Is PR preferable to Advertising when launching a product? 2

Here is the concluding part of the article "Is PR preferable to Advertising when launching a product?"

4. Product Modification

Feedback is an important element in a PR launch. By launching the PR program ahead of the actual product introduction, there is enough time to modify the product or its price before it goes on sale.

Supermarkets and other distribution outlets like to participate in the brand-building process. They will often make many good suggestions you can use to modify the product, the packaging, the pricing and even the PR.

Advertising is different. Once a big-bang advertising programme is launched, a company is committed. There is little feedback and no time to change the product or service before it's introduced to consumers.

5. Message Modification

Feedback from a PR programme also allows a company to modify the brand's message for greater consumer appeal.

The media looks at your PR messages from the consumer's point of view. You ignore this media feedback at your own peril.

David Ogilvy wrote one of the most-famous advertisements ever run: "At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock."

Only he didn't write the headline. As the first paragraph of the ad explains, it was the Technical Editor of "The Motor" magazine that wrote those words.

Advertising is different. Once launched, an advertising programme is cast in stone. It's difficult, expensive and embarrassing to try to change strategies and messages in the middle of an ad campaign.

6. The Soft Launch

How long should the PR phase of a new product programme take? It depends on a lot of factors. That's why a "soft" launch is recommended.

Take the three social networks. Friendster had a national launch in 2002. Myspace had a national launch in 2003. And Facebook was launched at Harvard in 2004.

Facebook rapidly reached 90% of Harvard students and then moved on to the eight universities in the Ivy League; then to all college graduates.

Three years later, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be for everybody. Headline in the May 25, 2007, New York Times: "Facebook goes off the campus."

In 2009, Friendster was sold for $26 million. In 2011, Myspace was sold for $35 million. And today, Facebook is worth $370 billion on the stock market.

Now, who had the better marketing strategy?

Advertising is different. An advertising programme is usually tied-in directly with the product's availability. The first ad runs on the first date the product is available for sale.

PR versus Advertising

In almost every way, the launch of a brand via PR is exactly the opposite of how a brand is currently launched with an advertising programme.

And since many companies are committed to employing advertising in launching a new brand, it is unlikely that many companies would follow these six steps.

But hopefully, a few might be willing to try.

Concluded.

By Al Ries, chairman of Ries & Ries, an Atlanta-based marketing strategy firm he runs with his daughter and partner, Laura.

Additional reports by ‘Dele Dele-Olukoju, Marketing Communication strategist and publisher of the online Marketing Communication Digest. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria. @deleolukoju +234 807 481 2389. 
It is pertinent to note that Dele was active at the highest level of launch as PR also led, and worked very effectively on the Nigerian arm of Smirnoff Ice and Gordon's Spark campaigns, as MD/CEO of supervising PR Agency, winning industry awards in that regard.