This post will focus on the third level of the Press Pyramid — General Business Media. As I explained in my earlier post The Press Pyramid (see below) depicts different levels within the press community and shows how they influence your audience and each other.
The General Business Media includes such outlets as Business Week and CNBC. Fashion and business reporters in all media will look up the pyramid for newsworthy angles, the latest trends, and background about a particular area or industry they are covering.
This group won’t be the first to report on your company or product. However, they are a very large group which means two things. The good news — if you can grab their attention, the media coverage you receive will be enormous since their reach is fairly extensive. The bad news – it’s going to cost you time, effort and money to grab their attention because there’s a lot of competition vying for media space in this group.
My next post will deal with the bottom of the pyramid, the General media.
Chart and content from my book, Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing www.holtzmancom.com/thought_book_title.php
Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.
This post will focus on the second level of the Press Pyramid — Analysts and Traders. As I explained in my last post The Press Pyramid (see below) depicts different levels within the press community and shows how they influence your audience and each other.
Analysts and Traders speak to the investor market and your customer base. The people in organizations such as META, Gartner, and Forrester (in the tech world) put out highly regarded reports, research market evaluations, and stock market predictions which companies pay a lot of money for. These products in turn, influence investors, your stock price, and the value of your IPO stock or your company (for fundraising purposes). These people will ultimately be purchasing your product, or service as direct customers, stockholders or investors. Included in this category are blogs such as Network World (www.networkworld.com). Catching their attention will yield significant results in moving your company, product or invention forward.
Analysts and traders are a larger group and therefore more expensive to reach than the top of the pyramid. However, they are still tightly focused and their opinions highly sought after.
Chart and content from my book, Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing www.holtzmancom.com/thought_book_title.php
Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.
I’ve previously discussed how to target your customer market by adopter groups. Here’s how to reach those targets by using the press more efficiently.
The Press Pyramid (see below) depicts different levels within the press community and shows how they influence your audience and each other. This post will focus on the top of the pyramid — #1 – Newsletters.
By newsletter I mean authoritative opinion pieces and cutting-edge publications put out by thought leaders in specific industries. This is the smallest group and the most economical group to reach. It’s also the most knowledgeable about your product and industry. Because newsletters are respected for their expertise, they have enormous influence. Readers sometimes pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for a subscription.
An example of a newsletter in this category is Esther Dyson’s 1.0. A magazine that fits into this category is Technology Review (MIT’s Magazine of Innovation).
These sources provide high-level information by extremely knowledgeable people who tend to be ahead of the curve and actively seek out newsworthy technologies, products or advances in your industry. These people will often identify the next new trend and tout it to their readers. Sound like the Early Adopters in the Adopter Pyramid? This is the press equivalent. Others in the industry seek out their opinions, and they are often asked to speak about topics related to their expertise. Because of the intensity of focus, getting your product or service covered in an authoritative newsletter can efficiently deliver your message – and have wonderful consequences for you.
My next blog, Part 2, will focus on Analysts and Traders
Chart and content from my book, Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing
Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.
The holiday season isn’t the only time to think of giving back. In these hard pressed financial times, it may be easier to give of your time than to make a cash donation. Have you considered being a volunteer? For those of you thinking, what’s in it for me? I have one word for you plenty!
Where do you find volunteer opportunities? A good place to start is the website volunteermatch.org. By putting in a location (NY, NY) and trying out a few different key words such as fashion, sewing, retail business, small business and the word intern, numerous volunteer opportunities were displayed around the NYC area. These included working in public relations, IT, media/communications, event planning and web development/web design. These opportunities appeared at a myriad of organizations including the Japan Society, Dress for Success, the Police Museum and the International Hostels.
Remember the question, what’s in it for me? Being a volunteer can help to answer one of the most common questions I hear from my students. How do I get a job as an intern? It’s a great way to gain experience and lead to a paying job in the future. (Sometimes where you were a volunteer.) And, living in the NY area, the second most common question I hear from people I know… how do I meet people? You get to spend time with like-minded individuals giving of their time for a cause or organization that means something to them. It’s one of the best ways to network and meet people that I know.
Jill Youngerman teaches CEO 008: Marketing Techniques for Promoting Your Business.
Fashionable Cause, Small Business, Special Events, Students
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Business Tips, Computer Essentials, Events Planning, Giving Back, Industry Events, PR, Students, Web Design
…Fashion Brand Communications Debates BUZZTALK
In a world with changing economies, it could be time for more meaningful fashion talk. Fashion Buzztalk is often attention compelling, but inconsequential… as well as not really being understood for personal meaning.
Some examples from the past and present fashion vocabulary might include:
Illustration by Art Winters
- Fashion first
- Fashion must
- Fashion trend
- Fashion right
- Fashion casual
- High Fashion
- Retro Fashion
- Fashionable
- Fashionista
A fashion brand that does more than buzz in its message content, attempts to communicate relevant values to its target customers. Fashion buzztalk may be an attempt to simply attract attention when there is evidently nothing to say.
So in these “Occupy Wall Street” times, how does a fashion brand avoid buzztalk and deliver doestalk that will give the customer inspiration and information they want and need? Here are a few guidelines for applying some fashion brand doestalk:
- Don’t try to sell a fashion brand by only creating your own new language for it. Instead, try to tell/show customers what a fashion will do for them.
- If the brand’s styling makes your customers look their best, to themselves and the people they value, that’s a brand does selling message.
- Fashion solutions that save the customer time and money are more important than ever. Communicating these savings is more valuable and meaningful than empty buzztalk.
- Fashion and textile technology and innovation provide benefits of interest and value to your customers – worthy of doestalk.
- Fashion brand communications can be of great value and satisfaction. If the brand offers feasible solutions to its target audience that make sense in their lifestyles and life stages.
The best doestalk’s job is to present value not meaningless words. The best information for customers is not “dressed up empty words, it is to communicate the brand’s values as they match the customers’ values.
Arthur & Peggy Winters co-teach SXB 200 Brand Marketing Communications for Image & Meaning and SXR 050 Intro to Branding: The Art of Customer Bonding.
Brand Management, Inside Retail, Small Business
| Branding, Business Tips, Global Business, PR, Retail, Small Business, social media, Technology, Trends, Viral Marketing
Actually, it’s more like be respectful of them. And to bloggers as well. They are press too. If you hire a PR firm to pitch for you, then you really don’t need this information since the firm will be practicing it anyway (at least you hope they will). But many of you out there are bootstrapping your company and making the media contacts yourself. So here’s a few general things to know BEFORE you approach the media/bloggers:
1. Make sure you have a compelling story – nothing turns an editor off more quickly than churned out “meaningless” press releases…on things like promotions, new hires, we’ve moved, etc
2. Communicate it quickly and clearly…don’t ramble
3. Offer value — your story should have value to the person you are pitching and thus their audience
4. Establish a relationship, have a chat, find out what they look for, they may not use your information now but they may remember you for something in the future – or remember you (fondly) the next time you call – or when they change jobs
5. Don’t ”throw” material at the press (i.e. poorly formatted, copied and pasted sloppily) – if you treat it like junk, so will your contact… look up some press release formats on the web and follow them.
6. Don’t blog just to be linked and boost your SEO (search engine optimization) – bloggers can see that coming a mile away – and avoid it
7. Just remember – pitching is like any relationship – establish it and it can work wonders for you – mistreat it and you’re in for trouble – and the press have a very long memory
Sandra Holtzman teaches CEO 035: Licensing.
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