| |
| |
|
PR Information |
|
|
|
Advertising Is Dead. Long Live PR
Although I still believe there is a place for advertising as a brand maintenance or brand affirmation tool, I am convinced that to build a brand today, you need PR. At one time advertising did build brands. But this was in a simpler America. That America, sadly, is no more. I've been re-reading The Fall Of Advertising & The Rise Of PR, by Al and Laura Ries, and it is their book that has moved me from suspicion of advertising's demise as a brand-builder to conviction. As the Ries' say, "Publicity is the nail, advertising is the hammer." What does this mean? It means that your PR effort helps make your message believable so that your advertising will have credibility when it hits. Typically, companies want to hit the market hard and make a lot of noise. Advertising allows you to launch quickly, control the message, and have your message in as many media as you have the money for. However, that does not mean your message will be believed. The louder advertisers yell, the less likely I am to believe them. How about you? PR takes time and does not necessarily work on your schedule. Planting new ideas or changing minds is a slow process. When your PR program rolls out over a longer period of time, prospects have time to adjust their attitudes. Brands that take this approach are longer lasting, too. Chevrolet, for years the number one auto brand, was still number one in ad spending in 2001. It spent $819 million dollars - 39 percent more than Ford spent. That year, Ford outsoldevrolet by 33 percent. Since 1997, Chevrolet has outspent and undersold Ford. Chevrolet spends $314 per vehicle and Ford spends $170 per vehicle. Do you think advertising is working for Chevrolet? Kmart, embroiled in financial difficulty for years, had revenues of $37 billion and spent $542 million on US advertising in 2001. Wal-Mart spent $498 million and garnered four times the revenue: $159 billion split between its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. The average Wal-Mart store does $46 million in sales each year while its Sam's Club average store sells $56 million. Sam's Club does almost no advertising. Those are old brands, you're saying. What about some newer brands, Harry? OK, let's look at Pets.com. Remember the dog sock puppet that starred in their commercials? It won awards, but not sales. In six months Pets.com had $22 million in revenues and spent four times that much on advertising. Off-base advertising creativity at work. The Body Shop was built totally by publicity. No advertising at all. Starbucks, until recently, did virtually no advertising. It has built a brand through good PR efforts. Starbucks' annual sales are around $1.3 billion, while advertising expenditures over 10 years, have totaled less than $10 million. Finally, what advertising agency do you know that has built its brand with ads? Things that make you go "hmm." Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR, http://www.hoover-ink.com. He has 26 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Brent Dees Financial Planning, Duke Energy, Levolor, New World Mortgage, North Carolina Tourism, VELUX and Verbatim.
MORE RESOURCES:
pr - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Make Your Web Site a Resource for the Media Reporters, by nature, are curious people.If you can get them to come to your web site, they will probably poke around and spend a few minutes there, learning about your business and your capabilities. Public Relations: Power Tool for the 21st Century I address this article to businesses, associations, non-profits and public entity managers seeking a direct connection between the money they're planning to spend on public relations, and the achievement of their organizational objectives.We can save a lot of time - you and I - if we can agree on one point: I believe that deep down - and I mean DEEP down - most chief executives understand that doing something about the behaviors of their most significant external audiences can rank in importance right up there with increased sales and earnings. PR: Lets Cut to the Chase If your key - that's KEY - outside audiences don't exhibit the kind of behaviors that lead to results like these, you need to take a closer look at your public relations effort.Results like fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; rising membership applications, customers starting to make repeat purchases creating bounces in show room visits; prospects starting to do business with you; community leaders beginning to seek you out; new approaches by capital givers and specifying sources, not to mention politicians and legislators viewing you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities. Publicrelationistas? Is that what we are? Fanatic, over-the-top disciples of some wretched obsession?Well, maybe not fanatic, or even wretched or obsessive, but certainly SOLD on the reality that people act on their own perception of the facts before them, leading to predictable behaviors. And equally sold on the next step too, create, change or reinforce that perception/opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors affect the organization. Underestimating the Power of In-House PR Do small-business owners always have to rely on large PR agencies to get attention from the press? An entrepreneur recently asked me this question during a networking event for women business owners. Of course my answer was, "No," but not for the reasons one might expect. The Role Of Public Relations In Branding Because PR can be difficult to control, it is often discredited. According to Dick Lyles, president and chief operating officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, a full-service consulting and performance improvement company, "People tend to migrate to things they can control. Public Relations Productivity Should it be measured in "publicity by the pound," or by how well external audience behaviors help achieve the organization's key objectives?I opt for holding public relations responsible, first, for recognizing that people act on their perception of the facts leading to behaviors about which something can be done. And second, for how well its practitioners create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors affect the organization. Does Your Small Business Have a Grooming Policy? They say that image is everything and some of us have seen it all. Have you ever went into a store and just could not believe what you were seeing behind the counter? Is that a real human? Without trying to make the world into a civilization like the "Borg" there are a few things you need to think about in your small business. How To Get FREE Publicity Whenever You Want ! What you are about to read is a step by step guide to getting FREE publicity. Simply, this is advertising that costs nothing, yet can bring in regular and substantial orders for your products and services. Hispanic Media Relations Training: What to Do When Hispanic Media Call You are a spokesperson for your company, representing it for public speaking and media interviews. You are going about your everyday affairs, granting media interviews on a new product or service your company launched or a timely topic of general interest. Sure-Fire Recipe for a Successful Public Relations Career Without a solid, well-designed foundation, few buildings successfully withstand the ravages of time and weather. And so it is with public relations, ever-dependent upon how well its practitioners understand the discipline. PR? Why? Well, for starters, because good public relations can alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors among your key outside audiences. And that can help business, non-profit and association managers like you achieve your managerial objectives. Marketing-Minded Financial Planners: Get Free Publicity by Choosing the Right Outlets Sure, any publicity is good. But don't invest time and effort to be in "Lucky: The Magazine for Shopping" if your major topic is planning for college. Public Relations & Your Small Business The practice of public relations is often misunderstood, thus overlooked by small business owners. There is an assumption among small businesses that PR exists only to serve corporate giants who are looking to dodge impending negative fall out of their reputation, following a catastrophic blunder on the part of their company. Publicity - How to Write a Headline That Will Garner Free Publicity Taking your ad and turning it into paragraph-style prose is not a press release - chances are it will only lead the publisher to call and invite you to run it as a paid ad. A press release is for news or for information about a topic the audience needs to know. Media Contact Lists and How to Build a Fantastic One I got the latest issue of Internet Works in the post yesterday and was disappointed to find out that it's going to be the last. As well as having the good taste to run a feature on me last year (!) Internet Works has been a great source of information and ideas for me for the last couple of years and it's demise will leave a gap. Press Releases How do press releases or interest stories have an effect on meeting new potential clients?Press releases can make the difference between being known and being just the same old service that everyone offers. You need to set yourself apart from all the others. Cutting Down Your Trade Show Budget Whenever a recession or volatility threatens the economy, companies immediately look at where they can cut budgets. Without much forethought, the first to hit the block is inevitably training, followed closely behind by marketing. Media Relations: Should You Pay For News Coverage, Part II Last month, we told you about "pay for play," a practice in which news organizations charge sources to appear on their programs. In other words, if you ante up enough cash, these "news" programs will air a puff piece about your company or organization. A Well-Oiled Strategy Machine Yes, that's what public relations really is when it tracks important external audience perceptions and follow on behaviors. And again when it does something about those perceptions and behaviors by reaching, persuading and moving to actions you desire, those people whose behaviors affect your organization the most.
|
| Article List | Index | Site Map |
|
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved. |
