09/16/96 CREATING A BIG BUZZ ON A SMALL BUDGET

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CREATING A BIG BUZZ ON A SMALL BUDGET
You don't need Madison Avenue to get your company talked about
Public relations is a little like sex: Most people think they're good at it. Few really are. Good PR is surprisingly difficult to excel at--especially if you have limited funds and expect to do much of the legwork yourself.
Yet for virtually any small company on a tight budget, a successful public-relations campaign can work wonders by raising visibility, boosting sales and customer loyalty, even helping to launch a new product. While it doesn't replace advertising, it's a lot cheaper and in many ways more credible. ``With advertising, you talk about you. With PR, the media talks about you,'' says Steven Cody, co-chief of PepperCom Inc., a PR firm based in New York. ``It's almost like a third-party endorsement.''
But how to get it? Few small businesses have press contacts. And many companies assume, erroneously, that if you can string together a sentence, you can write a press release, and voila--you're next week's cover story.
WHY YOU? The truth is, writing a press release is tricky. Every company thinks it's the greatest--and that's reason enough to be the focus of a feature article, observes Peter Hirsch, executive vice-president at Porter Novelli Inc., a New York PR firm. But you need a news angle, a reason to be writing that press release in the first place. Do you have a new product? An expanded facility? A new technology?
Let's assume that you do have a newsworthy story. You've drafted a clearly written and focused press release. Now what? Blitzing the newsroom of every major newspaper across the country is a mistake. So is sending out a release addressed blindly to ``The Editor.'' Instead, start small and build your way up, one publication at a time. ``Everyone wants to appear in The New York Times immediately,'' says Michael Kempner, head of MWW/Strategic Communications in East Rutherford, N.J. ``But that may not necessarily be the best place for you. Where's your target audience?''
The best jumping-off point is usually your industry's trade magazines, most of which are genuinely eager for stories. Once you've been mentioned in a few pieces, approach the local mainstream press. Then go national.
That's the traditional route. But not necessarily the fastest, says Nancy Trent, owner of a small public-relations firm in New York. Another way to make your story stand out: Put it in a larger context--what editors often refer to as a ``trend'' or ``roundup'' story.
Three years ago, no one was writing about Estee Foods, a line of sugar-free products for diabetics. Then the Uniondale (N.Y.) company started pitching its cutting-edge efforts in a hot marketing trend called ``category management'' to trade magazines such as Supermarket News and Progressive Grocer, which were eager to tell the story.
To win the PR game, you have to play defense, too. If you weren't mentioned in that large trend piece that ran in yesterday's paper, call up the reporter immediately. Explain that you'd be happy to offer your expertise for any relevant articles she writes in the future. ``Position yourself as a source,'' says Arnold Huberman, who runs his own PR firm in Manhattan. ``Being included in these kinds of articles makes you seem like a player.''
Still can't find any hard news at your company or within the industry? You may have to create some. Tap into your own market research and conduct an exclusive survey. That's what Graysmarsh Farms did to boost the visibility of its jam and jelly products to fat-conscious consumers. After the Seattle-based outfit polled the CEOs of the country's largest companies about their breakfast-eating habits--and found that many of them used jam instead of butter on their toast--the company garnered lots of coverage by pitching the survey results as ``news.''
PARTY TIME. Another alternative is to stage an event. Contests and grand-opening galas cost more than a survey, but done correctly, they can pack a tremendous punch. Doom, now the world's best-selling computer game, was launched from its shareware roots to a commercial product at a daylong Doom party, staged for just under $10,000 by its creator, id Software of Mesquite, Tex. The game already had a devoted following, a fact that drew mainstream media attention to the party and reviews of the new product.
Likewise, 60-year-old camera maker Argus Industries hopes to cash in on its heritage by featuring 50 antique Argus cameras in a traveling museum that will exhibit nationwide. ``I would have to spend at least $100,000 on advertising, and I don't know that it would have the same effect,'' says William Pearson, Argus' president, who expects to spend less than $5,000 on the project.
News can be created by making a charitable donation or through volunteer efforts. Instead of spending advertising dollars to sell the Atlanta community on its new, $39 million commercial real estate venture, the Yarmouth Group donated a small sum to Fulton County Park. In return, the company got a proclamation from the county's Board of Commissioners--and lots of local press coverage. Pizza-parlor franchiser Tony Riviera frequently counsels troubled teens at prisons and schools in the Seattle area. That helps build community goodwill and visibility for his eight Tony Maroni's stores, says this high school dropout.
The effect of an appearance on a business-seminar panel or a seemingly run-of-the-mill speech shouldn't be overlooked, either.
If all this sounds like it'll take too much time away from actually running your business, using a public-relations firm may be a good idea. A professional PR staff will have the expertise, resources, and, most important, the press contacts. But it will cost you. Most firms won't accept you as a client unless you sign on for at least six months and commit at least $3,000 to $5,000 a month to the campaign, with the larger firms expecting you to spend $12,000 a month or more.
THE PAYOFF. Should those numbers threaten to wreak havoc on your budget, consider hiring an independent publicist. Because of corporate downsizing, a lot of talented people are looking for work, says John Beardsley, head of a Minneapolis-based PR firm and former president of the Public Relations Society of America. Generally, an independent will charge you per project: about $250 to draft a press release, for instance.
Just what can you really expect in return for your money and efforts? A lot, if you have a hot, unique product. New York-based BNOX Inc., for instance, kicked off a public-relations blitz to launch its inexpensive, ``high-tech'' binoculars. Within four months, articles began appearing everywhere--from The Wall Street Journal to Outside magazine and National Geographic Traveler--each one inspiring some 300 would-be buyers to call the company's hotline. The cost to BNOX? An average of $7,500 a month for 12 months. For that kind of money, the company couldn't have bought a single splashy advertisement in even one of those publications--never mind created such buzz about its product.
By Barbara Hetzer in New York