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PR is an increasingly vita marketing tool – especially as traditional forms of advertising struggle to catch consumers attention. The goal of PR is usually to secure positive coverage in the media, and the tactics include calling press conferences, pitching stories directly to journalists, arranging eye-catching events, setting up interviews and handing out free samples. But as PR profits from advertising's difficulties, it is taking up a host of new stratagems and seeking to move up the corporate pecking order.
PR is surprising effective, at least according to a recent study by Procter & Gamble, the world biggest consumer-product group. This study revealed that the return was often better from a PR campaign than from traditional forms of advertising, according to Hans Bender, the firm's manager of External Relations. One reason is that in comparison with many other types of marketing, PR is cheap.
Statistics show that award-winning creative advertising does not necessarily lead to increased sales. Part of the reason for this failure to deliver results, is that people do not buy products or services because of advertising. They buy because they have been told about it by a friend or because someone they admire has the product or uses the service. Modern consumers are wise to the ways of advertising and they do not consider it to be an authentic medium for commercial advice. If they have no personal interaction with the product or service they will wait to hear the recommendation of someone who has.
Another consumer behavioral shift is the tendency of people to want to know about the 'personality' of the company they are buying from. People want to know that they are not buying from a company that tips barrels of toxic waste into rivers and employs seven year old boys in their factories. So how do companies get their message across in a way that is believable, authentic and inspiring? The answer is PR.
Because PR drives information through the non-advertorial content of the media, consumers can read about products, services or companies through the filter of a journalist whom they are likely to trust as an unbiased source of information. A journalist is known to be someone who does not stand to gain financially by delivering half-truths or elaborate claims. Journalists are authorities on information.
PR companies are not entirely in control of the message delivered by the media, but they have a relationship with the media that helps ensure that ideas are communicated truthfully and in a way that is interesting to the audience. In PR-speak, the ideas that are placed in press releases to appeal to the media are called angles. Journalists often rely on PR practioners to feed them information and so there is a symbiotic relationship in place that leads to successful PR for the product or service at hand.
The fragmentation of media has seen an explosion in the number of ways people seek news and entertainment, with many turning to websites, TV, satellite radio and podcasts. Yet a consequence of proliferation of media is that original content becomes even more sought after. Hence crisply written or well-produced PR material is now being published by some local newspapers virtually unedited and unchecked. Some branches of journalism have come to depend on a drip feed of information and products from the PR industry. Journalists focusing on electronics, fashion, travel, beauty and food have a huge appetite for free samples. Gossip and celebrities is also largely mediated by the PR industry.
Al and Laura Ries, a father and daughter team of marketing consultants, have written a book entitled "The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR". "PR is credible,"; they assert: "Advertising does not." Their advice is that a marketing campaign should start with publicity and shift to advertising only after the PR objectives have been achieved.
But ultimately for PR to work, you have to have a legitimate story. |
