Today's PR tip - Added Value

Providing added value is a PR strategy that seems to have been frozen out of our vocabulary since the economic ice age took us all in its powerful grip. If you are struggling to differentiate yourself in a competitive market when all the factors suggest that price is the key purchase driver, it's time for a review of your own value.

What do you have, know or can connect with that could be valuable to your clients - or indeed their clients? What can you offer to clients at a relatively low expense to you, that could provide profitable relationships in return?

Have you thought about introducing your clients to each other? Your clients/suppliers must be good at what they do or you would not be working with them right? So why not take ten minutes to tell others about them and put them in touch? A quick email to key customers or suppliers recommending a service provider that you work with takes no doing and can reap rewards on all sides.

Let people know you are well connected and are willing to ask for help if others need it. A client of mine, Ellesmere Children;s Centre recently needed a commercial cleaner in Sheffield and asked if I knew one by chance. Two minutes after receiving the email I sent her details of three in her area that I could personally recommend.

Her reply simply said "My god, you are amazing" - that one email using my existing resource has reinforced my profitable relationships with an existing client and someone I have helped in the past.

Make the most of what you have got, what you are and what you can offer. Businesses and organisations that really proved added PR value are the ones that will retain clients and win more market share.

Biggest Military Parade in living memory

Event - March for Mansfield's Heroes
Date and time - 13th December, 2009 - 11.15am - 1.00pm
Where - Market Place, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire

This Sunday will see the biggest Military Parade to hit Mansfield in living memory. Over 250 uniformed men, cadets and ex-service men and women will march into town to celebrate the actions of the people of Mansfield and district in raising funds to establish a permanent memorial to those who have given their lives in recent conflicts.

The Parade, will be led by the Seaforth Highlanders Pipe and Drum Band which will be followed by Forces personnel from the Mercian Regiment, RAF Wittering, RAF Odiham, The Territorial Army, Cadets from the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force, five branches of the Royal British Legion with Standards flying, Royal Marines Ex-Servicemen, RAF Ex-servicemen, Signals Ex-servicemen, the East Midlands Royal Green Jackets Association and the Armed Forces Pension Group.

They will be followed by 250 family and friends who wish to show their support for the campaign and the fallen from the town.

The Parade will be leaving the Sir John Cockle at 11.15/20 and will head into town down Sutton Road, along Stockwell Gate and into the Market Place. The Seaforth Highlanders, the Pleasley Colliery Welfare Band and the Mansfield District Male Voice Choir will entertain the crowd with a performance at around mid-day.

Speeches will be made by Deborah Smalley who lost her son in Afghanistan in 2007, The Mayor of Mansfield, Tony Egginton and Lt Col Keith Seddon MBE BEM of the Mercian Regiment.

Several thousand people are expected to attend the event, lining the streets and filling the Market Place.

“We honestly don’t think Mansfield will have seen anything like this Parade for a very long time. We are urging anyone who wants to see the Parade and the mini-concert in the Market Place to be in place in the Town Centre early to make sure they get a good view and join in the celebration and commemoration,” said a Heroes Campaign spokesman

“The people from and around Mansfield have been fantastic in how they have supported the Heroes Campaign. Individuals, pubs, clubs businesses and all sorts of groups have dug deep to support us. We have a target of £20,000 to hit by Sunday and we hope that people will turn out on the day to push us over the line. The Heroes Campaign has really connected with people and they have done some amazing things, from the sponsored walk from Crich, to parachute jumps, to 12 hour fitness challenges and musical concerts.

“I feel incredibly proud to have been associated with the Heroes Campaign. It will mean a lot to me to see Damian’s name on the memorial, just as it will to his young son Joshua. It just goes to show what the people of Mansfield can achieve when they want to. We just need to ask for one more push to get us there and we know the people of Mansfield can do that,” said Deborah.

Damian and his son Joshua are featured on this years Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal posters and have been seen all over the country as a result.

The Mansfield' Heroes Memorial Fund was launched on October 21st with an aim to raise £20,000 by this Sunday. The organisers hope to announce having hit that target during the Military Parade.


Ends

Notes to Editors:

You are invited to send a reporting crew to attend the Military Parade. A section of the parade ground in the Market Place has been set aside for film, radio and photographic crews. On arrival in the Market Place please contact Jamie Newton, one of the organisers wearing a high vis vest.

Pre-event interviews can be arranged with Deborah Smalley and others by calling Graham Parker of Parker PR on 07977 448 306

Media and news teams are welcome to attend on the day. Interviews will be held after the event in the Market Square. To pre-book an interview call Graham Parker of Parker PR on 07977 448 306


For more information about the Mansfield Heroes Memorial Fund visit www.mansfields-heroes.org.uk

I've been tracking some stories of late, collecting ideas of what people refer to "PR Nightmares" or "PR Disasters". I do find it odd how people bandy these terms around in the supposition that the earth will fall apart if such idiocies are allowed to destroy corporate reputations.

However, I do think that Bodycare in the Wigan have totally missed the point and the public opinion on this one www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8342958.stm

To ban the wearing of Royal British Legion Poppies at this particular time is simply madness. To then refuse to answer press questions and finally say it is all down to policy beggars belief and shows a complete lack of PR skills by the company.

Policies are usually there for a good reason, but the value of a policy is that it should have a principle and the ability to be flexible when unusual situations arrive. Bodycare have jumped feet first into a full blown PR crisis reputation management situation that, for once, is worthy of being called a PR Disaster.

At a recent PR Conference in Leeds I got to ask Alastair Campbell http://twitter.com/campbellclaret the question I posted on my Blog on June 9th. Specifically I asked him if Gordon Brown will lose the next election on PR, policy, performance or personality?

As you would expect from a fervent labour supporter and an excellent interviewee, he quickly turned the question round to put David Cameron under the spotlight. His belief is that Gordon Brown will now come into his own and expose the Tories for their complete lack of policy, which is where he sees the PM has having overwhelming strengths.

Far be it from me to question the insight of the former Labour communications maestro but I'm beginning to wonder just how long it will take Brown to step up to the mark and win the policy PR battle - let alone the inescapable one of personality.

Yesterday Cameron was seen in television news footage striding the streets of the country with purpose and ease. I only caught sight of him at glance as I left the room but was struck by the similarity of his manner, demeanor and physical appearance to that of Tony Blair in the run up to the 1997 election. Much has been said about the shady copying of Blair by Cameron, in particular the lessons he has learnt in PR and presentation. Equally, much comment has been passed on the flimsy nature of his policies and how his spin is masking that vacuum.

I think Campbell has a point, there is much to be said for the staid Brown and his ability to hold fast to a tiller in a storm. He also seems to have found a great new ally in Peter Mandelson who has brought a renewed vigour to the Labour public relations machine.

Brown may have the solid experience and value of being in office during troubled times, he may have the past policy trophies to polish up and display before the electorate but now is the time for casting before them the promise of the future. Now is the time, if Campbell is right, for him to step up to the mark and run a solid PR campaign based on HIS policies for the future of the country. Campbell could be correct in that the Tories have exposed their flanks in recent announcements about tax and pensions - the question now is whether or not Brown and his PR machine can turn that cut into a running sore that will bleed them dry before the election.

We are two weeks into the campaign to raise enough money to establish and maintain a permanent memorial to all the service men and women from Mansfield who have given their lives since the end of World War Two and it's an amazing ride already.

Our aim was to get every licensed premises in the District to support the campaign, there are an estimated 94 of them according to figures provided by the Borough Council; to date there are 74 of them involved and supporting the campaign! Have a look at some of the media coverage we have had here - http://www.chad.co.uk/news/March-For-Mansfield39s-Heroes.5748147.jp
The story is in the local paper and on their website every week and has featured on BBC East Midlands and Cenatral TV as well as BBC and independent radio.

The campaign's Facebook groups page is going well with nearly 400 members http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=182757543523&v=app_2373072738#/group.php?gid=182757543523&v=info and that's happened in a matter of days.

We have been in meetings with the Mayor and the Mercian Regiment about where to place the memorial and our plans for a military march into Mansfield on the 13th of December. So far the Army and Air Cadets have agreed to march and we are meeting with the Sea Cadets and local TA to get them on board.

It really is amazing what can be achieved if a town gets mobilised in this way.

Tim Vickery seems to be lavishing egalitarian praise on Kaka for his attempt to save Milan from the economic pressures we are all living with http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvickery/2009/06/milan_to_madrid_via_manchester.html

While I appreciate that Kaka, Milan and Real Madrid have to go about securing their long-term futures in business, is it not a teensy bit disingenuous to suggest that Kaka left Milan as a canonised ex-player, thinking of how he could save his former club from extinction?

Is it not more the case that from it being a case of "typical Kaka - diplomatic, intelligent, serene and methodical" it was more the overpowering whiff of £56,000,000 that swayed the mind of the young Brazilian?

Barnet Hospital was built for £40,000,000 - that's a whole hospital serving thousands of people and would still leave enough change for Madrid to have purchased Gareth Barry from Villa. Now I'm not saying that Gareth is on par with Kaka, but there is no justification on earth that can be proposed that says one man should be paid that much for his services.

I have clients working in childcare that could not comprehend such a wage. People who are making real differences to children's lives not simply entertaining a few thousand folks every weekend.

As a football fan I understand that the top sides have to attract top players but this obscenity of escalating fees has to stop; and to pretend that the morals of players are impeccable when signing for such fees is stepping beyond the pail.

Question - Will Gordon Brown be the first Prime Minister to suffer death by PR?

Peter Mandelson may have strained every last ounce of his PR intelligence to have saved the PM for now, but how long can he staunch the tide of what is essentially a PR war?

Gordon Brown had the misfortune to pick up the mantle after Tony Blair left him with a huge mess to clean up. He will have known and prepared for that campaign an no doubt hoped to push aside the damage from our involvement in the 2nd Gulf war with a his ability to manage the economy - but then we hit global recession so he came a tad unstuck.

His biggest failure has been his lack of charisma. Where once content would have triumphed over presentation, today's voting public care less about policy than they do for a well turned out suit, a confident smile and a sound-bite that resonates and sticks with them. Blair was a prime exponent of that art, Brown lived in that shadow, standing his own ground as a fierce defender of the economy; together they had what we all desired - presentation and policy.

Brown then had the misfortune to be in Number 10 when the MP's expenses scandal broke. As the leader of the present Government he is not responsible for the rules that allowed the self-serving MPs to feed at the trough. His own record does not look too stained but the public have turned their anger on him and his party more than any other - they have lost the public relations battle in that one. What's worse for Brown is the way the media has forced the agenda on the expenses scandal and the comment on subsequent electoral losses.

Comments from David Cameron, William Hague, fleeing Ministers and backbenchers have been reiterated by BBC reporters as if they were fact rather than opinion. The opposition have been far sharper in their media PR relations than anyone in Government apart from Mandelson. They have been able to feed the media with suggestions, ideas and comments that have gone virtually unchallenged, leaving the journalists to have creative field day.

Brown's inability or decision not to go on the PR offensive has been used by the opposition and commentators as proof positive of his weakness and complicity in the failure of our political system. He is being hounded by the media and seriously injured by the opposition, not because of what he has done, but because of what he is seen not to do. He may still have some vestige of control over his Ministers but he certainly has none over his reputation in the public eye.

It is too late now but Brown should have stood firm in the face of Ministerial back-stabbing. His reaction should have been to expose the fleeing rats for what they were. When Blears and Flint walked he should have helped them on their way by exposing them as self-serving cowards.

If Gordon Brown does lose office before the next election, it will be because he failed in the one area that his predecessor understood only too well - how to manage your public image.