Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The eight steps he described evoke for me all kinds of imagery — from the bird-feeder, where some birds stick around like glue, and some fly in, take a peck, and leave; and the structure of an atom, where the electrons closest to the nucleus adhere, and the high-energy ones are apt to bounce in and out, or go elsewhere permanently. 

The eight steps: the “passables,” the “present,” “optional,” “convenient,” “accepted,” “trusted,” “dedicated,” and “devoted.” That's it. And those devoted customers  constitute 59% of repeat buyers, he noted. Raj compared brands like McDonald's and Arby's; Walmart and Target; and Southwest versus United using these parameters. ...

...The post defines it as the belief that “word-of-mouth and trust for brands is most important.” I would add that for many of us who work in PR, the essence of PR thinking is about generating and using influence. It’s explicit or implied third-party endorsement, – what most of us learned during our first week on the job.

But beyond the survey, there are many, even more compelling reasons why “PR thinking” will continue to dominate marketing communications. One is Google, which rewards content and social sharing and metrics like follows, comments, and views over black-hat SEO tricks. Another is the obvious struggle of the traditional ad industry to redefine itself and to move towards word-of-mouth marketing and even brand journalism. But here’s my list of the key ingredients....