42 Make friends with the press

42

MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE MEDIA

Over and above providing the press with whatsoever they need, and building a helpful professional relationship, remember that there are going to be infl uenced on an emotional level by whether or not they like what your brand is up to. Research in neuroscience these days proves that none of us can make a decision without engaging the brain’s emotional centres so being studiously businesslike and professional, and ignoring your brand’s personality, could work against you.

The idea When you hit it off with one of your press contacts, be friendly. There are different levels of friendship, you might not invite all your press friends to your house for tea, but you might go around the corner from the offi ce for a coffee and brand owners often take the press out for lunch.

Help your press contacts to experience your brand. Technically all they need to write about you is the information you give and a photograph, but take this further if you can. Film companies organise viewings, wine companies organise tastings, publishers send out early review copies of their books. Most brands are expected to send out the real product in advance, although if it’s very expensive they’ll want to back again after photography.

At a press launch, one August, for that year’s Christmas range I

was talking to a beauty journalist who had already been to two other events that day. She told me that the previous year she’d been to a smart Paris perfume house event and they had given her the entire new range to take back to the offi ce for photography, with their press releases. This included her mum’s favourite fragrance, which she wrapped up and handed over on Christmas Day.

Later she got a phone call from her mother, who said she couldn’t smell the perfume at all. When the journalist called the company, she found out that these were dummy bottles fi lled with water. So technically, the perfume company was providing the journalists with what they needed: The information and the packaging for the picture. But they were shooting their own brand identity in the foot by coming over as cheapskates. There were also missing a great opportunity for the journalists to write their own emotional responses to the perfume.

In practice • When you have the opportunity to be generous, take it. • Go beyond the merely professional, because it’s a brand’s emotional attributes that help people decide whether they like it enough to spend money on it. • Journalists have long memories.