Product PR: Making a mark in a changing consumer landscape

When it comes to marketing a product, the biggest challenge is differentiation. Products that have been around for a while, sometimes even decades, can blend into each other after a while. When audiences experience decision fatigue, they tend to pick the easy option. And that means purchasing the same product they’ve bought for years.

So how do you get people to change? How do you introduce an established product to a new audience?

How can established brands continue to make a mark in a rapidly changing consumer landscape?

With Product PR.

What to expect from a product PR agency

For your consumer product PR campaign to be successful and achieve your objectives, I start with a couple of questions:

• Goals: What do we want to achieve with your product PR activity? Generate a buzz? Influence the industry? Respond to changes in the consumer behaviour? Attract a new audience?
• Audience: As with any PR activity identifying the audience and where they are is key. Who buys this product? And do we want to attract a new audience or reconnect with an established audience? What websites do they visit? What apps do they use? Do they consume traditional media still? Or only social?

Once these are established, the next steps include:

• Story: I create a compelling original story about your product that focuses on what makes it different, how it’s used by audiences, and its key benefits. Your product story must be eye-catching, relevant and engaging.
• Media: I pitch your story to my media contacts and demonstrate how relevant your product is to their readership. Depending on the product this may be lifestyle and fashion publications such as Vogue or GQ or TV channels including the BBC or Sky News. This often includes sending the actual product to them to review.
• Influencers: I partner with appropriate bloggers and influencers on social media who test, use and review your product. As with traditional media, each influencer receives all the relevant information in a media pack.
• Trends: If appropriate, I link your product PR campaign to global events or issues which introduces your product to new audiences.

Product PR success stories

After being appointed by Balsam Hill Christmas trees I launched an innovative product PR campaign that resulted in coverage in every major interiors magazine, from Conde Nast’s House & Garden to Ideal Home, as well as celebrity shoots, celebrity endorsements and TV coverage on some of Britain’s biggest shows including ITV’s The X Factor and The Jonathan Ross Show, and BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen. Read more.

Also see: Product launch PR

Want to work with a results-driven product PR agency?