Chapter: "Are You Making the Most of PR?" / Part 2: Putting Press Kits to the Test

The second installment of the "Let's Put It to the Test!" series kicks off right away. Last time, we talked about tweaking and expanding how we do "press conferences." This time, we're going to take the basic tool for media promotion, the "press kit," and expand it with a few tweaks! We call it, "How about that thing that satisfies developers, media, and salespeople alike?"

Thick documents? No one even looks at them if you just leave them there.

When we PR folks provide information to the media, we create what's called a press kit. It's the foundational tool for neatly organizing and concisely communicating the features of the product or service we want to promote. We put a lot of thought into it: how to clearly convey the USP (Unique Selling Point), how to present comparison data against competitors' products or our own past offerings, and how to add images and keywords to make it intuitively understandable.

Of course, it's also good to include background information showing the data is properly objective, along with comments from experts. But when you do all that, the materials end up getting incredibly thick. The thickest press kit I ever made was about 140 pages... Back then, academic marketing was all the rage, so we included medical and scientific data too, which just kept making it thicker. 140 pages in A4 format—that could easily become a whole book! Man, those were tough times. Seriously.

Of course, having such thorough materials is a good thing. But explaining everything from them every single time takes a lot of time and patience. "Um, well, the section explaining that data is on page 121, so could you look at it together with the illustration on page 56?" "Can't you make it a bit more concise?" I'd get that kind of exasperated reaction from media folks too. I was a pure-bred, street-level PR person who'd been through countless bitter experiences like that. Yes, of course, I'm being modest.

But as I've mentioned before, these kinds of materials can easily come across as self-serving. You get responses like, "Okay, we get your pitch, but what does this actually mean for consumers?" So, let me share a tool we always consider alongside creating these base materials: the "promotional materials."

What is the value of this product or service from the perspective of society and consumers?

The earlier "press background materials" essentially compile the information the company wants to communicate. The challenge in creating these is the company's development team wanting to say "this, that, and the other thing!" While their enthusiasm is appreciated, presentations are all about conveying information concisely and powerfully! Right? Exactly. If it becomes too long-winded, it becomes hard to even grasp the key points. You really need to emphasize the important parts.

Moreover, I believe we must explain the real value from the perspective of society and consumers. Like, "This feature of our product solves the XX problem customers have been struggling with!" Only then does the media side see the benefit: "Ah, by covering this product, readers will accept it as valuable information." Of course, media reporters won't want to write articles that are just corporate spin – that's not journalism. Creating that kind of WIN-WIN situation is our J-O-B, y'know.

Now, these "promotional materials" also compile peripheral information like societal trends and consumer interests. Things like, "Given the current social climate, consumers seem interested in this," or "Among this demographic, we're definitely seeing more people engaging with this kind of thing." By combining several pieces of information like this, we help them envision future trends while showing the groundwork—or potential—for the product or service to be accepted.

Of course, the media professionals we provide this information to might respond with "Ah, I see!" and understand, or they might say "Well, I'm not sure I can go that far." Trends don't necessarily follow fixed rules or standard answers, so we inevitably have to rely somewhat on our vision of an ideal future. However, I believe this imagination stems from the PR professional's experience. The precision of this construction and the skill in structuring it determine how realistically we can convey the message.

We often get asked, "So how do you build that framework?" or "Where do you get your information?" People in advertising often come up with their own stories and then make unreasonable demands like, "Just flesh this out with PR spin!" But if the original story is completely far-fetched, the response is obviously, "No way that's going to work!" No matter how much it pretends to be nonfiction, as you read it, you start thinking, "This is too perfect," or "Isn't this a bit over the top?"

So, how do we handle it? We constantly gather and organize data and trends from various perspectives. We then weave these individual facts together to build the story. Rather than focusing solely on data related to our current work, we constantly imagine new target audiences we want to reach next. We keep one eye on the idea that "people living like this are probably increasing," while the other eye simulates how their lives might intersect with the benefits of our products or services.

Then, we vaguely construct a story that seems plausible to us. After that, we go out and find the missing pieces of information, or conduct our own research to verify things. So, for the foundational preparation—polishing that vague story—we really need about three months.

Can't we leverage this valuable trend information for sales pitches?

While compiling these societal trend insights, we aim to leverage them in media outreach to secure coverage in articles and such. But as mentioned earlier, this surprisingly requires significant upfront preparation time. Well, we're aiming for something meticulously crafted, after all. That's only natural. But you know, when I was sharing the facts gathered over these three months with the client in a steady stream, they said something like this: "Well, our sales team says having this kind of information really makes negotiations easier, you know? I'm really looking forward to this material now, huh?"

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Sales teams starting negotiations with distributors two or three months in advance really don't have any weapons. When a product launches, the PR or advertising department might organize press conferences or events. If the product becomes news, they can promote it at the point of sale with POP displays saying something like "This product is trending in the media!" But that only works if the product is actually on the shelves. So, I thought: Couldn't we turn the promotional materials into sales tools before they're even finalized?

Traditionally, manufacturers' weapons in negotiations have been incentives or the seasonal promotion plan. The promotion plan is basically, "We're running this many commercials, so awareness will go up. So please stock lots of it!" But apparently, that doesn't feel realistic to retailers. And against competing products, it just becomes a numbers game about promotional budgets. Unless there's a huge difference, decisions end up being a wash.

But when salespeople start discussing trend forecasts based on consumer insights like these, distributors react with, "Oh, I see. Yeah, there really are people like that," and they feel the reality of it. I think it's precisely about them empathizing with the story being presented. Even if it hasn't been featured in the media, if the content feels convincing, it makes it easier for distributors to sell and plan sales strategies.

So, our current menu includes preparing everything from "basic press materials" and "media promotion materials" to "sales negotiation materials" through a series of tasks like information gathering and interviews. Of course, we also add consumer awareness surveys and create infographics to make data more intuitive. If you're considering creating such materials, it might be worth trying to expand them into multi-purpose resources. Above all, I hear it feels pretty great to get thanks from your sales team internally. This is something I overheard from a certain PR person, by the way (laugh).