When Windows 95 went public, Microsoft set up a huge marketing communication team to support the listing activities. It purchased the right to use the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up" as the theme song of the product. The opinions of science and technology professionals and the media can affect the sales volume. In order to let them know more about this product, Microsoft held a grand press conference on the day of product launch, which was attended by millions of people all over the world.
Create a theme
Creating topics and attracting the public and the media to participate in discussions are convenient ways to spread brands and establish emotional ties with consumers.
Yangshengtang has done quite well in this respect. Nongfu Spring is a famous drinking water brand produced by Yangshengtang. Through a series of comparative experiments on pure water and natural water, the brand reached the conclusion that pure water is useless and informed the media of this conclusion. At the same time, it is solemnly announced that Nongfu Spring will not produce pure water, but only natural water beneficial to human health. This makes Nongfu Spring stand out from the water market in China, where pure water has an absolute advantage. In addition, Duoer, a brand of women's health care products owned by Yangshengtang, collected information nationwide with the topics of "When was the most beautiful woman" and "Who did you meet when was the most beautiful", which caused all-round media hype. An ordinary public relations topic quickly became a hot topic, which quickly enhanced the brand's influence.
The successful implementation of topic public relations requires a full understanding of the operating mechanism of popular culture and media news, so as to effectively achieve the marketing effect of "doing more with less money".
Integrate social resources
By integrating high-profile social resources, brands can reach more and more audiences. Culture, sports and music have universal appeal and are the first choice of public relations resources, and the number of people concerned is increasing year by year.
In China, L 'Oré al has been adhering to L 'Oré al's idea that beauty comes from the beauty of culture, striving to build a bridge between Chinese and French cultures, and sponsored many activities from Beijing to Versailles, including the Sino-French Art Exchange Expo and Pingyao International Photography Exhibition. These activities provide an excellent opportunity for L 'Oré al to integrate into the local culture and a way to keep its brand active and energetic.
In 2003, IBM sponsored the China mountaineering team to climb Mount Everest, and provided 30 T40 laptops for the team members, which had very strong cold resistance and plateau resistance. The climbers wrote down their personal experiences after they came back from climbing the mountain. They took T40' s laptop to the height of 8700 meters and woke up at the height of 8700 meters every day. Everything is frozen, but the IBM computer can be started in two minutes. The daily broadcast of CCTV began to spread information through IBM's computer. IBM spent little money sponsoring computers for the mountaineering team, but telling readers these stories after the mountaineering team came back is actually their truest feelings, which is also a very effective means of communication.
Taiwan Province Evergreen Group spends NT$ 60 million every year to set up an orchestra with the aim of "promoting Taiwanese music culture" and "cultivating young musicians in Taiwan Province Province". Although the orchestra loses money in every performance, media observation points out: "The orchestra is actually a good social tool for Evergreen to establish its corporate image." Evergreen Symphony Orchestra expanded the territory of Evergreen brand with music.
Sponsor public welfare activities
In the west, sponsoring public welfare activities has become a very effective means of public relations. Many consumers claim that which brand they will buy supports the public welfare undertakings they care about.
In Britain, the research on "community commerce" conducted by "International Research Organization" in 1997 shows that 86% of consumers have a good impression on those companies that hold public welfare undertakings to make the world a better place.
More enterprises choose valuable public welfare undertakings and combine non-profit charitable organizations with commerce with clever implementation strategies, which is conducive to gradually transforming pure commercial behavior with strong egoism into civilized charity.
Harley? Davidson motorcycle used to be the "official car" of the notorious criminal organization and motorcycle gang "Hell Angels", so it gave people a very negative brand impression. The public thinks this brand is full of violence, danger and drugs. Harley? Davidson gained a positive image by supporting charitable activities to treat muscular atrophy caused by malnutrition (a paralytic disease). In Harley? At the mass rally organized by Davidson Motorcycle Company, the appearance of paralyzed patients in wheelchairs strongly reminded people how free cyclists are on the road, which emphasized the necessity of further medical research and encouraged fund-raising activities.
Link public events
Contacting public events is a public relations skill. If used properly, even a simple emergency can successfully attract a lot of public attention. Practice shows that it is much better to associate with a ready-made event than to artificially create an event for the purpose of promoting products.
In 2003, China launched its first manned spaceship. Mengniu Company, a milk manufacturer, realized that the successful launch would greatly inspire China people's national pride and self-confidence, so it decided to launch a public relations campaign of "Astronaut's Milk" on the occasion of Shenzhou 5's launch. This pioneering work has brought great benefits to enterprises. One year after the implementation of this activity, Mengniu's market sales more than doubled, and the third place in market sales jumped to the first place.
During the period of SARS in 2003, Buick invited the famous European piano master to hold a performance with the theme of "classic sunshine love in May", and used music to soothe the emotional needs of China people looking forward to getting through the difficulties in their national or personal lives as soon as possible.
For most consumers in China, patriotism and other noble sentiments and true feelings will never be out of date.
Take advantage of the public relations crisis of competitors to attack.
Most brands always advertise whenever there is news. They want to brag about new features or promote extended products. In fact, when competitors make mistakes in public relations, enterprises should also take the initiative in brand marketing.
1994, Intel made a public relations mistake when dealing with the running defects of the first generation Pentium microprocessor. When Thomas Nicely, a university professor, could not get compensation, he turned to the Internet to expand the matter. Grove, then CEO of Intel, ignored the needs of ordinary consumers to buy products and seek new products, and prevaricated on the grounds that "no chip is always perfect", which caused greater turmoil and recycling losses.
At this time, Motorola took advantage of the situation and made a big advertisement for its semiconductor products, focusing on the "lifetime warranty", deliberately emphasizing that they are trustworthy and worth spending more money by consumers. Motorola only chose to do this advertisement when Intel was widely criticized, so it got the reputation they wanted.
Basic principles of public relations in brand building.
Public relations will use the endorsement of third parties to gradually build a brand. Through a series of well-planned public relations plans, the main characteristics of the brand can be changed from the initial design to the preferences of consumers. Successful brands know how to establish the most effective relationship between brands and public relations activities.
be related
This is the first principle of brand public relations.
Public relations often faces the problem of establishing close relationship between activities and brands; If the appearance of the brand is regarded as a "chicken rib" in public relations activities, the money of the enterprise will be wasted, which will also have a negative impact on the image of the enterprise in the public mind.
Smart companies strive to make the two more closely linked and more logical. For the brand, the choice of public relations carrier can create a strong and unique connection for the brand.
Philip? The Marlboro brand of Morris Company has been actively sponsoring various international sports activities, including automobile races, motorcycle races, skiing races, horse races and bicycle races, because these activities are extremely challenging and can reflect the true colors of heroes, with men as the main body, which is consistent with the cowboy image and real man image of Marlboro brand. This sponsorship not only reflects Marlboro's concern for society and sports, but also highlights and strengthens the personality and image of Marlboro brand.
In China, Rejoice launched a public relations activity of "Rejoice Self-confidence College" beyond the product category, and invited Li Yang, the founder of Crazy English, as a lecturer, to fully demonstrate the brand concept of "self-confidence" that Rejoice has always advocated by creating opportunities for young people to cultivate self-confidence and learn to express self-confidence; SK-II, a senior skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble, enjoys the reputation of "skin care expert" and has always been deeply loved by stars in film and television and performing arts. In view of this feature, P&G and Beijing Film Academy jointly held a professional skin care seminar to provide professional consulting services for those "future stars" in film and television, and skillfully establish contact with consumers.
Choose an activity that suits the brand image. If you need to explain a lot why the company participates in this activity, this activity may not be suitable for your brand. Sports famous brands are often spread through competitions. Famous brands of fashion and cosmetics expand their markets more through fashion shows and celebrity enjoyment. The best way for Fuji and Kodak to enhance their brand influence is a photo art exhibition or competition, in which the association is self-evident.
Timely action
The timing of brand public relations, especially consumer goods, is very important.
The brand "Hulk" of canned corn just chose the right time to launch various public relations activities at the right time, so it can continuously inject new ideas into marketing and attract the attention of the media and consumers.
For example, the school has a summer vacation, which is the time when parents and children spend the most time together. The brand designed "Hulk Parent-child Interactive Corn Dinner", inviting child stars to cook with their mothers, and making a series of delicious dishes suitable for parents and children to cook together in a relaxed and warm atmosphere. Hot August is the peak season for cold drinks consumption. Enterprises especially add corn to the materials of summer cold drinks, and even cooperate with well-known restaurants to hold "Qin Liang Corn Week" and catch the train of summer cold drinks.
At present, the different "focal points" of social needs are not always in line with the needs of different ethnic groups. Therefore, public relations should switch diversified news angles according to different consumers and at different times, so that the brand can continue its marketing operation and maintain its position in the market.
Harmony and coordination: moisten things silently.
Although you should be conspicuous in public relations activities, don't reveal too obvious business purposes. Public relations activities should choose a coordinated way of participation. If you pretend to highlight the brand or enterprise in the activity, the sponsored social activities will lose their proper meaning, which may cause public disgust and become the target of the press. Rather than promoting the brand image because of sponsorship, it may be counterproductive. Therefore, public relations activities should have a sincere attitude, while ensuring that the activities they participate in can play their due role, they can show the role of brands and enterprises in them, thus enhancing the brand and corporate image.
For example, "Kodak" has invested more than 2 million yuan to renovate three scenic spots in Zhangjiajie, China, and renovated 300 facilities such as route name signs, scenic spots and recommended photography signs, rare species introduction signs, environmental protection public welfare signs and road signs. All these facilities are made of natural raw materials, which are integrated with the natural ecological environment and reflect Kodak's environmental awareness. The Kodak logo of each street sign is also the same color as the street sign, which is not abrupt, not dazzling, and lacks the flavor of commercial propaganda. Kodak has also made many detailed plans in developing scenic resources. Through Kodak's design and transformation, every major scenic spot has stones recommended by Kodak, which not only highlights the unique beauty of Zhangjiajie, but also stimulates tourists' desire to shoot and stimulates tourists' photography consumption. It can be seen that Kodak pays attention to finding market opportunities from nuances in the process of doing public welfare activities, so that consumers can improve their cognition and understanding of their brands in admiration and enhance their position in the minds of consumers.
In addition, Martell, for example, combined classical music in public relations propaganda and adopted a non-commercial cultural environment to highlight elegance and nobility. Master Louis highlighted his excellent corporate image by displaying ancient palace-style buildings, holding various cocktail parties and large-scale cultural activities. These are all appropriate performances.
Integrate advertising and promotion
Of course, the effect of public relations needs to be grafted with advertising and promotion to maximize. Integrating various marketing methods around the same theme is a clever way to build a brand.
For example, Mengniu Company, which planned the public relations activity of "Drinking Milk for Astronauts", started advertising around this activity on CCTV within three hours after China manned spaceship Shenzhou 5 returned safely, and changed outdoor advertisements of more than 30 urban outdoor bus shelters overnight. Within a few days, Mengniu products in various stores were printed with the words "China astronaut special milk". The comprehensive application of various means can rapidly improve the public relations effect and ensure the maximum brand influence.
In addition, recording advertising behavior has become an increasingly common way of integration.
Pepsi is very good at turning advertising activities into legitimate news. They have been with Michael since 1984? Jackson is engaged in business activities. When creating momentum for blue cans, PepsiCo hired Concorde to spray blue, and spent $5 million for Soviet astronauts to shoot advertisements holding large Pepsi blue bottles and cans while circling the space station. This kind of advertisement is very newsworthy, and the media have to pay attention to it.
Toyota, a world-famous automobile company, has teamed up with well-known directors to create momentum for advertising films. Toyota has put a trailer for commercials on TV for half a year in a row: the famous director Zhang Yimou will shoot a 5-minute commercial for Toyota's new Vios Xinfeng. This trailer, like the film promo, solemnly tells the audience that the film, starring directors Zhang Yimou and Daniel Wu, will be released next spring, with the subtitle "Who will play Daniel Wu? Click online to vote for the heroine". Just as Zhang Yimou searched for the heroine on the Internet before he started filming Happy Hour, it has a great communication effect.
This integrated way of creating news effects for advertisements can not only attract consumers to have greater interest in advertisements in advance, but also enhance the credibility of advertisements.
Nowadays, taking a new advertising campaign as news has become the standard behavior of many enterprises.
Control information source
Information release is an important part of the success of public relations. No matter how good the public relations activities are, if they are not implemented in this link, they will lead to information distortion and often have adverse effects.
Mature brands are very cautious in this regard.
In this respect, Microsoft is a successful model. Despite facing antitrust lawsuits, Microsoft's long-term public relations performance has been widely praised. They have been striving for positive reports from well-known science and technology journalists and editors and are willing to pay a considerable price. Microsoft will send an entire public relations team to stare at a reporter, confirm their reports, seize every opportunity to find fault, ensure that every idea will not be misunderstood, and even let a group of Microsoft engineers fly to the reporter's office with documents showing Microsoft's position.
In order to ensure the benign dissemination of information, some companies often make very careful and meticulous arrangements. For example, at the beginning of each year, IBM will hold a relatively large press conference to communicate with more than 100 media about the market business strategy in China for the whole year. After the press conference at the headquarters, departments of product lines and service lines also communicated with relevant media. In 2003, when the epoch-making revolutionary slogan of "e-commerce on demand" was put forward, IBM immediately sent a 30-page white paper "New Mileage" to all parts of the world, and the public relations departments around the world seized every opportunity to communicate with the media and conveyed the information of "e-commerce on demand" to all media and analysts at the first time.
For enterprises, the control of information sources can not only ensure their quality, but also ensure that brand names are mentioned as much as possible in the whole public relations activities.
The choice and grasp of strategy
It is understandable that public relations personnel want to seize every big sensation and launch a propaganda offensive in time. No one wants to see competitors' promotional activities vigorous and colorful, while their own brands have encountered a deserted market.
Good public relations can slip through the threshold of people's inherent ideas in a practical coat, and will not be labeled "I am not a paid advertisement to sell goods to you." This makes it easier for its information to be widely disseminated through the media, so public relations propaganda should not only carry out hyperlinks but also pay attention to strategies, which is the basic prerequisite for success. If the strategy is used well, it will play a very positive role in establishing brand image and gaining greater popularity.
Combining the theme of corporate public relations with a healthy social environment, this strategy can make the brand a source of information that the media pays attention to.
Anita, a famous figure in the beauty industry? Roddick's successful brand public relations strategy lies in making the body shop a well-known brand with few advertisements.
Body Shop opposes the use of animals for experiments, helps developing countries develop their economies through the "trade, no aid" plan, contributes to the protection of tropical rainforests, actively supports the women's movement, and becomes an example in waste recycling; The company also participates in activities to save whale populations, publicizes the protection of other endangered species, and supports the development of alternative energy sources. The company also posted posters and color brochures (printed on recycled paper) between the products in the store and the trial samples, providing information about the products and the public welfare undertakings supported by the company and how consumers participate in public welfare activities and organizations engaged in public welfare undertakings.
By conveying views on the environment, local residents and animal experiments, the body shop can continuously attract newspapers, magazines, radio and television, and its brand is getting bigger and bigger.
Plan activities that can provide customers with new experiences.
When consumers use products, allowing consumers to participate in more experiences will greatly promote the creation of brands.
Adidas launched the "Urban Culture Movement", including street football challenge, street football festival, track and field clinic and other mass participation activities covering the whole of Europe. These popular activities include not only competitive competitions, but also some fashion shows, music performances (including hip-hop bands) and other forms of entertainment. Due to its urban cultural activities, Adidas reversed the decline in sales since the early 1980s when there were no advertisements in the media. Under the competitive conditions of Nike and Reebok, its market share continued to increase.
Cadbury invested 5.8 million pounds to build the "Cadbury World" theme park, which provided many opportunities for tourists to taste Cadbury's diverse chocolate products, but more importantly, Cadbury World vividly linked the taste experience with the history of the brand.
Both have created new experiences for consumers. If they hadn't decided to establish these connections, people wouldn't have gained this experience. Consumers feel that these brands are paying back to the society and regard this return as a fair exchange of their brand loyalty.
Turn routine corporate promotion into newsworthy public relations events.
If you can't plan pure enterprise promotion activities from the perspective of the media, it is difficult to see relevant public relations manuscripts in the media. When designing public relations activities, we should first think about what can attract the attention of journalists. On the other hand, journalists pay attention to what the public is interested in, because only topics of public interest are necessary to be published. Planning public relations activities from the public's point of view can produce news effects.
L 'Oré al has done well in this respect. Since 1997, L 'Oré al Group has been the official co-organizer of previous Cannes International Film Festival. Therefore, L 'Oré al Group used its own public relations ability to make Gong Li, one of its image spokespersons, a judge of Cannes Film Festival, and grandly pushed China actors to the international stage for the first time. Gong Li's becoming a judge of the film festival is undoubtedly important news, and her performance during the film festival is bound to attract the full attention of the media. The exposure of the image spokesperson is high, and the influence of the brand will naturally climb.
In addition, choosing those "undertakings" that are valuable, weighty and suitable for the products and companies to be promoted as the carrier of public relations propaganda will benefit both multinational companies and unknown small enterprises.
NB Natural Beauty, a beauty chain, and TV jointly organized the "Entrepreneurial Passion" program, and successful entrepreneurial candidates who participated in the program could get an entrepreneurial incentive fund of 6.5438+10,000 yuan. Natural beauty provided 5.2 million yuan for the competition within one year, and provided employment training courses with a total value of 5.2 million yuan for more than 1000 spectators. A large number of people who care about starting a business will consider joining the chain system, and this public relations activity is undoubtedly very consistent with the promotion of the natural beauty chain system. (This article is taken from Zhang Bingwu's monograph "Brand Marketing Future")