 From the end of World War II and the creation of the mass market, brand experts and PR companies have pioneered the concept of brand awareness. Thus, given no cultural alternative, entrepreneurs have invested an endless amount of resources to get their name out there. There is a tangible problem, though... As described in detail in my book Sabotage & Subversion: The 10 Principles of Business Guerrilla, brand awareness follows a conceptual and therefore practical misunderstanding. Given an analysis of any single category of products, a trend emerges: people buy the leader in the category, This leads us toward a reasonable conclusion:
If I am neither the leader in the category nor the opponent to the leader (Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi, Red Bull vs. Monster, Apple vs. Samsung…), it’s more than logical to consider myself a commodity trapped in the lower price circle. What’s the purpose of brand awareness? The purpose of brand awareness is to get my name out there. Fine. But what if I am not the leader, the opponent to the leader, or the cheapest version of product in my own category? This is exactly where the pain starts. Let’s make it pragmatic.  Among the several mistakes that many entrepreneurs commit when they need to get featured in the press is considering strategic that which is tactical.
If there is a way I can simplify the core distinction between strategy and tactic, it is by defining strategy as a project and tactic as a single step among the many to accomplish that project. If you are a football fan, you can consider it strategic that your favourite team trains properly during the week to perform at its peak until the end of the season, while it is tactical to win the match on Sunday to qualify for a European cup. Strategy is a continuous process, while tactics are movements aligned with the process itself. Strategy includes tactics, not vice-versa. Strategy is where I want to be, what result I want to have achieved by a certain amount of time. Tactics are what I need to do on a consistent basis to accomplish the established goal. That said, there are a few major errors that entrepreneurs who aren’t educated about broadcast PR commit on a consistent basis:  A few weeks ago I had the chance to meet a multimillionaire: a Dutch self-made entrepreneur owner of a £300 million multinational company that operates in the catering industry.
Being naturally curious, I took the initiative to offer him a beer in exchange for some valuable information I could receive as a direct consequence of his highly successful business experience. As a person who doesn’t like having an opinion on matters in which I do not have particular expertise, and considering having an opinion a modest way to cover up an attitude of laziness rather than working on the implementation of a few healthy changes, I took pen and paper and started taking notes endlessly. That way, before leaving the place I had written down four pages of advice I could implement straightaway in my business. I do not really know why I am sharing this with you for free, but it is surely something I think you should know to clear up all the bad information that self-proclaimed experts are spreading around in a desperate attempt to make a life. |
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Robert LingardFounder and Managing Director at POWER BRAND. PR that Sells for Startups and SMEs, LATEST ARTICLES
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