PR - viable marketing investment in economic downturn

Organisations often have to spend even more money - both above and below-the-line - to re-position their brand when the economic cycle starts its inevitable upturn.

In order to avoid this scenario, its best to first consider (a) what level of exposure you wish PR to achieve during the economically-strained period versus (b) the cost of starting a brand awareness campaign all over again. Strategic public relations is at its most effective when complementing a brands above-the-line spend ie working in close consultation with an advertising agency, but this is not always possible when marketing budgets are stretched to their maximum.

Maintains a conversation

A professional PR company will take care to ensure that all traditional marketing elements - from advertising to collateral - is consistently ‘on-message' to create a campaign that maintains a conversation with target audiences through providing credible (and useful) content.

For companies currently employing a PR agency (whose CEOs and MDs are slowly coming around to the strength of strategic PR), many, when faced with economic fluctuations, often still lose sight of the strength of this partnership and decide to cut the service from their budget. A PR service may be the cheaper option to lose, but its return on investment ratio - as per the Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA) guidelines of three times more valuable than advertising - is often substantially higher. Some of SA's better agencies are currently achieving consistent ratios of more that 7:1!

More credibility

When compared to advertising which offers a straight 1:1 return (ie you get what you pay for), and coupled with the fact that editorial has substantially more credibility, then you have a pretty strong argument for considering a specialised PR service.

But, impressive editorial figures aside, how do you put a value on the core PR component that is media relations and how does it affect a company's bottom line or public perception?

Though editorial coverage cannot be guaranteed, there is a consistent dialogue between an agency and a journalist - creating an invaluable service. Couple this with a PR strategy of reaching influencers - ie individuals with the power to sway or affect attitude or behaviour based on their knowledge or position - and the results can be pretty powerful when establishing a new or maintaining an existing brand. South Africans are becoming more and more receptive to opinion formers, with many local celebrities and business leaders becoming increasingly high profile (though this is still in its infancy when compared to the US where, according to research firm RoperASW, one in 10n Americans tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat and what to buy).

Another benefit

Another benefit of PR relations is that media channels are much more diverse and open these days, from print to podcasts. Gone are the days when newspapers and television were seen as the ultimate influentials, as people are much more discerning these days and have an individual medium of choice. PR is still the most cost effective and quickly adaptable service to tailor brand messages for each of these mediums - consistently.

This approach can be extremely beneficial during the crucial first year ‘educational' phase when a new brand is fighting to attain valuable market share. This phase cannot be successful relying on advertising alone, but is strengthened when partnered with a PR component to ensure that messages are not being watered down or miss-communicated. You only get one chance to define your brand in the minds of its target audiences (in a cluttered market), and the cost of re-introduction will be extremely high (if at all still relevant in the consumer conscience).

From a corporate perspective, many organisations - due to budget restraints - often use a PR service solely to communicate strategically with their target audiences, whether it's externally via the media or internally to staff, shareholders or suppliers. Without this function (especially internal communications), an organisation's most vital audiences are deprived of a consistent dialogue that effectively makes them brand ambassadors (another invaluable asset often under-valued by CEOs and MDs).

Essential working component

When compared to the US and the UK, where PR is an essential working component of a complete marketing strategy, the biggest obstacle to overcome locally is the level of naivety about the role of PR and the media - and as a result there's often a misplaced level of expectation by marketing management.

The bottom line is that PR is not certain or predictable when it comes to media placement, but a strategic approach - by a professional and experienced agency - to content and delivery will give you the best shot of success (and not the media release as confetti approach favoured by those less-educated players). So next time you're considering marketing budget cuts, remember the words of Bill Gates, “If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on PR.”