Hope, Nobel and Public Relations!!!!

The burden of ‘Hope’

 

US President Barrack Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize could be termed as the most media savvy subject in recent times, second only to him becoming the 44th American President.  A lot has been written about, how Obama never deserved the Prize and was awarded the Nobel by virtue of – just not being George W Bush.

I do not consider myself a political expert to comment on wether Obama receiving  the Nobel and his acceptance was a good political move. However from a Public Relation prespective, I feel Obama accepting the award was one of the best PR moves…..

Obama’s entire presidential campaign was focussed around ‘Hope’.

In his inaugral address- he attributes his Presidential win to the US citizens who had chosen ‘Hope over fear….’

In fact his campaign and his speeches harped on ‘Hope’ so much that by the time he was elected not just US but the entire World was rooting for his victory.

I am sure it takes a lot to change the world, and probably it is resonable to give the US President some more time to prove himself before we actually go out and pass a judgement on his failure.

I have always believed that Obama’s Presidential campaign made one grave mistake from the beginning, while on one hand they made him out to be a human, by talking about his racial roots, his grandmother, his wife, his daughters etc. somewhere down the line they also made him look like the saviour, the only super hero who could save us from despair. A reason why not just US but the entire World has been waiting for something truly out of the World from Obama.

As a human, its often difficult to live upto such super human expectations because there is always room to fall short..

Obama is making the right noises, reaching out to the Muslim world, talking of Nuclear disarmament and is again giving ‘Hope’ to the people of this world that probably his head and heart are in the right place and all he needs is some more time and faith to set things right.

If Obama had refused to accept the Nobel Prize for Peace, it is a very different discussion we would be having today – “Oh, maybe US is planning to wage a war on …. soon.” Or “US is probably diverting its fund to increase its nuclear arsenal.” “ President Obama’s decision to refuse the Nobel Peace Prize shows that all his promises of working towards ’World Peace’ is a farce.”

Enemies of US might have taken this as a hint and might have overworked to read between the lines.

Most importantly the Americans themselves might have thought, that maybe Obama does not have confidence in himself and the promises he made to them.

Hence, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with humility was the best thing Obama could have done to keep his ratings, keep International diplomacies intact, keeping anti-US elements at bay and also it made perrrrrfffect PR sense.

Critics might go on and on but what really matters in PR is what your target audience thinks and perceives of you…and with this one move Obama has ensured, his core target audience, the American people, other nations and anti-US elements are all probably debating over his Nobel win….but are at peace.

This might also act like a course correction for Obama in the long run, people will start thinking of him as human rather than a super hero (only super heroes say No to Nobel Prizes!) and expect more humanly changes from him….

I am sure, in his heart Obama knows he has not recieved the Nobel Prize for ‘Peace’ but ‘Hope’……

Tags: Audacity of Hope, marketing strategy, masses communication, Nobel Peace Prize, Obama, Obama Nobel, PR moves, PR strategy, Presidential Election, Public Relation Methods, Public Relations, Public Relations Strategy

How to successfully use word of mouth marketing in a B2B set up

In my last post I had shared with you the importance of Word of mouth marketing and why it should be an integral part of every Company’s PR and marketing plan.

In this post I share with you some statistics to prove this. In a recent report by Nielsen Global Online Consumer survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries, it emerged that “Recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising. Ninety percent of consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online.”

These results are quite significant as it reaffirms the power of Internet/online media and in particular the growing influence of social media. Today as marketers we are dealing with a more aware, informed and inquisitive consumer, who has several channels and mediums to seek information about a company, its products and the quality delivered, before making a purchase.

While WOMM is critical to any business, it is hard to generate, especially for B2B clients where the target audience is niche. In a B2C scenario, some success can be expected, by ensuring a quality product which caters to a significant need of the end consumers; by creating awareness and excitement for the product among the target group using various media channels; by listening to their suggestions and feedbacks and improvising on the products if required and foremost by keeping the channels of communication always open between the company and its end consumers.

In B2B since the stakes are higher, referrals are not easy to come by, also clients refer your services or products to other businesses if they themselves have tried, tested and are completely satisfied with your services over a period of time. In such cases the gestation period for generating leads through referrals can be a lengthy and uncertain process. Following some of the B2C procedures mentioned above might speed up the process and might ensure a more satisfied customer but may not result in a referral.

So how do you ensure that your customers in both B2C and B2B type of businesses give you referrals?

It is simple – incentivise their referrals! Combine a referral with a reward program, it could be discounts, it could be entering a sweepstake program, giveaways, any reward program that you can link to your product or service and your customers can benefit from.

Giving incentives for referrals – HELPS

By initiating such a marketing activity, you give your customers an added incentive to refer you, in the process ensuring both parties involved are happy.

When planning such a program ensure you are present in every medium which your end customer uses – these might vary for B2C and B2B companies.

The marketing and PR should be well planned and coordinated, so that you reach out to all your customers. For the time period the program is running, all your messaging should work towards promoting the program, on your website, on your ads, billboards, on your press releases, on social media forums, wherever you expect your customers to be.

It is only a matter of time before the technique starts finding you success!

Such programs are not new, have been tried and tested by several companies over the years, and have found success even offline.

I am sure most of you will remember the simple referral campaign run by the magazine Reader’s Digest. Fill in 14 addresses of people you know and win an interesting book in return. They would then reach out to your contacts with a personalized letter stating you thought your friend would like subscribing to Reader’s Digest. Simple but effective way of referral marketing and it did help the magazine to a great extent in becoming one of the most read magazines in the world, even though it was circulated only through subscriptions(not sold on stands), until some years ago. I have filled many such forms as a teenager in lure of the books and have seen many of my family and friends subscribing to the book….see I told you it always works

In a world where there are so many voices and opinions some times it helps to raise the stakes……..

Tags: B2B marketing, Business to Business Marketing, Contests, marketing strategy, mass communication, Micro Marketing, Public Relation tricks, Referral marketing, referral program, reward programs, Social Media, social media marketing, Sweepstakes, viral marketing, WOMM strategy, Word of mouth Marketing

Simple ways of doing Word Of Mouth Marketing……

Why WOMM is a must for every company..

As an individual, I am pretty vocal about my views. I make sure, I  share my likes and dislikes about various things with my family and friends and within my circle of influence. My personal opinions could be biased but are based on my personal experiences and hence carry my personal conviction, which is why people who value my opinion pay heed to my advice.

I guess its the same with many of you as well. Our experiences help us form impressions and our impressions form the base of our beliefs and convictions. Before the social media revolution, we used to heavily rely on the experience and opinions of experts, news journalists and other information providers, but today with blogging and social networks becoming an important part of our lives, each one of us can claim to be an expert in our own right.

Your blog on your wonderful experience buying a television set online can send many of your friends hunting for a great deal on the same online store. They go to the store because they believe your word, you on the other hand have unknowingly lent your personal credibility to the online store by sharing your buying experience with your friends.  This is the power of word of mouth marketing or WOMM. No advertisement, no PR effort by this online store can ever match the extent of leverage they got from you – a real customer advocating his shopping experience.

WOMM why it works.....

Today companies are slowly realizing the immense power of this age old marketing tool. Surprisingly it still works and much better as social media makes it possible to increase the reach of your credible word to a larger audience or circle of influence.

Implementing WOMM as part of your company’s marketing and PR strategy is important since it is one of the most effective, simple and cheap marketing solutions currently available.  To begin with, you need to take care of two things – firstly, ensure your product or service offering delivers what it promises and secondly, you have adequately empowered your satisfied customers with  some simple tools which enable them to  easily share their experiences with others.

WOMM tool is  most useful for start-ups and companies who have a shoe-string budget for marketing their products. I recently came across a blog post by Vijay Pullur, President of SocialTwist the makers of the social media sharing widget called Tell-a-Friend on www.bootstrappingblog.com. The post talks in detail about how in a very simple and easy way you can build visibility for your product or service through word of mouth marketing. For those Marketing and PR professionals who are planning to add WOMM to their service portfolio, its a good read.

As for me, the more I learn about how effective WOMM is , the more I am convinced – maybe you don’t need loads of money or need to own the best advertising real estate to ensure, a lot of people talk about you and your brand. Maybe its just about giving that terrific user experience to everyone who visits your site, who buys or uses your products or service………so that they just cant stop telling their friends how great your offerings are.

Maybe its not so much about getting your money’s worth but giving their money’s worth.

Tags: marketing strategy, PR strategy, Public Relation Methods, Public Relation tricks, Social Media, social media marketing, viral marketing, WOMM strategy, Word of mouth Marketing

Every voice on the Internet will matter – S/he will matter!

The concept of micro marketing is fast changing the way we market our products and services on the Internet. Like, the advent of Web 2.0 technology led to the growth of social media in a big way; similarly, micro marketing has the potential to make every person using the internet an important link in a company’s marketing and Public Relation strategy.

Image courtsey:www.differenttrends.net

Well known marketing blogger Greg Verdino discusses this concept in detail in his upcoming book named microMarketing:A breakthrough approach to building brands by thinking and acting small. In the book he speaks of how “A media revolution is underway, fueled by a micro-content phenomenon that is shifting the balance of power from mass communications to masses of communicators. This shift plays out daily on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream and other social sites.  It’s in the notion that an otherwise normal individual can use social media and low-end technology to become a micro-celebrity with a significant following.”

In the changing world of Internet, opinions and views which were never considered that significant in the past will soon become the most important aspect of generating buzz. Every sound, every noise online about your product would matter. Imagine the immense power the consumer would enjoy; in his own right he could make or break a company’s reputation. News travels fast on the Internet and bad news faster, hopefully companies will take customer relations a little more seriously, more than selling their wares, they would be forced to focus on how happy a customer is with their product or service, because one negative comment on the Internet and they will feel the heat. Companies will feel like living in glass houses where even one stone could damage their image.

Micro marketing is a wise tactic to counter the negative aspects of the growing influence of the masses and every PR and marketing professional should consider making it an important part of their overall publicity strategy for any client.

The concept in itself talks about taking the masses into account when promoting a product or service online. Mobilize the masses and you will ensure the bigger and more influential voices in the social sphere sit up and listen. Keep the masses happy and they will ensure your success, by believing in your product/service, showing solidarity and heartily promoting to other like minded people. Recognize their efforts and they will stand by you for life.

Micro marketing is about reaching out to that one insignificant individual and answering his queries, meeting his needs and in turn winning his trust and the trust of his social network. Micro marketing is the technique of using the word of mouth and word of trust to promote anything.

Every tweet, every status update and every blog post is a reminder of this growing force of micro marketers.  Maybe its all for a larger good, in the time to come hopefully we can all look forward to better services, better products and more concerned and responsible businesses and overall a better world, where every voice matters and has the power to make a difference.

Tags: marketing strategy, mass communication, masses communication, Micro Marketing, Public Relations Strategy, Social Media

The Beginning………

My journey as a Public Relation professional started some 5 year ago. As a journalist, I had watched and dealt scores of PR professionals from the sidelines, often detesting many for their inability to understand the news business and what works.

Often grateful, I was not in their shoes, sandwiched between the client and the media professionals, promising instant fame to one while begging for some attention and mercy from the other.

Despite my apprehensions about this profession, when I decided to quit journalism, Public Relations seemed like the most logical progression career wise. The moment I started tossing the idea in my mind, I started to observe my future colleagues and counterparts a bit more carefully.

What is that they did – if done differently would appeal to me. 5 + years as a journalist both in the print and television media, helped me  view the PR profession more objectively.

In this post I share with you three common practices associated with the PR industry and my personal findings or myth busters …………

Myth#1 – Most Public Relation professionals and agencies think – ONLY having a good relationship with a journalist will get them a story….

Finding – Media Relationships can help in getting a hearing or on a lucky day help you be a small part of a larger story – if you fall within the circle of a media person’s trusted contacts; but only a good news angle can get you a real PR story in any publication.

Also, if you think you have a great story to tell, don’t stop yourself from approaching the News Editor of a Publication – just because you do not share a rapport with him. He might just remember you for a long time for the wonderful story you gave him.

Relationships with journalists are not built overnight. It is a long drawn process of winning their trust which starts with giving them some good story ideas and leads to work on. Every journalist is on the lookout for a good news story.

The trick for the PR professional lies in answering some critical questions honestly at the onset – What is so newsworthy about your client? Why should he be written about in a publication or share airtime? What is it about your client or his product that will appeal to the masses, to the viewers at large? If you have some convincing answers for these questions then probably you do have something to talk about and should easily be able to convince a journalist to do a story or feature on your client in their publication. If not, then maybe some soul searching is required on how you can create something newsworthy around your client to draw media attention before you decide to go out and pester a journalist for ‘some coverage’.

Myth#2 - Public Relations can turn anyone into a celebrity or a brand overnight……

Finding – Most Companies and Individuals think that PR professionals are magicians or miracle workers who with a swish of their cell phones can turn them into overnight brands or celebrities. Never in the history of this World has a Company or a personality managed to become a brand overnight, just because they hired a PR person or agency.

I do not contest the fact that we have had overnight celebrities. A classic example being Susan Boyle of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ fame, however in her case the PR professionals only came in later to help her manage her instant popularity better.

Hence, it is essential for any PR professional to be realistic in their approach when analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their clients. Sometimes, a little education about the how the PR industry works, what it can and cannot do for a company or individual is essential to set the expectations right at the start and would go a long way in building and nurturing the client relationship.

The secret to success for any publicist lies in patience and meticulous planning for the future. While spreading the word today, is much easier and reach much wider when compared to yester years, public memory span is rapidly shrinking; it is important to be honest and understand that only Companies which offer real value to their users become larger than life brands in the long run.

Myth #3 – The results of Public Relations is directly proportional to the sales generated….

Finding - I don’t mind shouting my guts from the rooftops, if that helps in setting this perception right that the success of Public Relations is directly proportionate to the sales generated.

Somewhere, it is my own colleagues from this field who are to be blamed for letting clients live and harass them with these deliverables.

Often Clients see PR as a lead generation exercise and expect returns in terms of sales. It is a wrong assumption from the start, because Public Relations in its primary role is about building a brand and giving it a character. PR is about building public and investor confidence. It is about supporting the Marketing initiatives of a company. Some returns as a fall out of this brand awareness can be expected, but a PR person however good he is can never guarantee that an article he managed for a client in New York Times will increase the client’s sale by X %.

PR is more about the subtleties of building a brand and should be a definite part of any company’s long term goals. It is a sure shot method of ensuring you always enjoy the goodwill of your investors, consumers and masses in general. Public Relations is about building real brand loyalty over a period of time by informing people how great the company is. It is more about making an emotional impact, so that the consumers identify with a brand and remember what was written about it in a publication long after they read that piece. Public Relations is endorsing a product or services through a credible third party to ensure the consumers place their trust in that brand.

How can you ever measure these things in the sales you garnered the week the article was published. You might see a jump if lucky, but you can never be certain.

Looking within might help, do you go buy the very moment you read about a product in a publication or watch it on television? Or do you store it away in your memory, thinking ‘I will definitely give it a try  sometime since it comes highly recommended from a credible source’.

A publication might have a circulation of one million, but can anyone for sure guarantee that on that particular day how many of that one million readers would read or would have read your article? And how many of these actually decided to try the product or service that very day? If not then how can you measure the effects of a PR activity in numbers? For the results to show, any PR campaign has to be tested for a minimum of 3-4 months. In Public Relations what you do today, may actually reap you benefits months later.

I am sure unless and until we as PR professionals do not stand up and make our clients understand what we can achieve for them, there is no point in blaming them for not being understanding enough.

Moreover, we as publicists try to convince the whole world about how great our clients and their offerings are; And as publicists if we cannot convince those who hire our expertise on what best we can offer, then probably we ain’t good enough!

Tags: PR professionals, Public Relation Methods, Public Relation myths, Public Relation tricks, Public Relations