Does consumer PR sell products or stock?
I had a beer a couple of weeks ago with Ian Barr from Hill and Knowlton, a large PR firm here in Toronto. We were chatting about how PR is used in modern business. One question I had was how many clients were coming to him to promote a new product versus coming to him explicitly wanting to impact their share price? Now, I’m not talking about investor relation or corporate PR – that’s always been focused on share price. I’m talking about consumer facing communications.
Ian said effecting the share price was not the main reason clients gave for planning a consumer campaign but that the conversation was coming up a lot more in meetings.
I guess the point behind my question was this: In a world where citizens create the media (blogs, etc), and the investment community monitor that media, the line between investor relations and consumer PR is blurring. If you want to effect share price in this scenario you put an ad on TV (or on YouTube) – not just in the business pages. Or to stick with the PR story – you message the masses, not just the business journalists.
I wonder how long it will be until the scales tip and marketing managers talk about share price first and product launches second? Maybe soon if the Bombardier commercials that played during the Superbowl are anything to go by.
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About Pema Hegan
A Kiwi living in Canada.
I love music, obsess over architecture and miss the ocean.
I'm a partner and managing director at Rethink Toronto.
Before Rethink, I founded and then sold GigPark (a social web startup), and was the founding editor-in-chief of Dose.
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Share price is surely a wider perspective than just a launch. Still more long term would be the relationship a brand wants to build with its stakeholders – and consumer opinion would always form a very important part of it. In most markets, my guess is stratgeic PR might enjoy more credibility than ads.
Nice topic and trend spotting on your blog!
farrukh
I agree, Farrukh. Creating a relationship with stakeholders over the long term is the most important thing. I think the new(ish) dynamic at play is that it’s getting harder to separate your stakeholders into distinct groups and message them differently. Your customers are now your journalists, are now your investors, are now your share holders (are now your future employees).
And I agree with your point about PR versus advertising too.
Thanks for the comment!
Hey Pema,
I think there are several things to take into consideration here:
1) a lot of companies we deal with are Canadian arms of U.S. based offices, so the chances of them asking us to help affect share price are slim to none. (assuming share price is defined in the traditional sense).
2) The definition of ‘share price’ can mean different things to different people. Some smaller Canadian companies are privately funded and do in fact like to use PR (media relations and coverage) in Canada as a way to market back to their investors — a means of showing progress.
3) When we launch a tech product and pre-brief media and analysts you could consider it an investment in winning over mindshare of various stakeholders (if it’s positive). To Farrukh’s point, it’s a long term investment in stakeholders.