I’m Sorry, But That’s Not Marketing
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Egyptian Gumbo is back, and I’ve decided to let my husband have a little taste of my online gumbo recipe – a little sas, a little attitude, much needed information, and a lot of fun. So welcome Belal as the newest writer for EgyptianGumbo.com.
Last week, we read an article on MuslimMatters together which got us tossing and turning at night. “Surely we cant just let it go, can we?” We’ve debated with this question for a while, and the result is, yup — this blog post. We couldn’t let it go. So MuslimMatters, this one is for you:
This is specifically in response to part three of the Islamic marketing series, which is written by ibnabeeomar.
We’re sorry for having to do this, but there are some major mistakes in the article.
Let’s start with the basic understand that public relations and branding are two completely different facets of marketing.
The article states,
Marketing is also closely tied to branding – or the perception that people have of your organization
For example, if you run an organization closely tied to youth activities, people’s perception of you will always be of being youth focused. Even if you later try to brand yourself as something tailored for adults, it is hard to shed that reputation.
Just like Nike may brand itself one way, but people invariably associate its “brand” with sweatshop abuse.
The reason this is important to keep in mind is because I strongly believe certain types of marketing practices can brand an Islamic organization one way or another (most often in a negative fashion).
Branding has to do with the image in the minds of the people that has been built over a period of time supplemented with symbolism, colors, and emotions. Its a one-way communication from the company to the masses.
PR has to do with managing the communication between the company and its publics, therefore it’s two-way communication.
Let’s give the example of a company’s “image.” More specifically, lets look at cars since that’s the example you used in your article.
You posted these four videos —
Two of the videos were straight branding and the other two were straight sales — no PR or branding involved.
If we’re talking branding with the Infinity and BMW commercial, the branding is PURE, FAST, SPORTY, and THRILL.
Notice the white background in both videos. Notice the focus on speed and sharp turns.
How do we turn that into PR?
Lets say one of the cars has a transmission problem and people are questioning the quality of these expensive cars. A PR rep might hold a press conference assuring customers the vehicle is safe. Also, PR reps could recommend the company extend its warranty on the transmission — sort of like what Acura did with the CL and TL models from 2001-2003.
Another PR stunt would be to get reviewers from car magazines to test drive and give their thoughts on the different facets and benefits of what this car has to offer in comparison to the others in its class.
By the way, Nike didn’t have a “branding issue” with the sweat shops. They had a PR issue. No one questioned the quality of Nike shoes. They questioned ethics which is a PR issue. If Nike hadn’t taken care of the issue, over an extended period of time it would eventually turn into a branding issue.
To an extent, branding and PR are closely related, but we cannot mix the two and say they are the same.
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Strategy vs. Tactics
Throughout the article the word “strategy” was used in place of the term “tactic.”
Every single Islamic program nowadays is doing the best it can to showcase itself as the best program on the planet, being as flashy as possible, and utilizing whatever strategies are at its disposal to convince people to attend.
Sometimes out of our zeal to get people to attend programs and benefit from them, we sometimes use strategies that can degrade the noble thing that we are calling to.
You followed the last statement with what Seth Godin is describing as specific tactics.
What’s the difference you might ask?
STRATEGY itself isn’t an action plan or a formula. Strategy is simply the evolution of a core idea within a company that is operating within changing circumstances.
An effective strategy comes with understanding several things:
- What advantages your company has on the ground?
- What ways you can suprise the industry?
- What are the different approaches one can take to attack an industry?
- Who are the people that one can team with to assist in that attack?
- What moral forces will come into play?
- How you’ll bear focus on a single point within the industry itself?
An effective strategy has to do with having an understanding of who you are and who/what the centers of power and influence are within a given industry and knowing that those are the power centers one has to attack.
Another way you can define strategy is the understanding of:
- What is the overall impact that your organizations long range goals will have.
- What is the ultimate accomplishment and ultimate position – the perception in the minds of people – you want your organization to have in the market
TACTICS are the specific actions you take to fulfill your organization’s strategic objectives and support the position that is being targeted and knowing that those specific efforts are fulfilling the strategic objectives of the organization individually and together.
– –
As you can tell, that section on strategy was clearly written by Belal alone and I was unsuccessful in Gumbofying it. I gave up. He talks too technical. So to that I say, “Batatis.”
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Ibnabeeomar had good and valid points in his article and by no means is this undermining his general thoughts. We agreed and disagreed with him on some issues but we decided not to comment on the main theme of the article but rather the nitty gritty things that may not seem so big or important to most people.
We felt it is important for most individuals to understand the nitty gritty details because whether you are a volunteer or and admin planning events with MSAs you are responsible for marketing just as much as the marketing director.
These things are essential to execution and success after the tawfeeq of Allah ‘az wa jal.
This article is a joint effort of Belal Khan and Shirien Elamawy.
Strategy vs. Tactics
Throughout the article the word “strategy” was used in place of the term “tactic.”
Sometimes out of our zeal to get people to attend programs and benefit from them, we sometimes use strategies that can degrade the noble thing that we are calling to.
You followed the last statement with what Seth Godin is describing as specific tactics.
What’s the difference you might ask?
STRATEGY itself isn’t an action plan or a formula. Strategy is simply the evolution of a core idea within a company that is operating within changing circumstances.
An effective strategy comes with understanding several things:
- What advantages your company has on the ground?
- What ways you can suprise the industry?
- What are the different approaches one can take to attack an industry?
- Who are the people that one can team with to assist in that attack?
- What moral forces will come into play?
- How you’ll bear focus on a single point within the industry itself?
An effective strategy has to do with having an understanding of who you are and who/what the centers of power and influence are within a given industry and knowing that those are the power centers one has to attack.
Another way you can define strategy is the understanding of:
- What is the overall impact that your organizations long range goals will have.
- What is the ultimate accomplishment and ultimate position – the perception in the minds of people – you want your organization to have in the market
TACTICS are the specific actions you take to fulfill your organization’s strategic objectives and support the position that is being targeted and knowing that those specific efforts are fulfillillng the strategic objectives of the organization individually and together.
– –
As you can tell, that section on strategy was clearly written by Belal alone and I was unsuccessful in Gumbofying it. I gave up. He talks too technical. So to that I say, “Batatis.”
– –
Br. Ibnabeeomar had good and valid points in his article and by no means is this undermining his general thoughts. We agreed and disagreed with him on some issues but we decided not to comment on the main theme of the article but rather the nitty gritty things that may not seem so big or important to most people. We felt it is important for most individuals to understand the nitty gritty details because whether you are a volunteer or and admin planning events with MSAs you are responsible for marketing just as much as the marketing director. These things are essential to execution and success after the tawfeeq of Allah ‘az wa jal.
This article is a joint effort of Belal Khan and Shirien Elamawy.
Faheem Says: 22.10.09 at 12:28 am
Awesome job guys! Too much confusion and for some reason, Muslim orgs all have engineers and doctors running operations they have no business running because we seem to lack people with marketing knowledge. We need to properly learn these marketing techniques and get away from flyering masajid and making video flyers [i.e. so called commercials on our ethnic tv channels].
Danish S. Says: 22.10.09 at 1:42 am
JazzakumAllahu khayran for posting this! I love Belal’s banner btw haha
This response was MUCH needed!
Arif Kabir Says: 22.10.09 at 2:22 am
You definitely did a good job with your STRATEGY of getting people in to read this article with your TACTIC of the FB picture – it certainly drew me in
Could we possibly get an article for more elaboration on how Muslim online marketers can get involved in PR on a consistent basis? One of the examples used to define PR was in response to a problem. The other was to promote an item. A lot of Muslim marketers are not selling something per say, but want to promote their organization or website. Can we get some advice on that topic?
JazaakumAllahu Khayran – The mix of EG and Leechon was definitely unique
AlBaraa Says: 22.10.09 at 2:35 am
Jazakallahu khairun for the comment
Re advice, I’ll go by what marketer and social media fanatic Gary Vay-ner-chuk says in his book “crush it” – he dedicates an entire chapter on what is the best strategy to build lots of good will. The chapter has only 1 word…
..care.
What ever activites you spend, do it with genuine care for the individuals. It’ll show.
Shirien Says: 22.10.09 at 2:39 am
A way to state the obvious, Belal. “Care…” It’s a bit more complicated than that. InshaAllah that article is a good idea. In general, are you looking specifically for online PR or on the ground?
depending on the medium approaches could be different and tactics would vary. if you give us something specific we could possibly use it as an example in the overall view of the article.
Wallahu alem.
zfnd Says: 22.10.09 at 3:15 am
Excellent article. The context shows clarity of thought and knowledge, mashallah.
Jawaad Ahmad Khan Says: 22.10.09 at 5:10 am
MashaAllah, great article. I second that we’d need an article on Islamic PR. I think PR has definitely left many Islamic workers confused.
@Belal,
Lol, I remember you tweeting that entire chapter on twitter a couple days ago (”care”)
@Shirien
I think an article for PR online would be helpful for me personally. Though, down the line, an article on PR on the ground that Islamic workers could use as a reference to help would be good (again, I’d enjoy that, too).
Just trying to give some ideas to begin populating the blog.
Jazakallahu Khair again for writing this.
Arif Kabir Says: 22.10.09 at 5:56 am
Okay, thinking about it a little more, it’s a few questions:
1. The original question – What’s one of the effective ways to do PR on organizations or websites that are run online (like MuslimMatters.org or EG?) One of the ways is obviously comments and the fact that both writers responded already shows it’s not a one-way street masha’Allah. But are there other ways?
2. Is PR limited to interaction? When you say that PR is communication between the client and the company, how do effectively carry out PR to different types of groups without stepping on someone’s toes or hurting someone’s feelings?
3. Consistent Marketing (this questions both online and on the ground) – Some organizations, ahem ahem (lol), are based on a long term basis and need not only consistent customers, but the same customers for their services. How can we reach them and get them to buy in without annoying them? In other words, what is the appropriate amount and when do we know it’s too much? I heard from an analyst that ideally, a marketer should reach a customer three times, but if we’re to reach someone three times per product, it gets beyond annoying. If we try to aggregate everything into a newsletter for example, most people don’t even look. What works and what will make people coming back and actually spending money?
Shirien Says: 22.10.09 at 1:13 pm
@arif, those are all very good questions mashaAllah. And I would like to actually expand on them in another post.
But for the time being i’ll give you some things to think about. Let’s take MuslimMatters.org as an example.
Today there was a national news story on the front page of Yahoo! News that linked to MuslimMatters.org. Good or bad? It depends. What was the news article talking about? Here is the link.
It’s not the type of publicity I think that is good for MuslimMatters.org when trying to reach out to non-Muslims. There are now associated with this news story and links are being made somehow.
They need some PR. One thing I saw on their website today was their article denouncing “Terrorism” this is straight PR whether they really intended it or not, which I actually think it wasthe Qaddar of Allah that it was published the same morning the other article was published.
Consequently, everyone who read and clicked on MuslimMatters.org from that AP article the first thing they see on their page is that they denounce terrorism. Good PR stunt.
That is linked to image as we talked about above in this article. From another perspective for the Muslim audience who already reads their blog, it gives them more credibility when journalist from the Associated Press use them as a source. It means they are big enough to be noticed and to be held as a “voice” for them.
The other thing you have to also consider in Question #1 is what is your goal with your PR campaign. What is the overall mission you are trying to reach with your website/blog? Is your goal to spread more good will with your publics? is it to gain more readers in order to provide them with beneficial information? you need to be specific and from there we can lay out some examples as to how Muslims can use PR online.
#2. PR is not limited to interaction but its a major part of it. But again PR is supposed to be mutually beneficial. You get your public but you have to give them something in return. I don’t see why someone doing PR means stepping on anyone’s toes. IF you provide me with more specific example I might be able to elaborate more.
#3 is a loaded question and inshaAllah i’ll try my best to answer it soon.
@faheem, I understand you do some marketing for Islamicrelief, we’d be interested in hearing some of the tactics islamicrelief employs to reaching their marketing goals.
Arif Kabir Says: 25.10.09 at 11:06 am
#1 and #3 – JazaakumAllahu Khayran for the answer – I guess the goal needs to be realized before getting into the PR. Hope to read about #3 soon Insha’Allah
#2 What I meant by stepping on someone’s toes can basically be explained by the disasterous PR response by MuslimMatters.org. Masha’Allah, they are the premier Muslim blog, but it was a rather unwise decision and Alhamdulillah, they apologized for the quick reaction.
However, there’s bound to be people that don’t agree with me. There are those that condemn everyone that America condemns and supports everyone whom America supports – basically, they sway with the wind. They probably loved the article denouncing terrorism with the specifics mentioned and commended MuslimMatters.org for their ‘balanced and fair’ decision. Of course, they may be a minority, but in other cases, there seems to be equal on both sides. I’m not suggesting that we be like politicans and try to appease everyone (or no one consequently), but from a PR perspective, should we just stay away from controversial topics, or is there a way to weave through these different views? If I promote something that may not be liked by a sizable majority, would that prove to be harmful or should we go with our beliefs. If we do go with our beliefs, how do we approach the matter?