0816_TOEFL-Test-and-Score-Manual-1997

Marketing Strategies ● 173
The restaurant owner hired Jason Brown, founder of PublicCity PR, to build
the buzz surrounding the community focused event.
PublicCity attracted media exposure for the Whistle Stop by taking
a local feel-good story and bringing it to the national spotlight. The story
had great appeal, especially in Michigan during the depths of the Great
Recession when unemployment and foreclosure rates were the highest in
the country.
“The campaign garnered reports on WXYZ, WDIV, and WJBK,
including an in-studio WJBK cooking segment, plus radio reporters and
interviews on seven other stations,” said Brown.
His efforts led to front-page stories in the Detroit Free Press and the
Birmingham Eccentric, plus additional coverage in the Detroit News,
Oakland Press, and Metro Times. “Because of the tremendous local press
that PublicCity was able to garner for the Whistle Stop, the national media
started to take notice and wanted to know more about restaurant owner
Matt Rafferty’s generous offer to the community,” said Brown.
Best of all, the feel-good story made Inside Edition, CBS’s The Early
Show, and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.
This is a great example of how good PR can generate enormous attention
for a small business. Yet too many entrepreneurs use a scattershot approach
to public relations, primarily because they don’t understand how PR works.
Public relations is not marketing. PR is not advertising.
You pay for advertising space on a web site, newspaper, or magazine.
You buy time on radio or television stations. If you pay for the time, you
control the message.
You can’t control the outcome of PR efforts. They are based on securing
third-party endorsements for your product or service, primarily when a
member of the press writes a story or produces a report about you or your
company. The most important thing to remember is you cannot control
the message or timing.
Before your hire a PR person, find out what your competition is doing
to promote itself. Use this information to develop a strategy and a reasonable
budget. Then, it’s time to find the talent needed to execute your
strategy.
“An effective PR program can bring valuable recognition to your
company if your product or service is mentioned in the media,” explained
Christine Soderbergh, a veteran PR consultant based in Los Angeles.