Brochures and issue marketing

How do you market a pair of food tongs, a fez or party sparklers? How do you stop a media "issue" from becoming a "crisis"? These are just two areas that the Strat Comm class has covered within the past week.

Print media, despite evidence to the contrary (such as this blog!), is still an effective communication tool. A brochure is the best way of providing someone with detailed information about your product. The best way of ensuring further attention is by making the product you're selling stand out - what is unique about these tongs, for instance, and how are they better than the competition? Also, try and be emotive and think of another use that your product might have - "This fez will look good at a party, while these sparklers will further add to the atmosphere!"

Also discussed in the past seven days was "issue management". With social media now a common source of news and discussion (as I poorly tried to point out last week) companies and others need to respond to any issues that arise as quickly as possible. Not doing so will make the public believe you do not care or have something to hide, which might not be the case.

A good example within Australia is the "slush fund" allegations leveled at Prime Minister Julia Gillard last year. As soon as the story was known to the press, Ms Gillard held a press conference regarding the issue and even answered questions in federal parliament. To counteract this, the media slowly released more information to put further pressure on the PM (a good tip for journos).

Still on Australian politics, an example of bad issue management would have to be the Craig Thompson affair. This has well and truly become a crisis, with Craig Thompson almost guaranteed to lose his seat at the next election. Moreover, unlike the PM who dealt with this issue within a fortnight, "Thompson-gate" has been a story for two years and it isn't going away. Thompson has always expressed his innocence but with every development he seems further and further implicated in the scandal.

Selling the conservative and stopping (or creating) crises - just another week as a Strat Comm student.