PR is an Ad Strategy

Get a customer. Keep a customer. At the end of it all is this axiom: business functions best when these two goals are consistently met. And it's getting harder than you think to do this. Getting a customer suggests that consumers make a decision at some point to add a brand to their accepted purchase menu. If we push this thought a bit further, it means that somewhere along the line an impression was made, clearly a positive one that stuck. And along with the stickiness presumably comes satisfaction with the use -- and so the circle continues until a better idea or brand comes along to potentially sweep the consumer into a new romance.

Achieving attraction, or possibly traction

Getting a grip on the consumer is no easy task. A visceral connection must occur. And despite all of the ink and paper now invested in articles and books about the sea change in advertising effectiveness otherwise known as the dilution of grip -- nearly every major marketer continues to pour the vast majority of their missionary spending into paid media platforms. Well, it feels good to do that. Evidently we continue to love the tangible process of mixing words, design and movie making; the happy intersection we believe of art plus science that co-mingles entertainment and salesmanship in a compelling elixir that will surely cajole the consumer into buying.

What if the act of connecting now comes in a new color, size and material? What if the consumer who isnt a customer yet just isnt listening? The pathway into the brain is changing. And now PR should become an advertising strategy. How can this be? It's not paid for, its editorial or at least it's not transactional. Precisely. Authentic, credible forms of communication are by definition organic and earned. It is in this form of honest outreach that consumers can be found listening. In a venue of earned communication they will allow themselves for a brief moment to pay attention and to listen to something new.

PR is evolving, too. What was once deemed solely to be the province of publicity is expanding into a broader definition of content development, thus helping create multiple brand touch points that feel genuine and respectful to the consumer. Launching word-of-mouth. Product seeding. Books interlaced with brand messages. Brand delivered experiences and events that play to the self-interests (and avocations) of the desired customer. However it is defined, earned media is where connecting occurs, that important moment when the customer-in-waiting says Im listening.

This means the PR team and the brand team, along with the ad team need to become one team. It also means that PR can no longer be thought of as an ancillary layer another smallish piece of the outreach pie that simply adds some impressions at lower cost to the overall media effort. PR is actually the linchpin to credibility and therefore must be integral to the launch strategy.

Advertising works to reward consumers for their decision, to build awareness and to develop a sense of acceptability that helps move new ideas from early adopters to the mainstream. What about keeping customers in the fold?

Falling in and out of love

What marketers want is fidelity. But the marketplace around us is evolving at an alarming pace. Witness the inexorable rise of Dyson vacuums and in just a few seasons on the shelf, dispatching the former category leader in dollar share volume with a product that costs twice as much as the once revered brand leader. Amazing.

Unless the fires of brand passion are constantly stoked, consumers begin looking -- and before long it's time to trade up to a new more exciting brand relationship. This flirtatious behavior pattern is partially due to the efforts of smart, nimble marketers who constantly innovate and stretch, seeking to create new and demonstrably better product ideas that have a chance of resonating successfully -- thus luring in a new customer. There is no room, no option except to be remarkable, functionally superior, constantly innovating and re-thinking. In effect, brands need to continue investing in the dating rituals long after the marriage.

The result of never, ever resting on the brand strategy laurels is to achieve your business goals. This can be accomplished time and again by purposely upending the apple cart to measurably re-configure the product idea which in turn becomes a constant source of product news and fuel for the PR (and advertising) fire.

To get and keep your customer, it's time to anoint PR as an advertising strategy -- in marketing thinking, planning as well as spending.