Al Ries and his daughter and business partner Laura (Ries & Ries) caused quite a stir in marketing circles with "The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR" (Harper
Business, 2002), boldly predicting that PR will eventually eclipse advertising as the builder of brands. While broader in scope, the Rieses' latest book, "The Origin of Brands"
(Harper Business, 2004), also has some controversial ideas for PR execs to chew on.
Using Charles Darwin as their muse, the Rieses blow the lid off conventional thinking about building brands and describe how "divergence" of existing products and services will
carry the day for new brands. "There are endless opportunities to create new brands," says Al Ries. "But if the PR person isn't in there from the beginning, it's too late."
Atlanta-based Ries & Ries has worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including Apple, Burger King, IBM and Procter & Gamble. PR NEWS recently caught up with the
marketing (and writing) duo about their new book and what's in it for PR pros.
PRN: In setting out how to create a better brand - when to be different, when to be the same, when to keep it simple - what should the fundamental role of a senior PR exec be
in building the brand?
Al Ries: Any senior PR exec in a big company has got to launch the brand. Using advertising to launch a brand is very expensive and the minute the media sees an ad they're not
going to give the product coverage. But PR execs need to ask themselves: what makes a successful brand in a new category? All the big brands came out of ideas that got major
publicity because people want to write about what's new. PR execs need to create those initial impressions of the brand.
PRN: You say in your book that sales don't matter as much as perception. But how do PR execs convince their CEOs that's the case and communicate that whole notion into the
marketing mix?
Al Ries: They need to use case histories and show how other companies, like Starbucks, Red Bull and Body Shop, were built on perception. They need to show the power of being
first and that second-place companies - Burger King, Energizer - never take over the first company in the market (McDonald's and Duracell, respectively). It's about spending PR
dollars on creating new ideas and having advertising reinforce the PR...The typical CEO understands perception in terms of the stock market and those same rules apply to the brand
name of the company. The chief executive is actually easier to talk to than the chief marketing officer; CEOs are more down to earth and are able to talk more common sense
whereas the marketing people are addicted to all of these crazy marketing concepts that don't make a lot of sense. And once PR starts talking to marketing the conversation gets
wrapped up in advertising. But if a PR pro can talk to the CEO, the company has a better chance to make the sale. It's almost as if PR is unable to talk to the CEO unless there is
a crisis.
PRN: You assert that opportunities for solid branding lie in 'divergence.' How will that affect the role of a senior PR executive moving forward?
Laura Ries: PR pros can craft new brands by taking advantage of divergence. PR helps to establish new categories by promoting line extensions that are not 'me-too.' It's
analogous to planting a tree: first you have the seedlings that grow into a big tree with lots and lots of limbs. The limbs are opportunities to build brands.
Al Ries: One of the most successful brands is IKEA, which is divergence in furniture: knocking down assembled furniture and taking it home. It's not a furniture store mixed
with a grocery store. If you go back 50 years, every town had a coffee shop. Then start taking items from the menu: hamburgers are McDonald's, coffee is Starbucks and donuts is
Dunkin' Donuts. All of those brands are multi-billion dollar brands while the coffee shop is worth nothing. It's the difference between selling a commodity and selling a
brand.
PRN: You talk a lot about convergence of media, but temper the conversation that it's not happening overnight. But how do you think the idea of convergence impacts how senior
management views PR?
Al Ries: All the papers are filled with stories on convergence but not divergence. And CEOs think convergence is right around the corner because they read it in BusinessWeek.
Charles Darwin talked about how divergence creates new species. So the skillful PR exec will dramatize to management how a divergent approach will build brands. It's not about
creating a new low-carb product, which is me-too, but a new low-carb brand.
PRN: How can PR execs inoculate their companies against what you describe as 'Swiss Army Knife Thinking,' which is going to considerable cost to develop a product or service
that ends up in the not-too-lucrative "convenience" market?
Laura Ries: It's a matter of what the company can do to make sure it's first in a new category, and it takes PR to build the buzz. To say let's make a better Swiss Army Knife
opener is too expensive. Look at Coca-Cola, which has been unable to launch successful brands in the last forty years. They tried copying Red Bull with the KMX brand but it hasn't
worked.
Al Ries: It's the PR person's responsibility to launch and build brands. Advertising doesn't work anymore and PR needs to get the brand to be recognizable. But there's an
impatience [among CEOs] to get the brand off the ground so they tend to rely on advertising. Advertising has all the advantages except one, which is credibility. You can target
your ads to whom, what and when but they lack credibility compared with PR, which is a story in the newspaper that mentions your brand.
PRN: Since "The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR" was published two years ago, numerous studies have been released saying that consumers are overwhelmed with
advertising, and that it's become all too much. Yet the PR industry has failed to capitalize on this trend. What's stopping the industry from making its case?
Al Ries: Nothing is going to change in a hurry. PR execs got a boost to build brands [during the economic boom in the late 1990s] but they have since suffered because the
economy has been in such a sad shape. But things are changing. It tells you something when Procter & Gamble - the biggest advertiser in the world - has started to have
discussions about how to shift its advertising dollars to alternative ways to reach consumers, of which PR is an important part.
Laura Ries: The advertising industry is a lot better organized, but the PR industry needs to be just as aggressive in communicating its successes to management. The industry
needs to get going on this issue because there's a feeling out there that PR needs a higher profile in the way that advertisers have successfully publicized their industry.
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