Thursday 26 September 2013

10 Marketing Myths

1. My business isn't big enough to invest in communications 

Every business nowadays must have a communications strategy.  How else do you expect to grow?  In this digital age it doesn't need to cost much.  For a perspective of modern communications, good and bad, click here

2. My business is doing fine without a PR strategy

Well good for you!  But can you confidently state that you will keep the same clients for the rest of your working life? What if one of your competitors moves on? What if they are taken over by a larger company that sources elsewhere?  Don’t be complacent.  PR is about brand management, building reputation and connecting brands to customers and other stakeholders.

3. My target market is older, so social media would be a waste of time

Are you kidding me? Everyone and their dog has a social media site these days. Get online, get your ideas across and grow your audience; I can guarantee your messages will reach the correct public one way or another. Key to success is having a joined-up strategy and recognising that specifiers are increasingly looking for suppliers with PR and social media presence. 

4. Our marketing is mainly advertising and we have a good website

Great, but don’t stop there, because directing potential customers to your website is now the next stop… no? Don’t be shy to blog and link pictures, quotes or research to your site. Up that traffic to up your visibility.  Think about Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook or at the very least LinkedIn.  It's about creating a buzz around your brand - and the simple fact is that a communications strategy, reflecting corporate and commercial objectives, is usually the least expensive part of the marketing mix.

5. I'm a lawyer/architect/plumber etc and not a marketer

OK, don’t panic. PR, both traditional and digital, is a skill which some have and others don't.  However, just like you would use an accountant to do your taxes, why not use DavidGray PR to market your business. We are digital and traditional professionals after all.

6. I'm too busy to think about PR

Communications is a must in this digital, interactive world. You cannot brush it aside like the cleaning (not that we're suggesting that you do). Make time or, if you would like a professional solution, outsource to an agency.

7. I'm a smaller business and can't afford PR

Yes you can. Communications is an investment, not an expense. Go about it in the correct fashion and see a return.  After all, PR is about putting your brand in front of potential customers, creating engagement - and delivering a return on investment.

8. I have a sales and marketing team that handles PR

Great, sales are vital to business. But effective communications is a strategic and vital component of most businesses that thrive. Why not expand your PR effort to support your sales and marketing strategies.  (Important: get your sales and marketing teams to work together, with PR as the glue).

9. Facebook advertising may increase ‘likes’ but not customers

Facebook is a tool to build loyalty to your brand or product. Facebook advertising is a great way to increase your ‘likes’ and therefore increase customer engagement. A larger customer base with a connection to a brand will see them more inclined to invest.  But what's needed is a PR strategy across all platforms, including the dead trees and ink media.

10. It isn't worth the effort if it doesn't go viral

Okay, you want to do something visual and we've all seen the 
Cadbury’s gorilla advert, the Heineken entrance or the Coca-Cola happiness machine
.  These are all huge campaigns with millions of views.  However, although they were highly successful, they cost a lot of money - and your brand may not be in that FMCG league.  In any case, social media marketing is not about a one hit wonder.  It is about adding value and context over a period of time and, like everything else, having realistic expectations and objectives.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

PR for good and bad

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.”  So said Daniel Boorstin, the late American writer and historian.
It was intended as a witty quote, but does it illuminate whether PR is a force for good or (shudder!) something less benign?
More recently, Richard Edelman wrote that: “We [in PR] have a unique view of the world through a stakeholder lens, valuing reputation over short-term gain.  We recognise the connection between brand and corporate reputation.”
It’s a view that the PR industry would broadly endorse.  After all, we’re in the business of connecting reputation to brands and brands to stakeholders.  QED.  PR is a good thing.
Or is it?  It was the great Roman orator Cicero who made the point that public relations mainly operates to benefit those who commission it.  (A great blog on Cicero and PR from Paul Seaman can be found here).
In other words, if PR is largely about benefiting those who pay for it, what is the profession’s value beyond its paymasters?
There’s no doubt that it does have a value.  According to one report, by 2008, the UK had more PR people (47,800) than journalists (45,000).
Even if you dispute those figures, the intervening years have seen an exponential growth in communications, driven by digital and social media. 
In a 24/7 media world in which every one of us can be a blogger/journalist – able to promulgate truth, lies, or the downright offensive – where now does PR lie on the spectrum between good and bad, and does it matter?
It’s worth remembering that, while we think of PR as something relatively new, the dark art of PR has been around since time began.  To politics and prostitution as the oldest professions can be added PR.
After all, PR is about persuasion – whether persuading a reluctant populace to support an unpopular monarch or, nowadays, persuading a cynical public to buy a particular brand of hair conditioner.
It was the ancient Greeks who coined the term sematikos, meaning semantics – how to get people to believe and do things.  In 50BC, Julius Caesar wrote about his military exploits to persuade the Romans that he would make the best head of state.
Or, to take a more proletarian example, in the Middle Ages you were hung for stealing a sheep or horse.  Harsh maybe, but in an age without newspapers, it got a social message across.  Maybe the history of PR is simply that everything is PR.
Some argue that the first known examples of PR date back to Babylonian inscribed tablets almost 4000 years ago.  Others point to our great religious texts that clearly set out, often with audience segmentation, how to behave, what to eat and – of course – what to believe in.
It may not be PR as we know it today, but the subtle art of persuasion is as old as humanity itself.  What’s changed is the profusion of platforms on which to communicate and how we, as consumers of media and messages, relate to them.
Someone credited as a founding father of PR is Edward Bernays.  In a 1928 book, he wrote that "the conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."
Unseen mechanism?  Invisible government?  Ruling power?  Bernays did not consider this a bad thing, and nor would many of today’s PR practitioners.  But it throws into a historical context how PR was, and can still be, owned by those who can afford to pay for it.  (Bernays is also credited with popularizing smoking among women – a good example of big business badly influencing public opinion).
Most of us in PR are probably guilty of something.  For example, I am still unhappy by a public affairs assignment I took on a few years ago on behalf of a large developer.  The brief was to win planning approval for a shopping centre in central Scotland, adjacent to two small towns.
The economic impact analysis that we commissioned suggested conclusively that there would be no detrimental impact on those surrounding towns.  We won the argument, the shopping centre was built, and the two nearby towns were severely affected.
Maybe, of course, in the balance between new jobs created and old jobs lost, the shopping centre was a good idea.  But I remain troubled by how big business was able to win over hearts and minds by having a bigger wallet.
I believe passionately that PR should be a force for good, and tilting the balance is the rise and rise of social media and blogging.  In the new age of digital democracy, we are all able to be publicists.
Gone are Cicero, Edward Bernays and Julius Caesar.  In their place has come a new world order; a new world without order.  We can say what we like and publish it for free.  PR is no longer in the hands of the rich or powerful.
Social media has rewritten free speech, and given everyone a voice.  It’s now about engagement and interaction; generating two-way conversation rather than one-way press releases.
What hasn’t changed is our appetite to persuade, for good or bad.  You decide.
Charlie Laidlaw is a director of DavidGray PR.  The agency is a specialist in national and international PR strategy and delivery.  You can contact us at 01620 844736 or Charlie@davidgraypr.com or connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Friday 20 September 2013

What's the difference between MI5 and PR? Not a lot.

A long time ago in a place not far distant from central London, I was being lectured about the nature of treason.  What, I was asked, did the traitor see in the mirror each morning as he shaved?  Traitor or patriot?

It was an ambiguous lesson, without fixed context, given credence only by the fact that we both worked for the Security Service.  The context I only discovered later, and by then he’d already made his decision.

Now, a lifetime later, the business of intelligence has, for me, become the business of communications – from gathering information and keeping it secret to distilling information and making it public.

On the surface, there are few obvious similarities between those two very different worlds.
After all, the task of the Security Service involves shining discreet torches into dark places at the edge of reason and learning enough about the dragons that lurk there to keep them safely locked away.

The business of marketing and public relations, by contrast, involves shining media spotlights to get companies and their products and systems noticed.  It certainly doesn’t involve lights being hidden under bushels.

There is, however, one enormous similarity between the two.  Let me explain. 
Once upon a time it used to be that people needed products to survive.  Now, it’s the other way around.  Products need people to survive.  In a business context, and in a market economy, companies need customers to survive.

In a cluttered market, whether the product is baked beans, carpeting or a window system, every product needs a buyer – and most products and companies have competitors.  You have competitors, I have competitors – and we’re always working to invent a better widget.
What makes us successful, or not, is the glue that binds product to customer.  That glue is marketing – the diffuse process by which we attract enquiries and convert those enquiries into sales.

Within that conversion process, the central element in any successful marketing strategy is information.  We need to provide potential customers with the essential information to buy our product rather than someone else’s.So far, so self-evident.  Yet that’s precisely the central element that a great many firms fail to recognise in devising marketing or promotional campaigns.  The information that customers need to make that buying decision is confused by poor messaging or corporate techno-babble.

Good marketing and PR is about recognising information as a valuable commodity and using that information to manage the human imagination, whether in traditional media or on new channels such as LinkedIn or Twitter.

It’s a marketing challenge that many firms simply don’t address.  It merely involves distilling key facts and figures and promoting corporate and product information online and offline in ways that potential customers will find digestible.

Back in the Security Service bar, I wondered why Mike Bettany was speculating aloud about the nature of treason.  Soon afterwards, he was arrested for attempted espionage, trying to peddle the State’s secrets to the Soviet’s men in leather coats.  He was sent down for a very long time.

Mike, it seemed, also knew the value of information and how to sell it, for whatever expedient reason or moral justification.  For the Russians, that information may have been extremely valuable.  For Mike, poor sod, the price had a more personal cost.

As I said, it’s about information and its value.  The marketing and intelligence worlds aren’t that far apart.

Reddit as an entertaining marketing tool

Reddit as an entertaining marketing tool

I am addicted to Reddit, and I don’t feel ashamed, aggrieved or upset with myself over that fact.

I have been hooked for about a year now and have never felt so up-to-date with the world’s news. For example, I had a quick ‘hit’ of Reddit this morning and learned that the remaining members of Monty Python sang “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” at Graham Champman’s funeral.  Hilarious.

Also, a sheep named ‘Shrek’ was unshaved for 6 years and produced enough wool for 20 large men’s suits in one shave! Amazing.


Reddit is full of these pointless but entertaining stories but fear not, the site is actually very systematic. Delve into the world of sub-reddits and you can find blogs, thought provoking questions, pictures, videos or articles on any real topic you may be interested in.

This is where you can learn, educate and share experiences with others. It is also where Reddit’s marketing potential comes into its own. The unique way in which Reddit operates – a public voting system (upvote/downvote) that provides the reader with an idea of interest and content. The more upvotes, the higher the post will go and, the higher the post, the more potential readers.

Using this user curated voter website effectively, you could see your posts or blogs reach the front page of Reddit.  If that happens, tens of thousands of Redditors could read, comment and vote on your articles. A huge interactive demographic that provides honest, quick and informed feedback.

Get your post onto the correct sub-reddit and there you have it, thousands of potential customers providing (free) market research for whatever you may be posting about.

So what are the basic guidelines when posting on Reddit:

The 10% rule

The 10% rule relates to links or content posted. We all want to hear a demographic of information, not one person’s point of view so try to find sources of information from a range of sites, do not repeatedly post links from a specific site. Posting more than 10% of the same link will see the Administrators on your back and you may lose your account.

"It's perfectly fine to be a redditor with a website, it's not okay to be a website with a Reddit account." - Reddit’s self promotion page.

Reddit is about originality and not about self-promotion. Stories of interest is what people want to hear, not what can your company do for mine – check out the ‘reddiquette’ here.

Be active within the Reddit community

Due to the huge success of Reddit there are now thousands of sub-reddits, communities of people based around different topics.

To be successful you need to exploit related sub-reddits and be an active member of the community, posting your thoughts, questions or ideas (remember NO self-promotion).

Each sub-reddit has its own rules so pay particular attention to each one. They can be found down the right hand side of each page.

Don’t promote your submitted links

Once you have submitted a link, LEAVE IT!

Do not ask your Twitter or Facebook followers and friends to up-vote as this will pollute the accurate Reddit content, plus, you would be breaking Reddit rules and you do not want to be on the wrong side of Reddit!

“You should not ask for votes on Reddit, even on your Twitter or blog or forum – it will get your account banned, and in extreme cases can get your domain banned”.

Have fun!

If you follow the rules and use Reddit for its intended purposes there is no reason for you to find yourself on the wrong side of the law.


It’s a social media site after all, packed with entertainment, useless or not, it’s there to entertain you, so be entertained!

Monday 16 September 2013

PR and learning from disaster

PR and learning from disaster
PR is supposed to be about putting companies and organisations in contact with stakeholders.  Good PR is about effective communications and, in a digital age, meaningful dialogue.
Having been in PR for a long time, and journalism before that, understanding the PR landscape is as much about the lessons of failure as it is about understanding PR’s success stories.
The fact is, we all make mistakes in our professional lives.  The important thing is to learn from them, and make sure that the same mistake can’t happen again.
Foot-in-mouth syndrome
It’s always good to set up a media interview with a client, particularly if that media outlet has reach and influence.  Sometimes, however, it can all go horribly wrong.
Probably the best example is Gerald Ratner (remember him?) who over years built up his jewellery empire and then, in a few seconds, virtually destroyed it.
In 1991, in an interview, Ratner said that his outlets “sold a pair of earrings for under a pound, which is cheaper than a prawn sandwich… but probably wouldn’t last as long.”  He also said that another product in his range “was total c***.”
Result?  £500 million wiped from share value, Ratner forced out, and the company rebranded.
Equally stupid, a senior executive of Topman, describing their customers as “hooligans,” remarked that “very few of our customers have to wear suits to work.”  He then suggested that their first suits were for their first court case.  Ouch.
Or the boss of Papa John’s who suggested that, because of health issues, customers shouldn’t eat five or six slices of their pizzas – despite the fact that the smallest pizza in their range consisted of…um, six slices.
Sometimes, the message gets lost in the telling.  For example, the Barclay’s boss who, back in pre-credit-crunch Britain, told a House of Commons committee that he didn’t use a Barclaycard because they were too expensive.
He was trying to make the point that borrowing on credit cards is an expensive way of obtaining credit, but the damage was done.
Sometimes, certain individuals just shouldn’t give interviews.  Witness Lee Ryan of boy-band Blue back in 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11.  “What about whales?” he asked.  “Who gives a f*** about New York when elephants are being killed.”
Lesson:  Anticipate what questions will be asked, and rehearse answers.  Unless you know a journalist well, don’t speak off-the-record, and don’t give flippant comments that can be taken out-of-context.  A spot of media training is also a good idea.
Good wheeze, utter cock-up
My favourite remains Hoover’s promotional campaign to offer free flights to anyone spending more than £100 on their products.  The 1990s campaign was hugely popular, the company was overwhelmed and court cases ensued – a PR disaster.
(The reason it’s my favourite is that my wife and I, after many tetchy dealings with Hoover, obtained two free air tickets to the Canary Islands.  Alas, the Hoover is now history.  We now own a Dyson).
Lesson:  While everybody can come up with a good idea, not all ideas turn out to be that good.   It’s as well drilling down into every potential downside…from a PR as well as marketing perspective.
Non-verbal communication
We all need downtime away from the office, particularly if the going is tough.  Sometimes, however, what we do can be just as important as what we say.
It’s a lesson that BP’s Tony Hayward learned the hard way when he decided to go racing on his yacht while his company was struggling to deal with the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
The US Chief of Staff summed up what many thought when he said, “I think we can conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR.”
Lesson:  Every company or organisation should have a regularly-updated crisis plan.  That plan should also be about how senior executives behave in private as well as in public.
Social media
The old media, based on ink and dead trees, has one great advantage: you can draft and redraft press releases or articles until they reflect perfectly what you want to say.
The new media’s great advantage is that it offers absolute immediacy – digital platforms to create dialogue and engage with stakeholders.  Done well, social media engagement can build transparency, trust and brand value.
But social media can also be the architect of PR disaster.  We’ve become used to celebs – film, music and sporting - saying idiotic things, mostly on Twitter. 
But idiot Tweets from celebs don’t do a great deal of lasting damage, except to themselves.  For companies or organisations, the damage can be very real.
For example, a Skittles promotion in the early days of Twitter, with all Tweets being posted on the front page of the confectioner’s website.  It should have been a celebration of all things sweet and yummy, but quickly descended into profanity and farce.  The campaign was pulled.
What Skittles learned is that, while the likes of Twitter can reach millions, not everyone is going to be a fan, and some just like to cause trouble.  Someone at Skittles should have been monitoring incoming Tweets and filtering out the more offensive.
But it’s the Aurora cinema shooting in Colorado last year that provides the best contexts for social media strategy, and how to avoid publicity for all the wrong reasons.  In that massacre, 12 people died and many more injured.
A clothing company, UK-based but selling in the USA, Tweeted that: “@CelebBoutiqe #Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress ;) Shop: celebboutique.com/aurora-white-pleated-v-neck-strong-shoulder-dress-en.html .”
The Tweet referred to a dress worn by Kim Kardashian, and the company was mortified when the real reason for Aurora trending became apparent.
On the same day, equally innocently, the US National Rifle Association, Tweeted, “Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?”  The post was quickly deleted but, once again, the damage had been done.
Lesson:  The immediacy of social media is its greatest advantage, but that immediacy comes with significant challenge.  Adopt a strategy, think ahead, check and double-check, and don’t use every social media platform unless you really understand how they work.
Next week
Next week we’ll take a look at some notable PR successes, and how companies and organisations can turn the mundane into PR gold.

Charlie Laidlaw is a director of David Gray PR, based in Scotland, and with clients across the UK, Europe and Asia.  The agency is a specialist in national and international PR strategy and delivery.  You can contact us at 01620 844736 or Charlie@davidgraypr.com or connect with us on LinkedIn or Facebook.