Publicity, negative or positive is considered good. No matter what, if your brand gets caught in the eye of the people, you wear the throne while your competitors bite the dust.

Consider a scenario, two independent burger joints in two different areas are in business. One believes the quality of his food is good enough, the other wants to attract more people by way of publicity and marketing. Who do you think will be better off in such a situation? Well, without a doubt the latter one since he is presenting it as brand. But like coins, publicity too has 2 sides. This means you cannot ignore the sustainability of your product. With publicity comes credibility, expertise and reputation. You are obviously aware of the usual publicity stunts that people do in daily lives for their businesses. Here are some which people generally miss out on:

1. USP (Unique Selling Proposition): As the name itself suggests, USP is what sets you apart from the rest of the horde. A strong USP makes you irreplaceable. This marketing concept remains to be one of the best ways of building a brand and creating an impression in the market. It helps in the development of the product/ service’s personality. But it’s not like Domino’s is the only pizza joint which offers 30 minute delivery. So what was initially a USP of something of a great quality ended up being something quite different. Any businessman might get caught up with his daily schedules and may end up realizing what is special about their business. This is the time when he must stop to analyze and think from the point of view of the consumers or the audience he is dealing with. After coming to a conclusion, he can have a single theme targeted around the result which he may have never thought of.

2. Local reporters: Another thing that can be done is to get hold of the local reporters who belong to the same industry. They are the ones who will get it done for you, otherwise how do you expect your name to grow. So what can be done is that you get hold of the major local newspapers and take down names of reporters who cover your industry. Or you can simply call up the local media office to know who handles what business. You can have a letter written to the editor of the business column to cover your business and developments. This takes care of one of the most crucial aspects of publicity, local newspapers.

3. Become a Guest: There is always a possibility of being featured as a guest on any of the radio stations who are looking for covering stories related to your industry. So get in touch with your local radio station and ask them for if they are looking for any guest speakers. Tell them your area of expertise and maybe they will book you for a show. Surprisingly, after the invention of TV and Internet, radio still manages a get a piece of the pie.

4. Create some ripples: Make some news before the launch of your product. This gives the product enough space and time to settle in the minds of the targeted audience. These ripples carry on the product’s name for a fairly decent amount of time. You can hold a fundraiser, carry out a pro-environment marathon or even break a world record! As long as you are in the news for the good reasons, it’s alright. Make sure that the audience gets enough of time to have a clear picture of what you are offering, so when it is time for the launch, their anticipation is touching heights.

5. Create a Publicity Plan: Everything in business starts and ends with planning. No matter what stage of management you are in, planning at every step is necessary to ensure one is on track. Unless you chalk out a plan, achieving publicity goals would be very difficult. You can have a short term(one year) plan or a long term(three to five year) plan. The short term plans can be broken down into monthly, weekly or daily plans to help decide your next plan of action. Have the long term plan charted out first, then you can fine tune the short term goals. Your long term goals could be anything from completing a million dollar contract to launching a new product or service. For short term plans, you can even include co-branding i.e. combining your name with an already established business.

These are just some of the ways to make your product public or have a name established in the market. I’m sure of the availability of many others, which is why you are requested to leave comments and suggestions. Hope the above given ideas inspire another Steve Jobs !