Carrot
Accelerating Reputations
We are experts in accelerating the reputations of companies and organisations. We work for clients in the b2b and b2c markets.
Accelerating a reputation begins with the development of a structured PR programme. This means that we won’t be wasting time that you’ve paid for, as we have agreed in advance what needs to be done and can get started quickly to ensure your message is heard by your desired audience.
It also helps us set measurable PR and business objectives, allowing you to assess how successful we have been in supporting your business goals.
Click each service box to see how we will drive your reputation forward.
“There is no advertisement as powerful as a positive reputation travelling fast.�
– Brian Koslow
Before we can accelerate the reputation of your company, we must first gauge how your company is regarded by your market. We do this by mapping the market and assessing your company's position within it and, crucially, the position of your competitors.
We look at the economic climate of your market and the opportunities within it; the industry trends and issues within the market; and what your customers' needs are and what resources are available to meet those needs.
It's a detailed but worthwhile analysis, as it allows us to identify what communications opportunities can be exploited; and helps us establish your PR needs and align them with your business objectives.
The next stage is to draw up a brand attributes map to ascertain exactly what attributes you want your audience to ascribe to your brand.
Brand attributes pervade every communications activity within an organisation and establish the essence and core identity of the company: how your company wishes to be perceived, what the company believes in. Essentially, brand attributes define the Ôpersonality' of your company.
Fast growing and ambitious companies often do not take the time to develop a clear and documented idea of what they want to achieve and what culture they would like to develop on the way to success.
Our approach is to develop a clear objective for no further out than five years (vision), a top line plan for achieving the vision (mission) and a simple but compelling description of the organisation's values. The pragmatic and enjoyable process involves both management and employees.
The communications strategy outlines exactly how you will achieve your brand attributes and company positioning by focusing on which channels best serve your internal and external audiences.
It is imperative from the outset that a set of clear, cohesive, and concise messages are drawn up to describe and communicate your brand attributes.
At the start of any PR programme, we run a half-day session to gather all the information we need to compile a message set, and advise on the language and tone of the messages.
The message set is then used for all communications activity, both internally and externally, to ensure the messages that reach your audience are consistent.
As soon as the PR programme begins, we will begin offering your designated company spokesperson for interviews with the appropriate media.
Some spokespeople are very confident and articulate at communicating their organisation's messages, others require a little help. Which is why we run invaluable - and enjoyable - half-day media training sessions.
The sessions use role-play and cover what to say and, equally as important, what not to say; and provide practical interview techniques and tips. The session culminates in recorded studio interviews with a journalist working under a non-disclosure agreement.
The messages that we develop for the PR programme should resonate with prospective customers as part of a sales presentation as well as they do through the media or analysts. It is for this reason that many of our clients rework their sales presentations to include the messages.
In addition to the messages we also have a great track record in drafting compelling case studies to support the sales process or even complete sales presentations if necessary.
Media relations is at the heart of what Carrot does every working day.
We have a number of techniques that we use to constantly develop new angles and news hooks to ensure our clients' activities fit the media agenda, including:
- News angle brainstorms - techniques such as King of the Hill, What If? and animals allow us to examine issues, products and services from different perspectives to reveal the news opportunity.
- 30-second sell - a media sell-in lives or dies in the opening half-minute. That's why we make sure we can talk not just about the story but around the story, making the pitch as relevant as possible to journalists.
- Media schedule - akin to an advertising media schedule, this ensures we match the most interested media with the right story, track the results and learn from the outcomes.
We have also developed a Carrot media database, designed and managed by our own in-house media specialist. The database is updated the moment a journalist joins or leaves a publication/media outlet, meaning all our client's stories are pitched to the right people.
Relax. You're in safe hands. Our wealth of PR experience across many industries means we can identify and manage issues within your company before they escalate in to a crisis.
And to put you at ease, here are just some of the issues we have managed successfully - lawsuits; customer and supplier grievances; personnel and property disputes. And the odd flood.
We understand how the media respond to big issues. So don't panic, we know how to handle them.
Unfortunately, there are times when a company hits a crisis - such as a product recall for health and safety reasons - and the reputation that it has spent a long time nurturing is suddenly in jeopardy.
Fortunately for your company, we'll always be on hand to lend our skills and experience to protect your company's reputation. We have a proven methodology for handling such scenarios, which includes planning, rehearsal and management of communications.
Industry awards provide a great opportunity to highlight your business successes to the market. And not only do they enhance reputations externally and allow companies to charge a premium for its products and services, they also boost morale internally and provide a great platform for building relationships with new partners.
We have an excellent track record of writing winning award entries. Our last success came when we composed the entry that won managed security services company, BlackSpider Technologies, the coveted IT Services Supplier of the Year at the prestigious Computing Awards 2005.
Trade analysts provide an excellent third-party reference point for journalists. We work with ex-analysts to help our clients forge strong relationships with current analysts, which in turn bolsters the media relations arm of our PR programmes. And, ultimately, boosts sales of your product or service.
Speaker platforms can play a key role in a PR programme but only when carefully targeted. We only advocate speaker platforms that will generate media coverage in your core media, rather than waste resources developing mediocre opportunities that won't directly benefit your business.
Evaluating campaigns not only helps determine value for money but equally importantly provides insights that can be used to refine future programmes and increase their effectiveness.
We look at four areas of evaluation:
- Output - what was generated, including media coverage
- Out take - what were the audiences perceptions following the communications
- Outcome - did we achieve out objectives
- Impact - the effect that our campaign has had on your organisation as a whole