Worry Makes People Buy...

Sometimes I lay in bed at night worrying about what people are laying in bed and worrying about!

If you want to sell a service or product to anyone then one of the best things to be is a solution provider – and to do that you have to know what their problem is.

Public relations may be all about education but most people do not want to be educated or sold to…but they do want solutions to their problems so they can sleep easily in their bed.

So, before deciding on what stories to get out to the media it is a good idea to picture the typical client and speculate on just what might be their biggest fear or their nightmare scenario. If you can then show that you have the solution for them they are likely to want to listen to you…and maybe even buy something!

For some of Empica’s clients this is an obvious tactic. Acorn health and Safety, for instance, provide training courses that help people prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace.

But for others it is less obvious that the “fear factor” is there. PKF accountants may appear to be a service provider – but really they are problem solvers and help people when they are worried about getting that return in on time, concerned that the business deal they are thinking about doesn’t add up or worrying about future growth.

A good tip then for any business person is to address the concerns and problems of their potential customers.

We asked 1,000 people…

You hear it every day – especially on commercial radio; those magic words “in a survey of 1,000 people”.

The subjects vary from whether women prefer chocolate to shoes; what colours people like to wear or what are the most exciting features of a mobile phone.

The PR Survey – far different to the scientifically researched survey carried out by major research organisations – has been a staple diet of the media for many years and it is invariably public relations specialists who provide these items.

But the appetite for them never lessens within the media for one very good reason – people love to hear them and they are exactly the stories that they go home and chat to their family and friends about in the evening.

For every person who might read or hear about such a survey directly there are another eight who hear about it from their friend or even from strangers they encounter. We just can’t resist passing lifestyle trivia facts on to others!

Back in the heady days of the 1980s I worked in an Absolutely Fabulous style agency where a survey could be conducted by just asking around the office; ringing a few mates and getting the cleaner to chime in with a view.

The media got wise to such antics and now insist that the survey has to ask 1,000 people – even if it isn’t particularly scientifically carried out. So for some time, when required, Empica has sent people out with clipboards – and yes roped in relatives and the cleaner – until the magic number is reached. It takes time and effort to get 1,000 I can tell you having found 1,000 “Yummy Mummies” and 1,000 people who have visited a chiropractor!

Thankfully we now have those wonderful social networking sites and we are seeking 1,000 people who live in the South West of England and have an opinion on something to join our regional “Opinion 1,000 Club” on Facebook. The club, when it reaches 1,000, will mean we have on tap people ready and willing to provide answers to those important lifestyle questions for our clients – we even plan to bribe them with prizes.

Opinions are sometimes vital, sometimes fun and sometimes purely so that the public can say “fancy that”…but hopefully they will always be a good source of interesting material for the media.

Opinion Club 1000 (South West UK) on Facebook

The Wobbly Table Of Good PR

Italian and Greek restaurants are renowned not only for their excellent food but for the attentiveness of staff and the warmth of welcome.

One of the ways they have built up the great customer service reputation is through the “wobbly table” stunt, which gives customers a feeling that they are being cared for and looked after from the moment they walk through the door.

Too many people think that good PR is about doing everything perfectly and promising people the best in the world. In fact good PR is about under promising but over-delivering and that is where the “wobbly table” comes in. Has it happened to you?

You walk into a restaurant (almost always Italian or Greek) and a smiling person greets you and escorts you towards a table. Just as your party are about to sit down the greeter moves the table and finds it wobbles.

With a great deal of fuss and palaver the greeter makes a huge point of finding a beer mat or piece of cardboard and folding it. The greeter crawls on the floor and shoves the card under one of the table legs and won’t let you sit down until – with profuse apologies – the table is as solid as a rock.

Your party sit down and are handed menus and already you are impressed. This is a restaurant that really cares about your comfort during your stay – you study the menu while already convinced it will be a meal to remember.

After your meal you leave a generous tip and the greeter kicks the piece of cardboard out in preparation for the next party to arrive – so that the over-servicing pantomime can take place again.

Businesses should all look for ways that they can create the “wobbly table” effect for customers. Always be willing to do that little extra that people didn’t expect when they bought the product or service.

A small “free” added extra can go a long way towards customers coming back again and – more importantly – it gives them something to say about you when they talk about you to others – creating the most vital of all public relations phenomena: word of mouth recommendation

Cupid Is Followed By Mum And Bunny

You might think that news is unpredictable – who could have foreseen the terrible scenes of fires raging in Australia or the plane landing on the Hudson River?

Stand up the person who predicted the Credit Crunch.

Now we are all sitting comfortably turn away from the front pages and there is a completely different picture. The beginning of February saw snow on the ground and love in the air. Every year we are surprised by some winter weather (which always turns out to be the biggest, deepest, windiest or wettest since records began) and every year the media get all loved-up over Valentine’s Day.

As soon as that is over the magazines and newspapers will be turning their minds to filling supplements on Mother’s Day and the television and radio will be looking for those “special mum” stories to fill the air time.

Soon after that it will be Easter and everyone from The Pope to the chocolate manufacturers (stand by for record sales of chocolate being announced as the credit crunch turns us all towards comfort eating) will be jumping on the bandwagon. Rabbits will get a chance to make headline news for a day or so and the media circus will move on.

You see much of what appears in the media is highly predictable and by tapping into those milestone events throughout the year the PR savvy businesses will be gaining the most coverage.

Of course timing is everything and in the case of these milestone events in the year it is often “first come first served”. You need to get in early with your hot weather story or your St George’s Day yarn.

Planning is the key and drawing up a list of events throughout the year and how you might make the most of them with a good PR story is vital. Then you can have the story on the stocks and approach the magazines a month in advance with something to interest them for that special edition.

In January Empica achieved three pages in a magazine, including a cover picture, around Chinese New Year for Dynasty and Zen Restaurants – but the idea was pitched to the publication before Christmas.

So….thinking caps on and see if you can come up with an idea for May Day while clearing the snow from the driveway.