3 Ways Your PR Team Can Support Retail But Probably Isn’t

In a competitive retail environment, it’s never been more critical to ensure that all teams work in harmony to influence sales, and that’s never been truer of a PR team. While PR and sales have a tenuous relationship of influencing each other’s success while never guaranteeing it, there are several ways that we work in tandem with our clients to keep moving the sales needle:

Key Activations

We have a unique ability to support individual store locations with engaging customer experiences. Recently, we executed an activation with Home Depot in the busy King of Prussia market to support a smart home brand. By identifying in-market partners, we were able to craft a weekend event full of engaging product demos, education on issues and leveraging familiar faces in the community to make it feel personal and tailored. The press and influencer outreach made local ripples within the community and encouraged attendance. An overarching goal of the event was to not only generate additional foot traffic into the stores, but to also facilitate sales of the product. The event served as a very powerful testimony to a company’s support of a key retailer, and generated tangible results for the brand to show Home Depot how they are not only supporting the relationship, but how it can be templated and recreated in other key markets around the country!

Strategic Targeting of Geo-Located Markets

It’s critical for us to tailor our programs to the inventory available in various markets around the country. For example, if a winter beanie hat is only being sold in Alaska while the brand’s main markets are in the Caribbean, we must have that intimate knowledge to tailor appropriately. We can get laser-focused on local broadcast, daily newspapers and even influencers in a geographic region to support regional product offerings. In tandem, we will always incorporate a national media strategy to ensure that the brand’s profile is raised while still supporting a laser-targeted sales initiative.

Retailer-Exclusive Products

 

A tactic that often favors a specific retailer, we can seamlessly integrate a specific landing or product page into all outbound media outreach. Especially successful during a product launch, we have been able to more accurately measure a lift if traffic when a groundswell of launch coverage is all going to the same place. A post-launch report that can be amplified to sales teams is a boon to them to show the retailer why they’re worthy of continued shelf space and even serve as a case study for other key retail accounts. We have seen similar results to an online-only retail presence where a retailer such as Best Buy uses the online store as a proving ground on whether to include a product in the next store reset.

 

It’s tempting to always ask, “how are sales?” which generally yields a very one-dimensional answer. They’re good or bad. Best Buy is pleased or dismayed. Instead, are you asking, “are we aligned with people who employ tactics to influence sales but also give us results to show our retail partners we are driving traffic?”