Public Relations
Public Relations
There is much information on this subject, but, I want to talk about what I consider the KEY to making a PR program/campaign work (or be successful).
A press release, a press kit, or having a PR agency is all nice, but, it all comes down to the interview (just like a job).
You have one chance to "sell" yourself and you have one chance to "sell" your product/service.
Both are important, but, rarely does the product "sell" itself. YOU have to sell the product, and, what I believe to be the only way, is that you have to sell yourself.
You have to be considered an "expert" in the field (that your product or service will be in), an "expert" on the product, and, something very few people do, is become an expert on the competition.
When I mention competition, many people do Press Tours where they "slam" the competition, by saying "it is no good because A, B, C, and ours is better because of X, Y, and Z".
Of course your product is better, but, by slamming the competition, you look like a typical PR hack hyping your product. Let the editor/analyst come to their own awareness to what makes your product better. This is easily accomplished by stating the facts about your product - of course you know what makes your product better, but, "present" that information so that you lead the editor/analyst to discover what advantage your product/service has over the competition.
Here is an example:
"What makes your product better then others?" asks the analyst.
"Well, you will have to come to your own conclusions about what makes our product better or worse, but, let me tell you about ours - it can do A, where most of our competitors can only do B; ours can do D, which is not as great as our competitors who do C, but, because we can do D, it allows us to do E also".
I hope you get the idea.
Work on what you will say. It is an extremely difficult skill to master an interview - that's why they have media training - for those individuals who can't "handle" an interview that may be combative or even uncaring.
This blog entry is a bit rambling - just trying to get you guys to think about your marketing and the do's and don'ts.
Lastly, I just said that some interviews can be uncaring. Let me give you this for an example of what I mean:
"Hi, my name is Blaine. Thanks for seeing me today - I am really excited to show you are latest product and what it is going to do for the world," I said, shaking a reporters hand in his office.
I could tell immediately that he was very very sad (because he had tears in his eyes).
"Ahh, are you okay?" I asked.
"I just got a call and my dog died", he said, holding back the sobs.
"Ohh, I'm so sorry. Do you want to cancel the meeting and do some other time?"
"Noooo, let's get this over with".
The interview, as you should be able to figure out, was not the best. The reporter kept breaking down crying. I ended it after 15 minutes.
In fact, twice in my life, I have gotten up and left an interview - because one got into the politics of Israel (I worked for an Israeli firm) and how wrong/bad/etc. they were and no matter what I did, we couldn't get off this issue unless I stated that Israel was an evil country - and the other was because no matter what I did (for a product) and said, the reporter would not listen to me, she just kept putting the product down and how much of a failure it was going to be; no matter what statement I made, it was met with a sneer and the statement "I don't believe it and I know you are lying". After 40 minutes of this, we ended the interview (the product went on to make over $500M in sales).
Those two interviews above were over 20 years of doing interviews - 2 out of a couple thousand - 2 that asked me to surrender my morals and ethics. I still fill bad to this day that I did this, but, no regrets, just sad that they came from this perspective.