How NOT to make friends and influence people….

PR. Is it a mainstream tactic or an element of a Strategic Alternative Marketing strategy?

It is the latter, but many high technology companies get their PR strategies completely wrong.

SiteMorse offers a range of website testing services that require no setup, downloads or technical support to operate. SiteMorse measures performance, tests functions and checks compliance (HTML/eGMS/Accessibility). Still with me? Good.

Well to generate interest (and I assume demand) for their website testing services they regularly conduct surveys or site summary’s into their target sectors. These reports are then converted into news articles and press releases. ‘What is wrong with that?’, I hear you say……

Well the problem I have is the style and manner in which their subsequent information is used for PR purposes. Read one of the articles that has been placed in a retail title, as a result of an interview SiteMorse gave.

Let me highlight some quotes:

“How exactly do these retailers verify their sites because many are very poor?”

“Dixons is failing on its coding. It’s the slowest site by far. And this for a company that sells technology and is closing down its high street stores to go online only.”

(many major companies simply) “throw money at hardware”

“Getting less than one out of 10 is very poor especially when they must spend millions on their sites. How much must Boots spend to appear at the top of search engines but then it cannot even get the data right on its front page.”

If SiteMorse believe that quotes like these endear their company to their target market they are very much mistaken.

Now correct me if I am wrong. But that’s not a strategy that will make SiteMorse approachable, or help SiteMorse become a trusted advisor.

The sooner marketers realise that marketing is consumed by people the better for everyone. Everyone has feelings you know. Especially CIO’s of major retailers.