Businesses need to get words out about products. They need to engage with critical stakeholders comprising segments within and outside the organisations. As well they need to stay alert to competitors’ new business launches, regulatory, and government moves. All these can hardly be achieved effectively without tapping into the network of services provided by the organised media.
To understand the media, one would have to imagine how a window serves an attic room. Or better still, what a siren does for an automobile. The window let in light into a dark attic room. The siren alerts pedestrians while drawing attention to a vehicle.
The business of media houses is to draw and sustain the attention of the public by providing interesting and useful content such as news and entertainment. In between the content, opportunities are made available for pitching products to the massive audience as text, voice, or video in the forms of advertisement, jingles, and PR news reports. Where this is repeatedly executed it registers into the audience subconscious; subsequently, that subconscious product information would influence the listener’s behaviours when he or she visits the retail shelves.
Simply put, a new product needs to draw the attention of buyers. However, drawing buyer attention is not enough. The producers have to conduct a far-reaching product education that enlightens the consumers about the benefits of each feature of the new product.
No product can survive without the media. Products thrive on advocacy, consumer education, constant feedback and product reviews.
A lot of the times, consumers may not know which products work better for them as regards their health and wallet status. They look up to trusted media to help them make informed choices. Businesses would have to go ahead to influence how the media see their brands and products in such a way that they are befriended and educated to tell a better story about the brand and products.
Beyond engaging the distribution channel to push products to the last miles, ensuring that a sufficient number of people who have been exposed to vital information about the products are pulled into the stores to take favourable actions is critical.
Besides traditional media such as newspapers and electronic media such as radio and television, the new media (social media) enables dialogue between the consumers and brand manufacturers. This kind of relationship is essential for the survival of businesses.
These are a few tips businesses should follow to make the best of the media:
a. Embrace media relationship – As often as possible, create an opportunity for men and women of the media to interact with your products and business at large by organising media parley or going for occasional media rounds to visit and greet magazine editors and TV/ radio presenters.
b. Create newsworthy activities – Brands must always be in the news to stay fresh in the minds of the consumers. Note that competitors are also working hard to hijack the attention of the consumers. Seminars, workshops, opinion leadership, issue advocacy, and more relevant gigs help brands maintain share of ink (in newspapers), voice (on the electronic media), and presence (in the new media).
c. Don’t forget press releases – Writes all kinds of press releases and send to editors of newspapers to inform, educate and interpret issues and explain new products. Media need business content to engage their audiences.
