Restaurant PR personalizes your brand and your story.
Through a variety of vehicles, an effective restaurant PR campaign lets your intended audience become familiar with what your business is all about. Billboard advertising limits you to post a single message that motorists only see for a split second.
What are examples of elements that compose an effective restaurant
PR campaign? A series of ongoing press releases cover specific story
angles targeting different print and broadcast media outlets. Online
and print newsletters showcase various elements of your business. Web
site copy entertains and educates your target audience. Hard copy
and/or online media kits provide detailed information about your
business to reporters and editors.
Restaurant PR builds credibility while restaurant advertising breeds skepticism.
�Advertising
you pay for, public relations (PR) you pray for.� Though the adage is
an old one, it is especially true today. People often confuse
restaurant PR with any form of restaurant advertising,
but the two are dramatically different. Simply put, restaurant
advertising places ads while restaurant PR places news. Both are
designed to elevate consumers' interest in product or service. Both
often use the same media � print, radio and television and the
Internet. This is where the similarities end.
The late entertainer Will Rogers once said, �All I know is just what
I read in the papers.� Restaurant PR generates news coverage, and news
coverage builds credibility. The objective of restaurant PR is to tell
your story through third-party outlets, primarily the media. People
believe what they read in newspapers and magazines, what they hear on
the radio and what they see on television. People are skeptical of what
they see on a billboard or in any advertisement. A published article or
a broadcast story on radio and television is more credible than the
most well-placed advertisement.
Restaurant PR is cost effective; restaurant advertising is costly.
It
would be difficult to find an executive who would prefer seeing his
company�s ads on a billboard instead of a news feature in a newspaper
or magazine. The article builds credibility, positions the company as
an industry leader and generates awareness without costing a penny.
Some people believe that the higher the price, the greater the
value. In the case of advertising, figures indicate companies pay Rolex
prices for Timex value. Brands are best built with a long-term public
relations plan, not a short-term advertising blitz. Figures show that
in the eyes and minds of consumers, what they see and read in the media
has more of an impact and is more viable than what they see and read in
advertisements.
Restaurant PR builds brand awareness and loyalty.
In their
book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, Al & Laura Ries make the
following statements: �The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity,
not advertising.�
Simply put, restaurant PR keeps your
company's name and your brands in front of the marketplace. An ongoing
restaurant PR campaign helps you rise above the noise threshold of
other selling messages that are constantly competing for share of mind.
Restaurant PR stimulates qualified sales leads.
Studies
show that articles often pull more and better qualified inquiries than
ads for the same product in the same magazine. This is no doubt related
to the credibility and personalization issues.
It is also due
to the fact that restaurant PR has more staying power than billboard
ads. When readers see stories in newspapers and magazines that interest
them, they tend to clip the story or keep the entire publication.
Restaurant PR broadens your reach.
With restaurant PR, you
can extend your selling messages into markets that cannot be
cost-effectively reached with paid advertising. For example, when you
post a billboard advertisement, even when drivers happen to spot your
ad, they only see it for a short moment.
When consumers read
newspapers and magazines, they devote their full attention to articles
that spark their interest. With an effective restaurant PR campaign,
articles on your business are published in print and online
publications. If a particular story angle has a certain appeal � it is
told on TV and radio news and talk shows.
Restaurant PR builds relationships with the media.
Think of
the editors and journalists covering your industry as the "gateway" to
millions of readers. A key to successful PR is building and maintaining
cordial business relationships with these key opinion makers. By
limiting your marketing to billboard advertising and other forms of
advertising, you are unable to develop relationships with media members
who can tell your story to a wide audience at a fraction of the cost of
advertising.
The key to effective restaurant PR is a consistent
campaign, which includes ongoing press releases and media relations. By
keeping your company�s name in the media�s eyes, certain press release
story angles will capture the interest of a reporter or editor.
Restaurant PR establishes you as an expert in your industry.
When
consumers read an article and see a source that is often quotes in
stories, they develop the idea that the source is an expert in his or
her industry.
Not only is effective restaurant PR about writing
press releases and placing them in media outlets, it�s also about
educating the media about your background and expertise so they will
call on you when they need a source for a particular story.
Contact us to find out how Quantified Marketing Group can help your restaurant.
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