Building a Brand with Exceptional PR

When building brand, public relations (PR) is usually not the marketing discipline that jumps first to people's minds.  But it should fall off the tongue for marketers wanting to create word of mouth and generate that elusive thing called trust.

Like traditional marketing, the early days of PR saw messages disseminated one-way from an organization to the people they wanted to attract.  Much of the time, this was achieved through media relations and customers had no way to respond.

Flash forward almost a hundred years and the power is all with the people.  Never before has a society had so many outlets to make their voice heard and elevate or relegate a brand. Online petitions, Social Media, even companies like moveon.org allow the public to make companies take notice. Just think about all the public outrage when during the BP oil spill and how the company was forced to respond to millions of people. Would they have responded in the same way if there was nobody to call them out?

So how does Public Relations fit in the brand building mix? Well, good PR is, in its simplest form, about relationships.  It's about knowing the customer and – with their buy in - reaching them in their own space the way they want to be reached, whether this is via the media, newsletters, events, social media platforms, personal correspondence or another medium. It's about listening to the person's wants and needs and ensuring that the product or service on offer fulfills these. Where organizations have a clear message and target this effectively, an individual knows what they are buying into and has faith in the brand, which makes marketing easier and cheaper in the long run.

Businesses that use PR to listen well, respond accordingly, deliver on promises, and create brands that have a real emotional relevance for the audience.  Companies live or die by their reputation and those with integrity not only generate repeat sales, but can rely on their customers to help them do so.