Industrial and B2B marketing:  using PR to gain a competitive edge

published 2002

It’s vital that industrial companies, business solution providers and those in business to business are always actively re-evaluating how they are going to achieve and maintain a competitive edge.

When times are tough and the budget has to achieve more ‘bangs for the buck’, public relations comes into its own.  The cornerstone of public relations for industrial companies is winning a significant share of coverage in media that reaches specifiers, trade and the end customer.

But it also involves - among other things - working appropriate exhibitions harder, taking speaking opportunities and exploiting the appeal and significance of new information channels.

Too often industrial and business to business companies think that they simply have to make a modest advertising contribution to the few trade and business magazines that serve their sector and their marketing support job is done. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  The smart, aggressive marketer uses PR to exploit and leverage the advertising, extending the reach of the message by gaining editorial exposure in all magazines, not just those running the advertisements.

If you are now re-evaluating your corporate and marketing strategies, you might find the following PR inventory checklist helpful.

Assess what you have to work with

Most companies have a range of PR opportunities that lie dormant because no one in the organisation thinks about them as other than operational items.

Put on a PR hat and each of them becomes an opportunity to raise the profile of the company and to reach your specifiers, trade and end customers in a way that positions your organisation superior to, and different from, your competitors.

What likely events do you have to leverage?

• New facilities - State or Head Office
• Anniversaries/milestones
• Have these been seen as PR opportunities?
• What is your new product release schedule?
• Is there a supporting PR plan for this schedule?

Do you have any VIPs visiting?

• Senior executives from international Head Office
• Overseas suppliers/alliance partners
• Research or technical experts

These offer potential events and media opportunities

Are company structural changes or developments likely?

• New distribution partners or new product lines
• Company restructuring - expansion/contraction
• Board or senior executive changes
• Is there a communications plan to support these?

Are there trends or developments that are relevant?

• New R&D outputs
• Changes to fundamental product categories
• Trends that will impact on how customers do business
• How will these fit within your marketing communication?

What about exhibitions and seminars?

• Key exhibitions you participate in each year
• Seminars - your own as well as industry ones
• Are you exploiting these as well as you should?

Do you have customer product applications to use?

• Your product being successfully used to solve problems or achieve outstanding results in its industry
• Are you preparing case studies for media and general marketing support use?

How is your corporate news presented?

• By regular company newsletter or magazine
• Through Annual Report or a Corporate Profile
• By video
• Through your own web site
• Are you producing these as professionally as you could?
• Are they all integrated so they portray consistent messages?

Is there a need for some internal and/or customer morale building?

• A major employee conference
• A customer conference
• Would you benefit from a fresh perspective on the organisation and
• staging of these?

Take two or three of these opportunities, put them into a timetable and you have the foundation of a PR plan for the coming year.

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.