A growing number of companies count on vendors, resellers or associations as foot soldiers in the PR battle of message moving. But companies that rely on third-party support are employing in-depth research to find the right partners and using one-on-one briefings and informational bulletins to ensure that allies are up to date.
We're all aware of how Intel has propelled its marketing messages about the Pentium II chip through other businesses like Gateway 2000. Other companies practicing this stealthy message control include Nintendo, which receives a third-party pat on the back every time a gaming company publishes a game on the 64-bit platform and Pennzoil, whose brand is promoted by Jiffy Lube.
Or take, for instance, Reebok, which has made its brand synonymous with a wave of trends based on the relationships it has established in the fitness industry. The Stoughton, Mass-based company has found through these business advocates - from mom-and-pop exercise clubs to franchise gyms - a virtual school of preachers for its products. One of those is Robert Sherman, president of Focused Individualized Training, a fitness training consultancy in Bethesda, Md..
Six years ago, Sherman was one among hundreds of fitness trainers in the U.S. teaching Step, a Reebok fitness course, when he was plucked by Reebok during a convention to audition to be a Reebok master trainer.
Now, he is one of 40 master trainers used by Reebok to teach its Cycle Reebok program and he doesn't even get paid to tout Reebok's products. Through a contract with Reebok, he does get paid to head training programs for fitness centers.
"I don't have to sell Reebok, but when I teach a Cycle Reebok program, I make sure they know it's not a spin program [a generic term that's being used in the fitness industry to define exercising on stationary cycles]," Sherman says. "I'm teaching safety and effectiveness, but not selling shoes."
Three point people are assigned to work with Sherman regularly to make sure he's equipped with company-endorsed messages and aware of what events are scheduled. Part of his professional diet includes regular mailings of Reebok training manuals to make sure he's armed with the right messages.
The Full-Court Press From Microsoft Press
PR execs know that when sound bites, brand tag lines and business philosophies came with collateral information (i.e., third-party endorsements, market research), that can put company marketing in context and make it more powerful.
Several weeks ago while Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was facing the wrath of the Department of Justice, his Microsoft Press (MP) division went full-force into a campaign to continue to resurrect its once-sluggish line of multimedia tutorials that are based on the Microsoft platform.
In the past two years, the publishing arm has created 21 new training kits, including 11 new titles for its self-paced training products that prepares users for Microsoft Certified Professional exams.
The training kits are sold by companies such as CompUSA, Ikon, Executrain, Borders and Barnes and Noble. They are defacto middlemen in delivering messages about MP products.
"These training kits are our number one and number two revenue generators and we're going to turn this into a $100 million business," says Bobby Sadin, educational marketing manager for MP, based in Bellevue, Wash., near company headquarters.
This month, Microsoft Press will premiere its new titles with an unprecedented roll-out campaign. That debut will be augmented by interviews with hand-picked journalists and with technology experts on its Web site (http://www.microsoft.com).
But the backbone of its campaign will be the mass distribution of 2,000 kits to technological training centers and to resellers for MP products, adds Sadin. Those kits will include posters; fact sheets; collateral advertising materials; target-audience insight; and information that can be tweaked for reseller catalogs.
Microsoft Press will spend more than $250,000 (not including internal salaries or overhead) on promotional materials to strengthen its communication with third parties in 1998.
And that's to be achieved through the help of a seven-person marketing team it has built over the past year to saturate the market with tutorials to prep IT professionals.
Cause For Coalition
Microsoft and Reebok aren't alone in their quest to leverage business relationships to control the marketing message.
Durex Condoms' foray into the U.S. market has included forming a coalition with members such as Planned Parenthood and the American Social Health Association to push its "Durex Truth for Youth" campaign.
"We looked for messages that would perpetuate our brand in the marketplace," says Stan Grissinger, brand manager of Durex at the Americas Division Headquarters, Norcross, Ga.
"Any time we embark on a program, we always do our homework [when considering any issues-related partners]. We have very controlled and very concise messages."
Durex endorses the precept of giving teens information about abstinence as well as contraception in a balanced and responsible way. It has earmarked "considerably more than $400,000" in communications efforts this year, Grissinger says. The campaign has become a key building block for Durex's entree in the U.S. as the Durex brand already is established in 140 countries through efforts by owner London International Group.
Long before the October 1997 launch of the "Truth for Youth" initiative, Durex turned to a PR agency for help. Manning, Selvage & Lee, Atlanta, examined potential partners and conducted secondary research on Americans' views about sexual education.
It hired the Atlanta-based firm in December 1996 so it could spend months analyzing the partners that would be key to Durex's issues-related marketing. And those partners, who are expected to serve as spokespeople in varying regions and markets, are not only kept apprised of the campaign's developments, but consulted about what communications strategies should be used.
"We don't prescript anything, but these coalition partners receive information and news updates prior to use releasing it to the media so they are informed and can answer questions," says Dalia Baseman, senior account manager with MS&L. (MP, 425/936-3895; MS&L, 404/875-1444; Durex, 770/582-2222; FIT, 301/656-0885)