For starters the term Public Relations is not really accurate, as a PR company really spends most of its time and efforts in managing the relationship between a manufacturer or service provider and the media which is read, seen or listened to by the consumer that he is trying to influence or inform.

Surely most marine companies have been in business long enough to have met all the journalists at various boat shows, so sending them a brochure will do? Well, in a few cases that could be right, but that is not a PR campaign and while it might get the odd mention in the new product column it, and you, will soon be forgotten. A considerable amount of time spent by PR people will be dragging interesting information out of the client, pestering them to get a decent photo and badgering them to approve the press release.

The reason for this is that PR needs to be consistent.

One-off press releases done when you think about it will have little or no effect on a company’s overall profile. It’s consistency of message which reinforces the brand and it’s then the brand that the consumer will remember.

A constant flow of news is what is required to get noticed and it needs to be written in such a way that it does not look as though it have been lifted straight from the sales information pack. The very worst press releases are always written by the sales manager – sorry chaps.

They just can’t hide their enthusiasm and get quite upset when us PR people try to smooth out the edges, but we know what gets results and that’s always what matters in the end.