Chapter 12

Advertising, Promoting, and Publicizing Your Brand

In This Chapter

Developing your brand marketing message and communication strategy

Creating ads that work to build your brand

Packaging and promoting your brand

Making and publicizing brand news

Brands need awareness like plants need water. If people don’t know about your brand or if they don’t have a clear idea about what your brand is and stands for, it will never take root in their minds, which is where brands thrive.

Chapters 10 and 11 are all about achieving awareness through digital communications by driving traffic to your website and getting active on social-media networks. This chapter guides your development of more traditional communications, including ads, direct mailers, packaging, promotions, and publicity capable of carrying your brand message into target market homes, offices, cars, mailboxes, and mobile screens.

The Power of a Strong Brand Image

When marketers talk about integrated marketing communications, they’re talking about communications that project one look, voice, and core message or brand promise across all communication channels, whether through personal presentations, web pages, social media, promotions, advertising, direct mail, or public-relations efforts.

Brands benefit from integrated marketing communications for a number of reasons, including the following:

• People gain confidence in brands that present themselves consistently. If communications sound or look elegant one day and whimsical or irreverent the next, customers won’t know which expression accurately reflects the brand character and what experience they can count on.
• People expect your brand voice to reflect your brand’s character and personality. Then after you establish your brand voice, you can alter the tone of your voice depending on the audience and communication channel in the same way you’d use a different tone of your voice at the dining room table versus the conference table. For example, the operators of a preschool may adopt a voice that’s caring and playful rather than clinical or professional, which is the voice you might expect from a hospital or bank. When their voice is established, they might use a soothing, friendly tone when addressing children, a more confident tone when presenting to parents, and a more authoritative tone when presenting at a childcare-providers conference. Likewise, they’d probably use a personal tone in customer emails and a casual, conversational tone on social media and in broadcast ads. At all times, though, they’d want to their voice to come through as caring and playful, which is the personality of their brand.

  Here’s an example of a brand voice description: Our brand voice is friendly and confident. We want to sound expert but not uppity; casual but not complacent. We want our customers to know through our communications that we’re the kind of people they’d like to visit with in their own backyards and that they can count on us as partners who provide expert, efficient, earth-sensitive landscape services.

• People trust companies more when the core message of communications is in line with the brand image. Your core message is the promise of your brand. It defines the meaningful value customers can count on your brand to deliver and the claim you’ll make and prove — directly or indirectly — in all communications and brand experiences.

  For example, Our core message is that we deliver the best solution for ecologically sound, affordable landscape solutions in the Pacific Northwest, proven by before-and-after photos and an environmental savings guarantee.

By presenting your brand consistently, projecting the same core message and voice in all communications and through all brand experiences, you develop an integrated marketing campaign that conveys a strong, clear image and builds a strong, clear brand. Turn to Chapter 6 if you haven’t yet put your brand promise and voice into words.

A Clear Purpose: Don’t Communicate without One!

When it comes time to start communicating your brand message, you may be tempted to race to the creative part of the process. Resist the temptation.

Start by taking time to figure out what you want to accomplish. Go beyond a vague idea, like “We want to introduce our brand.” Instead, get specific with instructions such as, “We want to announce our brand to our 40-something, predominantly male, regionally based audience with an ad that conveys our brand promise to offer the most natural oceanside golf experience on the West Coast by extending an invitation to take a club tour and enter a lottery for a limited number of inaugural memberships.”

In other words, detail what you want to accomplish. Then get creative.

Whether you’re producing an ad, display, brochure, presentation, blog post, or any other brand communication, begin by defining the purpose of your communication and what you want the communication to achieve. Marketing pros call the creative directions that result from this pre-planning effort your creative brief. To keep yourself and those producing your communication on the right track, write a creative brief for each communication project by answering these seven questions:

• Who is your target audience? In a sentence or two, describe who this communication aims to reach, where they can be reached, who they are in factual terms, and how and why they buy products like the one you’re offering.
• What do people in your target audience know or think about your brand, product, or service? Do they lack knowledge about you? In that case, your communication needs to establish awareness. Do they hold positive perceptions you want to reinforce, or inaccurate perceptions you want to change?
• What do you want people in your target audience to think — and do? Do you them to call for appointments, ask for estimates, visit a website, attend an event, make a purchase, or simply increase awareness?
• Why should people believe you and take the recommended action? Summarize the unique benefits you promise and the reason to act now.
• What information do you need to convey in this communication? List what the communication absolutely has to include, including your core marketing message and voice, proper presentation of your brand identity, and other necessities.
• How will you measure success? What do you want people to do following this communication? What will you say or do to prompt the action? How will you measure success?
• What is your timeline and budget? Set and share your timeline and a budget. If you don’t, the date will slide and costs will mount.

Creating and Placing Ads

Advertising, by definition, aims to inform and persuade through paid announcements in mass-media outlets. Advertising pays its freight when it reaches the people you’re aiming to influence at the right time, with the right message, and with enough frequency to change their perceptions and actions. As you schedule media buys to introduce your brand, remember these terms:

• Reach: The number of individuals or homes exposed to your ad.
• Frequency: The number of times that an average person is exposed to your message.

If you have to choose between achieving reach or frequency (and unless your budget is massive, trust us, you have to choose) follow this advice: Limit your reach and then spend as much as you can to achieve frequency through multiple ad placements in carefully selected media outlets that reach your targeted audience.

Reach creates awareness; but frequency changes minds.

Deciding on your media channels

Good advertising schedules deliver messages people want to see through media channels that get your message in front of exactly the audiences you want to reach. For example:

• If the objective of your advertising is to reach and influence prospects and customers: Place ads in media with audiences that match your customer profile (complete the Customer Profile Worksheet in Chapter 5 if you’re not sure how to define your customer).
• If the objective of your advertising is to reach and influence those who influence the success of your brand: Create a definition of the person whose referral, advice, or recommendation tilts your customer’s opinion and then find media outlets that reach people who match that description.

  For example, if you’re branding a senior citizen assisted-living housing community, you may decide that your success depends on referrals and recommendations from the attorneys, physicians, and adult children of your prospects. Therefore, in addition to advertising in media outlets that reach adults 75 and older, you’d also want to announce open houses and deliver information in media outlets that reach physicians, attorneys, and middle-aged adults in your market area.

In most cases, a number of media channels fill the bill in terms of reaching your audience. When that’s the case, you can make media selections based on which best reach your market within the cost and timing realities you face. See the sidebar “The media menu” for a quick look the costs, placement considerations, and advantages of various media channels.

Print ads

In great print ads, the headline, copy, and design work together to grab attention, inspire interest, promote a brand promise, prompt the desired action, and advance the brand image. That’s a lot, but it’s not too much to ask. In fact, it’s what you need to demand out of every print ad you place.

To achieve success, each print ad must include three powerful components:

• Headline: The ad’s stop-’em-in-their tracks introductory statement.
• Copy: Adspeak for the text of your ad. Good copy talks directly to the reader, conveying information that tells the benefits of your offering, the promise of your brand, and what to do next to obtain information, take advantage of an offer, or make a purchase.
• Design: The way your ad looks — how it uses type, art, open space, borders, and placement of elements to guide a reader’s eyes through the message while also presenting the brand identity of the advertiser.

Punching up headline power

Four out of every five print ad readers read only the headline, so write one that’s capable of targeting your prospects, grabbing attention, and making people want to read the rest of your story.

Plenty of great ads have no headlines, but instead they feature an amazing photo or illustration that seizes reader attention. Unless you can afford a graphic element with sure stopping power, use a headline every time.

Headlines can be long or short. They can sit at the top, in the middle, or at the bottom of the ad. They can feature a single word, a phrase, a sentence, or a question. It isn’t the headline form that matters. It’s the function. See Table 12-1 for headline advice to follow and traps to avoid.

Table 12-1 Headline Advice

Convincing copy

Effective image ads sometimes contain no copy at all. They rely on the strength of the brand name and logo, along with a captivating photo or other image, to advance the brand and expand awareness, credibility, and loyalty. Look at fashion ads for good examples.

Most advertisers need their ads to ignite measurable action, though, and for that reason, most ads count on copy to play a pretty important role. If you expect your ad to generate consumer response — in the form of changed opinions, enhanced interest, requests for more information, inquiries about price or options, business visits, or other actions that move consumers toward a buying decision — include ad copy that’s up to the task.

When writing copy (or when reviewing copy written by ad professionals), keep these points in mind:

• Be sure the first sentence is capable of capturing interest and enticing the reader to want to know more.
• Be sure the second sentence lures the reader into the third sentence, with each additional sentence advancing your brand promise and building more credibility and trust.
• Include an invitation to take action.
• Inspire action with an incentive. To persuade people to request information, view demonstrations, ask for cost estimates, sample the product, join your brand community, or in some other way interact with your brand, stimulate action with limited-time special buying terms, promotional pricing, trial offers, guarantees, or other offers that lower the risk or heighten the ease of taking the desired action.
• Call for action. Don’t assume people will know where to find you, how to reach you, or whether or not you have a website, give free estimates, or welcome drop-in business. Make responding easy (Call us toll-free, Go to our website to request a free estimate, Visit our business seven days a week, Like us on Facebook, and so on). Then tell how to take action by providing your phone number, arrival directions, your web address, and other information that makes responding easy.

Designing for impact

Graphic artists and art directors earn their fees for many reasons, but high on the list is the simplicity of their designs. Flip through the pages of any newspaper or magazine. The ads that catch your eye are likely those with few elements, most striking visuals, and clean, attention-grabbing looks.

If you’re investing a significant amount of money in ad buys, seriously consider investing in the creation of professionally designed ads. The section “Where to turn for creative help” later in this chapter guides you through the resource selection process.

As you create or review ad designs, consider this advice:

• Use art. Readers flip through publications at rapid-fire speed, stopping only when a headline or visual grabs their attention.

  In some ads, the art shows the product being advertised. In other cases, it shows the product in use or represents the benefits the product delivers. In yet other cases, the art relies on what’s called borrowed interest by featuring a photo or illustration that indirectly relates to the ad message. For example, a company featuring Tuscan vacations may feature a photo of Florence (the product), it may show a photo of people sitting near a villa overlooking a Chianti landscape (the product in use), or it may feature an illustration of wine glasses or grape vines (borrowed interest).

• Keep it simple. Print media is a cluttered environment packed full of news articles, feature stories, facts and figures, and ads large and small. On a crowded page, the clean ad with open space wins attention for the simple reason that it gives the reader’s eyes a place to find a moment’s refuge from the visual overwhelm. To streamline your ad design:
  • Frame your ad. Rather than running copy or design elements to the edge of your ad space (where they run into adjacent ads or stories), isolate your ad with unfilled space or a strong border.
  • Eliminate unnecessary elements. Ads that win awards for their effectiveness almost always feature design restraint as opposed to design overload. Readers’ eyes sweep across ads, usually from upper left to lower right. In a matter of moments they note the message, the advertiser logo, and whether or not they want to take a closer look. If your ad lacks a focal point or fails to convey a message at a glance, it doesn’t get a second chance.
• Size your ad to match your message. If you’re promoting a $1.99 offer, a small-space ad may work just fine. But if you’re launching a brand and want to say, in essence, “Hello, world. We’re going to be a big deal, and here’s why,” size your ad accordingly.
• Project a single look and voice in your brand’s ads. For example, use the same typestyle in all headlines, the same border design, the same style of illustrations, the same personality, and the same placement of your logo. To establish your guidelines, see Chapter 17.

Broadcast ads

In the same way that print advertisers benefit from a recognizable brand look, broadcast advertisers leverage the power of a consistent look and/or sound that people can immediately link to the brand’s name when they see or hear the ad. Use these tips to establish a broadcast brand identity:

• Establish a broadcast ad style, such as ads consisting of a dialogue between two people, ads that feature testimonials, ads with the same voice or actor, and ads that convey a consistent mood and message.
• Use music, sound effects, and visual techniques to help people recognize and identify your brand by the its look or sound alone. (The Progressive television ads and Oreo social-media ads are good examples.)
• Seriously consider hiring professional broadcast resources for everything from ad concept development to studio production to talent.

See Chapter 11 for advice on shooting, editing, and uploading video and microvideo pieces to your YouTube channel for sharing on social-media pages.

Especially if you’re producing video for an ad that will run alongside the ads of major brand advertisers, hire professionals to create an ad that will make you look like able competition; a do-it-yourself ad may well flag your brand — in seconds — as an also-ran. Turn to the upcoming section, “Where to turn for creative help” for information on hiring professionals.

Digital ads

You don’t need a book to tell you that people love to hate ads — especially ads that interrupt them with loud-volume, fast-talking messages that have nothing to do with them or their interests. On the flip side, people also love to watch, read, and talk about ads, evidenced by viewership of World Cup, Super Bowl, and award-ceremony ads and viral sharing of ads on social media.

The difference between an annoying and an astonishingly effective ad hinges on whether or not it reaches and wins interest from the person viewing it. And no medium does customer targeting better than digital ads, which is why advertising investments keep shifting toward the online channel. Online ads are among the least expensive to run and among the easiest to target and monitor for return-on-investment, because they generate measurable clicks through to your website. Here’s a look at the digital-advertising menu:

• Banner ads run across the top of third-party sites. They almost disappeared due to customer resistance but made a comeback thanks to inclusion in the Google AdSense program. They rely on a creative concept that prompts consumer to click the ad, at which time the advertiser gets charged and the website owner gets paid.
• Pop-up and pop-under ads sit over or hide under third-party websites. They vie with robo-call telemarketing for the most-annoying forms of advertising. Pop-up blocking software is in wide use and Google, for one, doesn’t allow pop-ups on its sites.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are small ads in the margin of search engine or social-media pages. The advertiser pays only when someone clicks the ad to reach the advertiser’s site.
• Search ads are all-word ads that display on the screens of search-engine results because they focus on the same keywords as those in the search. Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter (representing Bing and Yahoo!) are the leading search ad programs. Like pay-per-click ads, the advertiser pays each time someone clicks on the URL presented in the ad.

  A companion program to Google AdWords is the AdSense advertising program, which allows high-traffic information sites to earn revenue by displaying AdWords ads on their web pages.

• Social-media PPC ads work a lot like search ads, except they target people rather than keyword topics. Almost every social-media network has a way to let you place ads. Visit the network’s help center or enter the name of the network you’re interested in, along with the word “advertising,” in a search engine to find the latest advice to follow. Success in social-media ads follows the same rules as success in any other effective ad:
  • Target your audience. If you’re selling high school graduation photo packages, target high school graduates or their parents.
  • Match content to the format of the social network you’re using. The word for this match is native advertising, because it’s advertising that looks like it’s part of its media environment.
  • Grab attention with interesting, informative, humorous, or entertaining information.
  • Advance your brand message.
  • Make people want to know more.
  • Give people a reason to take action, including clicking and sharing.
• Social-media posts display in your followers’ feeds — if algorithmic forces are with you. Promoted content — called paid reach — gets seen by a wider audience than regular posts — called organic page reach — because it doesn’t get weeded out by Facebook’s sorting algorithms or buried in the deluge of Twitter or other social-network posts.

Direct mail

Direct mailers carry brand and promotional messages straight to the in-boxes or mail boxes of those in your target audience rather than reaching them through paid ads.

• Direct surface mail is often considered junk mail. That’s the downside. The upside is that, unlike direct email, surface mail can be sent to anyone you want. Typical response rates are 3 to 4 percent if you’re mailing to your own list of customers and prospects and lower if you’re using a rented list.
• Direct email is often blocked as spam, gets delivered to crowded inboxes, and can be sent only to people who have opted in or had previous contact with your business, yet it’s still among the most effective ways to develop business. Build your mail list by committing to an opt-in policy, never publish your mail list addresses, protect your customers by hiding their addresses on mass mailings, and keep your mailings useful to recipients. Above all, keep your mailers out of the dreaded spam category — both for legal reasons and to protect your brand reputation, by going to the CAN-SPAM Act website (www.fcc.gov/guides/spam-unwanted-text-messages-and-email) and following the guidelines to a tee.

Both forms of direct mail rely on the same necessary ingredients: A targeted list that reaches genuine prospects interested in your product, service or message; a compelling offer that’s capable of triggering action; a free response mechanism; and an attention-getting presentation.

Both also require prompt follow up. Immediately capture every response in your customer database and quickly respond by thanking the person, fulfilling your offer, introducing your brand, and prompting the next step in the purchase or customer-relationship process.

Where to turn for creative help

When you’re creating a long-lasting marketing piece or launching a major campaign on which you’re pinning high expectations, think seriously about hiring pros to help you do the job right. Consider the following resources:

• Free or almost-free resources: Media outlets and marketing suppliers such as printers, sign makers, and publishers often offer free or close-to-free design tools. If you’re updating existing materials, free is a great price. But beware: If you want a unique, creative concept or ad look, turn to professionals who can devote the time and talent necessary to do the job, at a price.
• Crowd-sourced solutions: Sites such as 99designs.com and www.CrowdSpring.com have enlisted tens of thousands of designers to provide rapid response to client requests that are treated like design contests. Designs address the needs outlined in a creative brief you’ll be required to complete, and they usually cost less than traditionally purchased creative services. But be careful: Realize that designers participating in a contest don’t commit the time or participate in the collaborative discussions you can expect from a typical client-professional relationship. Also, be aware that you can’t use the designs you receive until agreeing to and signing the site’s terms of service.
• Marketing professionals: Consider using freelance professionals, design or production studios, full-scale agencies, and brand consultants. When working with marketing professionals, be sure to do the following:
  • Match services to your needs. If you’re seeking one-time assistance, a freelancer may work fine. If you want to acquire a long-term creative-development or branding partner, an ongoing relationship is a better choice.
  • Set your priorities. If you’re seeking cutting-edge creative ideas, find an agency that reels in creative awards. If your emphasis is online marketing, head toward a group with proven experience in the digital communications arena. If you want help from someone with deep knowledge of your industry or market sector, or someone with government, business, or even social or client connections, state that priority before you start interviewing potential resources.
  • Define and be ready to share the budget you plan to commit. If your budget doesn’t fit with the professional’s client profile, better to know sooner than later.

When you identify professionals whose expertise match your needs, make your decision by following these steps:

1. Decide how many professionals you want to interview.

   If your project is simple or your budget is low, talk to one top-choice supplier and save yourself and other professionals the drill of a competition that will eat up the time and money on all sides.

2. If you interview multiple professionals, follow this process so that you compare apples to apples:
   1. Share your needs, priorities, budget, and timeline with each firm’s CEO, and determine the firm’s interest and whether its capabilities fit well with your needs.
   2. Review each firm’s presentation and then make your selection.
   3. Get a professional services agreement in writing

Turning Packaging into a Powerful Brand Touchpoint

Packages are the physical interface between your brand and your branded product. They’re the point of contact at the moment your customer is shifting from the mindset of a shopper to that of an owner of your brand offering. They need to affirm positive beliefs about your brand, reflect the price and value of your offering, dominate in retail settings, and, as if that’s not enough, they also have to be efficient and affordable to manufacture. Product packages are a combination of form and function.

• Form: The form of your package involves design, shape, and a look that captures consumer attention and conveys and reinforces your brand image and promise.
• Function: The function of your package involves usability. In addition to looking good on a shelf, your packaging has to work. It has to be easy to pick up, read, study, carry away, use, and, hopefully, recycle.

Even if you don’t have a consumer product, you still package your offering, perhaps in a shopping bag, a folder or envelope containing a cost estimate or proposal, or a take-home bag for diners to carry home leftovers.

Regardless of the form your packaging takes, make sure that it accurately reflects the promise of your brand and that it makes an appropriately strong and consistent impression for your business. Chapter 17 includes information on redesigning packaging as part of revitalizing a brand.

Matching Promotions to Your Brand Image

Promotions are time-sensitive, attention-generating events that aim to alter customer perception or behavior. Most involve price incentives, trial offers, coupons, rebates, or event invitations.

As you introduce and strengthen your brand, be sure that any promotion you stage matches your brand character and promise. For example, if yours is the most exclusive brand in your category, a price promotion is probably out of character, whereas an event featuring celebrities or authorities in your field is more compatible with your image.

Also, take care to protect your brand image when entering cross-promotions that tie your brand to another brand. Chapter 16 includes a section on how to cross-promote without diluting the value of your own brand. The sidebar “Buying brand awareness with daily deals” offers tips for staging price promotions using group buying coupons.

Using Public Relations to Build Your Brand

Public relations (PR) is a term that’s often misused. Public relations isn’t a fancy name for publicity, although publicity is the element of public relations that most brands work the hardest to achieve. For that matter, even the term publicity comes with a set of misconceptions, including the idea that publicity is a free substitute for advertising or a way to fix a brand image through — to use the term you’ve no doubt heard — spin.

To set the record straight, public relations involves activities that develop a favorable image among all the audiences that contribute to a brand’s success.

Most brands ride into public view on the magic carpet of a public relations program, mainly for the following reasons:

• Most brands are launched by entrepreneurs and small businesses with niche markets easily reached by presentations, events, and publicity.
• New brands benefit from the awareness and credibility they gain through public relations and publicity efforts, which also usually cost less to implement than advertising programs.
• Brand owners know that publicity needs to precede advertising, because after a brand is announced through advertising, it falls out of the breaking news category and enters the realm of promotional marketing.

As you launch or reintroduce your brand, the following information can help you assemble your public-relations game plan.

Covering all the public-relations bases

The public in public relations is divided into the following interest or stakeholder groups.

Employees or members

Employees and members (in the case of cooperatives or associations) comprise the audience your brand launch targets first. Through what’s called internal relations, it’s important to communicate with this group before all others so they know and are trained to represent your brand message and promise before your take your brand message to your broader audience.

Refer to Chapter 9 for help preparing for your internal launch. Then turn to Chapter 13 as you use internal relations on an ongoing basis to turn your employees into a team of champions for your brand.

Community

You’ll want to create visibility and understanding for your brand in your home community if your market is local or if you want to establish your business and brand as forces in your own backyard. To gain community awareness, follow these steps:

1. Introduce your brand through regional news stories. Target and provide news stories to local media outlets.
2. Introduce your brand to regional leaders and customers. Host brand-launch events or perhaps time your brand launch to coincide with a regional economic development or business fair that brings regional leaders, customers, and media representatives together.
3. Get and stay involved in community programs. Use your brand launch as the beginning of an ongoing effort to establish and keep your name, message, and brand promise in the minds of community residents and leaders by joining groups, participating in charitable efforts, and contributing time, products, services, or funds to support projects that benefit your home market region.

Your brand launch or relaunch provides an ideal opportunity to introduce — or reintroduce in the case of brand revitalization or rebranding — your brand in your community.

Industry associates

If your brand serves a vertical market — a market with specialized interest in a particular industry or area — industry relations deliver the following benefits:

• You stay at the forefront of industry advances.
• You acquire industry information to share with local and business media and with customers and other leaders, resulting in a reputation for thought leadership and valuable brand exposure.

To achieve industry awareness, consider timing your brand launch to coincide with a major industry conference or trade show to gain awareness among customers, suppliers, industry leaders, and representatives of industry-specific media outlets all in one fell swoop.

Also, join industry associations, participate in industry events, and cultivate industry-specific media relations and resulting publicity using the tips throughout “Leveraging media relations and publicity” later in this chapter.

Government representatives

If your business is regulated or depends on relationships with elected officials, move government relations high on your public-relations objectives and treat your brand launch as a good opportunity to make important introductions. Provide information to government leaders, invite officials to brand launch events, and stay in contact by sending copies of news releases, reprints of favorable news features or articles, annual reports, or other indicators of success.

Media

Media relations are the pathway to publicity, and generating publicity is a priority for nearly all brands for these reasons:

• Publicity is a cost-effective way to gain media exposure. Sure, it costs money to write and distribute news releases and to cultivate media relationships. But unlike advertising, publicity isn’t purchased.
• Publicity contributes to brand credibility for the simple reason that people find editorial content more convincing and believable than similar information delivered through paid ads.
• You can reproduce and repurpose news articles or segments to post on your website, include in social-media content, feature in direct mailings, highlight in presentations, and add to your online media center.

Successful media relations rely on established editorial relationships, distribution of newsworthy releases and story ideas, and ongoing availability as a reliable and trustworthy news resource. The upcoming sections give you advice to follow for meeting these requirements.

Leveraging media relations and publicity

As you work on your brand launch, you welcome all good publicity, but you benefit most from publicity that carries your story to your highest-priority audiences, which are the audiences whose positive opinions are most likely to contribute to your success. The following sections help you direct your publicity in the right way to the right channels.

Matching publicity efforts to your branding objectives

To set your publicity generation efforts off in the right direction, define who you most want to reach via publicity, the story you want to convey, and the type of media that’s most likely to carry your news to your target audiences.

In brand launch after brand launch, we’ve learned this lesson: Unless your brand already enjoys a sky-high level of public awareness and interest, audiences don’t care that you have a new or revitalized brand identity. What they care about is how your brand announcement affects them and their lives.

Make your brand announcement newsworthy by creating a launch story of genuine news value. The opposite of newsworthy information is information that belongs in sales pitches. The minute your “news” becomes promotional, it’s labeled as hype and trashed accordingly.

In planning your publicity approach, ask yourself, “How is our brand announcement important to the audience of the media outlet where we want a story to post, run, or air?” When you have clear answers, prepare to generate publicity by following these steps:

1. Target the audiences you want to reach and the nature of the story you want to convey about your brand launch. You may want to get your story to the financial world, to those in your industry, to your local community, or specifically to those who are or are likely to become customers of your business.
2. Target media outlets by researching and selecting media outlets that reach the audiences you’re trying to reach. If your objective is to reach customers but you’re not completely certain about your customer profile, flip to Chapter 5 and complete the Customer Profile Worksheet.
3. Prepare and distribute your news, either through personal calls or with news releases to editorial contacts.

Refer to Table 12-2 as you create your publicity game plan.

Table 12-2 Planning Publicity Objectives and Approaches

Targeting media outlets

Your media list is the list of outlets that you want to cultivate for editorial relationships. The media list for your brand-launch publicity program may include only the few news outlets in your hometown or it may be long enough to list all the publications, broadcast outlets, wire services, and websites that reach your market locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.

Long or short, limit your list to media outlets that reach your target audience with news of the nature you’re working to spread. Put media outlets on your list only if they match your needs on the following fronts:

• They serve audiences in the geographic market areas you aim to reach.
• Their audiences are comprised of people with the lifestyle interests and demographics — age, gender, education level, income level, and so on — of those you’re trying to reach.
• Their editorial focus aligns with the nature of your story.
• Their audiences are likely to be interested in your news.

Rank relevant media outlets so that your top priorities are listed first. Although all media outlets on your target media list are valuable and important to your publicity program, your high-priority editorial contacts are the ones to whom you’ll give special attention. They’re the ones most apt to deliver coverage that goes straight to your most important audiences. Find out everything you can about these outlets so you can match your stories and pitches accordingly.

Want to know the quickest route to a news editor’s trash bin? Lack relevance. Send a community news outlet a story with no local news slant. Send a national outlet a story that lacks broad-reaching impact. Or send a special-interest media outlet news of no significance to the audience it serves. Save your news from rejection by researching news outlets to be sure they match up with the nature of your news and then crafting your news to match up with the needs of the writers, editors, and audiences you’re seeking to influence.

As you develop your media list, turn to the Bacon’s Media Directories and the Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) Media Source books, both available by subscription online and in the reference section of major libraries.

Pitching your story

Instead of just sending a news release and crossing your fingers, lay some groundwork to establish a relationship and help your story’s chances of being picked up.

First, conduct advance research. Read the publication, watch or listen to the station, subscribe, follow, and participate on the blog. Get familiar with the nature and tone of the stories covered by the outlet you’re targeting, then go to the media website to learn story angle and submission guidelines, required lead times, and contact information for the editor, writer, blogger, or reporter you should contact for stories like the one you’re aiming to place.

Then contact high-priority contacts and pitch your story. Your goal is to provide a heads-up about your news and to persuade each contact to cover the story. When pitching stories, keep these points in mind:

• Be timely and newsworthy. Tell your contact how the story you’re proposing will interest their audiences, fit well within their editorial format, and match the current interests of their audience members.
• Be concise. Your contacts are on tight deadlines, so be ready to pitch your story and its significance quickly and completely.
• Be professional. Don’t hem and haw, stumble to find words, or sound uncertain about the story you’re proposing.
• Find out how to follow up. Obtain information about how to deliver your news — in person or by mail, fax, or email — in what format and by what deadline.

After introducing your proposed story and summarizing what makes it newsworthy, be ready to describe how you can assist in story development by providing a news release, a guest editorial or blog post, audio or video files, artwork or photos, and background information on your company, market trends, research findings, or other useful information. Confirm specifications and deadlines for submitting material, and send a follow-up note confirming your understanding.

Preparing and distributing news releases

News releases are the standard currency in the publicity realm. Whether you’re delivering news in person, at a news event, or by hand, mail, or email, the minimum standard is to pass along a news release that summarizes your story and offers to provide more information on request.

In the past, nearly all news releases were printed on paper and delivered by hand, mail, or fax to editorial contacts. Today, most news releases are created electronically and delivered via email with hard-copy versions available for subsequent handout and follow-up. Additionally, a growing number of companies now package news into audio or video form for ready-to-go transmission to broadcast audiences.

• Hard-copy news releases generally fit on no more than two double-spaced pages that provide the following information, in the following order:
  1. Contact information: Along the top of the page, type, “For more information:” followed by the name, telephone number, and email address of the person who can provide additional facts.
  2. Release date: Most releases announce that the news is “For Immediate Release.” If it’s absolutely necessary to hold the news until a certain time, announce what’s called an embargo; for instance, “Embargo until 12:01 a.m., January 15, 2015.” If you embargo your news, be sure that to make the reason clear in the news release (for instance, “On January 15, Global Enterprises announced its merger with Worldwide Business …”). Alert editorial contacts in advance to the time sensitivities, and see that your own organization keeps a lid on the news until the date that you authorize the media to announce it.
  3. A headline: On no more than two lines, summarize the topic of the news release in a statement that uses active voice as opposed to passive voice. For example, use “New ABC Brand Identity Appeals to Expanded Global Marketplace” instead of “New Logo Unveiled.”
  4. Dateline: The body of the release begins with the name of the city and the abbreviation of the state from which the news originates, followed by the date (for example, “CHICAGO, IL, January 15, 2015”).
  5. The news: Present your news in an inverted pyramid style that tells who, what, where, when, why, and how. Keep the most important news high in the release so it remains intact if an editor cuts the release from the bottom up.
  6. Quotes: Include brief quotes from executives, industry leaders, or other authorities, along with complete attribution.
  7. Boilerplate closing: End your release with a one-paragraph summary of your company’s mission and background, including facts about the size and purpose of your company and your brand promise.
  8. Accompanying photos and artwork: Provide only high-quality and professionally produced graphics that meet the specifications of the media outlet, each with a caption titling the image and a cutline providing details.

  Deliver hard-copy news releases by mail, fax, or in person, directly or through a public relations firm.

• Email news releases convert hard-copy news releases for digital delivery. First, confirm that your editorial contact will accept your release and confirm whether to send it within an email message or as an attachment. Most news outlets won’t open unsolicited attachments, so definitely check first. When converting releases for transmission as email messages, follow this format:
  1. Email subject line: Enter a benefit-oriented headline in 50 or fewer characters, using upper- and lowercase.
  2. Message: In the message portion of your e-mail, begin with a customized introduction to the content that follows, for example, News Release for [name of media contact] at [name of media outlet]. Then paste in a single-spaced version of your hard-copy news release (with double spacing between paragraphs). Provide hyperlinks that lead to supporting information or product landing pages on your website, if that information will be helpful. End with how to obtain additional information (for example, “To schedule interviews …” or, “To obtain photos and artwork …”), the contact person’s name, phone number and email address, and your company web address.

     Prepare your message in plain text rather than HTML or other markup language, because they reduce readability. For simultaneous broad distribution of your electronic release, use a news distribution service such as PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com), Business Wire (www.businesswire.com), or other distribution services listed at www.ereleases.com, www.prweb.com, and www.internetnewsbureau.com.

  3. Accompanying photos or artwork: Always inquire with your editorial source before submitting artwork, video, or photos, both to confirm submission specifications and because few media contacts will open unsolicited attachments.
• Audio, video, and multimedia news releases present prepackaged news stories to broadcast outlets.
  • Video new releases (VNR) either package news in the same style as that used in television news reporting or provide video footage for use by broadcast outlets when producing news segments.
  • Audio news releases (ANR) usually take the form of 60-second news stories tailored for use by radio stations and networks.
  • Webcasts allow marketers to present portions of offline events — such as major presentations or announcements — to online audiences.

  Audio and video releases require a high level of production capability. Contact advertising agencies and broadcast professionals for assistance, and visit www.prnewswire.com for information.

Building an online pressroom or media center

Journalists and others seeking brand information increasingly turn to your website to find company contacts, facts, information, and downloadable images. Before launching or relaunching your brand, consider adding a media center to your website. Here’s what to include:

• Your brand story and business facts, including company history, product information, and descriptions of the markets you serve.
• Head shots and 100-word, 50-word, and 20-word bios of owners and key executives.
• Downloadable high-quality photos and graphics, including high-resolution versions of your logo in several sizes and prototypes that show applications of your new brand identity.
• Samples or links to recent media coverage.
• Links to your social-media pages and other useful sites.
• Background information, such as annual reports, research reports, transcripts of speeches or presentations, and other information that presents your position or philosophy on topics important to those in your target audience.
• An invitation welcoming requests for guest posts and original articles.
• An invitation for media interview requests.
• A calendar of scheduled events worthy of media coverage.
• Contact information, including names, phone numbers, and email addresses of those who can be reached for additional information.

Staging news conferences

News conferences are more popular among companies and people seeking publicity than they are among those covering, writing, and producing news. Many journalists shun ribbon cuttings, groundbreakings, and announcements that can just as easily be explained in a news release or phone conversation.

Stage a news conference only in the following situations:

• Your launch includes important news that should be announced simultaneously to all media outlets.
• You’re presenting an important speaker or celebrity.
• Your launch includes displays and presentations that require personal attendance.

If you decide to schedule a news conference, hold it at a time and place convenient to most journalists, start it on time, hold speakers to short time slots, minimize speeches in favor of demonstrations, and have hard-copy news releases ready for attendees (and ready to be delivered to media outlets not in attendance).

There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? Wrong!

Sorry, but sometimes publicity gives a brand a black eye. Bad publicity can be the result of bad luck, bad timing, a bad product or service, or a bad mistake made in the process of a media interview, customer encounter, or marketplace mishap.

Chapter 18 tackles the topic of what to do if you run into trouble, but to stay out of trouble in the first place, follow these tips:

• Before meeting with media, be clear about your brand promise and brand character, and stay true to your brand at all times. Even if you’re asked to comment on something that has nothing to do with your brand message (recent news or politics, for example), when people read or hear your news, your response contributes to the way they experience your brand. If the voice, message, or character you convey is inconsistent with what people expect from your brand, then the resulting publicity can be harmful to your company and brand.
• Watch your words. Don’t get flip, don’t go off-message, and don’t disparage others. If you attack someone else, the least that can happen is that you erode your brand image. The most that can happen is that you face a libel suit if an untrue statement ends up in print or a slander suit if an untrue statement ends up on air.