IT and E-Commerce - Time to Start Talking About Technology Benefits Not Features

Published 2002

Contrary to what some say, IT and e-commerce companies’ need for PR hasn’t disappeared. Perhaps even more than previously, PR should be informing and educating.

However a re-think is needed - both by IT and e-commerce companies and their PR people.

The task is no longer one of simple media aggregation - how much coverage can we get in how many publications so that we know we are being seen? Visibility no longer means credibility!

Today’s environment demands a dramatic shift from feature-led to benefit-led communications.

It’s also increasingly about targeted and niche communications.

This re-think is necessary because of many factors:

• There are fewer IT publications and journalists - the successes of the IT industry spawned dozens of new titles, some catering to very specific niche areas. However, recent months have seen many IT titles closing down or combining their online and print versions. Meanwhile, there are just as many companies seeking editorial coverage. The result: there’s just not enough space to go round.
• The decision-makers may be shifting - two or three years ago IT, and the IT Manager, was king. Companies threw a lot of money at IT and received a lot of promises about savings, profitability and efficiency. Many of those promises have been unfulfilled. Today, Return on Investment (ROI) is more accurately assessed and there is more involvement in the decision-making process by those without at IT background, including the CFO and MD. Technology for its own sake is no longer required.

There’s more focus from the media on trends within IT - As an example, recent reports by organisations such as Gartner and IDC have predicted that security and storage will be the big winners in 2002, with companies expected to invest heavily in these areas. This means there are great opportunities for those IT companies dealing in security and storage but others may have to work a lot harder.

So what can PR add?

From a pure media-related perspective most PR people have learned their lesson and now steer clear from the hype and buzz that was so prevalent a few years ago. Today, the PR practitioner’s media-related skills are beginning to be appreciated. These include:

• Writing - turning a technical brief into the appropriate language for the media and producing a story that is the right length;
• Angling - recognising what the story is and how to make it relevant to a publication’s readership;
• Spin-offs - is a general scattergun release the best approach, or a case study or feature article?
• Relationships - editors and journalists ‘trust’ PR people to know the rules, to understand deadlines, lead-times, and editorial vs advertising requirements;
• Tailoring - designing the editorial from the ground up including messages, language, length, spokespeople and photos;
• Leveraging - recognising not just your marketplace but vertical markets as well - your customers’ media.

But perhaps more than anything else the role of PR in the IT and e-commerce world is to bring perspective - to view it from the end-user perspective; to ask those important questions of the technical people that few others are game to consider; to look at reaching end markets rather than thinking purely of the product features and attributes; to ask that all important question - why?

Note: The author of this article is a Sydney based senior independent corporate PR consultant who works exclusively with PR Managers helping them with management of the PR Department or their relationship with their PR agency. In addition he provides specialist corporate PR and communications advice where issues or change are impacting on an organisation. He also blogs regularly on PR and communications topics similar to those in this article.