Consumer and Business-to-Business Communication

consumer communication the process of stimulating sales from people who are in their everyday, non-employee roles

business-to-business communication the process of stimulating sales from people in their roles as company employees

On its website, H&K boasts that it helped its Brazilian beverage client Cerveceria Rio expand into Guatemala. It did it "using an intense media relations and opinion leaders campaign” to position the company “as socially responsible, focussing on the environment and benefits like job creation, market opening and international quality brands in a market dominated by a local monopoly beer producer and distributor.”

The PR firm wrote in 2007 about its successful “central role” in convincing the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to choose the city of London for the 2012 Summer Olympics. H&K’s website notes that the win for client London—"beating Paris, Madrid and Moscow—was one of the great sporting upsets of the past decade.” How did it happen? “Through a carefully constructed international PR and lobby­ing campaign, H&K London, with the help of 27 global H&K offices, achieved twice as much overseas media coverage than the other 2012 bids combined.” That media environment, says H&K, helped persuade the IOC.

The first of these activities falls into the category of consumer communication, whereas the second involves business-to-business communication. Both activities center on using public relations, as opposed to advertising, tactics to project favorable images of the client and its products to businesspeople (the IOC) or general consumers, with the aim of getting them to buy. Advertising tactics typically involve purchasing media space or time in which to present short messages. PR practitioners, in contrast, use a wide variety of approaches to convince a client's target audience to see the client in a positive light. These approaches might range from sponsoring charities, to throwing glitzy parties for business clients, to giving away free promotional items, to instigating environmental action campaigns and providing scholarships for needy youngsters. PR staff members also work to get free media coverage of these activities. The aim is to build and maintain positive attitudes toward their cli­ent within its target audience and ultimately to pave the way for future sales.

This PR work usually supplements rather than substitutes for advertising. However, PR practitioners naturally argue that their work is at least as important as paid- for commercial messages. They see the goodwill generated by such events, and the news coverage of the events, as far more credible to target consumers than traditional advertising.

HEALTHCARE AND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY Healthcare and advanced technology are two particularly high-profile industries for which both consumer and business-to-business PR take place. Advanced technology involves the products of computer manufacturers, silicon chip makers, and defense contractors, among others. The healthcare area includes hospitals, health-maintenance organizations, pharmaceutical firms, and provider organizations such as the American Medical association and the American Nursing Association. Both industries have concerns related to government regulations; international sales; tensions with organizations that purchase their goods and services; and confused, angry, and even frightened members of the public. Companies in these industries hire PR firms to help them deal with these problems.

Take pharmaceutical companies as an example. They view public relations as invaluable for promoting both their products and their value to the nation. When it comes to their products, they start with the fact that prescription drugs reach the public through physicians. PR practitioners within the firm therefore work hard to establish relationships between physicians and the firm. Company representatives take physicians to lunch or dinner to explain the advantages of their products. They give doctors free samples. They send them articles from medical journals that mention the firm favorably. They may even give them medical instruments as gifts in the hope that such gestures will encourage their patronage.

Increasingly, pharmaceutical firms are also reaching out to the potential consumers of their products, hoping that they will urge their doctors to write prescriptions for these products. Some of this work is traditional advertising, carried out by ad agencies. A lot of PR work aimed at consumers goes on as well. Much of it is aimed at getting prescription drugs mentioned in newspapers and magazines and on TV programs.

Pharmaceutical companies need government approval of their drugs, and public relations employees play an important role in helping to sway government in a company’s favor. Several years ago, Merck (a prominent pharmaceutical company) created a website called Merck Action Network to help its employees lobby Congress. Pharmaceutical firms also hire PR agencies for this work. One of the biggest public relations firms, Burson-Marsteller, argues it can offer companies an ability to shape the opinions of people who count in the healthcare debates. “Burson-Marsteller’s global Healthcare Practice is uniquely positioned to help clients navigate this complex medical, political, social and economic landscape, and in the process create and manage perceptions that deliver positive business results.” To carry out this persuasion process on many levels, it offers help for companies in the following areas: