Why public relations for consumer products and consumer tech?

 

If you want to create awareness about a consumer tech product, service, or brand, you must develop a strong, effective, public relations campaign. There's no getting around this fact.

 

The simple truth is this; consumer PR is the most effective, and least expensive, way to promote your business and products.

 

Public relations (PR) is by far the most powerful method of “spreading the gospel” and informing the B2B and B2C community about the benefits and value of the product or service you offer.

 

PR is for you if you:

 

• Want to reach a wider audience regarding your consumer tech product or brand

• Want to promote a product or service with the medias help

• Want to engage the media regarding your business

• Want to promote you business without breaking your bank account

• Want to inform your industry about product launches or exciting news

• Want to secure product reviews in the media

• Want to expand and improve your social media footprint

• Want to successfully launch a new product into the market

• Want to promote a product or business at trade shows 

• Want to draft press releases and build a press kit

• Want to train members of your team the art and skill of public relations

• Want to develop a positive reputation about your product or business

 

Why Listen to Me?

 

It’s a reasonable question and one I’m eager to answer.

 

I’ve been doing consumer tech PR, successfully, for over 20 years. Prior to working as a freelance public relations specialist, I was the Director of Marketing and PR at Performance Designed Products (PDP), one of the leading developers of video game peripherals in the United States. Over the last two decades I have managed the PR campaigns for countless consumer tech product launches in the US and abroad and continue to work with some of the most innovative brands in the world.

 

 

Clarifying Public Relations

 

Recently a company contacted me to ask if I could help them with their advertising. When I mentioned that I specialize in public relations not advertising, there was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Finally, the response came: “But isn’t public relations the same as advertising?”

 

This is not an uncommon assumption. However, the differences couldn’t be starker.

 

The official definition of public relations is “the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public.”

 

In simple terms:

 

• Advertising means you pay tons of money to create a subjective image.

• Public Relations means you tell a compelling story that offers an objective solution to a problem.

 

People today are much more likely to trust information coming from a person writing from an objective point of view (a journalist) rather than from the subjective point of view of a paid advertisement.
 

In other words, a consumer is much more likely to buy a new cellphone, drone, or camera, based on a product review or story coming from a journalist, blogger, or influencer, rather than a random advertisement on a web page.
 

Advertising does hold a valuable place in any effective marketing mix. But before you run out and spend an exorbitant amount of your budget creating and placing an old-fashioned ad, think about how far your dollar will stretch if you can offer the same information to journalists, bloggers, and influencers, who will write about your product or service for free.

 

In a nutshell, public relations is a very powerful way to share information about your business or consumer tech product without breaking your budget.