Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
Launching a product or service is no easy feat, especially when you are entering a market that has been shaped by strong, established leaders and become saturated with other emerging players. How do you cut through the noise and differentiate your organization? How do you avoid becoming a “me too” scenario?
We were recently reminded of this challenge as we worked with new client Kudos Community to help promote the launch of its new online coupon platform that delivers risk-free, targeted coupons and offers to consumers to turn online engagement into real-world transactions for businesses. On March 29, 2011, Kudos Community debuted its website in the greater Seattle metro area and was well received by media and key industry analysts.
Nonetheless, we weren’t without stiff competition. Kudos is one of more than 400 daily deal sites currently available to consumers, a growth statistic reported by Entrepreneur magazine in a story entitled, “Which Daily Deal Site is Right for You?” In March 2011, Local Offer Network issued a report stating that the industry will “expand by 138 percent to $2.66B in 2011.” The report also stated that “deal sites are now in 80 markets across the country compared to just 48 in Q1 2010.” And when evaluating the competition at the local level, we learned of a number of competitors who are based in Seattle including Tippr, Daily Ticket and Ideal Network.
In order to cut through this noise, we took a strategic approach and developed an integrated PR campaign to capture the attention of industry analysts and media, with the following in mind:
- Key Messaging: Many of today’s group-buying platforms are simply not business or consumer friendly, nor do they provide a way for consumers or businesses to give back to their local charities or organizations. It was crucial that we developed messaging that clearly articulated the key differentiators of Kudos Community’s platform to businesses, consumers and nonprofits compared to other platforms available in the market. The messages we developed helped us to present a unified and consistent story to analysts and media in the weeks prior to launch as well as crafting the press release to formally introduce Kudos Community.
- Analyst Relations: Analysts are a critical audience to engage when building credibility for a new company or product. They influence customers, provide validation and endorsement to the media, and create visibility around the category in general. Kudos Community conducted several pre-briefings with prominent industry analysts at Aberdeen Group, Forrester and Gartner to begin fostering relationships and provide an early look at the platform and how the model differs from competitors. As a result, the company was able to secure two references from key analysts to provide commentary to media in support of our outreach efforts at launch.
- Embargoed Media Briefings: To secure editorial coverage that would appear the week of launch, Communiqué PR targeted journalists and bloggers at top news outlets who closely follow the emerging trend and ongoing news surrounding group-buying sites. Again, the key messaging we developed proved invaluable once again in our discussions with media, who often asked, “What makes Kudos Community different from other sites today?” or who felt as though media was saturated with news on similar group-buying sites.
- Official Press Release and Buddy Emails: On the day of launch, we sent a buddy email along with the official press release to all of the media we had originally contacted under embargo to draw attention to Kudos Community. We also extended our outreach to include media that covered niche vertical markets such as nonprofit and philanthropy, restaurant and retail outlets. This tactic helped to garner additional media interest in developing a news brief to accompany the press announcement.
Overall, the response our client received from media and analysts was positive. Because of our strategic planning, they were easily able to recognize the greater savings, flexibility and revenue potential Kudos Community offers businesses, consumers and nonprofits.
Thus far, Kudos Community has been featured in the following:
- MediaPost
- Daily Deal Media
- TechFlash
- Heybellevue.com
- Point of Sale
- FundRaising Success
- Asian Restaurant News
If you’re interested in learning more about Kudos Community or how PR can help effectively launch a new product, even in a noisy environment, send us an e-mail at info@communiquepr.com.
Recently, a colleague of mine sent me an article from the New York Times that is an excellent read for anyone managing or leading people. The article entitled, “Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss” highlights how Google analyzed and identified best practices for producing highly effective managers.
We thought we’d highlight the article here on our blog for those of you managing PR, social media or marketing teams. The article only takes a few moments to read, but contains some excellent reminders. I also highly encourage people to read the sidebar which includes “directives” Google produced for managers to employ as “good behaviors.”
Some of the reminders that were helpful to me included providing specific, constructive feedback, holding regular one-on-one meetings with teammates and coming up with a clear strategy and vision for the team.
We often use analogies to help our clients tell their stories. We find the more complicated the subject matter or the more novel the concept, the more helpful it can be to use an analogy to help people grasp your ideas.
An analogy is a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: For instance, one can see a similarity between the heart and a pump.
Here are a few other examples of analogies used to explain complicated subject matter:
- Example No. 1 “We are kind of like eHarmony, but for jobs,” Rob McGovern, founder, Jobfox. This statement was made during an interview with NPR and we found it to be helpful in immediately explaining what Jobfox does – matching folks to the right jobs. In addition to highlighting Jobfox’s value proposition, we found it to be memorable.
- Example No. 2 comes to us from an article on Ragan.com containing 10 tips for writing numbers and numerals. To explain the difference between the two, Michael Moser writes: “A number is an abstract concept, whereas a numeral is a symbol used to express that number. “Three,” “3″ and “III” are all symbols used to express the same number (or the concept of “threeness”). One could say that the difference between a number and its numeral is like the difference between a person and her name.”
- Example No. 3 comes from a quote in a Serials Solutions press release and compares the Summon™ service to Google: “What Google does for the Worldwide Web, the Summon service will do for libraries,” said Jane Burke, vice president, Serials Solutions. “It’s a transformation in library service that addresses our community’s most pressing need: a simple entry point to the vastness of library collections. One search box, one results screen, one path to the best, most credible content.”
So how does one come up with a good analogy? Here are a few tips that we often use to come up with the right comparisons:
- Get clear on the key attributes and the correlating benefits of your product or service.
- Brainstorm “like” scenarios with a small group of people, ideally no more than four or five. Ask everyone to fill in the blanks to this statement:
- Our service XYZ does ___________ and ________________ just like a ____________________ (person/company) does ________________ and __________________.
- Don’t criticize the ideas as people share them, as it will inhibit creativity. Instead, record them all so you can critically review them later. Once you have your top two or three analogies, you may want to socialize them with a couple of people who are not familiar with the subject matter to see if your analogies resonate with them.
- Remember you’re striving for a description that helps folks grasp your concept. It likely will not be an exact correlation to your product or service. This point is important if you’re brainstorming with folks who tend to take information literally, or who look for information to be presented in a tangible or concrete manner versus information that is more abstract.
- Finally, we recommend that you start paying attention in your reading for good examples of analogies.
Analogies can be a powerful way to bring your story to life, but they need to be relevant, clear and compelling.
Analysts are a critical audience. They influence customers, provide endorsement to the media, and help create visibility around the category. Developing an effective analyst relations program is often one of the cornerstones of our clients’ overall PR programs. However recently, there’s been a significant amount of consolidation in the analyst arena with large firms such as Forrester and Gartner acquiring second- and third-tier firms to expand research agendas and win new customers. This consolidation has left many PR and marketing professionals rushing to get their arms around this new landscape.
As I was working to get a sense of the current state of analyst relations for a presentation, I came across a couple of great resources which I thought would be helpful to share including:
- SageCircle – SageCircle “is an advisory resource that delivers AR strategic planning and tactical tools for vendors of high tech products and services.” In addition to its paid services, the company has a fantastic blog, which I read regularly to get a pulse on the analyst community. The blog covers a variety of topics surrounding both top- and second-tier firms including trend reports, social media, new hires, job openings, earnings announcements and more. This blog was incredibly helpful for a recent presentation I developed for a client surrounding analyst trends for 2011.
- Institute of Industry Analyst Relations – another excellent resource, Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR) blog covers topics useful for PR and marketing professionals including analyst trends, criteria for selecting a paid analyst relationship, consolidation, and event recaps. The IIAR is a “not-for-profit organization established to raise awareness of analyst relations and the value of industry analysts, promote best practice amongst analyst relations professionals, enhance communication between analyst firms and vendors, and offer opportunities for AR practitioners to network with their industry peers.”
In addition to these high-level industry blogs, most analyst firms have a corporate blog as well as a series of analyst blogs that cover trends and observations in a variety of industries. These can be valuable resources when looking to get a sense of a specific analyst’s perspective on a particular trend or topic.
Do you have a favorite analyst resource? We’d love to hear about it, drop us a line or leave a comment.
A good quote can be the heart of a compelling article. Good quotes help to tell a story and enhance the credibility of a press release, news story or speech. Words that are crafted well can leave a lasting impact on the world.
Every day I drive by a reader board on my way home from work and every few days there is a new quote that streams across the screen. I find myself looking forward to sneaking a peak at what inspirational message I will have to ponder on my commute home. This is the impact that words can have.
The following are some memorable quotes that have lived on past their delivery:
- “I’ll be back,” California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most famous quote isn’t from his time in office, but from the big screen.
- “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran arguing that a glove used as murder evidence in the O.J. Simpson trial was too small.
- “Just say no,” Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign slogan.
- “Read my lips: no new taxes,” George H.W. Bush, accepting the GOP presidential nomination in New Orleans.
- “In the 21st century, it’s not enough to leave no child behind. We need to help every child get ahead,” Barack Obama, asking Congress to rewrite the decade-old No Child Left Behind law – which requires that public school students be measured by regular testing – by this fall.
It is good to keep in mind those words that have caught our attention, as we create the words that will be used to represent a product, company or person. As a spokesperson you want to ensure that your message is clear, concise, compelling and it doesn’t hurt to be catchy.
Not only do we want to strive to be eloquent and pointed in our speech, but use phrases that will resonate beyond the daily news cycle. For tips on what makes a good story, check out our past blog post, “What Makes a Good Story?”
Recently, Seattle-based TechFlash, a major source of technology news, went through dramatic changes with the departure of Todd Bishop and John Cook, the outlet’s founders and first employees. As avid followers of the media, and fans of TechFlash, we were hungry to know the type of following TechFlash has had. The information we discovered, based on a 2010 online survey, is surprising.
TechFlash, which is owned by the Puget Sound Business Journal, has only been around since 2008, but has a loyal and large following of influential readers. According to the survey, TechFlash has more than 500,000 page views per month, of which 200,000 are unique. Whereas the weekly Puget Sound Business Journal has about 18,500 paid subscribers with a readership of 90,000.
So who is reading TechFlash? It turns out there is a mix of readers from sales, marketing, information technology and engineering. Business size also runs the gamut – 41 percent of the readers are small businesses, 41 percent are large businesses, and 18 percent are medium-size businesses with roughly 50 to 500 employees.
Here are a few other key survey statistics that we found useful:
- 17 percent of the readers make more than $200,000 a year and 65 percent make more than $100,000.
- 40 percent of the readers are from Washington.
- More than 50 percent of the readers are responsible for making final IT purchasing decisions or providing input into these decisions.
- 35 percent of readers are in the 34-44 age bracket.
Unearthing this kind of information about a specific publication can be tremendously important as you think about targeting a particular audience with your next story. It definitely helps ensure that you are achieving your desired result by reaching out to the right publication. We’ll be interested in updated statistics around TechFlash, given the recent changes.