Applied Woo 01/27/2010
 
In their book, Art of Woo (Penguin 2007), authors Richard Shell and Mario Moussa present “the selling of ideas”  from a sales/negotiation perspective.  Despite their rather broad framing of the subject  their discourse is highly instructive for Marketing Public Relations professionals.  One of several points that are worth noting is their discussion of barriers to woo.  Shell and Moussa consider relationships, credibility, communications mismatches, belief systems, and interest and needs to be the major obstructions to successful persuasion, and, I will argue, they are the same hurdles faced by marketers when pitching journalists and other connectors. 

 Clearly, relationships are critical to PR.  The better we know our connectors and the better they know us, the more likely our chances of getting media mentions  from connectors picking up our stories, or by their coming to us for assistance on something they are already working on. 

Credibility is obvious, but the key to being a trusted source and strengthening the newsworthiness of a pitch. 

Communications mismatches manifest themselves in the mundane and operational side of PR when marketers forget to pitch connectors in the format and in the timeframe that suits the connector best.  Is a journalist more receptive to a phone call, email, or a letter in the mail?  Is there a certain time of day week, or month that is typically best?  Communications mismatches also occur when styles clash.  For some editors and journalists bold, over-the-top pitches work really well, for others, they do not. 

A match also needs to exist between the story you are pitching and the belief system of the connector.  In the case of pitching in PR it is more about knowing the mission and audience of the connector’s medium than understanding the socio-cultural profile of the connector himself, although both are important. 

The last barrier is one that MPR pros are keenly aware of-interests and needs.  Connector are charged with producing content that is interesting to their audience, is in line with the mission of their medium, and supports their editorial calendar.  If you can show how it will also please their advertisers or help their medium’s sales people sell into a specific issue or episode, you’ve struck gold.

Check out Art of Woo.
 
 
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Surely, you’ve seen this by now, but I need to point it out here.  Sometimes, ads can be great PR.  Benetton and P.E.T.A. have been both provocative and effective with their use of advertisements to generate media attention.  Now Weatherproof has done it with their billboard depicting President Obama at the Great Wall of China wearing one of their jackets.  The White House lawyers got into the act, but not before the media had spread the story and image all over the world.  The New York Times, the Huffington Post, and Fox News are just a sampling of the thousands of media mentions this ad received.

Great job Weatherproof!  Now if I can just get a snap of the President reading my book.
 
 
Yes, it is the job of the MPR professional to get media mentions and spread word-of-mouth for his or her company, brand, and/or products.  To that end, I’d like to say the folks at Weis Markets, a supermarket chain based in Sunbury, Pa., did their job when an article based on their December 31, 2009, press release, “Weis Markets Lowers Prices on 2,600 Staple Items and Freezes These Lower Prices for 90 Days,” appeared on the front page of the “Money” section of Allentown’s Morning Call.  This is great for Weis Markets. Or is it?  I am a bit concerned by the fact that the article, “Weis Lowers Prices on 2,600 Products,” is a rewrite of the press release and appears to be a thinly veiled “advertorial” for one the Morning Call’s bigger advertisers.  

What do you think?

Quite frankly, a supermarket lowering prices in a recession is not news-it’s a

promotional campaign. Sometimes, it is worth the time of a company’s

Marketing/PR department to help journalists by providing them with press

releases that read like news.  Otherwise, a great media mention loses the

credibility that makes PR so powerful in the first place.