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September 14, 2005
How To Create A Fantastic Publicity Event
I admit it, I'm guilty. I have two food-related weaknesses... chocolate, and tomatoes. (A weird combination, I know.)
One side effect of this weakness is a need to have 15-25 different tomato plants growing in my garden every summer, I've even tried growing them inside during the winter (miserable failure!).
I'm still working on growing chocolate plants (where's Mr. Wonka when I need him?)
So, when one of our local garden centers held "Tomatomania" last week, I was all over it.
And what I saw was a powerful example of a perfectly executed publicity event with some resultant learnings that can benefit all of us.
First, let me outline their strategic situation. Imagine that you're a privately-owned player in the midst of a chain-oriented marketplace. The chains have big money that they spend on TV, print and radio ads. Plus, your staple business (nursery items) has been encroached upon by the discount stores, with every KMart, Wal*Mart, Target and Shopko trying to steal your customer base. How do you react?
Most companies in this situation do exactly the wrong thing, choosing the knee-jerk price competition route by running lots of sales and undercutting everyone else's prices. This simply speeds their demise by decreasing their profit margins.
This nursery, called Milaeger's, in Racine Wisconsin has done just the opposite of the norm. They have chosen to go upscale, focusing on providing a wide range of gorgeous and unusual plant varieties that you can't get anyplace else. So, when everyone else offers one variety of Kohlrabi (try one, they're in your vegetable aisle and they're great!), they offer six.
They've also developed a catalog business, supplying mail order annuals and perennials all over the nation.
Plus, they've expanded beyond the nursery into a a retail boutique, lifestyle-type company, with upscale yard furnishings and ornaments, some quality clothing, perfumes and the like and a cafe.
But my favorite line addition is their Christmas selection. Since not many plants are sold in Wisconsin winters, they offer this line to as a counter-seasonal offering. They manufacture their own line of Christmas trees, some even pre-lit with tons of lights, all with joints that allow you to store the tree broken down, with the lights still on it. Plus they offer a wide variety of classic Christmas ornaments, like Christopher Radko, Old World, Patricia Breen and my favorite, Polonaise.
Every year they create a Christmas Tree Village, with a room full of trees featuring their high-fashion tree decoration designs, and another room filled with ornaments, trains and collectable villages.
Their stores have become a tourist attraction, with multiple busses pulling up every day during the holiday period, packed with people who all end up buying a few souvenirs (oftentimes to the tune of several thousand dollars) to take home. (Nice strategy... people actually pay to get on charter busses to come and visit your store!)
I go there every year to get my first hit of holiday spirit...
Back to Tomatomania.
It's Labor Day weekend. In Wisconsin, planting's finished long ago, with the exception of a few fall items. Christmas hasn't kicked in yet. This is the classic recipe for yet another low traffic / low sales weekend.
Posted at 10:56 AM
September 08, 2005
PR Planning Case Study - Holiday Gift Guides
I've been working hard on preparing our promotional plan for our gift basket site, http://Corporate-Gift-Baskets.com for the upcoming holiday season. In doing so I realized that our PR activities would be a great case study for all of you to see. So, from time to time, I will pass along the steps we've taken and their accompanying results.
Basically, the issues we are facing in promoting this site make a great case study, because it has many of the same PR problems that you may also be experiencing:
1. It sells products that aren't particularly newsworthy, so there's no built-in reason for the media to want to write about us
2. There's a ton of competition out there, not only direct (in this case suppliers of gift baskets), but indirect (suppliers of other items that can be given away as gifts).
Sound familiar? I bet you've been frustrated before because you've felt that your products aren't particularly newsworthy and that there's lots of competition for the limited press space available in your category.
But we do have one advantage - we are the sole supplier of a very unique line of gift baskets. Unlike most gift baskets that get thrown away and forgotten as soon as the goodies are gone, these corporate gifts are based on high-quality art pieces and decorating accessories that the recipient will be proud to display in their home or office, so they will have cause to remember the sender for years to come.
So how does one generate publicity for such a company?
Lots of ways!
As we've been going through the process of putting together our PR plan for this season, I happened to be on the phone with my good friend Joan Stewart, and mentioned it to her. She immediately came up with a wonderful suggestion...
Holiday Gift Guides!
As you probably know, the media creates Holiday Gift Guides to help their audience find the perfect presents for people on their gift lists.
The real beauty of holiday gift guides is that this is the one time of the year when editors are actually looking for products that they can feature to their audiences. So, your product doesn't necessarily have to have a news tie-in, it simply has to be something that catches their interest and fits into their theme.
They're also a perfect PR outlet for gifts that are unique and different.
Products that get featured in holiday gift guides get amazing exposure, implied support from the media source, and can generate lots of solid sales.
After my conversation with Joan, I went out and researched the availability of contact lists for editors of holiday gift guides. Basically, I found two that you should know about. I've acquired copies of each, and recommend both as having good solid information.
Posted at 02:12 PM
What's That Again? Bag of Shoes
This is the actual text of a want ad placed in Philippi, WV
"Large bag of shoes -- different sizes, no pairs, make offer or trade for a snorkel."
What are the odds of finding someone who actually wants a bag of unmatched shoes, who is willing to either pay for them or who happens to have an extra snorkel laying around, living in Philippi, West Virginia?
But then again, stranger things have happened!
Posted at 12:07 PM
