Saturday, March 31, 2007

PROPOSE SUGGESTIONS ALREADY WELCOMED BY SOCIETY


The speaker of Russia's upper house Sergei Mironov made a proposal to amend the Constitution and allow one person to be president for three consecutive terms.
With one year left before the 2008 presidential elections, there has been broad speculation about President Vladimir Putin's possible reelection for a third term, considering his high popularity ratings. But Putin has repeatedly denied any possibility of running for a third term, saying he would never violate the Constitution.
However, it does not matter for Mironov, if Putin runs or not for a third term. What does matter, is that Mironov knows: any proposal to extend Putin's term in office would be welcomed by society considering the high presidential ratings. Mironov's proposal was a PR move designed to promote his party before the parliamentary elections due in December 2007.
The unbeatable PR move is a proposal certain to be welcomed by electoral society.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

PRESENT YOURSELF AS OPEN-MINDED & TOLERANT


In January Pizza Patron (Dallas-based company) began accepting Mexican pesos.
The company's goal was to sell more pizza to its Latino customers. But the company's action attracted public attention. The promotion has been a boon to the company. In January and February sales were up more than 35% compared with the same period last year. The experiment in pesos was to end in February, but then the company extended it through April.
I am not arguing the controversy of using foreign currency in the United States. The very fact of using foreign currency points (in the public judgment) to some broad-mindedness.

So, the PR move for various social, ethnic, racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural groups / communities is to present your image to these groups as tolerant & broad-minded.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

PR TIP: PUBLISH A TEST


In 2004 Google Labs published so called GLAT - Google Labs Aptitude Test.
Readers were asked to mail in their answers and promised that they would be contacted by Google if they scored well.
The declared reason was to attract high quality people into their ranks. Actually, it was a clever PR move which generated a lot of interest from it.
First, the public gets the idea that the company (= Google Labs, in this case) is hiring only very clever folks.
Second, the public gets the reminder that the company is on the map.
Third, you get much buzz, interest and involvement about this point. Public involvement is necessary for good PR. You may call it even 'viral marketing'.

The PR move for brains, intellectuals and know-it-all guys is to publish a test as if you were hiring folks.