PROCEDURE MANUAL FOR PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL

Compiled By / Ms Akhona Shumane Cakata
Recommended By / Director Strategic Management
Approved By / Municipal Manager
Adopted / Council
To be Reviewed / Annually / As frequently as is needed
  1. INTRODUCTION

The Municipal Relations Unit is amongst other things responsible for the overall branding and marketing of the municipality. Through various promotional materials we are able to partly meet this goal. When marketing you need to consider that first impressions do indeed count and that your product will most probably reach shores you never imagined possible thus selling your brand to a new and unknown market, as such is becomes important that you are innovative and do not go for the norm – try new things- so as to sell yourself as an innovative organisation.

  1. BACKGROUND

The Municipal Relations Unit was formed in 2009 as part of the Strategic management Directorate. It is under the Director of Strategic management and led by the Municipal Relations Manager. There are 3 divisional employees: Events Management Officer, and two communication and marketing officers.

The Office previously ordered material but there was no manual on how the material should be distributed and such the promotional material was distributed haphazardly with no single point of distribution. The material therefore did not serve its purpose, so this prompted the development of this document in order to ensure that money spent by the municipality does not amount to fruitless expenditure.

  1. PURPOSE

The purpose of this document is to give guidelines on the following:

  • Types and uses of Promotional Material,
  • Persons accountable for the material,
  • Systems in place for distributing the material.
  1. Types and Uses of Promotional Material

The types of promotional material which will be procured will vary and the way in which it will be distributed will be dependent upon which stakeholders will be receiving it. The promotional material will be used as a marketing tool for the following:

  • At IDP road shows and on awareness campaigns
  • As Corporate Gifts at Key institutional events;
  • At the radio show in which various Municipal Representatives speak on weekly
  • As gift packs for our newsletter competitions;
  • For branding and communications and reselling

Below are some of the ways in which it will be used.

4.1IDP Road shows

For the IDP Road shows, Rep Forums, we may use this material- like the T-shirts, stressballs, caps, lanyards, wallets, etc

4.2Executive Mayor:

drimac/windbreaker- Raincoat, Duster pants, jackets and tracksuit. A small box of certain promotional items (folders, booklets, pens, stressballs, bandannas, will be given to the Mayors Office, so that as he is our biggest ambassador, he will be able to hand these out as he sees fit on his visits/meetings

4.3Political and Administrative leaders:

Olive Green/Black blazers with, Mnquma half colours,shirts& ties. The idea is that we resell them to the Councillors and /Management for at least half of what the blazers cost so that they may also value these and not take them for granted. The aim is that these are worn at council meetings so that there is some uniformity as well as an air of dignity, formality or elegance that such a meeting is supposed to come with.

4.4Communication:

The unit needs to be well branded so that they make themselves visible as part of ensuring that the unit is visible as well as promoting one centre for communication we plan to have “Communication Days” “PR Days” on Fridays where the unit will be dressed in these T-shirts/Jackets and hand out flyers/ questionnaires to internal employees, as well as go to various places in Mnquma (Butterworth, Ngqamakwe, Centane) to hand out information leaflets/brochures about different municipal services. When there’s a big event the different media present, will identify Communications easily.

4.5School Career Exhibitions:

Writing Pads, pens, t-shirts, rulers, pencil cases, Key Holders, etc. Can be used here

4.6Corporate Gifts:

Tape Measures, towels, Photo Frames, Key Holders, Memory Sticks, Business Card Holders, etc. These can be handed out to some people who grace our event- like guest speakers at our events.

4.7Internal branding:

The promotional material will also be used to incorporate the Mnquma Brand into the daily lives of officials, through having a string presence of the logo through the following:

4.7.1 Candles:

There will be 10 Candles sets, each to be kept by the different Directors as well as communications-these will be used at any event which requires that we light candles; we will also use them at memorial services. There will be one for the institution and various ones for the directors.

4.7.2 Tea Sets:

There will be branded Tea sets for all the Directors as well as the institution these too like candles are to be kept at the Executive offices (the secretary can keep them as well) to be used for various meetings.

4.7.3 Mats and Flags:

The mats will be used at reception areas and flags in the reception as well as offices

4.7.4 Clocks:

These will be used at reception areas

4.7.5 Photo Frames/Collages:

These too can be displayed on reception area walls of all the various buildings as well as any key historic moments which can be place in the board rooms as well.

4.7.6 Reselling:

Laptop bags, Business Card Holders, Handbags, branding file holders, squeeze bottles, key holders, USB’s, Small Flasks and Mugs, Various Golf caps, Various caps, various pens, can be resold to the Mnquma staff.

  1. Roles and Responsibilities

The system that will be used for promotional material as follows:

  • The Custodian of (the one who will account) the promotional material should be the Municipal Relations Unit Manager- and he will be assisted by one communication Officer- the one who’s s Key Performance Area is promotional material.
  • The person who will issue the material/be operational will be the communication officer who will be accounting to the manager monthly.
  • Once the material arrives both manager and communication officer will dedicate time to ensuring that all the stock is received and that it is what they ordered. These will then be stored in a store room.
  • The office which was previously being used by the events officer has an adjoining small kitchenette and can be used as the store room.
  • The office in question will have the door lock changed so that only MRU Manager and officer have that key and a burglar gate will be installed to ensure that these are the only people with access to the material.
  1. IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURES- HOW WILL THE MATERIAL BE ISSUED?

Informing the employees

  • Once the material has arrived, a memo/correspondence will be circulated to all employees on what we have in stock .We will also tell them about procedures for getting some items
  • The Municipal Relations Unit has an IGR component In it- The officer in charge of IGR will write to the manager telling the manager of the said meeting, what type of meeting it is, who will be there and how many people are attending and then state that they will need folders as they will have hand-outs and they will require pens and writing pads
  • This Memo will be signed by the director and then sent through to municipal relations who will file the information and issue the requested content.
  • The Municipal Relations Unit may then also suggest adding something else which the unit may have overlooked like a plastic/paper bag and maybe a business card holder- IGR is attended by Decision makers, so these people are always attending other meetings, so you would want to have them using your business cardholder as it will be seen in many places.
  • The requestor will then come collect their order once the MRU confirms that it is ready and all necessary paperwork is ready- so that the requestor signs and confirms receipt thereof.

Items to be resold

  • The unit in consultation with BTO will have a system where, if someone wants to buy something, then they firstly pay and get a receipt from BTO. They would then come to collect the material from Municipal Relations and leave a copy of the receipt with MRU, who would then attach the copy to their book, so as to able to include these in the monthly reports.
  • The amounts paid for promotional material would then be credited back into the Municipal Branding Vote so that we may be able to further buy promotional material. No material will be given on credit. Once the promotional material arrives, all the different material will be grouped according to its purpose and that will be documented in the first stocktaking
  • The unit will then have the task of compiling a monthly report based on what they took out that month as well as what they have left and what needs to be bought again.
  • There will be quarterly audits on the material as well as its effectiveness as you may find that some things are quickly finished and others are left in abundance.
  1. MONITORING

Monitoring that this system works best will be the responsibility of the Manager. He will review the document and procedure and ensure that the internal channels are adhered to when distributing the material.

  1. REPORTING

Monthly, adhoc and quarterly reports will be done to determine how much of the material has been used and for what it was used for. So as to ensure that all the expenditure is accounted for.

  1. NON ADHERENCE TO PROCEDURES

Non Adherence to these procedures may result in stock being unaccounted for and this will in turn result in disciplinary measures.

  1. Approval of the Manual

This manual will go through an approval process by being recommended by the Director Strategic Management and being approved by the Municipal Manager.

It will work hand in hand with the promotional material policy.

  1. REVIEW OF THE MANUAL

This Manual will be reviewed as and when the need arises/as often as the policy is reviewed.