Page 152 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

144 Marketing: the Basics
Long-standing sales promotions diminish the ‘act now’ impulse. Even worse, if a product is heavily promoted for long periods of time, customers will expect the price reduction to endure. For higher end brands there is real danger that if you promote more than once or twice a year you may damage the exclusivity of the brand. Some brands pride themselves on never being on sale. High- end department stores often limit themselves to two sales a year, after Christmas and in the summer. More than that and customers might start thinking they are buying at K-Mart or Wal-Mart or some other lower end chain, heavens be!
PUBLIC RELATIONS
The primary role of public relations is to influence the public’s beliefs, feelings and opinions about the company by placing information in the media without paying for the airtime or space consumed in the media. Typically, a public relations department circulates story ideas, press releases and other items of interest to media organizations in the hope the story is picked up by the media. Releasing a keyword-heavy press release online to news feed services such as PR Newswire creates hundreds of back-links to your website. Favourable stories reported in the media achieve the same effect as advertising, with the added bonus of being associated with the credibility of the media organization that circulated the information. And best of all, all that news coverage is free.
puBLic ReLaTions TooLs
• Blogs: A regularly updated website containing opinions, commentary and collection of interesting articles to the author. A good blog will serve as a resource and stimulate discussion amongst its readers
• Buzz marketing: Capturing attention of customers and the media by creating a message that is newsworthy, entertaining or a topic of conversation.
• Forums: Online communities where individuals share their opinions about specific topics. Forums are a great place to tip off a group of evangelists about an upcoming release.