The New Language of PR

PROs are finding it increasingly harder to contact their consumers by traditional methods, writes CARRIE KNOWLES.

It is suggested that a new kind of consumer has developed, one who is more educated about marketing and PR and with easy access to the Internet.

‘New Consumers’ are more interactive and have varied interests, thus challenging the traditional marketing and PR techniques.

‘New Consumers’ are difficult to reach because they do not listen to traditional communication so non-traditional strategies have been developed to take their place.

The most recognized methods are guerrilla marketing, viral marketing, buzz marketing, ambush marketing and ambient media. Guerrilla Marketing PRWeek describes this as “creative activities like stunts that attract attention or highjack events, to place the brand in public view.”

Big Star Entertainment, an online DVD retailer, didn’t think that traditional advertising was working anymore because people were becoming immune to it. Pop-up ads are immediately deleted and SKY+ helps viewers to fast forward through ads.

Big Star decided to get creative and instead of using regular billboards it plastered its messages on delivery trucks that travelled through the busy streets of America. Fluorescent eighteen-wheelers with large writing created a lot of attention. The eye-catching colours and the impression that the company was large sparked interest, yet it was a tiny website with an even smaller client base.

The trucks weren’t even carrying DVDs but it helped to create an impression of size and prominence. The event produced a lot of buzz and got the tiny company into big media, including Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Buzz marketing is another name for word of mouth, conversation generated by excitement about a brand, a product, service or company.

New Consumers listen to their friends and families or opinion formers rather than the organisations themselves so companies are trying to get creative and indirectly giving the power to opinion formers. Organisations are sending creative emails to produce buzz about a new product: often the emails have a link to a website. Emails are as quick, easy and cost-effective to pass onto friends as talking about them.

A famous example of buzz marketing took place between late 1994 and early 1995. Hush Puppies was suffering from a drop in sales to 30,000 pairs a year. It got so bad that Wolverine, the company that makes Hush Puppies were thinking about phasing them out. Until two Hush Puppies executive went to a fashion shoot and were told that Hush Puppies were becoming hip in clubs and bars in downtown Manhattan. Soon people were flocking to stores to by them in bulk and elite fashion designers were even wearing them. Sales rocketed to 430,000 pairs sold in 1995 and four times the following year.

In 1996, Hush Puppies won an award for best accessory at the Council of Fashion Designers but it wasn’t due to brilliant advertising or clever marketing. A gang of kids from the East Village and Soho decided to wear them because no one else wanted to wear them. They didn’t even realise that they had started a fad that spread to Haute Couture. Viral marketing was created due to the popularity of IT used in businesses and the home.

Organisations send emails to target audiences about their product or service in the hope that it will then be passed on to their friends, this is viral marketing. It is the fastest method of creating buzz to produce more sales. Hotmail produced the first commercial example of viral marketing by writing the message ‘Get your free email at Hotmail’ at the end of every email sent. Users of Hotmail rose to 10 million in less than 18 months, proving that viral marketing is powerful.

Viral marketing is a two-way interactive form of branding, which gives audiences the opportunity to comment on its efficiency. Ambient media can also include viral marketing because it involves marketing an organisation’s brand wherever the organisation thinks its target audience will be.

Lufthansa Airline sells ambient media space for organisations on all sorts of objects, such as napkins, cups, brochures, plane tickets and posters in toilet cubicles. The theory is that most brand decisions are made at the point of purchase.

Ambush marketing is similar to ambient media because the brand follows its audience and is part of the guerrilla marketing approach. It is performed at events where official sponsors have paid to advertise exclusively, while ambushers (usually direct competitors of the official sponsor) try to undercut the official sponsorship’s marketing.

In 1984, at the Los Angeles Olympics, Nike painted enormous Nike-endorsed athletes onto walls. Nike received support as the official sponsor of the Games because it epitomized everything about athletic effort. But Nike wasn’t the official sponsor; Converse was. Converse had paid millions of dollars for the sponsorship but Nike broke conventions and stole the glory.

Comments

[Valentyn]

Guys, do you happen to have any cases related to shoes marketing? Thank you in advance.

[David Phillips]

There are so many 'domains of PR practice' that I did some reserach into what people call thier brand of work: (http://www.managementclarity.com/domians_of_pr_practice.pdf)

Of course, to resolve the issues raised here, there is a need for understanding and deployments of effective relationship management.