Do You Need Trade Media for a Product Launch?

As we challenge the tactics used traditionally for many of the components of the marketing communications mix, I do wonder if in the age of new media, businesses still need trade media to initiate the conversation around their products. Public relations is not equal to media relations, after all.

What would happen if a company put its resources into a coherent, well-thought out, product launch on its own new media portfolio? That is if the company has one. Let's think about it for a moment. 

One of the most important aspects of your product launch is the passion you can convey and that may get lost in translation.

Two of the biggest risks in going the traditional route of briefing media and going with a press release are that:

(1) the reporter or journalist may not know enough to ask more questions and get some of the details wrong, or skip important parts altogether;

(2) there may already be editorial in place with no space for your news, even though readers would find it interesting and useful.

Both issues are compounded by the fact that everyone is so stretched these days. In B2B especially, when things get tight in the economy, the ad budget is the first one to go. Trade publications rely on those funds to varying degrees for their sustenance. When the funds are meager, the print output is indeed quite thin. 

Now that the SEC is poised to recognize corporate blogs as public disclosure, businesses may indeed not need traditional media and distribution channels to fulfill their obligations.

July 30, 2008 - "Under certain circumstances, companies can rely on their websites and blogs to meet the public disclosure requirements under Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), according to new guidance unanimously approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission today." [hat tip to Brian Solis]

The press release to me has always been one document, a step in the process of informing and disseminating the news. A well thought-out process includes analyst briefings, and a full outreach with both the media and other stakeholders - if not with full information, depending on the nature of the news, at least as a courtesy and heads up.

I am not suggesting that we do away with wire distribution - the way things are set up today, as Brian points out, those services fill a necessary role in the mix. I am focusing more on the news value to your customers and prospects. Many of them never see the wires and in some cases the volume of news on certain portals is such that they might miss it anyway. They can easily choose to pull your content through RSS.

Plus we have more robust search engines than we did a few years ago. Think about search engine optimization (SEO) working with appropriate social tags and the right search engine marketing (SEM) program. Digital imprints can be precise if you are. Honesty pays off in the long run when you select your language and tags wisely.

Many have talked about the social media release. We discussed it here, too.

The format may be helpful particularly if you have something that is not real news, yet it has not really been covered in the marketplace. You can do a show and tell, have interviews with customers, the product group, engineers, scientists or anyone who has worked on the product to enhance it.

It's your chance to get the information right, to go into as much depth as your customers need and want. And it will give you the added bonus of telling the news the way it should be told. Have you ever wondered why a reporter did not cover a specific data point?

Providing many data points and creating a complete picture on your site or blog may also afford you the added benefit that when the news hits the wire, if it does, you will have a ready portal to help reporters and journalists with their research and media assets.

Expecting that the media will do all the heavy lifting for you and your customers is also unrealistic. Think about your products and services, how could you make them come alive as you announce them? Steve Jobs does an impressive presentation for Apple. Lots of work and drama goes into building the right kind of anticipation and talk in the marketplace. There was a time when Steve Jobs started this tradition.

What kinds of web assets, new media hubs, events, discussions, forums could you build for your product announcements? How could you create a signature appointment with your customers and partners? B2B does not have to mean boring.

[images from WWDG 2008 Steve Jobs Keynote -iPhone 3G]

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Comments

[Shannon Paul]

I am really excited about the possibilities that now exist to help companies create social media newsrooms with RSS capabilities on their own sites -- especially B2B companies.

I think you are absolutely correct to point out that many companies with this business model find it even more difficult to get their stories out there because of the technical nature of their business and journalists' lack of time to fully explore how technology works.

Posts like this are extremely valuable to me since I need to be able to champion these issues with clients and illustrate how this type of approach can be just as effective, or even more effective than relying on trade publications that are already stretched too thin.

Thanks for laying this all out in this manner. This will definitely come in handy when I have to write my next memo.

[Carol Evans]

This was an extremely informative article.

[Sean Howard]

Hey Valeria,

Brilliant post, as always. What a wonderful call for thinking differently about media relations. I wonder now how much better the social media strategies I've worked on would have been with more focus in this way.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Shannon - glad I could provide inspiration. Many organizations already do the work to gather all the information for the benefit of their sales groups. Why not create a coherent and dynamic story for customers?

@Carol - thank you for visiting.

@Sean - there is a bridge between what companies are already doing and what they could improve with just a little more planning and thought.

[Mads Kristensen]

Interesting stuff, as always :-). However I do have a couple of comments.

While I agree that the opportunities are endless in terms of what can be done by companies utilizing social media tools, I'm none the less a bit hesitant on behalf of the end users.

Why? Because experience tells us that given the opportunity to communicate directly about products, many companies will take the opportunity to be less than honest about their products glorifying it in ways that doesn't stand the test of the customer. Result? Disgruntled and disappointed customers, who may have the opportunity now to talk back via comments etc, but which remarkably few still do.

Do we really feel that companies can handle this freedom on their own without resorting to dishonesty? I don't know. I think it's an open question.

So in that regard, I still think trade media has a validity. For two reasons:

First of all as I nice test to the company in order to explain the benefits of the product. I mean, if you can't explain it to a journalist with a deep expertise in your market, who can you explain it to? Furthermore it might actually be a good way of testing your messaging before sending it out in the market.

Second, I think that having trade media pick up on you product still gives you some sort of approval in the public eye. I mean, why else would companies refer to reviews every single time they acclaim their products (very known within software, games, music and especially the movie industry)? It's a way of easing the minds of the doubting consumer whether your product is actually as good as you say it is.

Now, whether trade media should have a different form, format and be on all platforms imaginable to humankind is an entirely different discussion :-).

[Valeria Maltoni]

Have you had experience with trade media? Often a reporter is stretched over several domains and cannot possibly develop the deep expertise you state they have. On more than one occasion, they have gotten some important facts wrong, or skipped them altogether. You can try to explain it, if they are listening and double checking facts. Fewer and fewer do that today. In fact, they often hit publish without telling you they have and leave you hanging with answers they requested and do not want anymore. In some circumstances the company with the most aggressive PR agency wins and gets the coverage.

As for companies lying - I don't know about my colleagues, I can tell you that no product announcement goes without fact checking from me. Casting a wide net is not going to help any company do the right thing, Mads.

And for third parties, we talk to customers and the analyst community, for example. Channel partners is another option. People who are in the business or use the products. In some industries we talked to advisers and consultants. There is a lot that can be done in conjunction with a launch that does not have to depend on trade media entirely.

[Mads Kristensen]

Valeria,

My comment was based on the experience I have with trade media in my area of the world (Scandinavia). Maybe it's different around the globe?

Furthermore I was not trying to put any social media advisors down. I was just remembering the many times I have experienced companies' internal marketing departments trying to handle product launches themselves and more often than not make themselves look utterly like fools, because their execution leaves lots to be desired. They could have done with some good advice from outside.

[Francis Moran]

It's clear you're passionate about new media, Valeria, and the potential represented by these exciting interactive channels. But I fear your post is a classic example of new-media enthusiasts getting way ahead of the curve.

Ever since Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type, no new medium -- not newspapers, not radio, not television and certainly not the web -- has completely supplanted what came before. (Okay, we don't see many newsreels anymore but I can see printed handbills -- just like Gutenberg's -- on any lamp post as I stroll down the street.)

Eliminating trade media from your product launch strategy in favour of an all-social-media approach would do your clients a grave disservice, especially if you can believe a Forrester study last year (http://inmedialog.com/index.php/archives/trade-media-top-all-other-purchase-influencing-sources-forrester-says/) that found trade media are still the most relied-upon source for business decision makers.

Even when it comes to their use of digital media channels, BDMs still turn mainly to industry-specific sources like trade media web sites.

On the plus side for those who believe social media represent vital new channels -- and this grizzled 30-year veteran most assuredly counts himself among them -- are the findings that BDMs are turning more and more to digital media, that social-media channels are increasing their share of that digital voice and, most critically, that the integrated campaign, one that moves different-but-consistent messaging across many different channels, is the most effective approach.

Let's embrace these new ways of engaging with our markets but let's not get drunk on the koolaid.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Mads - I'll try not to screw things up - I am the internal marketing and PR person ;-)

@Francis - hmmm, I am confused. Did I in any part of the post state we should eliminate trade media? It is clear you are passionate about being cautious. Of the many marketers with the shiny object syndrome I can assure you my feet are planted solidly on the ground.

I work inside a large technology infrastructure company - I am the marketer on the inside (although I've been around only for 20 years) and have been using traditional media in 5 industries (most of them conservative) with mixed and sometimes poor results. I am speaking from experience here. I am talking about integrating and I do not usually drink koolaid inside or outside my job. I do not think for a moment that any one set of tools replaces any other. Complementing is a good way of looking at it. My observation is that there is an over reliance on third parties and not enough emphasis on producing solid and usable back up internally.

[Francis Moran]

Sorry, Valeria. I must have missed the part where you answered "yes" to your headline question, or swept aside the "wonder" in your lead 'graf. Glad to hear you're an advocate of multi-channel integration, however; I guess I can put the life ring back on the hook.

[Valeria Maltoni]

From the post "... if in the age of new media, businesses still need trade media to initiate the conversation around their products." Initiate being an important verb in there. We want media - I have written extensively in the defense of editors being important (build a whole series around it) - do we *need* trade media? I know it's just words, words do matter.

Thank you for the thought-provoking comments!