PR: we’ve often heard this term being used in the marketing parlance. So what is it. Simply stated, it a kind of promotion channel which, in the words of Mr. Kotler, aims at promoting, or protecting the image of a company or a specific product. It comprises various means like Press Relations, Corporate Communications, lobbying etc. I’ll be focusing on Press Relations for the rest of the article, and the views I’m going to present are based on my summer internship experience with a brand which leverages Press Relations quite well.

This is how it generally works: whenever there is a new product launch, or a new promotional scheme etc, the brand would invite journalists to share with them information on the same. The journalists would then write about the same in their respective newspapers/ magazines etc. The newspapers/ magazines etc from where the journalists are called, are based on similarity between the brand’s target segment and the newspaper/ magazine’s readership. Thus, the brand is able to reach its target customer very swiftly without spending a lot on conventional advertising.

Another major advantage that this sort of promotion enjoys is that it comes from a highly reliable source, rather than, say from a celebrity who has been paid to make some claims. It is questionable as to how much the consumers value the words of a Shah Rukh Khan when he talks about benefits of Emami Fair & Handsome, or of an Amitabh Bachchan on Navratna oil. Imagine these benefits being talked about as a news item in say, Times of India or India Today. Obviously, the impact in the latter case would be much more.

A brand, which uses press relations extensively, is Apple. Nearly every new product launch from Apple, be it the next upgrade of iPod, iPhone, or iPad, every such launch is widely covered in media the world over. The important thing to note here is that, even though Apple itself has the monetary muscle, to advertise in those newspapers (and it does advertise also), the level of detail, and even more so, the authenticity of the user benefits of those detailed technical specifications, gets really highlighted by the medium of press.

The Apple example shows another major benefit of using this channel. The marketer can pack in so much more information vis. a vis. a print advertisement. The marketer can talk about its target in detail, its positioning, the differentiating factor with respect to the competition etc. Think about this situation: a product X launched by a brand A. Brand A knows that the target segment TG reads the newspaper NP. Thus, the brand A invites newspaper NP for a press one-on-one (that is what such interactions are generally called in the industry). The journalist from newspaper obviously wants to get as much information about the new product as he can. And then this detailed news article reaches the person TG. Just imagine the impact!!!

Go through the news report on Louis Philippe footwear launch in The Hindu Business Line to understand the above in further detail.

An Indian brand that has effectively used this strategy in the past is Air Deccan. In his book, Simply Fly, Cap. Gopinath frequently talks about how maintaining good relations with some journalists helped him publicize Air Deccan to a large population at practically negligible cost. Here’s a brief history about how it happened. Cap. Gopi didn’t have very deep pockets to promote his new venture at the time of Air Deccan’s birth. However, he had developed some contacts in the press world since his days as a farmer [owing to his creative farming practices], and later through hype created by many of Deccan Aviation’s (Cap. Gopi’s helicopter leasing firm) bizarre projects like ‘marriage in the sky’. He leveraged all those contacts well to get the journalists write about ‘heralding of a new era in Indian aviation’ with the entry of Air Deccan.

One might say, that the news like the launch of an industry defining venture, like low cost airline, would always draw the attention of press. However, what must not be ignored is the tonality of the news article. Compare ‘Now fly for Rs. 500’ v/s ‘Low cost airline launched’. This comparison takes us to the next part of discussion on Press Relations: getting journalists to write what you want them to, which I’d discuss in the next article.

Further, we’ll discuss in the next article why this channel is not exploited by many firms, despite being such a beneficial promotion channel.

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