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05 - Using PR To Build Brands

Using Public Relations to Build Brands discusses 13 effective PR practices for building and managing brands, such as identifying newsworthy stories, hiring newswire services, building expertise, creating news, and leveraging social media. PR tells a company's story in an authentic way and enjoys more credibility than advertising. The document emphasizes that PR requires a mix of strategies tailored to the intended audience and message.

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54 views

05 - Using PR To Build Brands

Using Public Relations to Build Brands discusses 13 effective PR practices for building and managing brands, such as identifying newsworthy stories, hiring newswire services, building expertise, creating news, and leveraging social media. PR tells a company's story in an authentic way and enjoys more credibility than advertising. The document emphasizes that PR requires a mix of strategies tailored to the intended audience and message.

Uploaded by

Dlx AreaOne
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Using Public Relations to Build Brands

Why Public Relations?

Building brands takes time and needs a focused and sustained effort over time.
Considering the onslaught of millions of advertisements and commercials, it is
becoming ever more difficult to catch the attention of the consumers and convince
them that your product is worth-buying.

While marketing and advertising activities are essential in building a brand, they score
low when it comes to credibility. It is this credibility gap that public relations seek to
bridge. Taking an integrated approach to brand building by combining marketing,
advertising and PR, organizations have been able to build strong brands and increase
brand awareness.

Public relations tell the story of your company and products in an authentic way. It
enjoys the luxury of transparency and credibility that marketing and advertising lack.
This white paper presents you some very effective PR practices which you can use to
build and manage brands.

1. Identify what is Newsworthy and Focus on it

A news story needs to have something newsworthy, a hook that will interest news
editors and reporters. Do not assume that what is interesting to you will be interesting
to the news people. Avoid fluff and technical information. Identify something about
your product that will interest readers and you can be on TV.

2. Hire Newswire Services

Newswire services help you spread the story and raise the heat. When properly used
and timed, they can do wonders to your PR exercise. There are many newswire
services which are specialized in news dissemination services. Business Wire, PR
Newswire, PR Web, etc. are some examples. These services can extend the reach of
your story.

3. Learn How to Use E-mail Campaigns to Reach out to Media

Media people are a busy lot and a lot of people are trying to get their attention. The
never-ending barrage of unsolicited phone calls, text messages and door knocks often
drive them crazy. They actually prefer to get information in a fairly unobtrusive way
such as e-mail.

Gather e-mail addresses of various media outlets, specifically the media channels that
are most important to reach your intended audience. You can get these from their
official websites or media contact data sources such as Bulldog Reporter MediaBase,
Bacon’s MediaSource and others.
Once you have a newsworthy hook, mail it to the news people. It is better to write
down the story as a reporter would write it for a newspaper. This makes their job
simple. If it interests them and the editor Okays it, then the story will be published
with the necessary changes.

4. Build Your Expert Status

People like to hear from experts. If you have certifications or credentials then show
them off. Become an author and write articles for your local newspaper or online
magazines. Advertise to the people that you know a lot about something. When
experts talk people listen. Radio shows, TV interviews and newspaper articles are a
great way to build up your expert status and promote your services. If you don’t know
how to do all these things, hire a PR firm specifically to build your expert aura.

5. Use Leads Services to Build Awareness about Your Products and Services

Leads service is a PR tool frequently used by reporters who are on a rush to complete
an article with a deadline hanging around their neck to gather required information.
ProfNet, PRSourceCode are some examples. After you register with them, they will
direct any reporter having a need of information you might possess to you.

6. Tie-Up with News Events of the Day to Promote Your Brand

Keep track of various events happening in your city. See if there is an event that is
related to your line of business or one that might be used in some way to promote
your brand. Then tie-in with those events to push your brand or service.

7. Tie-Up with a Newspaper or a Media Outlet

Explore what you can offer to the media outlets in terms of content or promotion. See
in what ways can you both form joint ventures. See how your organization or your
brands make good news to them. See if there is a possibility to use the media outlet as
a vehicle to reinforce a brand which you already consider strong.

8. Create News

If there isn’t anything you find newsworthy about your company or brand, see how
you can create one. May be you can join forces with some media outlet to conduct
some kind of survey or a poll. Make sure the findings of the research are worthy of at
least 15 minutes of fame.

9. Win Some Kind of Awards

Receiving awards, in most cases, generates attention and can provide the hook
necessary get the story into media. Awards are probably the easiest way to get media
exposure. The recipient of the award can further go on explaining the nature of the
work and its significance to the audience and create more news. Make sure your
product or service receives some industry award or tops in some magazine’s best of
the best list. Once you have the award, you can extend the media exposure to other
media outlets such as radio, TV and web.

10. Be in Touch with Your Customers by providing them Interesting Information

See what kind of information your targeted consumers might be interested in. Explore
how you can present or create such interesting information. E-mail newsletters,
releasing survey reports, issuing white papers and case studies are some of the most
widely used PR tactics to stay in touch with the intended audience. White papers and
survey reports are very effective in generating leads, especially in niche industries
where information and analysis is valued. They also help you strengthen your brand
positioning and create a positive impression about your brands and company.

11. Get Endorsements that Create Frenzy in the Market

Third party endorsements with movie stars and other popular icons of the day are a
great vehicle to boost brand awareness. While this can be construed as advertising or
marketing, there is a lot of PR work in this strategy. You need to make sure that the
news of the endorsement reaches the intended audience.

12. Be a Part of Controversy

Nothing catches the attention of people as a controversy. However, it is strongly


recommended that you take the help of an experienced PR firm before venturing into
such risky adventures. Professional advice is necessary to control the dynamics of
controversies as they can easily spin out of control and prove to be counterproductive.

13. Create Buzz with Social Media Networking Sites

Identify people who are influential among your targeted customers. Bloggers, industry
experts, management gurus can be very instrumental in creating buzz on the net about
your new solution or product launch. Engage them and release attention-grabbing
stories on various blogs, forums, discussion boards, and social networking sites such
as YouTube, Orkut, and Facebook, etc.

To Sum it up -

As you can see PR people employ a mix of tactics and strategies to get the attention of
people. Which one to choose and which one to avoid depends on the kind of message
you want to push forward toward the audience.

However, to make the most of PR in brand building you need talented people who can
write well-written news releases, fact sheets, media kits, Q&A documents, and
produce relevant images, video clips and other information. The more effective you
are at communicating the intended message, the more likely will it be picked up by
the media outlets.

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