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Public relations, or PR as it is universally
referred to, is an important part of the marketing mix.
So what is it exactly?
Put simply, for a hospitality business,
it’s about how you communicate with your existing customers and
those you have identified as future customers. It’s usually
about getting editorial coverage in newspapers or magazines, on
radio or television, as opposed to placing a paid-for advertisement.
Marketing textbooks define PR as:
·
The projection of the personality of a company or organization
·
Structured, planned, communication between you (the organization)
and the audience you have identified as critical to your success
·
Activity that creates favorable attitudes among key
audiences
·
Activities that build good relations with audiences,
attempting to change incorrect opinions and reinforce positive or
correct ones.
PR is particularly effective for
communicating specific promotions, projecting the benefit of a
particular program or product. Although more time-consuming than
paying for an advertisement, editorial copy in whatever medium is
many times more believable that an advert.
Three golden rules before you start
1. Agree that your business is in
sufficiently good shape to benefit from greater exposure. Your
plans depend entirely on the value for money and consistency of
your product. If you go down the road of a PR plan in order to
salvage a poor business or paper over the cracks, then you are
exposing yourself in a public arena to further criticism.
2. Know your product but understand what your
customers want from you. Often businesses are too wrapped up in
themselves to deliver what the customer wants. You can’t press
the right PR buttons if you are inward-looking, running a business
around your own needs.
3. Define your audience. Who do you want to
reach? Do you want more of what you have, or a new market? How
have you arrived at that decision? By researching the average
spend per head of your target audience? By researching the
competition? By knowing the demographics of your catchment area?
Seek ideas from your team and then make sure you stay focused on
your objectives.
How to put together your PR plan
Once you have agreed who you want to reach,
then you can shape your PR plan:
Step One
What are your PR needs? Can you place them in
different categories and order them by time of the year and by
season? Create a monthly chart with no more than two actions in
each month. For instance, in January you may aim to drum up press
coverage for your Valentine’s Day activities, in May you may
want to promote what you are doing for Father’s Day (which is in
June). If you are opening a new restaurant, you could start work
on promoting it to the media two months in advance. In October or
November, you could work up a story about part-time recruitment to
cover the Christmas period.
Step Two
Once you have identified your audience and
your needs you can build a list of media – local, regional,
national, technical – that you want to reach. Look at magazines
that write stories on businesses similar to yours. Check with your
local library. This will provide you with comprehensive details of
all the media you have identified. Remember local radio as well.
Step Three
Don’t skimp on the research. Call each of
your chosen media targets and check you are contacting the correct
person. Think how your month-by-month plan could interest the news
editor, features editor, women’s editor, gossip columnist,
travel editor or business editor of the same paper.
Step Four
Build relationships with your chosen
contacts. Drop them a personal line. Invite them to experience
your restaurant or hotel. Remember that hospitality businesses
have something exciting to sell – the so-called “wow
factor”. Pity the poor guy trying to do this for a widget
manufacturer.
Getting the message across
Once you are clear about the message you want
to get over, writing a press release or invitation is simpler than
you think. Start with a simple, eye-catching opening sentence that
goes to the heart of what you want to say. Keep it to three lines
at the most, then move to the next paragraph.
Use one-and-a-half spaces between lines and
double spacing between paragraphs. Keep the text short but
informative and include an indented quote in the middle. Keep the
release to one page, or two at most. Always end with a short,
punchy sentence, followed by a name and telephone number. If you
are sending the release out on a Monday, make sure you are around
on Tuesday and Wednesday. Call your contacts to let them know it
is coming.
If you believe the story is worth a
photograph, arrange this yourself. It’s rare these days for
newspapers to send photographers to attend local functions. Ask
your contact if they would like a photograph.
Don’t upset three local papers and radio
stations by offering a story to someone exclusively – unless
there are tremendous benefits to you, or it only fits that
particular medium. For example, a new female chef may make a great
article for the women’s editor of a local regional daily paper
which would not necessarily fit local radio or a weekly paper.
Above all, build relationships
A menu of ideas
When building your calendar of events, here
are some ideas to throw in:
FESTIVITIES – Easter, Christmas, New Year.
Run a Christmas staff training program in July with all the
trimmings and invite the press. It’s a great way to promote your
packages.
CELEBRATIONS – Father’s Day. On each
table is a small helium balloon with a basket. In the basket is a
present for dad, but one of the baskets holds the winning key to a
hot-air balloon ride. Think up a similar idea for Mother’s Day.
NATIONAL SPORTS EVENTS – Themed lunches for
Super Bowl, The Daytona 500, The Masters, The World Series,
Boxing, etc with large-screen television.
CHEFS – Chefs make great editorial. Invite
the press to new menu tastings. Create mini versions of all the
dishes.
DRINK – Journalists love a drink. Invite
them to a tasting in the wine cellar.
AWARDS - Encourage the kitchen brigade to
enter competitions. Announce awards. Invite journalists to work
alongside the chef.
LOCAL RADIO SLOTS - Discuss with the local
radio station if they would like your chef to have a weekly slot
on a consumer food and drink program.
TRAINING – People make good editorial. Be
proud of your training program. Your staff will appreciate the
recognition and your customers will value your investment.
JOINT PROMOTIONS - Create exciting
promotions, giving away free meals or overnight stays in
association with a newspaper or magazine. The benefits far
outweigh the cost. Ask for copies of all the competition entries
to build your own database.
Checklist
·
Make sure your business is in good shape
·
Know your product and most of all know what its
benefits are for your customers
·
Define your audience
·
Place actions against needs by month
·
Build your media contacts by name
·
Build relationships
·
Keep press releases simple and eye-catching
·
Plan well ahead
·
Be creative
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