Is All PR Good for Business?

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PR stunts are common. For generations, publicists for all types of companies have brainstormed “brilliant” events and tricks to garner attention for their product or service. PT Barnum is one of the more famous individuals in the stunt world, and PR Week published this list of PR stunts that would make Barnum proud.

It recently came to my attention that a car dealership in a northeastern Oklahoma town chose to promote itself by dropping a pickup off the side of a 19-story landmark building. Thousands of people attended this street party and publicity opportunity only to discover that there was no truck but instead the car dealership lowered a banner over the side of the building promoting a cash incentive on said truck. Here is the car dealership’s version; here is a take on the situation as written by a colleague of mine. Watch the video on YouTube here.

While PR stunts like this have been common for many, many years, I’m hesitant to encourage companies to attempt this sort of publicity because it rarely works — more often than not, it completely backfires. While this car dealership may not lose business in its’ small town, one has to wonder whether, in this age of transparency and openness, if the use of traditional tactics as well as as social media to promote an event where the end result focused on generating sales for the dealership is the right move.

I’m a proponent for being upfront, honest and above board with customers, employees and other stakeholders. It’s a matter of integrity for me. I don’t want anyone to question whether or not my business will treat them right or fairly. By choosing to launch a PR stunt like the one described above, it calls into question how the organization will respond in the future.

What do you think? Am I overreacting?

The World of Retail Marketing

Working in a retail marketing position has forced me to ask a pretty basic question in our organization. “Who is our customer?” Unfortunately, the internal answer is not clear cut. I have found that there are two groups: one views the retailers, dealers and distributors who we sell through as our customer; the second views consumers as our key customers.

Personally, I’m a proponent for the latter. While very important to the business, I believe the retailers, dealers and distributors are facilitators for us to sell our products. We need them to help us get our products into the hands of valuable consumers, but they are not what I would call the most important audience for us to reach. That disctinction should fall to the consumer. Without consumers who choose to spend their hard-earned money on our products, we would not be successful or able to sustain our business.

My question, however, remains. In an organization that views the designated sales channels as our main customer, does that mean that the consumer doesn’t matter? Does that affect business strategies and the overall marketing approach? Should it?

From my experience, it does affect strategy … but not in a good way.

With a consumer-based business, the marketing strategies used should be centered on ensuring that the entire experience that the consumer has with our company is positive. We should want him or her to return and spread the good word about our company and product. In a channel-based business, my experience has shown that budget dollars are allocated toward identifying ways to train sales associates but not much more. Promotional dollars are spent on dealer discounts versus consumer rebates.

One thing I can say about my experiences on the business to consumer side of the marketing world, I have changed my perspective on brands to which I choose to be loyal. I want to use and buy products that appear to value the end consumer.

The challenge for me is to strengthen my advocacy for the consumer within the company. Being the voice of the consumer is a critical part of ensuring the future of our organization is strong.