 |
|
About > Frequently Asked Questions
|
The Exclusivity Question: |
| “Don’t editors want to have exclusivity for the feature articles they publish?” |
| Response: |
|
Exclusivity in the trade press is very different from exclusivity in the mass media. Trade journals compete for a very narrowly defined readership. For all trade journals their readership will be defined, firstly, in terms of a specific business area, e.g. chemical industry, food processing, construction, etc., secondly, by the language in which the journal is published and, thirdly, (with the exception of worldwide journals) by a geographic area of coverage, e.g. France, South America,
S.E.Asia, etc..
For trade press editors, therefore, ‘exclusivity’ means that a feature article that they publish has not been published by 2 to 3 other journals who compete for the same narrow readership. If an editor is concerned about this they will ask Minett Media whether these specific journals have published or are planning to publish the article in question. If our data shows a negative on this, the edit is generally satisfied with regard to exclusivity. |
The ‘Media-Experience’ Question: |
| “How much experience has Minett Media had in placing articles in chemical/food processing/construction/etc.?” |
| Response: |
|
We target all business-to-business trade journals in the world, which we categorize into nearly 50 business areas (please see our business area code list) and we’ve had articles published in more or less all of them. However, your question implies that we operate like a conventional PR agency, which we don’t. Conventional PR agencies often specialize in particular business areas and try to build up a network of personal contacts with media people in these areas. We don’t do this: we make editorial material available to thousands of editors via the Internet. We report back which editors have selected the material for further consideration, but the decision to publish depends on the editor’s judgement of the material’s quality and its suitability for his/her journal – not on the length or depth of any personal relationship which Minett Media has had with this particular editor. In other words, we’re more of a ‘message-neutral’ channel: putting your editorial material into our system is rather like buying advertising time on a tv channel. What the channel can do is to get the simultaneous mass attention of your target audience, in our case this is thousands of trade press editors in relevant business areas. (We’ll be happy to supply you with full details of the number, geographic location and titles of the journals we have in any or all of our business area classifications.) The quality of the material you put in then determines its publication success. One example here; Minett Media didn’t have much of a track record in food processing. Then Frigoscandia began working with us and put in an excellent article on the use of refrigeration in the production and transportation of food products which has now been published in 17 different journals worldwide. |
The ‘Tailor-made’ Question: |
| “Don’t editors really want to have articles purpose-written to their particular specifications?” |
| Response: |
|
Not necessarily! – the success of our placement system for over a decade clearly demonstrates that trade press editors are willing to publish articles which they judge to be newsworthy, relevant and well-written, regardless of the fact that they were not consulted before the production of these articles. On the other hand, getting an editor’s co-operation prior to production is an excellent publication strategy. This can be arranged in the conventional way and then Minett Media’s electronic tracking system can take over the difficult and frustrating process of following-up with the editor through to getting a copy of the published version. Many ‘Tailor-made’ article production projects often stop there. Minett Media, however, can also then make the article available worldwide, thus realizing its full potential for global publication. |
The ‘Non-Targeted’ Question: |
| “Given that you’re promoting editor-selection, ultimately via a website, doesn’t that mean that you lose control over targeting, i.e. material may get published in non-targeted business or geographic areas?” |
| Response: |
|
Yes, but there are several safeguards: firstly, it’s true that our system does promote the maximization of global publication, which we believe, in the modern world, is the optimum marketing communications strategy of b2b companies. However, we understand that there may, under particular circumstances, be reasons why publication in a particular geographic or business area, or a particular journal may be undesirable. That’s why we developed our ‘Being Considered’ report to clients, which informs them immediately as to which journal has expressed an interest in a particular article. The client then has the option to veto that particular publication. Secondly, it does happen that articles get published via our system in business areas for which neither the client, nor Minett Media has classified them. Our strategy on this phenomenon (as generally in our system) is to trust the judgement of the editor – if he or she believes that the material in question is relevant to his/her readership why should we over-rule them? Trade press editors are key market actors: it’s their job to know their particular business and geographic markets, and, if they’re reasonably good at their jobs, they should certainly know these better than we do. Therefore, if interest from editors appears in unexpected business and geographic areas, this should be greeted positively as a valuable form of market research, rather than negatively as something to be avoided. |
The ‘Local-Placement’ Question: |
|
“Isn’t the placement of editorial better left to personnel at the local level who know the trade press in their market best?” |
| Response: |
|
For companies which engage in extensive international marketing, the question of local versus global distribution of feature articles for the trade press is often considered within the wider context of its policy on marketing as a whole. If the company tends to favour a ‘local’ rather than ‘global’ approach to marketing, then (presumably in the interests of consistency) this policy is often,
unreflectingly, applied also to this placement activity. Having had long and wide experience in this particular area, Minett Media is convinced that this is a mistake for the following reasons: 1) Knowledge of Press Plus Placement Effort - for very obvious reasons, when asked (for example, at the company’s global marketing conferences) local companies will invariably say that they 'know' their local trade press and are actively placing material in it. The reality, however, is likely to be very different, simply because it takes time, manpower and resources to; * keep track of the trade press * get their attention for the material you have to offer * deal with questions about text & pictures & ensure that they get them by their publication deadlines * obtaining copies of published material Many local companies are exclusively sales companies and are judged on their sales results. Consequently, they are reluctant to devote their limited resources to other activities. (And despite the effectiveness of a Case-Based approach to B2B marketing – as argued in this book – many companies do not keep or even ask about statistics on editorial placements.) 2) Global placement (either managed internally or sub-contracted to a specialist global placement agency) ensures exclusive focus on achieving the four objectives above and on reporting detailed progress in this area to the global organisation as a whole. 3) A few of local companies may be doing a reasonable placement job, but most will be doing very little or nothing. (If you doubt this, ask for physical evidence of the publications achieved - copies or at least journal titles, dates of publication etc.) Global placement (especially by an agency) works because editors around the world learn to come to one centre to get material about one, or more, international companies. By doing this they clearly demonstrate that they are not getting material from the local sales organizations (for the reasons given above). 4) Global placement does not in any way interfere with personal relations between local company & local press - in fact it can improve them: if editors are being efficiently served with the material they want about your company from a global centre, which ensures that it’s properly prepared & delivered on time, the local personnel are relieved of this 'mechanical' part of the job. They can them concentrate on the personal side of the relationship - which can get soured if the 'mechanical' part is done badly or not at all. 5) Apart from efficiency issues, there's also the question of sharing the results of publication efforts: if article placement is left entirely to the local level, then that's more than likely where the results will stay. Editors these days generally see the world as 'borderless'. The idea that each country's case stories must be kept exclusively within that country may appeal to those who run local companies but the publication record of agencies such as mine shows that this view is no longer shared (if it ever was) by editors - neither is it in the interests of their readers and your potential customers. 6) If the global placement service obtains physical copies of published articles, they then become (at least potentially) available to the Group worldwide, enabling your sales force to draw on an enormously larger stock of presentations & case stories bearing the 'stamp of legitimacy of publication'. |
The ‘Free-Lunch’ Question: |
|
“Don’t editors really respond better to personal attention, being taken to lunch for example, than to the impersonal delivery of material via the Internet?” |
| Response: |
|
Not necessarily! Giving editors access to ready-to-publish materials actually makes their jobs easier – provided it’s written to professional trade press standards. Editors, acting in their gate-keeper role, can then publish the material (provided its newsworthy and well-prepared) as an information service to their readers. A trade press editor once told me that, if he’d wanted to, he could have eaten lunch every working day at the expense of companies wanting to place editorial in his journal. He invariably explained to them that a) he didn’t have the time and b) he’d far rather have a publishable-quality story, which would decrease his work-load, than a free lunch, which would increase both the length of his working day - and the circumference of his waist-line! If, no the other hand, local personnel see a value in personally entertaining editors and/or already have a network of strong relations with local editors, then Minett Media can integrate these resources into our Partnership for Publication Promotion arrangements. |
