Chapter 1

Understanding the Power of PR

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining public relations

Discovering who needs PR

Exploring what a PR professional does

Examining the differences between PR and advertising

When I was a young man of 24 and almost a complete beginner at public relations, I got my photo on the front page of USA Today with a feature story about the 1985 baseball strike. That piece put my then-fledgling PR firm on the map, so to speak, and helped advance my career in PR.

At the time, no one had heard of my agency or me, and I had no press contacts with USA Today - or any other major media. That lack of contacts could easily have become a major stumbling block for my PR firm: The agency did good work, but larger corporate prospects would naturally - and in my opinion, naively - ask, "Who are your media contacts?" When I confessed that I didn't personally know the editor in chief of the New York Times and wasn't invited to Oprah's dinner parties, potential clients could have easily lost interest and chosen other firms. This problem was one I wanted to solve as quickly as possible.

So how did I get USA Today to put my picture on the front page? At the time, an MLB strike was the news of the day. My partner and I issued a press release and called the media to announce that we had formed a new organization, called Strike Back, to protest the baseball strike. The premise was simple: After the strike, we'd boycott a day of games for every day the league failed to negotiate a deal.

Did I do this for the love of the game? Yes - partially. But it certainly wasn't lost on me that turning ourselves into a national news story would (1) demonstrate the type of PR we practice, (2) showcase our ability to get media exposure, and (3) attract new business. USA Today was the first big media placement for my agency, and it got potential clients to pay attention to the new kids on the PR block.

This anecdote illustrates four basic PR principles that form the core of my agency's philosophy and the how-to PR techniques in this book:

• You have to be different. The media and the public are drowning in information but starved for amusement. Conventional publicity strategies get lost in the noise. You have to find a creative way to stand out from the crowd and get noticed: Strike Back is just one of dozens of examples of this in practice illustrated throughout this book.
• You have to be authentic. You can't simply be different for the sake of being different. You have to pin down who you are, what you believe in, and what makes your company or client unique. That's how you define a brand and find your spark. Then own it and stay true to it.
• Getting publicity is great, but it's a waste of time and money if it doesn't help you achieve your business objectives. If getting on the front page of the Wall Street Journal doesn't help you make more money or increase your company's market share, is it really worth the trouble? In the case of Strike Back, the campaign did achieve a specific objective: getting corporate PR clients to take my PR firm seriously and hire us, despite the fact that we had fewer clients, fewer years of experience, and a fraction of the media contacts of the big PR firms.
• You don't have to have media contacts to get big-time publicity. Strike Back perfectly demonstrates this principle - and it helped my firm convince potential clients that contacts weren't nearly as important as ideas. A creative idea, a clear marketing goal, and effective implementation are what count. You don't have to know the hosts of Good Morning America to get on the show; you just have to come up with an idea that will interest the show's producers.

This chapter serves as the jumping-off point to the world of public relations and how you can get all the publicity you need to achieve your business objectives - without making public relations your full-time job (though maybe you'll want to after you finish this book).

Recognizing Who Needs PR

If you have all the business you'll ever want, are rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and don't care what others think of you, you may not need public relations.

A crisis is an obvious exception. A lot of my work as a PR professional is in response to clients who have an immediate PR crisis to solve, like a negative customer experience that goes viral or a toy posing an unexpected safety risk to children because of a product defect. And the thing about crisis planning is that it's something you need to do before you have a crisis. So in many cases, even if your sales are skyrocketing and you don't need to promote yourself, you may want to engage in PR activities to prevent negative publicity or correct any bad press that comes your way. (See Chapter 21 on crisis management.) Other broad reasons a business or person may want to use PR include

• To grow the business
• To win over investors
• To increase sales

Doctors, lawyers, creators, artists, restaurant owners, real estate agents, and practically every other type of professional can use public relations to promote their businesses. PR is effective in virtually every category, from construction to technology to fitness, wellness, and beauty to retail, healthcare, insurance, tourism, real estate, and investments. Every type of business stands to benefit enormously from the power of PR.

Here are a few benefits to using PR:

• Its ability to further a business's long-term goals: PR can help take a business from where they are now to where they want to be six months, a year, or a decade from now. Good PR can turn marginal businesses into profitable ones and ordinary folks into millionaires.
• Its efficient use of resources: PR is earned media and can therefore get your business in a publication at a fraction of the price it would cost for ad space. If a business has an unlimited advertising budget and it won't miss the money spent, it can probably get its message across without relying on the subtler medium of PR. That doesn't mean it shouldn't use PR as part of its marketing mix, however: Many clients find that a relatively modest investment in PR greatly extends the reach of their total promotional program.
• Its incredible ability to meaningfully connect with audiences, sway minds, and influence public perception: In this regard, PR is far more effective than paid media.

Cost is one of the great appeals of PR to both small businesses and large corporations alike. Small businesses with limited budgets simply can't come close to matching the ad budgets of larger competitors. PR can help them level the playing field and get the same or better promotional bang for a lot fewer bucks.

As for the big companies, if you work for one, you know that getting more money in the marketing budget can be an uphill battle. With PR, you can achieve the objectives senior managers want even if they don't give you the money you think you need to do it.

Beyond Stunts: Identifying the Real Value of PR

Publicity stunts can be a lot of fun. They're exciting, flashy, and full of spectacle. But in reality, they're just a small part of what PR entails. PR does, of course, include headline-grabbing stunts and star-studded events. (See Chapter 19 for more on staging publicity events.) But the real meat and potatoes of PR isn't about celebrities and big budget extravaganzas.

In fact, that's the easy part of public relations. The true value of PR is its ability to solve real-world marketing problems for any product, service, organization, brand, or public figure. For instance, if your sales are inconsistent - with big jumps during marketing pushes followed by prolonged slumps - you need to find a way to increase the frequency of marketing efforts without having to spend a whole lot more money. PR is perhaps the best means of getting your message out on a continual basis and eliminating periodic sales slumps, and you can do it without having to significantly increase your marketing budget.

With enough creativity, PR can work for any and every industry, from florists to funeral directors, software to soft serve. Any organization or individual with a message to deliver or a goal to achieve can benefit from PR. Indeed, the real magic of PR is in its practical applications for everyday businesspeople. You don't even need a communications degree or special certification to practice PR.

You don't need a flashy or unusual product to gain publicity; you just need a creative idea that meets two criteria:

• It's newsworthy.
• It communicates the marketing message.

Creative PR, with proper execution, can work wonders for manufacturers, creators, distributors, retailers, tradespeople, service companies, and professional practices in any industry. The chapters in Part 2 delve deeper into creative thinking, but here's a quick example.

For example, British Knights wanted a way to sell more of its sneakers to kids. As a seasonal promotion, the company sent out press releases announcing an unusual "Summer Exchange" program: Parents who were concerned that their kids were spending too...