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The media has always been a great platform for disseminating a brand’s products, services, values and purposes and, of course, its image. In fact, they are a great help if your company is going through an image crisis, a reputational slump or if you simply want to send a message to your audience. Using the media as a tool to improve your presence is a great option that deserves to be part of your strategy. In this post we show you the aspects to take into account if you have decided to use them and enhance your image.
First of all, check your company’s current reputation
Where does your brand stand? This is the first thing you will need to know in order to know what message and path your image improvement strategy should take.
For example, if your company has a good image, the focus should be on maintaining and even improving it. But if your brand’s image is slipping, you should analyse where it is failing and focus on them.
Let’s say that you cannot start a brand improvement strategy if you do not know your strengths, weaknesses and where you stand.
Decide what image you want to show to the public
First, be clear that corporate image is not the same as corporate identity or visual identity.
Corporate image is how consumers see you, i.e. what they think about you. Corporate identity is what you want to convey, your values, purpose and essence. And finally, visual identity is everything related to brand design.
Once you are clear about the difference, you should know that both elements, corporate and visual identity, are going to influence the brand image. Therefore, you should think about the values and purposes you want to transmit, as well as your essence, and also how you are going to express them visually.
Choose the media you are going to work with wisely
The mistake many brands make is not in the content of their campaigns, but in the media they choose to use.
It is very important that you choose the media with which your target audience interacts the most, however, it is vital that you know some characteristics of each of them that will help you to select them:
📰 Press: allows you to reach a general audience, but also a local one. However, it has the disadvantage that it is difficult to segment your audience. Their strong point is that they transmit credibility, so the public will give this same characteristic to the advertising they broadcast.
📺 Television: like the press, its audience is very heterogeneous, but the advertisements that are broadcast can have a greater impact due to the weight of this medium. One of its weaknesses if you are a small or medium-sized company is its high cost. However, advertisements in this medium have a great impact on the viewer.
📻 Radio: compared to the previous media, its cost is not high, so it can be highly profitable. However, advertisements that are broadcast in this medium do not tend to last long because they are difficult for the audience to remember.
📲 Digital media: it is possible to offer a more complete and interactive content as well as a better segmentation of the audience. On the other hand, it is a more democratic medium because it is more accessible to all types of companies.
How to contact the media
More and more journalists are no longer going out in search of stories, but they are coming to the newsroom via phone, social media or email. So if you want to communicate with them, you have these platforms.
Normally, through the web, you will have all the information to connect with the person in charge of these matters, whether you want to improve your image through its digital version or if you are looking to go out in its physical version.
Press releases are the most used resource to send a certain message to journalists.
Tips for engaging with the media
At Finzel, we are a communications agency that has worked with many brands that needed to engage with the media as part of their image enhancement strategy. In our experience, we have been able to extract some tips that can help you if you are going to make contact with them:
🎯 Choose well what you want to tell: even if there are many aspects that are relevant to you within your company, select well the ones you want to transmit, not all of them are going to arouse the interest of the audience and journalists.
🗣️✅ Take care of the how: convey the message you want to send in an orderly way. You can go beyond text by using videos, images or even meetings. Do not send information that is incomplete, difficult to understand or with spelling mistakes.
🤳🏻 Use pictures: images are very important in any news story. Offer journalists good images of what you want to convey or publicise so that your message can stand out.
📥 Create your database: having a good database of journalists that you can call on when you want your ad or message to appear in the media is essential. It is vital that you keep it updated with those journalists you can’t use and those you can.
🥶 Don’t let things go cold: In order for journalists to get your message across better, it is important that you maintain a long-term relationship with them. Don’t let it be a one-off or one-day thing. Send them information on a regular basis, send them your products or services so they can try them out and give them a better opinion about them, and invite them to your events.
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