A. When advertising, choose a medium that your target audience is familiar with.
Print mediums work best when:

• the target audience is invested in learning about a product or service and therefore needs extensive information (example: a cell phone company’s plan)

• the target audience is well-educated or already familiar with the basics of the product or service (example: a medication)

Broadcast mediums work best when:

• the target audience is unfamiliar with the product or service and needs an exciting or colorful introduction (example: a new soft drink)

• the target audience just wants to buy or use the product or service, not learn any additional information (example: deodorant)

Q. Our logo is used in all different formats by all different people in our company – how do we stay away from this?

A. Too often, companies use conflicting communications pieces that change with each newsletter, promotional piece or event. Above all, you want people to recognize your logo and immediately associate it with your company, which is difficult if the logo keeps changing. Using the same graphics, fonts, colors, etc. across all mediums gives your company credibility and helps it appear structured and professional.

You can keep people from using your logo in all different formats by creating graphical standards, which are specific, written guidelines for the use of your organization’s logo, colors, fonts and graphics.

The standards state the specific font, font size, colors and measurements for your logo and tagline. These can be placed both on your organization’s drive so all employees have access to the document, and they can also be uploaded to your Web site so media and outside organizations have access as well.

1. find some of your new prospective customers and
2. talk to them to see if they think it’s a great idea, too.

You’ll find out pretty quickly what your potential buyers think and if your idea is worth pursuing.

A. Customers want to deal with companies they can rely on and trust. If your company is presenting the same information but with different looks, then you’re presenting muddled and unfocused messages and no matter what you say or do the customer will always think, “am I dealing with a legitimate company or someone who’s good with desktop publishing and faking it?” Too often companies are not concerned with the details or there are rogue employees who think their one-page information sheet looks better. Everything your company puts out – and we mean everything – must fit the company’s brand image.

Before developing or recreating your brand, you must know the makeup of your target market. Research what may or may not appeal to this audience, and develop or redevelop your brand accordingly.

When you create logos, taglines, promotional pieces, etc. for your organization, keep your target audience and your overall objectives in mind. Everything your company puts out – and we mean everything – must fit the company’s brand image.

Look up your employee’s name on Facebook, MySpace and other blogging sites. By simply looking at the profile photo, posts or comments on the employee’s site, you can gain a true glimpse into an employee’s persona and how they represent your organization.

The phone is more personal and is best to use when you are attempting to form new relationships. In addition, a phone call is more appropriate than e-mail if the discussion topic is sensitive or if you are negotiating.

CSR requires a company be accountable and transparent. CSR can be found in any aspect of a company’s operations. To implement CSR into your organization, find out what your board, directors, officers and stakeholders would like to see you become involved in. Throughout the process, be open and honest to all publics. Link your activities to current events. Show how others are benefiting from your projects. Explain how you’ve improved your sector socially and environmentally as well as financially.

• offer scholarships to students interested in your industry
• begin a recycling program for your community
• provide tours of your workplace to school or community groups
• attach yourself to a charitable cause and volunteer regularly
• create your own awareness campaign

A. The essential ingredient is regular face-to-face communication between members of the community and your business or organization. Prospective customers develop trust (and do business) because of positive interactions with you and other employees. The best way to ensure your business is providing these opportunities on a regular basis is to develop a “community interaction plan.” The goal is to create as many “interaction opportunities” as you can.

Some examples:

• sponsorships of community events, preferably those that provide for personal interaction (not just a check and a logo)
• community educational sessions
• speaking engagements in your community

1. Be in front of the story. Present the story before it’s asked for.
2. Keep everyone in the loop. This means employees, higher-ups, legal aids, etc.
3. Don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach in your external communications. Tailor your message to fit each of your target audiences.
4. Frame the news in a proper perspective. Explain what happened, describe corrective actions and tell how you’ll prevent it from happening again.
5. Maintain consistency from start to finish. Stick to your basic crisis communications plan and be consistent with your message.

A. A crisis can quickly ruin a company if not handled properly. A crisis communications plan is a proactive document that gives your organization a specific plan to follow during a crisis. The first step is to create a list of possible crises that could affect your organization. This list ranks your crises, with the most damaging and/or most likely to occur at the top. Your plan also should include:

• names and tasks of crisis team members,
• phone numbers of employees, board members, etc.,
• a list of the organization's key audiences,
• the organization's head spokesperson during the crisis, and
• key messages the organization would like to focus on.

Pre-prepared materials such as backgrounders and sample press releases often are included as well. To be successful, your plan must be kept updated and practiced periodically by all members of your team.

A. Most crises fall into one of three categories: immediate, emerging, or sustained. Just like no two people are the same, no two crises are the same. Each one, even those in the same category, may require a different method of resolution. Here’s an overview of the three categories:

1. Immediate: A crisis that occurs with no prior warning; this is the most dangerous of the three. Advanced preparation in the form of a crisis plan is the key to overcoming this crisis. When an immediate crisis strikes, immediate action has to be taken to solve it. Example: A fire

2. Emerging: A crisis that evolves over time, progressing through visible stages. Although less dangerous than the immediate, action must still be taken quickly to prevent it from growing into something worse. Example: Angry employees

3. Sustained: A crisis that is continual and appears to be immune to every solution. Usually this crisis is beyond the control of an organization. Example: Community gossip

TIF or EPS are the file format of choice for logos or images that need to be of a high quality and will be printed.

GIFs are a popular format for the web and can be either static or animated. Most often GIFs are used for non-photographic images such as buttons on a Web site. GIFs are good for images that require a low number of different colors since they only support up to 256 colors.

JPEGs are one of the most common file formats. Used primarily for photographs, JPEGs are popular since they compress into a small file size and still retain image quality. JPEGs can be used for either print or online, but watch the resolution. Keep JPEGS to be viewed online at 72 dpi and JPEGs that will be printed from a desktop printer at a minimum of 150 dpi.

A. If you’re looking to get a big bang from your marketing dollars, you may want to consider grassroots marketing. An effective grassroots marketing campaign can cause a “ripple effect” among your target audience if they deem your cause worthy of attention, and you can’t beat this type of free promotion! Kyle Potvin at www.AllAboutPublicRelations.com offers these three tips to keep your campaign customer-focused:

Feel-good: Make it a purposeful campaign that arouses people’s interest and support.

Frequent: Develop multiple layers of communication for your different target audiences and place these messages in a variety of mediums.

Free: Give out free products, information or advice. Everyone loves an opportunity to have the first look at what’s new on the market.

A. Trade shows give you the opportunity to not only showcase your product or describe your service but also to create that all important first impression. According to a Simmons Market Research Bureau study, 91 percent of respondents, 70 percent of them decision makers in their companies, ranked trade shows as "extremely useful" as a source for product purchasing information.

Whether you’ve attended dozens of trade shows or never stepped near a booth, these five tips will give you the competitive advantage the next time you participate in a trade show.

1. Decide what you want to get out of your participation and write out your objectives beforehand.

2. Choose a trade show that will maximize your face time with people in your target audience.

3. Plan ahead: know your budget and choose a great space for your booth.

4. Design your booth and giveaways to appeal specifically to your target audience.

5. Before the trade show, make personal contacts with people who will be attending the show. Schedule an appointment with them during the trade show.

6. Have a plan for how you’ll follow up with all the people you meet before you ever leave for the event.

A direct mail piece allows you to reach a very specific audience that may be inaccessible by other media. However, only a 2 to 4 percent response rate for a direct mail piece is considered normal

A. Brochures can provide your target audiences with a wealth of useful information. But before you ever begin choosing graphics or writing the copy, you must determine your purpose in creating a brochure. Do you want to increase sales? Get more job applicants? Drive people to a new Web site? Next, you must evaluate your target audience. A big mistake made in creating a brochure, especially when short on money, is to try to be all things to all people. Research your target audience to determine how they like to receive information. If the answer is through e-mail, then you may want to create an e-brochure instead of a printed one.

Remember, too much text in a brochure can cause the reader to lose interest. Use consistent colors, fonts and logos to your organization’s other promotional pieces.

A. Many years ago it may have been acceptable to take a message and present it to another target market, but in today's society of databases, Internet and customer relationship management software that is not the case any more.

More and more studies show that target markets want the messages that are prepared and targeted to them, and not just repackaged for them.

You may be able to slide one past your audience the first time, but eventually they'll wise up to what's happening, and in some case you may inadvertently disenfranchise your product, service or even worse your brand from the audience. Spend the extra time to target!

A. This is actually a pretty common problem. However, getting caught up in semantics won’t get you where you need to go. So …here are the tried-and-true 20 Hats questions that you must answer, regardless of what you call them.

1. Where do you want to end up? What do you want to have happen? (This is often the hardest but by far the most important. As the saying goes, if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?)
2. Now, generally, how are you going to get where you want to be? Is it through certain audiences, specific products, new venues, different pricing?
3. Now, define specific actions that will make #2 happen. This includes defining not only the actions, but also the audiences, timeframes and measurable expected results for each one, plus the ‘to-do’list of deliverables, etc.

1. find some of your new prospective customers and
2. talk to them to see if they think it’s a great idea, too.

You’ll find out pretty quickly what your potential buyers think and if your idea is worth pursuing.

A direct mail piece allows you to reach a very specific audience that may be inaccessible by other media. However, only a 2 to 4 percent response rate for a direct mail piece is considered normal

A. To get media pickup, you have to prove that your company is one worth interviewing. Dan Forbush of PR Newswire gives six tips for becoming a sought after source for reporters.

1. Play reporter. Determine your company’s most interesting angles and topics of interest that will appeal to the public.
2. Become a matchmaker. Ask yourself which people in your organization can satisfy each reporter’s needs.
3. Identify ideas for the masses vs. tailored pitches. Differentiate between general ideas and pitches for specific reporters.
4. Adopt a long-term perspective. Carefully create a pitch that—whether or not it’s used—will leave the reporter interested in seeing the next one.
5. Perform an Expert Audit. Make sure you have a thorough knowledge of your organization and know which employees can be helpful to reporters and how.
6. Develop platforms for spokespeople. Profile them on your Web site and send out media advisories about speakers you can provide on ‘hot topics.’

For more information, visit PR Newswire.

1. Have a third party moderate the group so participants will be open and honest
2. Prepare seven to 10 questions to ask of the group
3. Keep the number of participants to under 10
4. Expose participants to key elements of your campaign, ask the prepared questions, record all responses and observe body language
5. Consider videotaping the session for later review

A. Every organization has the potential for problems to arise. A problem statement identifies your organization’s weaknesses and helps you better prepare to handle ensuing problems. A problem statement should answer the following questions:

• What is the problem?
• Whom and what might it affect?
• When might it happen?
• Why is it a problem?
• What is the likelihood that it will happen?

A. A public, whether internal or external, has a vested interest in and a connection with your organization. It receives a message and sends the necessary feedback in return, also known as two-way communication. Specific individuals within a public who will be most receptive to your message are your target public. An audience, on the other hand, is a mass group that passively receives a message through one-way communication.

Knowledge of your target public is vital in any public relations or marketing campaign. Sending information directly to your target public will be much more cost-effective than blindly sending information to a mass audience.

A. Before beginning any marketing or public relations work, you need to determine your audience. Having an understanding of who you are trying to reach will give you purpose and direction. Without this information, you are shooting in the dark only hoping to hit the bull’s-eye.

A primary audience is who you most want receiving the message and responding to it. A secondary audience is one that has an influence on the primary. The members of this audience are interested in the message and concerned how the primary audience’s decisions will impact them.

A. Meaningful communications goals give you a roadmap to follow that will help you achieve your overall business goals.  Goals or objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable and time-bound.  Your goals should also include the specific target audience you want to reach.

For example:

To increase awareness of our organization
should be changed to:
To increase awareness of our organization in middle-class females ages 25 to 34 who live in northwest Oklahoma City by 35 percent by December 2005.

Remember to evaluate your objectives after your project is over to determine if you reached the goals you set.

Other common methods of recruiting focus group participants are intercepts (stopping people at the mall or another location to see if they fit in the audience you are trying to recruit) and piggybacking (doing your focus group in conjunction with another event that will attract your target audience).

Remember that focus groups are most successful when there are six to 10 people involved. But, you should always over-recruit to ensure you will have enough participants there.