The A.R.T. of Conversing

By Christine Crandell

It wasn’t terribly long ago that public relations was essentially a monologue – one-way messaging on behalf of a company, product or service, directed to the general public as well as selected target audiences. That was then. Today it’s a dialogue – actually a polylogue – prompted by the public’s unfettered access to information and their desire to actively engage with brands and with one another. A new generation of “millennials” now expects to be engaged in ways which previous generations often have trouble grasping.

As a result, PR’s mission has changed: with the exceptional level of market engagement which has been enabled by the unprecedented diffusion of digital technologies, PR today is about driving those market-related conversations and, to the extent possible, shaping them. PR’s role is both to steer those conversations so that they are meaningful and through them, to help shape the right perception of the company, product, person or issue.

But while PR’s charter has evolved, its three core principles have not: Awareness, Reach, and Transparency – or A.R.T.

“A” is for Awareness

Today, PR’s charter is to mold and drive market conversations rather than to broadcast company news. It is a shift away from one-way market messaging and a foray into two-way, constituent-centric conversations. But now, for the first time, there are technologies that enable these interactive market conversations on an unprecedented scale, including social media networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Context is critical. Engaging people in conversation is typically rooted in current events and top-of-mind concerns. People see, hear, or read what is happening in the world around them. Companies that address those events in a timely and meaningful way bring value to the discussion.

Building awareness requires understanding what target audiences listen to and why. It involves continuously identifying their concerns and crafting links that connect the issue to the company or product. Awareness of the company’s value proposition is built by discussing it in context of relevant issues. That involves moving beyond traditional segmentation and instead adopting techniques like personas where conversations can be tailored to each group’s key interest points. PR programs rooted in matching top-of-mind issues to target personas and engaging them through their preferred media channels is key to a successful PR campaign.

Case Study: Leveraging Cisco’s Market Moves
Egenera, a privately held California-based company, created the infrastructure orchestration market in 2000 with breakthrough hardware and software solutions that simplify control over data center infrastructure. Its products developed a loyal following among early adopters in financial services, federal, healthcare and xSPs. Yet by 2008, the technology had still not fully crossed the chasm; it needed the help of a Gorilla to push it into mainstream acceptance.

In late 2008, that gorilla appeared. It was Cisco’s entry into the data center hardware market with its Unified Computing System (“UCS”). But rather than being afraid of getting “crushed” by a much larger competitor, Egenera decided to use guerilla tactics to level the playing field.

Crafting a strategy with its PR firm, Gutenberg Communications, Egenera saw the opportunity to expand brand awareness. The top-of-mind issue which the market wanted to understand was the significance of UCS and of Cisco entering that market. Egenera and Gutenberg Communications briefed dozens of business and technical reporters and bloggers in the weeks leading up to the Cisco launch date. Following its launch, posts were made to blogs. Articles were published in trade publications as were interviews with Egenera customers.

Effectively positioning Egenera’s long-established strength in the data center market triggered a long-running conversation that drew in bloggers, Cisco resellers, analysts and CIOs. Gutenberg Communications expanded that conversation to include the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week and Information Week. The breadth of the conversation and personas involved all worked to increase Egenera’s credibility and mindshare as a market leader. The resulting media coverage of Cisco’s UCS consistently referenced Egenera as the market pioneer to the exclusion of all other vendors. The impact on brand awareness became evident through a three-fold increase in sales inquiries.

“R” is for Reach

A conversation cannot start if the target audience has not been reached. And meaningful conversations typically require more than just one contact. Reach is about making use of the media channels that audiences already tune into and repeatedly disseminating the conversations across those channels. This means finding the most cost-effective methods of delivering relevant messages to the largest number of targets, again and again. Over time, the resulting impressions help to build reputation.

The power of reach is that it leads to influence. Conversations that become viral through blogging, tweeting and social media are powerful influencers. The PR goal is to have target audiences adopt the conversation as their own. Bringing the conversation into blogs is an excellent way for companies to share timely, relevant knowledge and insight. Relevant opinions, first-hand experiences, best practices and examples of what works and what doesn’t are more influential than traditional product advertisements. Done well, social media, or interactive PR, will engage target audiences to carry on the conversation and act as evangelists – achieving even broader reach and influence.

“T” is for Transparency

Every organization has news it wants to share. It could be about a new product or service, a key partnership, or an award. Or it could be to head off some potentially bad news around a layoff, a product quality issue, or a financial restatement. In each case, the key element is transparency. In today’s climate of corporate misbehavior, transparency is critical to building credibility as well as to differentiating the company. Transparent market conversations should focus on dissemination of facts and clarification of events while managing toward a desired perception. That intended perception is established when an issue is set in the right context for the audience so they reach a natural conclusion. Context is audience-specific, so understanding beforehand the opinions of people in target markets, and what facts about the company they consider relevant, is crucial. Context coupled with transparency drives credibility.

Good Credibility from Bad News
Early in the 2008/09 recession, Egenera reduced its workforce to align its cost structure with a new business model and to prepare for a lengthy recession. At the same time, Egenera’s competitors were loath to acknowledge their own layoffs. With little PR activity to date, Egenera and Gutenberg Communication knew it needed to establish the ART of the conversation quickly and that transparency would be critical. The Egenera PR team determined that the company’s transparency around layoffs would both build credibility and open opportunities to discuss the company’s strategic shift from a hardware-centered to a software-centric business model.

The targeted media channels were regional business and national technology outlets that were followed by customers, prospects, suppliers and partners alike. The outreach discussed Egenera’s layoff in the context of its strategy shift and how the company’s software products offer customers proven ways to reduce their data center expenses.

Honesty in communicating the layoffs established a level of credibility from which the strategic shift could be explained and accepted as a logical market move. Aside from its tremendous media coverage – including a front page Boston Globe article – a receptive stage was set for reporters and bloggers to provide follow-on coverage.

Conclusion

Public relations can be a powerful tool to level the playing field between competitors of different sizes and to rapidly disseminate messages to a variety of stakeholders. Thoughtful, issues-driven market conversations build awareness, reach and credibility both quickly and cost-effectively. These conversations are rooted in trust since they come from a trusted source – the media.

Transparency is critical in building trust with target audiences who are vocal about their brand preferences. The PR team must remain ‘tuned in’ to whatever is top-of-mind for its various target audiences. Then, once a mindset is built, the stage is set for the company to become a thought leader and trusted resource to the media.

At the same time, however, new skills are needed for PR teams to shape the link between a top-of-mind issue and the desired perception of a company or product. Having the right agency with skills in interactive PR, strategic issues management, research, and outreach is a critical success factor. The extent to which a company can drive and influence market conversations is limited only by the PR team’s creativity. By using these principles, there is no limit to what can be achieved.

Christine Crandell is EVP and CMO of Egenera, Inc., a pioneer in data infrastructure orchestration. With more than 20 years of strategic marketing experience with Ariba, SAP, Oracle and PriceWaterhouse, she is based in California and a frequent speaker and writer on marketing, strategy and technology. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it