I’ve had a couple books on my desk lately. I’ve reread each of them this past month and their messages are more relevant than ever.
The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR by Al and Laura Ries gives the reader an understanding of when to use each. Their contention is that PR builds a new brand and advertising sells the product once the brand has worked its way into the marketplace’s awareness. During the years that I published special interest magazines I found that to be true. Over and over again I would see that the idea of the product had to be clearly understood by the potential buyers before the advertising could really work.
In fact, advertising works best when there is a call to action. In the movie business they call that day-and-date advertising. In other words, the ad tells you when the movie is going to be released and where you can see it. It is very rare that a brand story can be told in an ad. For one thing people don’t believe most of what they see or read in an ad. That will slow down the brand building, won’t it? But also, many people skip over the ads or in my case I TiVo past them! So it takes time and a little detail to really get a brand across.
Then comes The Origin of Brands. Using the concept of evolution, Al and Laura Ries contend that a brand can’t diverge into two brand messages. They tell us it is better to start another brand than try to complicate a clear brand message. Rereading both of them was a powerful lesson in positioning a brand, communicating the brand using PR and then using advertising to inspire the public to buy. Hey, maybe that’s why I liked these books so much…Position, Communicate and Inspire is what we do!
Now I need a book on Marketing That Puts You on the Map!
To get these books click here… http://www.ries.com/books.php
Tags: Branding
