Continuing on last month’s theme, “The Power of the Press,” I am going to give you some strategic insight and examples of how one of our customers uses public relations to meet specific objectives.

The Press/Media Can be Your Ally

Since my early days as a student at Kent State University (yes, a few years ago) working toward a degree in public relations, I learned how to work with the media. That early training was beneficial, teaching us how to prepare stories that editors WANT to receive and use. I still employ these lessons today. Let me share a few with you before I delve into some specific projects promoting the MarineLine® cargo tank coating system (shown here).

1. Think like an Editor. That means when you prepare a story, write it like the editor would be able to use it directly from your press release. That’s why our university training taught us to write like a journalist first. No fluff. Get to the point. Deliver the news upfront in the article. Present the benefits in a fair, responsible manner. I have written some articles that editors have used word for word without editing. I am proud of that.

2. Be Responsive. When possible, get the story to the editor ahead of his/her deadline. Answer additional questions if needed. Set up interviews if requested to round out the story. Get to know the editors personally. I meet with as many editors whenever possible as I travel around the world, to keep up and build my relationships. When I need to, I can pick up the phone or send an email and get an answer back quickly from them because of this good working relationship.

3. Think of the Reader. Who are you writing for? What does the person reading the article in the magazine or newspaper want to know? Once you have these answers, then tell that story. Make it interesting. Great photos and graphics can help immensely to make an even stronger impression.

4. Be a Partner with the Media. They have a job to do, just like you. Some people think the media can be adversarial. Sure, they can be when there is negative news, because they want to find out what happened. But the other 95% of the time, they are looking for a good story and if you bring it to them, all wrapped up and ready to go, they will appreciate working with you.

5. Why are We all in Business? Remember, magazines, newspapers and news websites also would like to get your support in advertising space. They need to make money too. So whenever it fits, try to grace media you work with on a regular basis with advertising to complement the PR stories that appear on your behalf.

There is much more I can say on this theme, but let me illustrate some effective results that were achieved working in the maritime trade media for our client, Advanced Polymer Coatings (APC), in Avon, Ohio, USA. The company is well-known throughout the marine industry for its innovative, patented polymer MarineLine® 784 coating, used to protect cargo tanks in chemical and product tankers that carry hazardous and aggressive chemicals on the high seas.

STORY ONE – Presenting APC’s Commitment to Customer Service

Tanker shipowners are asked to carry a wide range of chemicals from their customers including acids, caustics and solvents. So they need answer if their cargo tanks, coated with the APC’s MarineLine® 784 system, can handle these chemicals. APC wanted to let shipowners know that its chemical resistance list of more than 4,000 chemicals and a full internal laboratory and also outside independent labs were resources that were available to research requested chemicals.

We provided an exclusive opportunity to The Motorship Magazine (shown here), with a specially prepared article on this theme, covering various testing equipment used at APC, different types of tests that are conducted, explanations of various competitive coatings, and other pertinent information. The final 3-page article delivered a powerful impression to the industry, under the headline, “Testing cargo tank coatings provides answers on maritime chemical service.” That is exactly what we wanted the industry to know about APC. BINGO!


STORY TWO – Educating the Industry on the Importance of Proper Coatings Application for a Successful End Result

The coating on the hull of a ship sees virtually the same environment everyday. However, the coating on a chemical cargo tank often sees a wide range of different cargoes at various times in its life cycle, sometimes even switching cargoes on every voyage. So the cargo tank coating must deliver a number of performance expectations for versatility, corrosion resistance, cargo purity, and easy cleaning.

That is why MarineLine® 784 has a special application procedure, that is more advanced than other types of coatings, to give the coating a higher performance capability. So we wrote a specialized article to explain the important steps in the procedure so shipowners and shipyards where vessels are constructed would understand the vital aspects of proper preparation, application, heating curing and inspection. The article, under the title, “Four Steps to Success,” resulted in 3-page feature in Shipping World & Shipbuilder (shown here). The article was highlighted in their special show issue at the largest shipping trade show in the world, in Hamburg, Germany, and was given out to many passers-by at their exhibit. Perfect timing!

If you would like to learn more on how PR can help your company in promoting its brands, send me an email to set up an appointment. I will be glad to explain how we can help your branding efforts.

The commonly heard phrase, “The Power of the Press” still rings true. In this issue, and more in the months ahead, I will talk about effective public/media relations and how this can impact your brands.

The Press is Still Powerful

Can you think of anything that can give you a better marketing lift than a wonderfully article written about your company or a key product, appearing in a key media publication or on TV? Your phone will ring, people will visit your website, they will Twitter, they will like you on Facebook, etc, and they will buy your products!

I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about a simple new electronic device that allows you to stream music from a Computer, IPad, ITouch or IPhone, to this new “Griffin Twenty” amplifier/receiver that can be wired to any old speakers you may have from an old stereo system. It then plays your new digital music in the older format analog speakers. It is under a $100. “How neat is that I thought? Based on that article I checked the Griffin website and put in my order the same day. When it arrived I retrieved some old Paradigm speakers from the basement and hooked it all up. This is the Griffin Twenty digital to analog music amplifier in my office. It sounds great. I’m listening now to some John Mayer music on those ‘old speakers’ as I write this article! (and no, Griffin Technology is not a client of mine, but if they were I would promote this device endlessly.)

Now imagine that simple exercise on a grand scale. A new car introduction, an upcoming book tour, etc. The press still can have a major influence on your success!

What Can a Great Story do for You?

1. Add Visibility. In fact, you may get massive exposure as I highlight in a story at the end of this article. Because word of mouth only goes so far. Your sales team can only call on so many customers at one time. Advertising, while effective, can be expensive. Social media can create buzz, but only if people are following you and want to ‘like’ you or ‘follow you’. Your website may be great, but only if viewers come to the site to see what is new. However, when you have an article appear about your company or product in a leading trade magazine, newspapers, or on television, you can reach many people at one time.

2. Provide Instant Acceptance. When an article appears in print or on TV, it is usually more believable than an advertisement. Many studies have proven this.

3. Obtain Free Exposure (relatively). It does not cost anything to have an article appear in the media, but it does take time, effort and expense to get this prepared and placed.

4. Act Strategically. There might be a specific reason you want to get your story out to meet a goal or to implement a strategy. Many times it is to kick-start or increase sales. Sometimes it is to educate the customer on your company or product. And it can be to deflect something negative that has happened and you need to repair your image.

5. Add to the Marketing Mix. Good PR can and should complement your other marketing initiatives. Rolling out a new ad campaign at the Super Bowl? Think about all the hype even before the commercial airs. Who has the hottest commercial? Who is the funniest? Who paid the most, etc, etc. Sometimes you will see the commercial five or six times on other media news outlets, all for free exposure.

6. Hype your Hype. The more exposure you get, usually the more you will continue to get. That’s how it works. And you can take advantage of it too, by reprinting popular articles and re-using these in your sales efforts, posting movies and news clips, telling your customers on Facebook and Twitter, and continuing with followup stories.

The New York Times and the ‘Wow’ Factor

Let me present a success story from one our clients, The Genie Company, the well-known brand of garage door openers (DGO). Genie’s traditional sales/distribution system was through garage door installation companies. If you wanted a garage door opener, you called your local installer and they took care of it. The problem is there was a hefty charge for the service call to install the opener.

So Genie decided to enter the Do-it-Yourself market, and designed a simple kit-based GDO that a homeowner could easily install in just a few hours. As simple as this seems today, it was a novel idea at the time! Genie needed to convince the public that this was viable, easy, and affordable.

My challenge was to get the story out via the PR channel, using as much media as possible. I covered the trade press well with all sorts of articles on how the new Genie would help the big box retailers increase their sales. Then I turned to reaching consumers directly. One of the highest impact and most read articles on home improvement appeared regularly in the New York Times. So I set my target to get an article published there for Genie. After two months of close work with the Home Improvement editor, providing background material and how-to advice, we landed a half-page article in the New York Times. I had also provided the editor with working installation photos that the Times converted to illustrations. It was a huge success. That placement alone was worth thousands of dollars at the time in comparative advertising space. And it turned out that the NY Times then syndicated that same article to hundreds of smaller newspapers around the country. Soon we saw articles appearing from dailies and weeklies across America and this continued for several months. All totaled, it was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in media exposure for Genie, and helped put the new D-I-Y garage door opener on the map, with exceptional new sales in Genie’s pocket. So that shows the “Power of the Press” in influencing the public option.

If you would like to learn more on how PR can help your company in promoting its brands, send me an email to set up an appointment. I will be glad to explain how we can help your branding efforts.

Now and then I write a case history on projects I’ve worked on where “thinking out of the box” or “thinking big” helped customers create a lot of buzz and interest for their products or events. Some of these projects took place before the era of social media marketing, and many of them would would have been enhanced further by this exposure. They are interesting lessons and have good fundamentals of marketing.

Thinking Big for DayGlo Fluorescent Color!

One of our clients in Cleveland, Ohio, DayGlo Color Corp., a division of RPM International, presented us with an interesting challenge. As most everyone knows, DayGlo colors are renowned worldwide. There is nothing quite like the color palette of these fluorescent hues, and DayGlo has been the world leader in this area for many years.

A high point for DayGlo colors was in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the world was going through some wild changes, and fluorescent yellow, orange, and green colors fit perfectly with this psychedelic period in history. But that color trend slowed considerably in the 1980s and 90s.

Now move into the late 1990s, and the challenge presented to us from DayGlo was to get people excited again about the colors by re-introducing these bright shades back into new products, new advertising programs, and make them trendy and “hip” again.

Had we been given a multi million-dollar budget, we could have proposed a wide array of options, including television advertising, lavish trade show displays, and more popular approaches. However, we were given a more modest budget but asked to come up with an innovative idea.

Our thinking was to target ‘where’ the design decisions were made on color usage. That was the design community. If we could get designers involved in wanting to experiment and use DayGlo colors again in their approach over the next several years, we would see some amazing ideas leading to new applications and brand exposure.

Educate Designers

So we created a new and fun book called, Designing with DayGlo Color to serve as The Official Fluorescent Color Design Guide. The publication was co-written by myself and three marketing executives at DayGlo, with content focused on helping designers and marketers better understand the potential for DayGlo colors. The book's design, with crisp and arresting graphics, was prepared by our lead designer, Helen Eichel.

Our approach was spot on. We presented ideas to help designers take their creations to another level showing how new color choices would enhance their products and marketing. And to get them excited!

The book was marketed through the trade press media, an extensive direct mail program, as promotions at trade events, and by the sales team in calling on the DayGlo customer base.

Interest and requests were strong for the design guide that was produced in-house by our printing company, Hobrath Press. The books were mostly printed in four colors —black, and three fluorescent inks, along with some four-color process pages to show designers the differences of traditional colors vs. DayGlo’s unique shades. Color cards showing DayGlo inks were printed and included, as well as plastic color chips to present how the colors looked in different formulations.

The book was a hit, and even went through a second printing a few years later. Designers started seeing DayGlo in a new light. Soon a range of new products and packaging emerged showcasing the bright neon-colored DayGlo brands, which helped boost DayGlo sales.

If this book could use today’s powerful and far-reaching marketing tools, it would have had even more exposure.

This case study shows that with an innovative idea you can think out of the box to come up with some new approaches to market your products and services. And we would like to help you with that. Send me an email nhobrath@hobrath.com if you’d like to talk more.

I want to present some questions in this blog that you should have the answers to, even before we start any marketing work. Questions that will ascertain ‘why’ your business is even in existence and what it is supposed to do.

Keep Your Business Healthy

The questions I am going to ask, I learned a lot about in the book, “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” by Patrick Lencioni. So all credit is given to him for the following questions for you to think about.

1. Why do we exist?
Ok, answer this and you are on the way to understanding why your clients will want or need your products and services.

2. How do we behave?
Perfect. What is your company like? How do you treat prospects, customers, vendors, employees, etc.? What are your values and beliefs?

3. What do we do?
Really, what do you do? Do you simply make a product, or offer a service, do deliver a solution to a customer in need? See the difference in how you look at this answer?

4. How will we succeed?
What will it take for your company to be successful and grow? What problems do you need to overcome? Where should you focus your efforts?

5. What is most important — right now?
Maybe your sales are slipping? Maybe you should be entering a new market, maybe even internationally? What do you need to do NOW to make things happen?

6. Who must do what?
This probably is one of the biggest problems I ever see. Just exactly who is the responsible person or leader of the project? Did you notice the words in bold? Make someone accountable.


In the book, Patrick Lencioni says “If members of a leadership team can rally around clear answers to these fundamental questions — without using jargon — they will drastically increase the likelihood of creating a healthy organization”. Now, is it easy to bring about the answers to these questions? Probably not. But take the time to think about them. Take one at a time when you have some quiet time, or ask the question at your company’s next leadership meeting. It will surely bring out some interesting perspectives and will help put you on the path to a good and healthy organization.

Let me know if you’d like to talk more about what your business does, and how Hobrath Group can help take you up another level in your marketing strategies. That is what we do. You can contact me at nhobrath@hobrath.com. Good luck.

In the financial sector, you often hear the phrase, “Cash is King.” Well in the marketing arena, I tell clients “Content is King.” This blog will focus on “what” you can put in your email marketing to make it sing.

When I talk about email marketing with clients, this question usually comes up as we plan a program looking ahead… “Sure, after we do an issue or two, is there anything new to talk about?” Yes, there is a long list. Now as we go through some options below, some of these may be pertinent to your business, others may not. Just consider the possibilities.

PRODUCTS/SERVICES/CAPABILITIES – Probably one of the most important uses for email marketing is to promote products, services, and capabilities. New ones. Improved ones. And even existing tried-and-true ones that are in your portfolio but have not been promoted recently (I’d call this a reintroduction.) Focus on the key benefits of these products and assist in providing relevant, clear photos when possible for a winning combination.

NEW VIDEOS/PRESENTATIONS – One of the most exciting aspects of marketing today has been the breakout of videos and interactive presentations to help tell your story. A good video says it all. Look at the explosion of videos on YouTube. I mean industrial videos, not just consumer ones. If you have these, showcase them.

We have already discussed the importance of building a database for successful ongoing marketing campaigns. Now, we focus specifically on “email marketing” and how this can help your company or organization.

As one of our clients, an architectural services firm stated to me just a few weeks ago, “We need to give our enewsletter credit for recent new business. We received a call back from a library client that we were not successful with at first but the director said our continued updates via the enewsletter led him back to our company. Email marketing really works!”

Permission-based Email Marketing

Anyone with an email account has firsthand knowledge of what email marketing can do. You open your inbox and “voilà” there appears a message from a company you do business with and trust, with news that matters to you. This is what permission-based email marketing is all about.

There is also the opposite side of the coin. ‘Non-permission’ email marketing that tries to promote every product under the sun, and that forces you to hit the Junk or Delete button. You don’t want to be in this category.



I want to focus on the positive, the permission-based email marketing, which can have tremendous results if handled correctly. There is no better way to generate ongoing sales than starting with a loyal group of customers who want to hear from you. Now it is up to you to make this work to your advantage.

3 Key Considerations in Email Marketing

1. Start with good content and easy-to-view graphics for your email marketing. Remind readers of the value of your products and services, especially if they take your advice and find it works for them. With a professional approach, the results can be very effective.

2. Communicate regularly to build brand loyalty. This shows you care about your customers and want to keep them up-do-date on the latest developments impacting their businesses. Set up an ongoing timetable and stick to it.

3. Use the trackable features of email marketing to find who is opening the emails, what your customers/prospects are most interested in, and what links they click on (actions they are taking). You can then effectively gauge the results of your efforts within a day or two to fine-tune future email marketing plans.

Benefits of Email Marketing

The topic of the day covers the Granddaddy of all marketing tools – the website! This is probably the single most important marketing tool in your arsenal. It can do so much for your company or organization if it is done well and kept current.

You can imagine I am going to tell you if your company’s website is old and stale, you need to update it. I am. And I might add, do it NOW.

Before I say too much more on that, I am guilty on this accord. My last ‘major’ web revision for Hobrath Group was in 2001. When I took a hard look at this earlier in 2012, I realized so much had changed. I started revamping the site from scratch this spring. Now complete, it is so much better, and more closely explains the benefits of our company in helping our customers reach their goals. www.hobrath.com  And you can see examples of what we’ve done for many companies across a host of marketing platforms. That is important to show successes.

The Hobrath Group website, formatted for use on different devices - left, desktop/laptop, middle, tablet and right, mobile device or smartphone.

So here are seven questions to get you thinking and evaluating your website. The questions are all valid whether you are a mid-to-large size organization, a small start-up, a non-profit or religious organization, a manufacturer, or a service-based company.

So if you want to talk about your website, whether it is a brand new site, or a redesign, or if you want to post new fresh content on a regular basis, talk to us. That is what we do. For an appointment, you can email me at nhobrath@hobrath.com or call 440-212-3520. I will be pleased to talk with you.

When I meet with new customers for the first time, they are always eager to get started promoting their company’s products and services. “What should we do first?” is a question that comes up regularly.

While projects such as developing new advertisements, updating the website, kicking off new social media events, etc., are all important considerations, the first area we like to examine is the state of your database. Who are your customers? Do you have their contact information? What do you know about them? Where is this customer information kept? Can we easily access the data and is the information in an orderly organized and consistent format?

Sometimes you can buy mailing and/or email lists. I am usually wary of these, but when they are obtained from good sources, such as industry trade shows, or trade magazines with a pre-determined audience, they can be good purchases.

Now, on the other end, when you send out emarketing pieces such as ebulletins and enewsletters, you may get a response back to remove the name from your future marketing. So immediately you should comply. This may also happen in your direct mail program, where mailed pieces will be returned by the postal service with bad addresses, etc. So cleaning up the list is easier than you think as long as you are diligent about getting the updates posted in the database.

4) Track your success – It can be fun to see how the database changes over time. Are you adding more names over time? Do you notice that the ‘take me off your list’ responses are diminishing each month? That means your list is getting better. You should also see your response rates increasing as you learn to target your promotions better. Good luck in your efforts. All the hard work you put into the database will help make your marketing dollars work harder for you.

For the majority of the world, when you talk about advertising, the images of those clever commercials come to mind as seen during the Super Bowl. They are expensive to produce, and each year the price seems to rise for the time slot. Some are memorable, some are not. (I personally still like that little Darth Vader boy in the Volkswagen commercial). Sometimes it seems the PR generated around the commercial delivers more punch than seeing it live.

But there is another realm of advertising, one that occurs every day around the world, 24/7. This is institutional advertising. The kind where businesses talk to other businesses about the strengths and capabilities of their companies, products and services. It is not always so glamorous, but can breathe new life into a product or clearly position a company in the mind of a potential prospect or customer.

I could write for pages here on how to create effective trade ads, what popular topics should be presented, how to measure response, the role that strong graphics play, etc. I have done hundreds of these ads through the years. But I want to talk in more general terms and repeat a question I am often asked by my customers, “Is trade advertising still an effective way to get our message out, especially in light of all the competing media options vying for the budget, such as websites, social media, trade shows, and special events?”

“That is a good question” is always my response.

For example, I have a customer that makes specialty high performance coatings that are applied onto cargo tanks of ocean-going vessels carrying aggressive liquid chemicals. Each year we start from square one re-examining the advertising budget, the industry magazines, key messages to deliver, and budget parameters. Each year the program we implement is different, constantly shifting the media used to meet new goals. But we never sway from the basic tenant of keeping a strong presence in the trade media. A growing trend is for the magazines to offer digital ads (on their websites or the enewsletters they send out) to complement the print ads. I like to look at all options to see what is possible.

Off the top of my head, I can list a number of reasons to start or continue to advertise in the trade media. To confirm my thoughts I also did an internet search on the topic and found an excellent list of reasons, which I reproduce here acknowledging the source to “The Magazine Handbook.”  So here is a good starting list.

• Magazines enhance advertising impact: Strong consumer experiences with magazines boost magazine advertising impact
• Magazine ads last: Consumers refer to magazines multiple times – even saving them, giving advertisers the opportunity for added exposures.
• Magazines supply credibility: Consumers trust and believe magazine advertising more than advertising in other media.
• Magazines offer choice: Advertisers can choose from a wide range of titles, environments and “customizable” solutions that best suit advertisers’ needs.
• Magazines target efficiently: With a range of titles that appeal to specific demographics, lifestyles and interests, advertisers can hone in on the targets that fit their needs.
• Magazines sell: Multiple studies have demonstrated that allocating more money to magazines in the media mix improves marketing and advertising ROI across a broad range of product categories.
• Magazines provide rich experiences: Readers experience magazines in meaningful ways, including: I get value for my time and money, It makes me smarter, It’s my personal time out and I often reflect on it.
• Magazines engage: 90% of magazine readers pay full and complete attention when reading magazines. Magazine readers demonstrate the lowest level of multitasking when compared with multitasking rates for other media.

To close, let me tell a brief story about the advertisement shown above, for one of our clients, Advanced Polymer Coatings (APC). This ad appears in a B2B trade publication called "Bulk Distributor." A reader of the magazine in Houston was having a difficult problem with the lining of their tanks used to transport aggressive chemicals. They saw the advertisement, read the headline, "High Performance Coatings for Lining Tank Containers," and immediately made the call to APC. It just so happened that APC's Director of Industrial Coating Sales & Marketing was in Houston that day for a coatings trade show, and was able to immediately meet with the potential customer, listen to their needs, and suggest a solution. Talk about all the stars aligning properly! This was a new prospect for APC, and the end result may be that APC obtains an excellent long term customer from the new relationship. This only happened because of APC's commitment to advertising in the trade media to help reach its audiences.