Use top management. At most companies, top management pays attention to press coverage only when the coverage is negative or when the competition receives a lot of positive coverage. I believe top managers should play a more active role in press relations-and marketing in general.

At most companies, especially small, technology-based companies, the personality and culture of the company can be traced to the management team. As the company grows, and marketing plans proliferate, that corporate personality often fades. Top managers are then the only ones able to communicate the corporate character and ideals. They are the only ones who can offer a simple, unified view of the total corporation.

If you put layers of people between company management and the journalist, the journalist will never get a true sense of what drives the company. If, on the other hand, top managers would meet on a regular basis with journalists, financial analysts, and employees, everyone would benefit. Each group would come away with a better understanding of the other’s positions. There would be less likelihood of misunderstanding and distrust and surprise. It’s a job that no public-relations agency can do without top management’s help.

Putting It All Together
Several years ago, a well-known industrialist told me that all business success is based on two things: building relationships and patience.

Nowhere is this more true than in market positioning. None of the market-positioning activities-using word of mouth, developing the infrastructure, forming strategic relationships, selling to the right customers, dealing with the press-will guarantee success by itself. And none of them will bring success overnight. It takes a long time to establish contacts and build relationships.

But taken together, and given enough time, these elements are almost certain to work. They will bring recognition and credibility to a company and its products. It might take a while, but it’s worth the wait.