E-MarkeTIP




		MARKETING



		BRANDING



		POSITIONING



		DESIGN & LAYOUT

		For more information on building your brand, contact: john@mengassociates.com

E-MarkeTIP is a monthly marketing column by John Meng of Meng & Associates Inc., a full-service marketing firm, specializing in strategic positioning, brand building and public relations custom-fit to the needs of small- to medium-sized companies.

Please, feed the editor. Whether in print, television, radio or web, all editors share a common trait — an insatiable hunger for news. Like a pack of hyenas at a weeny roast, the media consumes information so rapidly that it sometimes cannot intellectually digest it all. (I say this with great fondness for editors as I was one for 14 years.) But, this need for news is a good thing. By feeding the media’s appetite for news, a savvy marketer can build brand awareness.

For brand building, public relations is more potent over time than advertising, so working with the media is a key ingredient to a successful public relations campaign. Lane Kirkland, former president of the AFL-CIO, once advised against “getting into an argument with people who buy ink by the barrel.” Not only was this good advice for managing public opinion in the political sense, but it was solid marketing advice. In short, business owners and marketing managers who want to build brands are better off gaining the media’s respect and feeding them a steady diet of press releases.

The more you feed the media with useful information, the more they will turn to you as an expert resource and for story ideas. Everyone benefits. Of course, it’s not an equal relationship because the media always takes more then they give, but that’s the price of playing the game and, in most instances, that price is a good value for building and strengthening a brand.

"Reporters are like alligators. You don’t have to love them, you don’t necessarily have to like them. But you do have to feed them."

— Anonymous

Unfortunately, some would-be brand-makers care nothing for the proper care and feeding of editors. For example, I once had a client who resisted working with the media. He routinely dismissed their thirst for information and he demonstrated no desire to build a relationship. All too often, I would prepare or recommend a press release that announced a new product or service, and the client would argue that the media wouldn’t be interested. “This news is really for my customers, not the media,” he would say. Unfortunately, the debate almost always ended the same. At the end of the day, no press release was sent, no one read about my client’s new product and I grew another gray hair (or six).

Press releases provide a chance that your news or product will catch someone’s attention, and the marketing reality is that if you don’t feed the editors — the people you are trying to reach will never hear about you. So, next time you review your marketing strategy, don’t forget press releases. Throw the media a few morsels, and then feast on the results.