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May 7, 2014

Global Re-imaging? Or Midlife Crisis?

Ronald McDonald's New Look. Image Courtesy: Huffington Post

Ronald McDonald’s New Look. Image Courtesy: Huffington Post

Everyone loves a good makeover story, often for different reasons. The ultimate “reveal” we eagerly anticipate can be a source of awe or of awkwardness, depending on the subject. Target of admiration or butt of jokes – it’s still a story, right?

When the McDonald’s Corporation announced last week that a newly hip and updated Ronald McDonald was ready to take the promotional and social media world by storm, I have to admit I cringed. The promotional photos, taken to show off Ronald 2014’s new wardrobe – rugby shirt, vest, and cargo pants to replace his trademark yellow jumpsuit – proved the old “lipstick on a pig” adage, except in this case, we see that you can put trendy pants on a clown…but he’s still a clown. (Incidentally, the big red shoes and matching hair remain intact.)

This raises two questions.

1) Who are they trying to reach?

In 1966, when Ronald McDonald first became the company’s national spokesman, clowns and kids went together like, well, burgers and fries. But in all honesty, when was the last time your child asked to have a clown at his or her birthday party? Or ran up to one at an event just busting to get a hug? This week I saw a clown portrayed in a child’s art project at one of our local schools; part of an assignment for a French class, the clown stood next to a child whose thought bubble proclaimed “J’ai peur!” (I’m scared!)

Not to beat up the clown industry. It’s just that for a national chain of restaurants which has put several makeover strategies in play in recent years, it seemed an odd move, sentimentality aside. Will Ronald be hocking the McCafe Coffees to urban professionals as well?

2) How does this fit into the company’s brand?

Since 2011, McDonald’s has made bold moves to shift their stores toward a more upscale, cafe-style atmosphere. Earth tones replacing primary colors, faux leather chairs in place, even an occasional fireplace welcoming customers to sit and relax for awhile. At the time of the campaign’s launch, the McDonald’s Corporation described the makeover as a billion-dollar undertaking. Just three years later, Ronald’s redux seems misplaced within this vision, seemingly aimed at the ball-pit crowd more than the java & laptop customers they have been targeting in recent years.

Not that Ronald should disappear. After coming under fire for using child-targeted marketing to push unhealthy food not long ago, the McDonald’s Corporation had limited the character to supporting Ronald McDonald House Charities, a phenomenal organization which helps more than seven million families per year who are dealing with pediatric illnesses. Helping children feel better by keeping families together seems like a perfect fit for the Ronald McDonald character, especially when the charity arm of the company is so branded with the name.

And yet, here he is at 51 years old, hitting the promotional and social media circuit sporting a new look which includes a “whimsical red blazer” for particularly spiffy occasions. Yes, that wording comes directly from the company’s announcement, along with the fact that Ronald’s new duds were designed by Tony Award winning theatrical designer Ann Hould-Ward of “Beauty and the Beast” fame. They’ve certainly put a lot into this campaign.

It’s a gamble, to be sure. How will midlife crisis Ronald fit in with the overall branding proposition? It will be interesting to gauge response, starting with this week’s bi-annual worldwide convention for McDonald’s franchisees, at which the company will introduce the new concept.

At Kovak-Likly, we know that it truly is all about the brand. Marketing strategies need to be built on a solid platform so that its pieces make sense and fit together. We work with our clients to determine exactly what that platform needs to be, and then walk through the steps that follow, giving each the focus and attention it needs to keep the brand in play.

If you would like to talk to us about how you can best determine your brand and share it with your target customers in a way that is both impactful and consistent, we’d love to talk to you. No big red shoes required.

-BML

 

 

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April 28, 2014

When the PR Team Has the Ball – When to Shoot, When to Pass

Last week, after the New York Knicks wrapped up a troublesome 37-45 season and landed in the unenviable position of watching the playoffs from the sidelines, the team’s front office wasted no time in cleaning house. Within days, it was announced that Head Coach Mike Woodson had been fired, along with his entire coaching staff.

So, how does the PR team of a major sports organization announce a substantial managerial shake up? When it comes to social media, they start with as few words as possible.  Here’s how it looked on Twitter:

nyknickstweet

NBA New York Knicks Official Twitter Account

April 21-Phil Jackson announced today that the team’s coaching staff have been relieved of their duties, effective immediately.

Keep it simple and stick to the facts. In addition to the straight-forward social media message, a brief press release reiterated the decision to “relieve” the coaching staff of their duties, adding statistics from the three seasons Woodson was with the team.  Finishing with the declaration that the search for a new coaching staff was now underway, the release stayed simple and direct.

Then, it was the sports writers’ turn. Building off of the release, ESPN added quotes from a disappointed shooting guard, CBS2 included information on player injuries which had contributed to the lackluster season, and one New York Times sports writer opined that the Knicks move was just another spin of the ever revolving door at the Madison Square Garden Company.

But what about the fans?

From here, the Knicks PR Team made the smart decision to pass the ball. The focus turned toward feeding and populating the conversation, while letting fans and followers fill in the commentary. Following Monday’s announcement, the topic seemed paused on the team’s Twitter feed until Wednesday’s press conference featuring club owner Phil Jackson. Between Wednesday and Thursday, more than a dozen related tweets were sent out, mostly linking to videos clips from the press conference. By breaking Jackson’s conference into these mini-highlights, there were repeated opportunities to engage followers; almost every tweet elicited comments, as did the videos themselves. With over 900,000 Twitter followers, plus those reached via retweets, this was one widespread conversation. (Interestingly, most fans supported Jackson’s decision, perhaps still smarting from the season’s premature end.)

As PR professionals, it is important we know when to hold the ball and when to pass; when to target and direct a specific message, and when to give a topic a gentle nudge and let it ripple from there as it should. At Kovak-Likly, we work with our clients to find the pulse of their target audience and strategize accordingly. We offer expert guidance surrounding which approach is best for the intended audience, for the product itself, for the timing involved…always utilizing the best moves from our playbook.

If you are working on a PR strategy for your product or business, the good news is that there are plenty of interactive channels through which you can actively engage your current and target customers. The other good news is that we are here to help you choose the path and the vehicle to best maximize them. Give us a call, we’re ready to get the game started.

-BML

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April 21, 2014

Real Stories: Tell Some, and They Will Come

Recently, a riveting video was making its way around the internet, tapping into the emotions of those who remember all too vividly the horror of the Boston Marathon bombings which took place one year ago.

This was a joyful video, however. Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a professional ballroom dancer who lost part of her leg in the attacks, was on stage once again, performing for the first time since that horrible day. News outlets ran excerpts of the dance, noting that the prosthetic leg Haslet-Davis wore had been custom made for her by a team of engineers at MIT.

If you clicked beyond the news coverage to watch the full video online, however, there was much more to it. That MIT team was led by Hugh Herr, director of the Biomechanics group at the MIT Media Lab and founder of BIOM, a technology company focused on personal bionics. He is also a double amputee who lost both legs after suffering severe frostbite during a rock climbing expedition on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in 1982.  Furthermore, his introduction of Haslet-Davis and her dancing partner followed his TED talk entitled “The New Bionics That Let Us Run, Climb and Dance” in which he describes the technological intricacies involved in bionics, and predicts a future in which innovation melds with the human experience, eliminating disabilities as a whole.

Pretty heady stuff.  Fascinating, too, and compelling enough to get me to really think about Herr’s company and what they are working on. As I watched Haslet-Davis wipe a tear from her eye and take a bow on the TED Talk stage, surrounded by her personal team of engineers, I knew that the combination of her story and Herr’s vision had drawn me in. When the video ended, my next virtual stop was the BIOM website. I was hungry to learn more.

That is where, from a PR stand point, the circle is complete. A human interest story catches our eye; further attention shows it to be part of something much greater, the combination moves us, and we are not just receiving a message – we are actively seeking out related information on our own.

A lot is said today about storytelling, and though it may seem like just another hot catch phrase, it is actually embedded in our nature as humans. The telling of tales, the sharing of lore, goes back to life’s very beginnings. It’s no wonder that in today’s fast-paced, immediate response digital world, a truly moving story will stop us in our tracks.

At Kovak-Likly, we work with our clients to draw out those stories, and to find the ways in which they can emphasize the human connection with their target customers. Promoting a product which is scientifically innovative is exciting, no doubt about it. Explaining how that product can improve day to day living for the people who use it, gets it sold. Both are important and need to be combined in well thought out ways.  Here are a few things to think about if you aren’t quite sure what your story should be:

Why did you or your company first decide to do what you do, or make what you make?

Most times, there was a problem that needed to be solved. What was it? And how did you identify it? Necessity is the mother of invention, and your customer wants to know what prompted your innovation. If it’s something they can relate to, you have their attention.

Do your company leaders have a personal connection to the problems your product solves?

Empathy and a deeper understanding of your target customer’s challenges forgoes a connection, a commonality, that linear messaging simply can’t replicate.

How will your product allow your customer to tell a better story?

You’ve shared experiences, shown an understanding of their challenges. Now, let your customer know how you will solve their problem. The promise of a better scenario will be given fair consideration by a customer who feels understood, thus opening their mind to your possibilities.

Like anyone, we love hearing and telling stories in the name of improving lives. If you’d like to sit down with us to find your story – and give it a voice – we’d love to hear from you.

-BML

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April 14, 2014

Enough About Me…What About You? What Do You Think of Me? Advertising vs. PR and Why You Need Both

Recently, a story ran in the Huffington Post examining the dichotomy between the obvious benefit of PR as the “ultimate word of mouth” and the lack of quantifiable metrics which make it difficult to fit into an ROI overview.  Professionals weighed in on the ways we can all advocate for PR as a vital component of any marketing plan, with the net message being that the ROI picture needs to be viewed not as parts – advertising and PR – but as a whole.

While traditional advertising is admittedly easier to measure in units – I paid X, I got Y – it can’t stand alone in the marketing landscape. Ads represent a company talking about itself…with no real way of knowing who is listening. PR, on the other hand, represents a conversation – people talking to each other about that company. As such, it presents a much more valuable proposition but less tangible from the budgetary planning end of things.

We see examples of this in our communities every day. At a recent eye doctor appointment, my new  ophthalmologist asked me how I found her. When I mentioned a hyper-local Facebook page, where town residents ask each other for input on every subject under the sun, she smiled and nodded. She was already familiar, as it turns out, because she had picked up several new clients through the page. Even on a local level, the ROI value is clear. This doctor could advertise in every outlet possible and may never see the return that she is getting from the chatter on a private Facebook page. Not bad, since in terms of the “I” in ROI, she hadn’t invested a thing.

What she had done was provide good service, and let people spread the word on their own. This, the HuffPost article points out, is how brands are made.

The good news in the PR world is that when it comes to neighbor-to-neighbor communication, the grapevine can stretch indefinitely. In virtual terms, my neighbor may live next door to me, they might be 3,000 miles away, or they could be across an ocean. Regardless of physical location, I have multiple ways to access them with nearly instant response.

Take a high end purchase, for example. If I’m thinking of buying a particular car, I might pay more attention to commercials for that car on television, or take a slightly longer glance if I drive by the local dealership. But I’m much more likely to seek out those with actual experience driving and owning that car. I might ask a friend I run into at the coffee shop how they like theirs, or I may post the question to 200 friends on Facebook and get valued input either way.

With so many ways to connect, consumers are turning increasingly to each other – friends and strangers alike – to make buying decisions. In this light, PR is outpacing advertising as a marketing power tool simply by being a means of starting and maintaining a conversation. The one-way message is going the way of the dodo bird…get your customers talking about you, and they will bring you more customers.

At Kovak-Likly, we believe in prioritizing PR within the marketing landscape. We work with our clients to define their goals, locate their customers, and find innovative ways to engage them. If you are struggling with the implementation of a PR plan that best complements your other outreach efforts, here are a couple of starter points:

Reverse the Messaging Process – If you want to get folks talking, really think about what you want them to be saying, then find ways to translate it into your advertising speak. Catchy slogans are great – but if you can‘t hear them rolling off the tongue in a coffee shop conversation, they won’t convert customers. Think about what will really grab your target customer enough to make them share it with a friend; advertising messaging will naturally follow.

Track the Front Line – If you have a sales force on the ground, get their input. They are the first to see the tangible response to your marketing efforts. If your messaging is opening doors for them, find out what the key has been; if it’s not, engage their expertise in tweaking the approach.

Just Ask – The instant connection channels your customers use to connect with each other can work to your company’s advantage, too. Measuring the impact of your marketing campaign doesn’t have to look like a team of mad scientists pouring through computer printouts…it can be as simple as asking. Post a question on your company Facebook page, or Tweet it out to your base and see what comes back. People aren’t shy about letting you know what they think.

Marketing – Both advertising and PR – may be operating through more channels than ever before, but when the fog of overwhelm lifts, the gleam of opportunity is left in its place. If you need help finding your way from the former to the latter, we are here to get you on your way. Let’s get people talking.

-BML

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April 7, 2014

Teaching an Old Blimp New Tricks

Goodyear tests its new blimp, image courtesy: http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/03/travel/goodyear-zeppelin-blimp/

Goodyear tests its new blimp, image courtesy of CNN.

It’s as part of the scene as the stadium itself – the Goodyear blimp, hovering high above football games and other major events, capturing spectacular views and drawing the gaze of fans who wouldn’t blink at a plane going overhead, but who can’t help but wonder what being in that blimp would be like.

While other companies have jumped on the blimpwagon to launch (literally) similar event visibility campaigns, none has captured the iconic status Goodyear has. Seen the Fuji blimp around lately? Me neither. Met Life? Sure, but it doesn’t roll off the tongue like the good old tire company does.

Last week, it was reported that for the first time in 45 years, Goodyear will be introducing a newer, faster, bigger blimp as they simultaneously phase out the three current models, Spirit of Goodyear, Spirit of America and Spirit of Innovation. Partnering with Germany’s Zeppelin company, they are already in the testing phases of the new airship, which will feature three engines rather than two, room for  more passengers in the gondola, and an on-board restroom (there wasn’t one before?).

Why am I going on about the new Goodyear blimp? Is it just hot air? (Sorry – couldn’t help it. And yes, I know it’s really helium.)

To make two points…

One:  Stick with What Works

It’s unlikely that too many advertising agency conference rooms are bustling with staffers dying to pitch a blimp campaign to their new client. In a digital world where speed and immediacy are king, where going viral is the goal, who is going to suggest a giant, slow pseudo-balloon that can only float in one place at a time?

But for Goodyear, it’s a solid bet. The Goodyear blimp is cemented in people’s minds in the same way that Kleenex or Band-Aid are, and they are smart to stick with that. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as they say. (And by the way, if you are a hamburger joint, please don’t offer me salad and sliced apples in a bag – a product consistency vent for another day.)

Two:  Stick…But Don’t Get Stuck

Last week’s announcement is the perfect example of taking a tried and true marketing strategy and giving it a new spin. “Guess what? We’re not only keeping the blimp, we’re making a way faster, cooler one!” This opens up loads of PR opportunities.

First off, the testing phase has already begun (who doesn’t want that video footage?), and over the coming months, Goodyear will be training a dozen or so pilots to fly the new model. Two words: Human Interest. The potential for news stories, interviews with the trainees, possible ride-alongs…where to begin?

Secondly, there is the gearhead enthusiast angle.  This new development invites the perfect opportunity to review the history of the blimp, and of Goodyear’s incorporation of it through more than four decades of events and appearances. The improved technology is fascinating, allowing an increased top speed of over 70 mph, surpassing the previous 50 mph limit. There you go, football fans – a cool statistic to rattle off during a commercial break some Sunday afternoon.

Finally, while all three current Goodyear blimps have recognizable names, the newbie is still being referred to as the Zeppelin NT. With event flyovers planned as early as fall 2014, and hopes to have a full fleet in place within the next four years, it was time to get creative. Goodyear skillfully grasped the opportunity to engage with their marketing targets by launching an online contest to name the new airship.

Many of the clients we work with at Kovak-Likly are long-standing names in their respective fields. When devising PR plans, we strive to achieve a balance between building on reputation and generating renewed product enthusiasm. If your goal is to encourage trust in your brand while getting the word out about new developments through unique channels, we’d love to help you. Give us a call – let’s launch something.

-BML

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March 31, 2014

Output vs. Input and Why the Latter Can Be More Important to Your PR Messaging

Imagine you start your morning by walking into the kitchen and announcing to whomever is sitting there that you are in for a busy day full of meetings. You arrive at your favorite coffee shop and talk about the reasons why your favorite sports team will win the game tonight, rattling statistics as you go. At the office, you stride into your first meeting and launch into a power point presentation before saying hello to a single person in the room.

At the end of the day, what have you learned? What new information have you gathered? What conversations have you sparked, or new viewpoints have you gained? (Cricket, cricket). Right. It was all output.

Traditional PR tactics of yesteryear were heavily dependent on the output approach. “Get me on TV,” clients would demand, subscribing to the “widest net” philosophy of gaining visibility. Those of us in the industry would cringe as Acme Widgets demanded to be on the cover of every major newspaper in the country…regardless of whether that exposure made Acme’s registers ring any more frequently at all.

Thankfully, today’s marketers realize that effective PR messaging is not about the biggest output possible.

It’s about conversation.

You can throw a message out there, cross your fingers, and hope it’s absorbed…or you can start a dialogue, pose an intriguing question, and actually listen to the responses you generate. Starting a conversation not only solidifies your message, but also gives you valuable insight into the values, needs, and goals of your customer.

Example. I have a friend who runs a successful recipe website with a huge following. For a long time, she would post recipes on Facebook for dinners, desserts, whatever came to mind. She worked on her marketing, trying to match up with holidays, themes, and the like. Response was good. One day, suffering from holiday season burnout, she wasn’t feeling particularly creative. Rather than share a festive recipe, she simply posted a question: “Fruitcake. Love it or hate it?”

The response was overwhelming. People loved the chance to jump in and give their opinion on this seemingly benign subject! Later, she broke tradition by posting a cocktail recipe. Guess what? People shared it left and right. By enlisting and incorporating the opinions of her followers, she had gained invaluable insight and loyalty. Not to mention some pretty darned tasty martini ideas.

How can you engage your target audience in conversation? At Kovak-Likly, we help our clients answer that question every day.  We start by asking a few questions ourselves, which you can use to get things started.

1)      Who is your target audience? No, really. Hint: they are not a demographic. They are people  with needs, concerns, dreams, kids, jobs…you get the point. Form a mental sketch of who is sitting across the divide from you.

2)      Where are they?  Is their time spent on social media? Is traditional media more their speed? There are patterns which can be identified.

3)      What are their needs? And how you can address them. Here’s the trick – ballpark it. You can’t know every detail of those needs, or you’d be psychic.

4)      Now ask them. Fill in the blanks by enlisting their input. Ask the questions, lead the discussions, introduce the topics. Then watch that valuable insight roll in.

5)      Stay at the table! No conversation continues if one party walks out in the middle. If you are going to ask your audience to engage with you, stay engaged.

If these five steps feel more like one hundred to you, no worries. The team at Kovak-Likly is expert in their navigation and happy to guide you through them. When you are ready to start a sincere dialogue with your audience, give us a call. Let’s start your conversation!

-BML

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March 24, 2014

GM CEO speaks the truth while tackling a PR crisis

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “honesty is the best policy.” Some learn the hard way that “the truth always comes out eventually” and get burned. Others, like General Motor’s top exec, Mary Barra, followed a basic tenet of good PR:  if you have a problem or issue, own  it and address it upfront and quickly.

Very few CEO’s would want to be in Barra’s shoes right now, but many appreciate the fact that she is taking a recall into her own hands and tackling it head-on. You can catch up on the fine details of GM’s recall here. In a nutshell, it sounds like the automaker failed to fix faulty ignition switches in its Chevy Cobalt and those faults have since been linked to 12 deaths. To make matters worse, it appears that GM was aware of the problem for as long as 10 years before taking action to correct the problem.

There are obviously still some very serious issues at GM and many of them can’t be fixed by improved public relations.  But, improved public relations will help give GM the space and time they need to get things fixed IF they move forward to do so quickly, decisively and transparently.

If you read our post on the Tesla’s PR crisis, some of the same crisis management points can be used here. In general, Kovak-Likly recommends the following:

  • When lives are involved, it’s even more crucial to bring out the truth quickly and proactively than to have it pulled out.
  • Giving an update that says we have no new information is better than being silent, even if you have no new information to deliver.
  • Be transparent.
    o   Let people know what you are doing to resolve the situation.
    o   Detail the steps you plan to take to avoid this in the future.

Barra’s strategy will be tested over the coming weeks and is certainly on the path to a reasonable public relations outcome if she continues to be open and honest.

If you have a problem or issue you need help addressing, give us a call or shoot me an email, we’d love to help you develop an issue or crisis communications plan.

-BML

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March 17, 2014

Don’t count on luck when it comes to your PR strategy

If you’re wondering why your coworkers have been pinching you all morning, here’s a hint: It’s St. Patrick’s Day. Did you forget to wear green? Since luck is top-of-mind today, I think it’s the perfect opportunity to talk about the importance of planning. I cannot stress this enough: Do not leave your PR strategy to chance. Rolling the dice and hoping for the best is not a strategy.

Let’s pretend you’re a medical device maker with a new product set to launch next week. You’re planning to issue a press release. However, that press release should be the tip of your planning iceberg. (If you just read that line and thought “uh oh…,” give me a call asap.) Here are some other basic things to consider:

  • Press kit. What will you do if a reporter asks for more details about your new product? You’ll want to be prepared with a press kit you can send. At a minimum, the press kit should contain a product fact sheet, a company fact sheet and a product FAQ, plus high resolution product images and your company’s logo. Based on your unique needs, it might make sense to include other elements, particularly if your technology is complicated.
  • Spokesperson. What will you do if the reporter wants to speak with someone at your company? Before any press release leaves your office, identify who will serve as spokesperson. Sometimes it makes sense to identify a couple of people who can respond to different aspects of the story. It could be a company researcher or clinical trial investigator to handle the science-based questions, and a C-level exec to handle questions about corporate strategy. You’ll want to identify these folks in advance, make sure they’re amenable to the spokesperson role and find out their schedules the week of the announcement. There’s nothing worse than finding out at the last minute that your star spokesperson is incommunicado when you need her.
  • Spokesperson prep. What will it take to ensure your spokesperson is prepared? I recommend using your key messages (you did refine your key messages after reading last week’s blog post, right?) as a starting point for creating talking points for the interview. You might also think about conducting a mock interview. We’ll get into media training in detail in a future post.

That’s my bare-bones, at-a-minimum, the least you can do planning recommendation. I highly recommend doing a comprehensive assessment of your overall PR strategy to uncover potential issues and make a plan. The team at Kovak-Likly can help with that, whether you need a basic strategy or a full, comprehensive marketing communications plan. Oh, and if I still haven’t convinced you of the need to plan to succeed, take a look at Business Insider’s summary of the 15 biggest PR disasters of the decade. Shoot me an email when you figure out what all 15 fails had in common.

– BML

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March 10, 2014

Refine your key messages today, thank me tomorrow

What’s the big deal about key messages? Your company is your company, your brand is your brand and your products are your products, right? Not so fast. I bet if you asked two people to describe your company, your brand or your products, you’d get two different sets of descriptions. Have you ever identified an object as blue, only to be told that it’s not blue, it’s cerulean? It’s kind of like that.  (For those of you who know I’m color blind, you’ll see a bit of humor in this.)

It’s important to control how your company, brand, products or services are messaged. If you don’t position them appropriately, someone else will most likely interpret them differently, and you might not like the results. You might think you’re offering a cerulean masterpiece, while somebody else might call it a blue piece of junk.  Messaging dictates how people perceive what you have to offer, and you can’t leave that to chance. You want your leadership team, your sales team, your customers and the media to describe what you have to offer the same way—the way you describe it. The secret to that is your key messages.

When the Kovak-Likly team works with our healthcare clients to develop key messages, we start by asking the following questions:

  • What do you want people to know about your company?
    • When asked who you are, what do you want others to know about your company?
    • What does your company stand for?
    • Who does your company serve/who are your customers?
    • What is your company’s record and reputation?
    • What do you want people to know about your brands/products?
    • What are the brand’s key values?
    • Who does the company/brand/product aspire to be?
    • What makes the company/brand/product special?
    • What problems does your company/brand or product solve?

Once you answer those questions and you write out your messages, consider the following factors and think about refining your messages:

  • Do your key messages align with the interests of your target audiences? If they aren’t in alignment, are you planning to go after a new target audience? Different audiences want different things. Some people buy on price, others on quality, still others on exclusivity. If your key messages don’t align with your key audience’s priorities, you should think about new messages, or  shifting your target audiences.
  • Do your key messages differentiate you from your competitors? Positioning yourself as the same as the other guy is not going to win any hearts or minds—or sales. Key messages need to identify your key differentiators. Is it your U.S.-based manufacturing? Your customer service? First/best/only?

Once you develop your key messages, you should validate them with your key stakeholders and target audiences, then stick to them with conviction and deploy them everywhere. Use them in media interviews, adapt them for your marketing collateral, talk about them within your company and on your social media platforms, etc. And if you need help with your key messages or getting them to your targeted audiences and making them sink in, shoot me an email. We’d love to help.

– BML

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March 3, 2014

PR 101: Why is reminding ourselves of the basics and getting back to them so important?

In college, I was a competitive skier and had the opportunity to compete internationally at a pretty high level.  I learned a ton of life lessons from that experience.  One of those lessons is that getting back to the basics is critical if you want to ensure top performance.  I made a point to get back to basics once a quarter, which meant taking a hard look at my training and competition plan, evaluating the components of those plans, my execution of that plan, and my technique.  I often found that if I was working hard and not getting the results I expected, I needed to revisit these basics and focus less on the clutter that filled my world.

The same strategy applies to leveraging public relations to drive business goals and objectives.

If you currently work with a PR agency, you hopefully already know the impact PR can have on your company and your brands. (If you work with a firm and you can’t see the value, you should call us. We should have a serious talk about getting back to basics.) Maybe you’re somewhat new to PR or maybe your boss or mentor has suggested some PR counsel might be helpful to your business. Regardless of which camp you are in, knowing the basics—and focusing on the basics—of public relations will always net a better result than all the pomp, circumstance, glitz, glamour and money you can throw at a challenge.

To start, it helps if you speak the same language as the experts. Here’s a quick overview:

What is PR?

It’s short for public relations. This means exactly what it says. PR helps to build, repair and maintain relationships with the public. Who that public is depends of the specific needs of each client.

How do you determine which public to target?

Research and listening. At Kovak-Likly, we do our homework. We ask questions and we listen—really listen—to our clients and members of the communities they wish to serve; and we conduct research to determine how to target messaging efforts more efficiently and effectively. Which audiences we want or need to reach in order to meet an objective is usually determined through our understanding of specific industries, the needs of our clients and input from a wide variety of sources which we check and cross check.  Knowing who your most important key audiences are, and validating that understanding, is a basic component of highly successful public relations programs.

What does relations really mean?

Relations should really be thought of in terms of perspective.  This notion of perspective is an important, basic component of successful public relations programs. The relationships we have with others, with companies and with brands we choose or don’t choose are fundamentally based on the perspective we have with them.  As an extension, relations are affected by the messaging, information, education and resulting perspective audiences have on a given topic.

So when you think of public relations, you should really be thinking in terms of educating targeted audiences on a given topic or providing information that will assist those audiences in gaining perspective that is valuable in the way you would like your company or brand to be perceived.

When you approach PR from this perspective, there are limitless opportunities to cost-effectively reach large audiences and impart on them perspectives that are most valuable to you and your business.  It will also aid your key audiences in viewing your company and brands in the favorable light you are looking for.

Here are some realistic expectations for your next PR campaign:

  • PR  can educate first time buyers so they can make important decisions with valuable knowledge up front, making the buying experience more enjoyable, more efficient and hopefully more fruitful for your business objectives.
  • PR can educate distributors and decision makers (and even gate keepers) along the decision path to facilitate acquisition of your product or service.  This can help you secure stronger distribution partners and develop supportive relationships with intermediate decision makers and often critical gatekeepers.
  • PR can educate multiple audiences in a specific marketplace either independently or at the same time. Using healthcare as an example, there are a wide variety of public relations techniques we use to help clients educate the marketplace on new medical developments and get valuable information to doctors, nurses, hospitals, insurance companies, patient advocacy organizations, research institutions, patients and their loved ones so they gain the valuable perspective we’ve been discussing.

There are so many other ways PR can help you achieve your objectives.  What is most important is knowing the basics and executing on them with focus and determination.  I hope this gives you a good start. Let me know if you have any questions, or if you’re interested in learning more about Kovak-Likly’s capabilities.

-BML

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