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The strongest and
longest lasting brands branch off of an existing category. Branching
takes patience and time. There are two speeds for launching a brand, each
one with its own pros and cons.
Speed A, like a hot air
balloon, takes a long time to prepare before the actual launch. PR, media
marketing, favors A. Longevity success favors A. A tree grows stronger
with a well-established roots. And this can only occur with good soil,
careful fertilizing, watering, and time.
Speed B, like a
helicopter, takes off quickly but requires more fuel on take off, fuel
that isn’t there later on. Advertising favors B. Speed B for the
Internet means viral marketing—spreading by word of mouth. For the Net,
this is usually email marketing.
The main reason A is
usually a wiser choice is because people are suspicious of new and
different. Another reason why it takes any business years to build their
success. A typical reaction: “wait and see if this new concept turns out
to be worth while”. Letting the brand build slowly using PR techniques
can be like watching a tree grow. You can be lulled into falling asleep,
however, don’t be. There is a pivoting point where PR needs to turn into
massive advertising.
There are two hurdles
each speed endures—credibility and conventional. Advertising fails
because it usually can’t convey credibility. It can create
conventional—people want to buy what other people want. People buy to be
normal. People like to visit restaurants that have lots of cars out
front. Yet conventional cannot succeed without credibility. Credibility
is why the most effective brand launching starts with PR. The only
exception to this rule is selling to the early adopter market.
Real success is a
combination of short-lived and longevity products and services.
Short-lived can provide the additional capital needed to fuel big
advertising campaigns or new research. If you look at the toy industry,
you can see every Christmas they have short-lived fad items and they still
maintain items, like the Slinky, now celebrating over 50 years.
Service businesses need
to use a combination as well. Few in these areas understand the concept
and usually brush it off as N/A, non-applicable, to them. Mainly due to
the need for multiple marketing campaigns and the work needed to plan and
implement. This holds a higher truth the smaller the practice usually due
to time limitations.
Another gear in the
branding wheel is the number of generations of buyers. Each generation
have their own way of buying charactertics. The only answer for this, is
to know how they are thinking and why they make the choices they do.
How do you move fast
enough in a slow building process and still build credibility along the
way? You can use the same method many public relations firms use – the
leak. You leak the information before its ready for launching. The
gestation length of the leaking period depends on the radicalness of the
concept. The more revolutionary the concept, the less advertising should
play into the campaign.
Advertising is used for
brand maintenance not brand building. As I mentioned earlier, advertising
lacks credibility, the crucial element for brand building.
The best way for PR use
is to announce a new category not a new product. The media wants to talk
about what’s new and what’s hot, not what’s better. What they say about
you delivers credibility. It’s because someone else is talking about you.
Launching a PR campaign
and an Advertising campaign are two totally different plans. This is a
frequently misunderstood concept.
(c) Copyright,
Catherine Franz. All rights reserved |
