Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry. In this column he offers advice on how to make an impact in the market. This he turns his attention to ‘public relations’.
This month it’s time to take a look at Public Relations, or PR as it’s usually abbreviated.
Although PR is a discipline in itself and there are plenty of agencies that specialise in it, PR will probably be integrated with a larger Marketing Plan by most companies.
Often large, well-known companies such as Marks & Spencer, Nestlé, Coca Cola and so on will employ a specialist agency to focus entirely on PR. Smaller companies with smaller budgets are more likely to use a multi-disciplined marketing agency that incorporates PR.
Regardless of the size of the company, the industry or the target market, PR will almost certainly help to achieve your marketing goals.
By using a variety of media channels, PR will raise your company profile and help to increase awareness of your business and your products or services. In other words, it will make you famous.
This fame will help you to build a strong brand and, over time, improve your margins because your customer’s awareness of your company will make them feel more comfortable buying from you than from your competitors.
As I’ve said before: It’s about trust and minimising the risk.
Think about car tyres for a moment?
What’s on your car right now? Michelin, Pirelli, Dunlop? Or is it a lesser known, cheaper brand? What will you choose when it’s time to replace them? If Pirelli tyres were twice the price of budget tyres like Fulda, people would still buy them in spite of the extra cost. If the premium was 20% or 30% they would easily find an abundance of people happy to pay the extra for the piece of mind of having a recognised brand. Did I mention it’s about trust and minimising the risk?
With their additional marketing costs, Pirelli’s overheads are probably higher than Fulda’s but I’m confident their margins are, too.
What if, because of their strong brand awareness, they consistently make a 10% or 20% better margin than their ‘unbranded’ competitors? They would be happy with that.
What if you could increase your prices by just 5% or 10% by becoming the leading brand in your sector? Would you invest in marketing to achieve that? It takes more than just good PR and marketing to build a reputation like that of Pirelli because the goods and services have to live up to the expectations created. But good PR and marketing is essential to create the expectations.
Is PR relevant in the construction industry? Absolutely. Would small contractors and suppliers benefit from pro-active PR? Most certainly. Does it happen overnight? Unfortunately not.
If you decide to invest in PR, you may well see some short-term quick results as more people suddenly become aware of you, but the real benefit, improving the perception and awareness of your company, will invariable take longer. Rome wasn’t built in a day and the reputations of the biggest players in our industry – players such as Fosters, McAlpine and Kingspan – took years to build. But I’m sure they’d all tell you that it’s worth the investment.
As a special treat, next month’s column will be written a guest PR specialist who has far more knowledge and experience on this subject than I do. She works with clients in the stone industry, so her perspective will be relevant to readers of this magazine.
Excited? You should be. But you’ll have to wait until next month’s issue to find out who it is. I’ll be back with you in the New Year.
Alan Gayle has worked in sales and marketing roles in the construction industry since 1983. Following a successful career with some of the UK’s leading building product manufacturers, he has worked in the stone sector for the past 10 years. He now runs Keystone Construction Marketing, a marketing agency specialising in the construction industry. The agency works with building contractors, subcontractors and building product suppliers to help them increase their sales and improve their margins.