Marketers stay in the conversation with PR

By Sean Callahan
Story posted: February 9, 2009 - 6:01 am EDT

As the recession shows few signs of receding, machine tool manufacturer Makino plans to cut portions of its marketing budget for fiscal 2009, which starts in April. But the company's marketing manager, Mark Rentschler, said that at least one marketing budget line item will remain intact.

“We're going to continue our PR efforts,” he said. “I don't see a significant downturn in our investment in public relations in 2009.”

Rentschler said case studies, which Makino uses in its PR efforts, remain central to the company's sales process. “In our industry, people research more than ever before in this type of economic climate before they make a purchase decision,” he said.

MAKING UP FOR CUT BUDGETS

Many b-to-b marketers are turning to PR as their budgets are slashed and they struggle to maintain a marketing presence in their industries. “In a recession, people who take a meek approach to marketing, they're not going to inherit the earth,” said Nick Ludlum, VP of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. “They are going to be buried six feet underground.”

Ludlum pointed out that the umbrella of PR now includes more than press releases and media relations. The discipline also includes, among other things, presenting companies as thought leaders, making the best use of new media, helping marketers develop useful content for prospects and communicating with employees.

EthicsPoint, a provider of software that enables employees to report fraud or harassment where they work without fear of reprisal, is boosting its PR efforts despite the economic climate. It helps that the company's business grew more than 30% last year, said Bill Piwonka, who joined EthicsPoint as senior director of marketing last September.

Piwonka plans to cut trade show expenditures and maintain ad spending, while boosting investment in PR. EthicsPoint hired PR firm Edelman last month.

PR is the best tactic to communicate the company's strengths, which include a healthy customer retention rate, Piwonka said. “Having customers who are happy and see value is one of the best ways to drive business,” he said.

Piwonka hopes to drive media coverage with case studies. “We have over 2,000 customers, but we had just four case studies we could talk about,” he said. The company now has 20 new case studies approved by customers. Additionally, Piwonka has Edelman working to raise EthicsPoint's profile with analysts.

Piwonka believes EthicsPoint can gain an advantage by increasing PR spending in the recession. “You want to use this as an opportunity not to hunker down so much that we're weaker when [the recession] is all over,” he said.

ECONOMIC CHANGES

The particular nature of the current recession may make PR efforts even more effective. First, there's the changing character of media, driven by the Internet's rise and the related decline of print advertising. Even if falling ad pages have shrunk the news holes at magazines and newspapers, new-media outlets from blogs to YouTube crave content. More here.