Should PR Pitches Mention the Competition?
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| Mentioning the competition in PR pitches can be a smart strategy…sometimes. |
Companies that hire our Chicago PR firm often hate their competitors.
OK, maybe hate is too strong of a word. They dislike the competition.
So, when, on occasion, I tell them that a PR pitch should mention their competitors, they give me that “Are you nuts?” look. “Why on earth would we give them a plug in our PR pitch?,” they ask.
Listen, trust me, there are times when a PR pitch is better because it mentions the competition.
This is particularly true in emerging business categories.
As the business owner or senior marketing executive, would you rather have no placements at all or be part of a trend article or industry roundup that mentions you, as well as a few other players in your space?
Mentioning the competition just might be the only way to get a placement. If you are the only ones doing something, that may not be news. If there are five companies doing it,that may be evidence of a newsworthy trend.
Many of you who read me regularly (all four of you) know that I run Resources for Entrepreneurs. We get pitched by PR firms all the time.
One that just came in, prompting this blog post, was pitching us on writing about a suite of web-based software applications for small business owners. The PR pitch centered around how web-based software is changing everything for business owners.
Well, that’s a very old pitch. Walker Sands was using that pitch back in 2002 for some clients, when it was somewhat novel to use Web-based applications, such as online payroll or web-based CRM, for business. You shouldn’t be pitching that basic of a pitch about web-based software in 2010. It’s going to fail on anybody over the age of 28, who will recognize that either a) you are trying to trick them into writing something that has been covered ad nauseum, or b) you just don’t get it and actually think the pitch is newsworthy.
If this particular agency had pitched us with “Here are six great online applications, from six progressive companies, that small business owners can use to improve their productivity and grow their business,” we might have bitten on it. That would be a useful read for a small business owner, don’t you think?
Sure I could do that research myself, but the job of the PR firm is to make our job easy, right? They do the work, I run the story. Force me to put the pieces together, and odds are it will never get written.
Problem is, to get that story, the PR firm might have had to include their clients’ competitors in that list. I’m guessing they were not too eager to do that, but it would have been a much better strategy.
So, if you are looking for PR, start with recognition that, with high probability, the world doesn’t revolve around you. Your company, alone, is probably not newsworthy. Your product, alone, is probably not newsworthy.
However, tie what you do into a larger trend and mention several companies that support the trend and you are much more likely to get coverage.
Yes, you may have to mention the competition that you dislike so much. (Even better, mention similar companies that are not directly competitive.)
But, do it with a smile. A group mention is almost always better than no mention. More importantly, journalists will give more weight to the company that helped them to write the story, so you will usually get a better mention than your competitors.
The bottomline? If you are in an emerging industry where a rising tide will lift all boats, don’t be spooked when your PR firm discusses mentioning competitors in their PR pitches. In certain instances, it’s absolutely the right thing to do.
Ken Gaebler founded Walker Sands as a full-service marketing firm back in 2002 with the goal of creating an exceptional consulting firm that could be instrumental in helping other organizations to achieve greatness.
Ken,
Great post! Finally, a new angle on PR pitches. There are so many experts out there that give their two cents on PR pitching, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard this advice before. It actually makes a lot of sense.
You mentioned that “in certain instances, it’s absolutely the right thing to do.” When do you think it’s the most beneficial to mention competitors in a PR pitch? Is there a time when it’s not appropriate, even if your client is part of an emerging industry?
The other thing I’m curious about: is there a right or wrong way to go about mentioning competitors in a PR pitch? I suppose it’s never that black and white, but I assume you want to find a balance between mentioning competitors and mentioning your client.
I hope the questions make sense. Thanks for sharing some insight with this post!
Jackie, great questions. As you know, PR is not an exact science, so I’m not sure there are hard and fast rules about when to mention the competition and when you should not mention the competition.
But I think it boils down to being realistic and rational about this question: will my company get more benefit from PR if we mention the competition than if we don’t mention the competition?
On the flip side, it’s not beneficial to mention the competitors if you could do just as well on the PR front, or well enough, without giving the competitors a plug. For example, Apple’s promotion of its iPhone didn’t need to mention competing smartphones, because, well, they are Apple and they get PR just for existing. Most younger firms don’t have that market dominance, however, and for them mentioning competitors can help round out a story to the point where it’s worth writing and easy to write.
As to your last question, about right or wrong ways to mention competitors, I’d say that you never want to outright trash a competitor. That’s not good form. What you want to do is to take the lead in defining the attributes of competition. In other words, the pitch might mention some of the key things that define the various competitors but the focus is on your strengths, thus positioning you as the market leader. You wouldn’t want to highlight features where you are weak, for example.
At the same time, the more balanced you are in discussing the competition, the more credibility you earn with the journalist, so it’s a fine line to walk. At the end of the day, you want to err on the side of being forthright and having integrity. In fact, acknowledging a weakness in your product can go along way towards conveying the message that your interests are aligned with the journalist’s interests, serving his or her audience, and that you are not being overly self-serving in how you convey your information. Hope that helps.