PR Strategy:  Reaching consumers through targeting influentials

Published June - July 2008

Influence is the traditional cornerstone of public relations - the belief that there are individuals with the power to sway or affect attitude or behaviour based on their prestige, knowledge or position- and that communication aimed at influentials or influencers is both a necessary and powerful tool for any brand or organisation.

It’s about influencing those who influence others - reaching the 10 percent who influence the other 90 per cent.

This theory was embodied by US research firm RoperASW which, in 2003, claimed that based on 30 years of research it had proven that one in ten Americans tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat and what to buy.

 Among the points made by Roper at that time were:

• Influentials are consumer movers and shakers who hold the most pronounced influence over consumer trends, new lifestyle choices, the adoption of new products and services and public opinion.
• Influentials are thought leaders, trend setters and buzz agents whose word-of-mouth recommendations can have a major impact on how well brands fare in the marketplace.
• As consumers rely more on word of mouth recommendations and less on traditional media and advertising, and the market becomes more fragmented, Influential Marketing may the most important and effective investment you can make in your brand’s future.

The type of influential has changed and evolved over the years to ultimately reach the description given by Roper.

1960s  

In the earliest days of mass media, such was its power - and so limited were the communication channels, that the media was seen as the ultimate influential.  It started with print, and than graduated to television.  This was the reason why PR began to flourish in Australia from this period.  It was primarily focussed on working with media and why editorial, news and feature coverage in mass media was so highly prized by companies.

 1980s 

As media channels diversified, and communication become more open, the power and elitism of the media began to be eroded.  This led to the development of the ‘professional expert influential’ such as the health professional or the scientist.  PR techniques began to focus in using the credibility of these recognised experts to impact on attitude and behaviour (often in conjunction with media, making a very powerful combination).

 1990s 

As the web has taken off and citizen journalism has grown with almost any consumer having the ability to voice an opinion, self-publish or disseminate information. As well, the public has become more sceptical of media and even many professional experts.  The result is that ‘expert’ consumers (which Roper calls thought leaders, trend setters and buzz agents) are becoming the new influentials.

This has made public relations more complex.  That’s because media, professional experts and consumer experts all need to be built into any campaign that seeks to change attitudes or behaviour.

Arguably the advent of the web has had the greatest impact on influentials and developing and running influencer campaigns.  This has turned upside-down the original communication models that saw information flow in a measured way from audience-to audience over an extended time frame. Today communication is instantaneous, meaning that there is less time for considered opinions and for information to be assimilated. 

In recent times the whole influencer model has come under attack.  In his book “Tipping Point” Malcolm Gladwell has put forward an influencer model that argues that everyone has some influence and that it’s impossible to buy enough influence to create a trend that society isn’t ready for.

Fast Company in an article 'Is the Tipping Point Toast’ published in January 2007 examines the arguments in some detail and another useful summary is “Peers v Influencers: What Marketers Need to Know”, by Joe Marchese.

 Some of the points made by Joe Marchese include:

 Everyone has influence, but that influence has some variables eg:

·        People have a quantity of influence: the maximum number of other people they can reach with a message

·        People have a quality of influence: the amount of influence they exert over those whom they reach.

·        People have types of influence: categories of “expertise” that other people assign to an individual.

The Fast Company article gets to the heart of the debate by saying that the modern school of thought is that a trend’s success depends not on the person who starts it, but on how susceptible the society is overall to the trend - not how persuasive the early adopter is, but whether everyone is easily persuaded.   This thinking supports the view that trends are more like forest fires - there are thousands each year, but only a few become like roaring monsters.

The contrary, establishment, view is that the ‘gatekeeper’ influential model has proven itself over the years. Fast Company quotes Ed Keller - author of The Influentials - who argues his firm has studied tens of thousands of Influentials by identifying people highly active in their communities, an elite 10 percent, that engage in advice-giving conversation up to five times more frequently than the average American. “They’re fonts of word of mouth’, says Keller.

The debate doesn’t undermine the role of PR.  The bottom line is that whether its influentials or peers, PR is in most instances the most effective communication tool with which to reach them. 

Additional reading from PR Influences:

Influentials - reaching the 10 percent who influence the other 90 per cent

Knowing who to influence - a key tool for both marketers and corporates

Network PR, publishers of PR Influences, is a Sydney-based PR agency that provides public relations advice and guidance in the areas canvassed in this article.  For a no-obligation discussion contact us.