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Only GM offered a way to check out all of the companys SUV models in one place. In fact, the three sites are so similar that theyre effectively interchangeable. At each site, being marketed to with a string of messages that had been developed in a lab or via focus groups. struck with the odd feeling that all of the big three automakers sites were designed and built by the same Madison Avenue ad guy. These sites were advertising to me, not building a relationship with me. They were luring me in with one-way messages, not educating me about the companies products. Automakers have become addicted to the crack cocaine of marketing: big budget TV commercials and other offline advertising. Edmundss cool Car Space,4 a free consumer-driven social networking and personal page site with features such as photo albums, user groups based on make and model of car, and favorite links, was excellent in helping me narrow down choices. For example, in the forums, I could read more than 2,000 messages just on the Toyota FJ Cruiser. I could see pages where owners showed off their vehicles. Prior to the Web, organizations had only two significant choices to attract attention: Buy expensive advertising or get third-party ink from the media. Web is not TV.
In the old days, traditional, nontargeted advertising via newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and direct mail were the only ways to go. But these media make targeting specific buyers with individualized messages very difficult. Yes, advertising is still used for megabrands with broad reach and probably still works for some organizations and products (though not as well as before).
Web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the precise moment that a buyer needs it. Advertising is about great creative work. Advertising agencies that excel in creative TV ads simply believe they can transfer their skills to theWeb.
The Old Rules of Marketing 8 Public Relations Used to Be Exclusively about the Media 8
They are following outdated rules. The Old Rules of Marketing _ Marketing simply meant advertising (and branding). _ Advertising needed to appeal to the masses. _ Advertising relied on interrupting people to get them to pay attention to a message. _ Advertising was one-way: company-to-consumer. _ Advertising was exclusively about selling products. _ Advertising was based on campaigns that had a limited life. _ Creativity was deemed the most important component of advertising. _ It was more important for the ad agency to win advertising awards than for the client to win new customers. _ Advertising and PR were separate disciplines run by different people with separate goals, strategies, and measurement criteria. None of this is true anymore.
to a handful of reporters who then tell the companys story, generating a clip for the PR people to show their bosses. Now, great PR includes programs to reach buyers directly.
Press Releases and the Journalistic Black Hole 11 The Old Rules of PR 11
Jargon was rampant. Whats the news? journalists would think as they perused the release. The vast majority of organizations dont have instant access to mainstream media for coverage of their products. The Old Rules of PR _ The only way to get ink and airtime was through the media. _ Companies communicated to journalists via press releases. _ Nobody saw the actual press release except a handful of reporters and editors. _ Companies had to have significant news before they were allowed to write a press release. _ Jargon was okay because the journalists all understood it. _ You werent supposed to send a release unless it included quotes from third parties, such as customers, analysts, and experts. _ The only way buyers would learn about the press releases content was if the media wrote a story about it. _ The only way to measure the effectiveness of press releases was through clip books, which noted each time the media deigned to pick up a companys release. _ PR and marketing were separate disciplines run by different people with separate goals, strategies, and measurement techniques. For these lucky few, the media may still be the primary mouthpiece. _ If you are J.K. Rowling and you issued a press release about, say, a new Harry Potter book, the news will be picked up by the media. _ If Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs announces the companys new iPhone at a trade show, the news will be picked up by the media. _ If Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie issue a press release about adopting another baby, the news will be picked up by the media. _ If President Obama announces his pick to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, the news will be picked up by the media.
Public relations is not just about speaking through the media, although the media remain an important component. Marketing is not just about one-way broadcast advertising, although advertising can be part of an overall strategy.
The new rules are just as important for public relations. online content in all of its forms is causing a convergence of marketing and PR that does not really exist offline. The company targets consumers and builders who might want to plan and build a concrete patio, pool deck, or drivewaythis audience makes up the business-to-consumer (B2C) component of The Concrete Network as well as the concrete contractors who comprise the business-to-business (B2B) component. The companys Web content, combined with a comprehensive direct-to-consumer news release strategy, drives business that site averaged 550,000 visitors per month in 2005 and 850,000 in 2006. In 2009, against a backdrop of an economic crisis and a dramatically slower construction market and 40 percent less searches in the concrete category, the site is garnering over 1,000,000 visitors per month.
_ You are what you publish. _ People want authenticity, not spin. _ People want participation, not propaganda. _ Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it. _ Marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the Web. _ PR is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. Its about your buyers seeing your company on theWeb. _ Marketing is not about your agency winning awards. Its about your organization winning business. _ The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media. _ Companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content. _ Blogs, online video, e-books, news releases, and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate. _ On theWeb, the lines between marketing and PR have blurred.
investments. All these media allow organizations to deliver the right information to buyers, right at the point when they are most receptive to the information.