PR Integral to the Success of Your Marketing Program
by Jeff Hilton, Integrated Marketing Group, 2005

When developing an integrated marketing campaign, savvy executives must mix and match together a number of separate elements to create a comprehensive plan that if executed successfully will raise visibility, drive sales and contribute to your overall company growth. A marketing campaign may include advertising, direct mail, educational seminars, trade show participation and special events to name a few. However, one element that is integral to the success of a marketing program and often overlooked is public relations. Planning a marketing campaign without building overall awareness through public relations can result in a communications breakdown.

What public relations distinctively brings to your marketing mix is the ability to increase your company’s credibility, create a need for your product or service and build strong relationships with potential customers and the public-at-large. It also offers you the opportunity to quickly and effectively hone your marketing messages.

Public relations can add tremendous value to your company’s overall marketing plan by creating visibility and validity that can help fuel all other marketing activities. A potential customer may be more likely to attend a special event, listen to a sales pitch, open a direct mail piece or actually purchase a product if they read about it in a newspaper or magazine article, see a company executive speaking on television or recognize that the company is winning awards or contributing articles to a relevant trade publication.

The goal of combined marketing efforts is to gain top-of-mind awareness with your prospective customers and share your vision. In today’s environment you have many more groups to reach with your message, some of which are moved by traditional marketing efforts such as advertising, while others benefit from public relations. It is important to not rely on one component, but rather rely on all components to work synergistically.

In a time where individuals are exposed to a barrage of information, it is critical that the message you send regarding your company’s product or service is consistent through all marketing channels. Some vehicles, such as advertising, only allow for limited information to be presented to your potential customer base. Public relations allows for you to take a complicated message and explain it in more detail. This is especially important in the natural products industry, where product validity often hinges on extensive scientific information and research.

In addition to message consistency, the frequency at which individuals are exposed to a message is also significant. A general rule in advertising is that potential customers need to be exposed to a message a minimum of three times before it resonates and moves them to action. Public relations provides an additional avenue to get out information surrounding your product or service, and results in another layer of exposure to your message. The public relations medium is capable of achieving foundational marketing goals involving credibility, recognition, messaging and relationships.

Increase Credibility
Advertising is a core contributor to a successful marketing program, however, consumers are increasingly more skeptical about the “truth” in advertising. They do not believe they will receive 100 percent of what they have been promised within the advertising message. However, an advertising message coupled with exposure to the product or service via a newspaper or magazine article, radio program or television show greatly increases consumer confidence.

Individuals tend to view information they receive from a third-party as more credible and unbiased. In the natural products industry, where new products are viewed with even greater skepticism, establishing credibility through public relations is increasingly important. If individuals have been moved by an advertisement, secondary exposure from an independent source may drive them to purchase. Public relations can provide a layer of positive information about a product in the marketplace, separate but complementary to what is being said by your advertising and other marketing efforts.

Address a Need
Even the most well thought out marketing program can fail if your customers don’t recognize that they have a need for your product or service. A public relations program in place prior to the launch of your marketing program can serve to raise awareness surrounding a specific issue and target this need. This can be achieved through a variety of avenues including contributed articles, research updates and feature stories. This type of exposure paves the way for issue recognition and increased levels of understanding when your product or service addressing this need is finally available.

Hone Your Message
One of the strengths of advertising and other marketing components is their ability to reach a large audience. By adding public relations to your marketing mix, you can take your messages to a more targeted level and reach a small subset of your audience. You can choose to hone in on a specific message or audience segment at any given time based on what is resonating. Public relations is much more dynamic than other forms of marketing, allowing you to more easily shift focus or make adjustments mid-stream. You can revise core materials, re-target a media list or position a different company spokesperson as a new expert source to maximize your most powerful marketing messages.

Build Relationships
A key component to marketing is establishing closer relationships between your company and your audience, including customers, new business prospects and potential partners. Public relations can put a more human face on your company and provide a medium for more personal interaction. By strategically publicizing your company’s activities, you can begin to shape the opinions of your potential customer base and reaffirm that you share common goals. Additionally, generating exposure for your company executives establishes them as opinion leaders and visionaries in your industry, creating a level of comfort and trust with your target audience.

The ability to apply public relations on a tactical, day-to-day level also allows you to build relationships with key influencers who are covering your marketplace. An example of how to successfully reach influencers via public relations is Sabinsa Corporation’s ForsLean® Challenge initiative. The goal of the ForsLean Challenge was to familiarize editors at key industry trade publications with the company’s ForsLean ingredient, which has been clinically proven to help individuals build lean body mass in place of body fat.

At NNFA, Sabinsa conducted a breakfast event where attendees had their body composition measured by an independent fitness trainer. They were then provided with a 12-week supply of ForsLean supplements. By accepting the challenge, editors agreed to take the ForsLean supplements daily for the 12 weeks, and then have their body composition re-tested to see first hand how ForsLean could change their body composition. This type of first-hand exposure to a product is difficult to achieve through traditional marketing efforts. Additionally, the ForsLean Challenge complemented messaging and educational efforts being put forward in Sabinsa’s new advertising campaign and product brochures.

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The distinct functions of public relations make it an integral part of any well-balanced marketing mix. Its ability to establish credibility, raise awareness of a particular need, sharpen ever-evolving messages and forge and maintain relationships is not only remarkable, but also extremely beneficial to your marketing program.

Public relations and marketing work together in a symbiotic relationship to deliver one message to your target audience. When these awareness efforts work together to position and elevate your company and your products, you obtain the true success of a marketing campaign as a whole.

In today’s marketplace, and this is especially true in the natural products industry, public opinion is everything. By effectively incorporating public relations to generate positive editorial coverage, you can greatly enhance your company’s credibility in a way that any stand-alone marketing component cannot accomplish on its own.

Jeff Hilton is president of Integrated Marketing Group. He can be contacted at (801) 538-0777, or visit www.imgbranding.com.