. With
the help of these technologies, the number of online programs and courses
has increased significantly in the new century.
Despite the increasing number of online courses and programs, online
learning still faces several problems. One of the main concerns of online
learning is the high dropout rate. Many students easily leave online courses
and learning programs or go through them without satisfaction and
without being really involved in the educational act.
Keeping students' attention and interest in online education has been
actively researched for a long time. Several researchers have pointed out
that limiting school dropout and retaining online learners are essential in
online learning, as dropout rates are considered an important indicator of
online quality.
The main objectives that formed the basis of my research were:
evaluating the use of questionnaires in the active learning process;
investigating student involvement in the use of technology in the teaching
process; improving student involvement in the classroom.

2.2. Methodology used

The methodology used was qualitative research, which is necessary and

very important to highlight certain characteristics or behaviors.
In my research, I started by documenting the field of study and
collecting more detailed information from several case studies. The
information from the qualitative research studies reproduces the
information collected as accurately as possible and can be converted into
quantitative expressions by coding, and then subjected to certain
processing, e.g. counting and comparison to find out the frequency.
Then, I continued with the content analysis and data interpretation,
focusing the study on a central idea of the cases, I used several sources of

200
information (e.g. reports, questionnaires, testimonials, evidence,
documents) and I used the comparative method with similar cases, to find
the best solutions.
As a qualitative method, I used the case study for this paper. An
extensive literature review was conducted, which consisted of both formal
documentation sources (dissertations, organizational research, published
books) and more informal ones (blogs, wikis and websites).
This review examined the current context of technology, the current
digital policies, contemporary digital successes and challenges in schools.
Yoder J. D. defines the case study as “a research strategy that requires
empirical investigations into a particular contemporary phenomenon, in a
real-life context and using multiple sources of information (interviews,
questionnaires, testimonies, evidence, documents)".
Although the case study is not based on quantitative expressions, it
does involve some measurements. Based on specific questionnaires, I
extracted different concepts related to the central idea that underlies the
study. The samples I worked with were selected according to the purpose,
and the selection of participants was not random.
Also, I established that the thematic analysis is topical to represent a
current problem in the educational environment in this case. The data was
collected, then processed to provide the general factors that explain the
study and to provide a theoretical framework for future research.

2.3. The educational environment in the current context

A challenge encountered by most people in the educational environment,

especially during this period, is to catch students’ attention and to maintain
interactivity during the educational act. How can a relevant learning
experience be provided to the student in this context?
This question was the basis of my study. The participants in the study
were teachers and students in Romanian tertiary education, mainly from
the Politehnica University of Timișoara, but also in secondary education.

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 The number of participants in the two case studies exceeded 600
(between 120 and 250 people participating in running a questionnaire). The
two studies highlight the importance of using questionnaires during
courses and webinars.
The graphs presented in the following section show the results of the
tests during the classes and of the webinar presentations. The present
studies highlight the importance of interactivity and instant feedback.

2.4. Case study - Use of questionnaires with instant feedback at

Politehnica University of Timișoara

The platform used for this study is Socrative. I think one of its most
important features is instant feedback. Students can understand the content
of the course in real time, through personalized activities, and the teacher
can provide an answer on the spot, continuing the course in an adapted
form based on the feedback received.
The method presented in this paper is used during the Java Object
Oriented Programming course. Its structure is 3 course hours and 2
laboratory hours / 10 weeks + 4 evaluation weeks. Teaching a 3-hour
programming class using traditional methods, such as PowerPoint
presentations, can make the course boring, making it difficult for students
to follow the teacher's explanations for such a long time.
To increase the interactivity of this course, traditional pedagogical
methods were combined with interactive questionnaires, initiated on
students' mobile devices. Students had to answer these questions using
their own mobile phones. Teaching that includes initiating questions
during classes is more effective in getting good results from students than
teaching without questioning that students understood everything during
the traditional presentation.
Before using mobile phones during the course, it was checked if all
students have such a device. Fortunately, all the students had a smart
phone. If there had been students who did not have such a device, we could

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not have used the new method on grounds of discrimination.

Figure 1. The teacher's mobile interface for instant feedback

IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS
• Socrative allows the teacher to instantly connect with pupils or
students as learning happens.
• With this platform, the teacher can quickly assess students’
activity with prepared activities or quick questions to get an
immediate perspective on students' understanding.
• They can then use the instantly received results to determine the
best instructional approach, in order to continue teaching as
effectively as possible.
• The teacher can see the results in real time, for a single student or
pupil (as the case may be), or the statistics of the general results.
• Student results populate the teacher's screen while sending
answers to the questions received. Figure 1 presents the results for
one of the tests received by students from the Politehnica
University of Timisoara, in the Java Object Oriented Programming
course.

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 Figure 2. Differences in class scores on questions asked for two
consecutive weeks

IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS

• Figure 2 shows the differences in class scores for questions asked

for two consecutive weeks. According to the chart above, the
general trend is to improve results, but there are two particular
cases:
• The first question shows a slight decrease, which can be explained
by the fact that it is an easy question, and the students' lack of
attention resulted in selecting the wrong answer.
• The results for the second question do not exceed 60%. During the
study, I found that if the results are below 60%, it is considered
that the problems presented in class were not well understood and
with the help of feedback, the teacher must intervene and clarify
the specific ambiguities of that course or question, respectively.

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 Figure 3. Distribution of grades for two consecutive weeks -
same test
IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS

• In the study I used two tests for the same course. In week 3, the
test took place at the end of the course, and in week 4, at the
beginning of the course.
• The first tests at the beginning of the course contain questions
from the previous course, while the last ones, from the current
course. Figure 3 shows the comparative results for 2 consecutive
weeks for the same test.
• We can see an increase in results; students learn at home to get
good grades. Students perform better on tests previously
announced with recapitulation questions than on questions to
which they have not been exposed before.

2.5. Case study - Use of interactive questionnaires during webinars

Teachers are constantly looking for new ways to increase involvement

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and understanding among their students, and the tools they can use to
measure students' understanding are among the most valuable in the
modern toolkit. Public involvement is the most important thing one can
do during a presentation. This can easily happen in the educational act,
using a program that allows the audience to become part of the "story",
instead of just listening to it. Very often, the biggest problem of the
presenter is the uncertainty about what the audience thinks. One of the
best ways to find out what the public thinks is to use interactive
questionnaires. Conducting live surveys during a presentation session
can help the presenter get instant feedback and adjust the presentation
based on that feedback.
Next, I will present the results of the second study, namely, the
webinars from the Together Online series, initiated by the e-Learning
Center, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania.
During each webinar, between 120 and 500 participants were
present, both from the Politehnica University of Timișoara and from
many other universities in the country, as well as people from secondary
education, teachers and students.

Figure 4. Question asked in order to find out how well the participants
know the subject of the presentation and how the presenter can
continue the explanations based on these answers

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 I noticed that the predominant answer is to make projects and
presentations. That is why we need to consider these some of the
interactive questionnaires, in order to make learning as interactive and
effective as possible.

IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS
• The teacher can quickly connect with students, can interact and
better explain the concepts presented in the course.
• Facilitating conversation arising from the dynamic development of
the presented content.
• One can instantly check if there are any further questions about the
presentation.
• Teachers leave the individualistic paradigm, opting for open
learning.
• Presentations can easily turn into effective collaborative learning
conversations.
• Integration of open learning in education through anonymous
responses and debates on the outcome of the various cases
presented.

Conclusions - The pedagogical impact

According to the informal data collected from the presented studies I

concluded that:
• Collaborative learning significantly helps the learning performance
of students and enables the teacher to understand their level of
knowledge.
• Furthermore, pupils or students consider that their answers and
opinions are valuable for the teacher and colleagues. At the same
time, it is easy for the teacher to check how many students
understand the concept presented.
• Using online interactive questionnaires helped students to be more

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 active in class and to understand concepts and facilitates group
work.
• These tools also increase communication among teachers, especially
in the current context, and support the exchange of collaborative
information between them.
• Collaborative learning develops communication skills and enhances
collaboration between students and teachers.

Conclusions

The conclusions of this study reflect the potential benefits of online

questionnaires, both for the benefit of those who already use them and
those who want to implement them in the future.
Testing these tools experimentally in an academic environment, the
results of the studies reveal that collaborative learning and student
involvement in the classroom improve student learning performance,
develop communication skills and a spirit of collaboration between
pupils or students, increase interactivity between teacher and students,
but also between classmates, which positively influences collaborative
learning and student involvement in the educational act. Feedback
stimulates the process of directing, controlling and motivating learning
and can be the key to success, especially in e-learning.
Through the exchange of knowledge, in which students learn from
each other and develop interdependence, students and pupils are able to
effectively obtain a huge amount of information, which is useful in
generating new ideas for effective learning. The use of online
questionnaires in the educational act encourages students to contribute to
the answer and to express their opinion. Consequently, students
collaborate in the development of their own knowledge. The learning
method by using these interactive tools allows students to understand
more deeply about the subject and helps them to link new information
with previous knowledge.

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 I strongly recommend the constant use of instant feedback
questionnaires as a tool in the educational environment to improve the
active learning experience. Despite the fact that the cited researchers
emphasize the importance of feedback in electronic courses and although
I have demonstrated in previous studies its usefulness in the classroom,
the proper and correct use of feedback in electronic courses can still be
problematic.
Following this conclusion, I will provide some recommendations
that I consider beneficial for improving the use of online questionnaires
in the educational environment. Feedback is effective if the learning
objectives were achieved in the expected time, the students became more
motivated and independent in the learning process. However, most of the
time the most important part of using feedback is ignored. This consists
in the analysis of the students’ results, performed by the teacher, the
detection of the error and the correction, but also the modification of the
training process in the future.
Whatever the environment (digital or traditional), the teacher must
be very attentive to the content, form and timing of providing feedback.
Therefore, it is necessary to train teachers in advance, by acquiring
professional digital skills.
A limitation of these case studies is that they focus only on a certain
sample of people, namely, the users of these types of platforms.
Therefore, further research would be to test two different groups of
participants: users and non-users.

Bibliography:

1. Negara, C. (2017). Importanța Feedback-ului în cursurile electronice.

Tradiție și inovare în cercetarea științifică. Ediția 6, Vol.1, pp. 83-86, Bălți:
"Alecu Russo" State University. Available online at:
https://ibn.idsi.md/sites/default/files/imag_file/Traditie_si_novare_20
16_ed_VI_Colocviul_prof_I.pdf.

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Webography:

1. https://profaderomana.ro/. Accessed on 28.05.2020.

2. https://socrative.com/. Accessed on 01.05.2020.
3. Coca, D. M. & Slisko, J. (2013). Socrative Software and Smartphones
as Tools For Implementation of Basic Processes of Active Physics
Learning in Classroom: An Initial Feasibility Study With Prospective
Teachers, Vol.4. www.files.eric.ed.gov. Available at:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1052308.pdf. Accessed on
25.05.2020.
4. Online Together. www.elearning.upt.ro. Available at:
https://elearning.upt.ro/en/impreuna-online/. Accessed on:
15.04.2020
5. a.n. (n.d.). Polling for meetings. www.support.zoom.us. Available at:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/213756303-Polling-for-
meetings. Accessed on 23.03.2020.
6. Roster, C. A., Rogers, R. D., Albaum, G. & Klein, D. (1, May 2004). A
comparison of response characteristics from web and telephone
surveys. International Journal of Market Research. Vol. 46, Nr. 3, pp.
359-373. DOI: 10.1177/147078530404600301.
7. Yoder, J. D. & Hochevar, C. M. (20, November 2009). Encouraging
active learning can improve students ’performance on examination.
Teaching of Psichology. Vol. 32, Nr. 2, pp. 91-95. DOI:
10.1207/s15328023top3202_2.
8. Yourstone, S. A., Kraye, H. S. & Albaum, G. (January 2008).
Classroom questioning with immediate electronic response: do
clickers improve learning? Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative
Education. Vol. 6, Nr.1, pp. 75–88. DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-
4609.2007.00166.x.

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MASTERCOM
Politehnica Graduate Student Journal of Communication
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2020

Crisis Communication
in the Age of Digital Media
Flavia Mezzetti
Ana-Maria Popescu

Abstract: It is known that every organization or company is vulnerable to crises. In

the age of Social Media, used effectively, public relations can prevent a critical situation
from resulting in irreparable damage to the business’s reputation. In order to
understand the importance of public relations, we have chosen to present a real case of
crisis communication, an example of how not to manage a crisis, Carolina Girls, which
gives us the opportunity to display our take on a situation like this, together with our
suggestions on how the situation should have been managed from a PR standpoint.

Keywords: crisis communication, digital media, crisis management, public relations

1. Crisis Communication

In the information age, also known as the digital age, “going viral” is not
always a positive thing. This is a period characterised by a significant
change in the way people interact with businesses and each other.
Because information is free and readily available for everyone, the

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distribution of power between organizations and customers has
changed.
The digital age allows the customer to access the latest
information. Because of that, they can now filter what they see in social
media about products and brands. We can say that, in this new age,
the customer, rather than the brand, controls the interaction. But what
do we do when going viral affects our organization or our brand? Bad
news travels instantly and is very important to act quickly in order to
avoid misinterpretation.

1.1. Defining crisis communication

A crisis is seen as a sequence of unwanted events in an organization,

which leads to uncertainty and causes major harm to the organization
and its employees. It is very important for an organization to sense the
early signs of crisis and warn the employees about the negative
consequences, as a crisis not only affects the smooth functioning of the
organization but also poses a threat to the brand name.
Crisis communication deals with the reputation of the
individuals as well as of the organization. In other words, crisis
communication is an initiative that aims at protecting the reputation
of the organization and maintaining its public image (Coman, 2009,
pp. 3-18).
Egelhoff and Sen define crisis communication as the result of
“environmental threats correlated with the organization's weaknesses;
it occurs when environmental threats interact with the weaknesses in
the organization” (Egelhoff and Sen, 1992, p. 447).
In the past, organizational crises were considered a threat to the
activity of an organization. A fire could cripple production, a damaged
machine would not meet the demand for products, and a massive
storm could block the railways. However, crises also have a
reputational element. Barton considers that a crisis does inflict harm
on the organization’s reputation because of the negative information

212
 it generates about the organization (Barton, 2001, pp. 225-262).
Nowadays, it is appropriate to distinguish between operational crises
and reputational crises (Sohn & Lariscy, 2014, pp. 23-43). We have to
take into consideration that a crisis can affect both, but one of the two
factors may dominate a crisis.
There are many different definitions of a crisis, but what is very
important to know is the fact that a crisis can have negative
consequences if it is not handled properly. It can create three related
threats: public safety, financial loss and reputation loss. All of these
threats are interrelated, because, for example, injuries or deaths will
reflect in financial and reputation loss, while reputation will affect the
financial resources of an organization (Coombs, 2007, p. 3).
In most cases, a crisis is seen as an event that creates or has the
potential to create a negative image to an organization and that may
affect its profitability, development or even survival (Lerbinger, 1997,
p. 4). Coombs and Holladay think that the way in which we define a
crisis determines whether we see its interconnection with issues,
brand equity and risk (Coombs & Holladay, 2010, p. 5).

1.1.1. Crisis Management

Crisis management can be defined as a process designed to prevent or
reduce the damage a crisis can inflict on an organization. Frandsen and
Johansen highlight the fact that, in many organizations, crisis
management and crisis communication are seen as only one discipline
that is based on a very important principle: “no crisis management
without communication, and no crisis communication without
management, when a crisis breaks out” (Frandsen & Johansen, 2017, p.
10).
In fact, we cannot reduce crisis communication to only one
operational or tactical activity and wait for the management team to
activate it after they have decided which strategy is better to apply in
order to handle and solve the crisis. Crisis management is designed to

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protect an organization and its stakeholders from threats and/or reduce
the impact felt by threats.

1.1.1.1. Stages of Crisis Communication

When we speak about crisis management we see it as only one thing, but
as a process, crisis management can be divided into three phases: (1) pre-
crisis, (2) crisis response, and (3) post-crisis (Chiciundean & David, 2011,
pp. 42; Coombs, 2007, p. 3).

(1) Pre-crisis phase

The pre-crisis phase is concerned with prevention and preparation. For

good crisis prevention, mitigation and communication response it is
necessary to elaborate a strategic business plan (Coombs & Holladay,
2010, p. 2). Coombs says that prevention involves seeking to reduce
known risks that could lead to a crisis. Pre-crisis stage should be
considered as a part of an organization’s risk management program. As
a rule, preparation involves creating the crisis management plan,
selecting and training the crisis management team, and conducting
exercises to test the crisis management plan. At this phase, the crisis
management team has the challenge to face crises before they occur and
adopt this stage planning process, because it represents the essential
foundation for any effective crisis management (Coombs, 2006, pp. 123-
137).

(2) Crisis-response phase

The crisis response phase occurs when the management team must
actually respond to a crisis. During this stage, the crisis management
team have to face the crisis, assess the situation and be prepared to
recommend action. As recommended, it is assumed that there is a crisis
management plan, and the crisis team have to implement crisis
communication and clearly assign roles and actions. At this stage, there
are a lot of tasks that deal with public relations in organizations during

214
crises. Most of them are related to the mental image of the institution or
to solving emerging problems.
If the previous phase has led to the development of crisis plans,
then the organization may have a relative control over the way the crisis
will trigger. Even so, if the organization cannot prevent and control the
crisis, they should be able to control the information that is distributed.
This is a very important moment, because the public and the mass media
are aware of the crisis and will watch their moves (Coman, 2009, p. 55).
At this stage, the crisis management team and PR specialists have
to build strong messages around the framework of compassion and
take action related to the context. It is recommended for the company
brand and reputation to take genuine and authentic actions that align
with the company values and culture. People will remember when a
company does the right thing.

(3) Post-crisis phase

Once the crisis is over, the organization should broadcast a final

statement which summarizes what happened and the steps that will be
taken in order to restore the normal state of facts. At this phase, it is
recommended to look for ways to better prepare for the next crisis and
to fulfill commitments made during the crisis phase including follow-up
information. The post-crisis phase is seen as an opportunity for follow-
up communication. The crisis management team should review the
lessons learnt from the crisis, which may reduce the likelihood of
recurrence and prevent repetition (Coombs & Holladay, 2010, p. 9).
The organization should update their key messages and rely on
them in order to provide consistent information to their audiences. It is
important to know that reputation repair can be used in the crisis
response phase, post-crisis phase or both (Coombs, 2007, p. 9).

215
1.1.1.2. The Crisis Management Plan
Coombs believes that a crisis management plan is “a reference tool, not
a blueprint’’. This plan should provide information, remind the
organization of what should typically be done in a crisis, and make
available for use documents for the crisis response. It is important to
know that “a crisis management plan is not a step-by-step guide, but it
helps the team to save time during a crisis by pre-assigning some tasks,
pre-collecting some information, and serving as a reference source’’
(Coombs, 2007, p. 4).
The documents drawn up for the crisis management plan should
also include details about the audiences, contact information and
messaging. During a crisis, this information must be easily accessible,
reviewed, tested and constantly updated.

1.1.1.3. The Crisis Management Team

The crisis management team manages events, potential risks and the
harm caused by the crisis. Whether an organization is preparing a plan
in case of a crisis or is caught in an ongoing crisis, one of the biggest
factors that will determine success or failure is the strength of the crisis
management team. In order to create a strong team, it is very
important to choose the right people, according to their individual
strengths.
A strong and effective crisis management team should be tested
regularly. The core members of the group will help to analyze the
circumstances, determine if the plan works for action, and implement
it in order to minimize the damage caused by the crisis. A crisis
management team is very valuable for an organization, because the
team has already decided on who will do the specific tasks required in
a crisis. The result of all these actions saves time (Coombs, 2007, p. 4).

1.1.2. Role of Public Relations in Crisis Communication

Crisis communication specialists strive hard to overcome tough

216
situations and help the organization come out of difficult situations in
the best possible and quickest way. For this reason, public relations
specialists play a key role in preparing spokespersons for handling
questions from the news media. In crisis management, the media
relations element of public relations is a highly valued skill. The public
relations team is responsible for providing training and support,
because in most cases, they are not the spokespersons during the crisis
(Coombs, 2007, p. 4).
Effective crisis management is highlighted by the sequential way
in which the threats are handled. In all organizations, the primary
concern in a crisis has to be public safety. That is why, understanding
public perception on the risk is essential. A good PR specialist should
find out how the public perceives the risk and should take that into
consideration when communicating anything. Therefore, the
communication effort should be directed towards understanding the
risk. Also, it is very important to involve the press in this process in
order to better understand the story if problems arise .
It is known that a crisis may affect the reputation of an
organization, but also the credibility, legitimacy and development of
an entire field. The role of a public relations and communication
specialist is a strategic one. They should be able to handle the situation
in a very professional way and should know that everything they do
(talking about crisis communication or implementing a
communication plan) has one ultimate goal: to overcome the crisis
situation and to restore the confidence in the organization image and
culture.
During the crisis, honesty is essential. The organization has to
speak from the point of view of public interest, not of its own interest.
It is very important for the organization to be transparent, because this
means total openness to the public information requirements and
those who are responsible to inform the mass media and journalists
(Coman, 2009, p. 112).
Moreover, media communication, the external but also the

217
 internal one, must be coordinated by a trained and capable person
who has in-depth knowledge of the activities and characteristics of the
organization. In most cases, the PR specialist is the one who saves,
recomposes or recreates the image of an organization affected by a
crisis.

2. Case Study: Carolina Girls

2.1. Description

In order to have a better understanding of all the concepts discussed

above and to further deepen our research about the subject, we have
chosen to present a real case of crisis communication, analysing how it
happened and the manner in which it was managed. The case we have
chosen is an example of how not to manage a crisis, which gives us the
opportunity to display our take on a situation like this, together with our
suggestions on how the situation should have been managed from a PR
standpoint.
The case takes place in the summer of 2016, in South Carolina, USA,
the homeland of the jewelry and gift store Carolina Girls, but also of
Casey Parham, a teenage girl of colour who spends her summers at her
family home in Kiawah Island. The story starts with Casey walking into
the jewelry store with her friend, looking for a new wallet. As soon as
she walks in, one of the salespersons, a middle-aged white woman, turns
to her younger colleague and allegedly says the word “shoplifter” whilst
subtly pointing at the teenage girl. The saleswomen giggle and Casey
immediately puts the wallet back and leaves the store.
Once home, Casey tells the story to her mother, Rene Syler who, to
the store’s misfortune, is a local blogger with a fairly good reach. Upon
hearing the news, Rene first shares her daughter’s story on her Facebook
Page, where it goes viral. The post gets over 1000 shares and 400
comments and people start leaving negative comments on the store’s
official Facebook Page as well. She then shares her story on Twitter as

218
well. As a response, Carolina Girls posts a public apology to Rene on
their official page:

Fig. 1. Carolina Girls’ first response (via goodenoughmother.com)

After the official statement, the store sent a personal email to Rene’s
address reading the following:

“Dear Ms Rene Syler,

We wanted to reach out to you to discuss what happened at our Kiawah
Island location yesterday. We are sorry for anything that was said or
done by anyone that upset your daughter. We are very aware of the
challenges people face in today’s society and certainly would never
minimize the existence of prejudices. We want you to know that
personally we are a multi-cultural family and professionally we are a
multi-cultural business. We will be using all of our resources to help us
piece together what happened in the store. But in the meantime we
wanted to personally apologize to you and daughter.”

Another few hours later, the brand released a second statement on

their official Facebook Page:

219
 Fig. 2. Carolina Girls’ second response (via goodenoughmother.com)

The post inevitably triggered a decent amount of criticism, with

people leaving negative comments and opinions all over the internet, in
the form of tweets, Facebook mentions, reviews and so on. In response,
Carolina Girls started deleting the comments that put them in a bad
light, but the one thing they could not delete was the Yelp reviews, as

220
this particular website does not allow that. Their solution for this matter
was to create a fake account, then leaving fake positive reviews to
counter all the negative ones. Their next step was to shut down their
Facebook Page completely, pulling the head-in-the-ground move and
hoping that everything will pass by (Sources:
https://oursocialtimes.com/6-examples-of-social-media-crises-what-
can-we-learn/, https://www.goodenoughmother.com/2016/08/monday-
motivation-dollars-sense-experience-with-carolina-girls/, accessed on
February 22, 2019).
Finally, after everything else had failed, Carolina Girls pulled out
their last resort solution: setting up an interview for a news channel, with
the owner of the chain. The interview was an attempt to prove their
implication and care for the family, but, unfortunately for the brand, all
they managed to do was to attract even more attention on the whole
situation and more online criticism.

2.1.1. Their Strategy

After getting familiar with the subject, we took a closer look at it,
analysing it from three perspectives.

2.1.1.1. Internal Communication

There is no certain way to know exactly the company’s internal strategy
regarding the crisis, but there are some things we can assume might have
happened internally. Taking into consideration the brand’s public
responses, we can assume that their Social Media Manager was
instructed to act as fast as possible in crisis situations, giving the Public
Relations Team time to react and come up with a more detailed and
competent response.
Now, it was time for them to start acting in accordance with their
crisis plan, or, if not properly prepared, start planning their course of
action. The following messages the chain released show at least some
kind of internal communication, as they state an extensive investigation

221
has been conducted in that location of the chain. We are led to believe
someone with a higher hierarchical level has visited or at least contacted
the employees of that particular location. However, there is no possible
way for us to know whether the culprit was found or not, since we can
never know if the second release was true or just a cover-up.
After realising their efforts did not pay off, we assume their
internal communication intensified and, as we see it, the process could
have taken one out of two turns. They either hosted a brainstorming
session and the best solution they could come up with was the idea of
“going under” and hoping everything will go away, or a state of chaos
has taken over the team in charge with crisis management, which
resulted in their Facebook page being closed.

2.1.1.2. Public and Mass-Media Communication

Even if their internal communication process is not public information,
the store’s external communication strategy was more conspicuous.
Obviously, their first step was to release a statement as quickly as
possible. Their first statement was an apology to Rene and her daughter
and an assurance that measures will be taken.
The second step was to send a private email directly to Mrs. Syler
with a personal apology and, again, assurance that the case will be
looked into.
Next, they posted a second response on their social media, assuring
both the victims and the general public that the matter had been
investigated, and that they were sure the bullying did not come from
one of their employees, but instead, from another client present in the
shop at the same time as Casey. They also apologized once again and
said they would reach out to Rene Syler privately.
Now steering away from the new media towards the traditional
ones, Carolina Girls also tried to implement a strategy regarding mass-
media communication. Carolina Girls did reach out to a local news
channel, in an attempt to prove they did everything in their power to
meet with Rene and her daughter and set things straight once and for

222
all. The interview was given by the owner of the store chain, Stephanie
Davis, but it did not meet expectations.

2.1.1.3. Structure and Quality of the Message

Although the strategies the brand used were fairly legitimate in theory,
it was practice where they really lacked expertise. For us, it is obvious
that the company’s intentions were generally good; however, the
composition and approach of their messages were particularly poor.
Naturally, we are going to start by analysing the first Facebook post,
which read the following:

“As a business we are very sad to see these comments on our social media. We take
pride in serving all of our customers with respect and enthusiasm every single day.
Please trust that we will absolutely look into exactly what happened yesterday. To
Ms Rene Syler, we truly apologize for anything anyone said or did that upset your
daughter during her time in our store. We will be reaching out to you to discuss
what happened and hopefully we can move forward in a positive way.” (source:
goodenoughmother.com)

As far as their first response is concerned, the overall message was

actually reasonable, although the very beginning of it could have been
better. In our opinion, it was not the best idea to start off with a self-
centered sentence. The fact that they chose to open the statement with
the idea of them being sad because of their imagine being harmed makes
them look slightly self-centered and tactless. A better tactic would have
been to begin with either the apology itself or the acknowledgement of
the situation.
The next part of the statement was appropriate, we believe. They
did apologise and address the fact that the situation needed more
attention on their part. They also stated they would reach out to the
victim personally, which again, was a wise call. Whether they actually
complied or not is to be discussed further on. All in all, we consider that,
as a public apology, this was a completely acceptable one and, if they

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were to stop there with their social media actions, the situation would
have looked at least slightly better for them in the end.
The next part of their communication strategy was contacting Mrs.
Syler personally, via email:

“Dear Ms Rene Syler,

We wanted to reach out to you to discuss what happened at our Kiawah Island location
yesterday. We are sorry for anything that was said or done by anyone that upset your
daughter. We are very aware of the challenges people face in today’s society and
certainly would never minimize the existence of prejudices. We want you to know that
personally we are a multi-cultural family and professionally we are a multi-cultural
business. We will be using all of our resources to help us piece together what happened
in the store. But in the meantime we wanted to personally apologize to you and
daughter.
Carolina Girls
Charleston, SC” (source: goodenoughmother.com)

In our opinion, the idea of sending a private email to the victim,

since her email address was public on her blog, was a good one, as in
theory, it gave her a way of writing to them privately, as well as
establishing a more personal connection. Unfortunately, the message
and the overall structure of the email was not the best. However, let us
start with the positive aspects. First of all, they do apologise twice in the
email and they do address the challenges black people may face in
today’s society. Secondly, a good approach they used was referencing
their own family and therefore giving the problem a more personal feel
and, at the same time, giving an insight into their own family values as
well. Along with this, they reassured Rene of the fact that the matter will
indeed be closely analysed.
On the other hand, this email had some mistakes that
unfortunately took away the good intentions the brand may have
originally had. The most obvious mistake from our perspective is the
fact that the email is not signed by a person, but rather generically, by
their brand. This makes all of their previous efforts to look and feel more
personal fade away, since the whole strategy would be to make the email

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feel as if the connection is with a real person, and not a cold and
impersonal company. This truly distracts from the apology seeming
heartfelt. Another mistake was not to make a clear invitation and set a
face-to-face meeting.
The third and last written piece of communication they provided
was their second Facebook post:

“We have conducted an extensive investigation into what actually transpired at our
store yesterday. After an in-depth inquiry conducted with every employee at the store,
not one of them witnessed any such incident as has been alleged. We are as shocked as
the rest of you that this type of slur would be uttered anywhere near, much less in our
store. We can only conclude that the comment may have come from young shoppers
in the store at the same time as Ms. Parham. Since none of our employees saw Ms.
Parham either, it would be difficult to verify, but one thing that is certain is that we
have zero tolerance for any slight or mistreatment of even one of our valued clientele.
If this had occurred at our store, the employee would no longer be in our hire. While
we are greatly relieved that this was not a comment made by one of our employees, we
can’t be held responsible for the actions of shoppers in the store. This is not behavior
we’re accustomed to seeing, and we’re very sorry that anyone patronizing our store
would offer such an inappropriate accusation as this, simply to be hurtful. That is not
our culture and it’s not our style. We’re sorry for the consternation this alleged incident
created. We are relieved to report the result of our inquiry but are sorry if it did in fact
happen in our store. We’ll reach out to Ms. Syler privately as well and hope we can get
her into the store for the positive experience we are devoted to delivering to every
customer who walks in the door.” (source: goodenoughmother.com)

This message is where they really missed the mark, by not knowing
where to stop. In their despair of clearing the brand’s name, they made
the unacceptable mistake of implying that the victim had lied. The way
the writer built this statement makes it sound fake and accusatory.
The beginning of the message tries to explain their efforts to unfold
what exactly happened at the store, but ends up being terribly vague
and unverifiable. They even admit that it is virtually impossible to
certify who exactly spoke the demeaning words. Moving forward, the
writer continues with his second mistake of tossing the blame. It is no
secret that everybody’s first reaction to an accusation is denial, but

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blaming the misstep on their own clients who, at the end of the day are
the ones who bring them the profit, only made them look even more
repulsive to their own audience. Even if that was indeed the case, this
was not the way to handle the situation. In the following sentences, the
brand states twice that they are relieved not to be the culprit after all,
making it seem as if they had tangible proof to clear their employees’
names.
In the end, they express their wish to contact Ms. Syler privately
again and finally set a face-to-face meeting. As Rene declared on her blog
and social media posts, this never materialized, but even if it had, we
believe it would have already been too late. In our opinion, this should
have been one of their first steps in figuring what happened at the store.
Meeting them in person would have given Rene and Casey the chance
to further explain the course of action of that day and, at the same time,
create the impression of being more involved and actually making an
effort to find the truth.

2.1.2. Risk Management

What the brand California Girls did by poorly managing this crisis
situation was, first and foremost, seriously harm their brand image.
Secondly, by not knowing how to react to a crisis situation, they
undoubtedly lost some fans and brought a lot of negative attention to
themselves. Also, the closure of their official Facebook Page cost them a
two-month gap in their social media posts, meaning a two-month gap in
their social media presence and marketing, between July and September
2016.
Although this may not seem such great loss for a rather big
company, we would like to emphasize how quickly the situation
escalated, taking a toll on the whole chain as a result of the ignorance of
one particular employee in one particlar location.

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Conclusions

Public Relations Specialist’s Perspective

After analysing the Carolina Girls case, as PR specialists, we can safely
say that the company’s approach to managing a crisis situation was
highly unprofessional and immensely defective. However, they did not
start on the wrong foot from the very beginning, their first response to
the accusations being close to what a public relations or crisis
communication specialist would have probably done.
Swiftness is crucial when dealing with a crisis, therefore giving a
fast response, acknowledging and addressing the problem as soon as it
occurs should always be a priority. This is why, Carolina Girls’ fast
public response on their Facebook Page was a very good idea. It is true,
the message could have been written better, in a less egocentric manner
but, all in all, they did apologise and address the situation as soon as
they could. If they had stopped there with their public statements, the
situation would have never deteriorated as bad as it did. Next, they tried
to establish a more personal connection with the victim which, from a
PR perspective, is again a very important step in such situations.
However, not signing a direct email with the name of the person who
wrote it and instead signing it generically with the company’s name
does not accomplish that. People want to talk and connect to other
people, equal to them, not to businesses or brands. At this stage of the
crisis, the recommended course of action would be trying to initiate a
face-to-face meeting with the alleged victim in order to strengthen the
personal connection and show involvement. The company could have
easily avoid what followed by simply composing a better message and
meeting with the victim in person. If the meeting had gone decently, the
crisis might have ended there.
Despite everything else, the brand’s second and final public
statement was undoubtedly the worst decision they could have made,
at least from a PR standpoint. In managing a crisis, some of the worst
things a company can do is lie, blame the alleged mistake on somebody
else without having any proof, or be insensitive to the parts involved.

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With their last statement, Carolina Girls made all these three mistakes at
once. Of course, we cannot know whether they lied about the
investigation conducted, but we do know they lied about setting a
meeting with the mother and daughter. Moreover, they blatantly called
the victim a liar and relentlessly blamed the racist remark on another
shopper, another client of theirs, after all. In our opinion, this is where
they completely lost the fight. These were all solutions that a crisis
communication specialist would have never advised upon doing. The
natural response from their audience was unsurprisingly critique and
anger. Consequently, this triggered another reprehensible idea on the
company’s part. Deleting bad reviews and creating fake positive ones
should never be a solution for anything. People eventually figured it out
and the audience only got more and more outraged. At that moment, the
lack of public relations expertise was obvious, which is why the next
move did not shock us. To put an end to everything, Carolina Girls chose
the “head in the sand” strategy, by deleting their entire official page and
putting a stop to any kind of public communication. A good
communicator knows that hiding everything under the mat is never the
best way to avoid criticism.
To sum it all up, Carolina Girls’ reaction to this particular crisis
situation was not the best. Their crisis communication strategy lacked
professionalism and cost them their brand image. It is true that a racial
accusation is not an easy subject to deal with, as it asks for some degree
of crisis communication and public relations expertise, which not every
medium-sized company affords, but the brand could have at least
shown more diplomacy and compassion in managing the problem.

Suggestions for Better Crisis Management

It is known that every organization or company is vulnerable to crises.
Used effectively, public relations, even if we talk about outsourced
public relations if the company does not have an internal department,
can prevent a critical situation from resulting in irreparable damage to
the business’s reputation.

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 After presenting and analysing the Carolina Girls case, we can
certainly say that there was a lack of communication. If they really want
to recover from the effects of the crisis they have gone through, they
must improve their communication, because it is an essential part of
trying to control any crisis situation. It is the responsibility of the
company to provide information about what is happening and what the
company is planning to do to solve the problem.
In order to improve their image and avoid or prevent such crisis
situations, we suggest they organise an awareness training for their
employees. In addition, they need to review the situation, learn from it
and also consult a public relations specialist to help them set the next
direction of communication for the company. We believe that public
relations is the backbone of any company, as it is the administrative
system which cares about the image of the company inside and outside.
The technological advancements in communication and
information processes have greatly impacted our daily lives. In the age
of digital communication and social media, information can be accessed
very quickly and people are able to share experiences and opinions
across borders and time constraints. That is why, it is of utmost
importance for any organization or institution to react and be prepared
to face a crisis, to hopefully prevent a crisis, to quickly end the crisis or
to meet the crisis as a challenge and create a positive opportunity.

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