The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [74]
Exercise
Write down several ideas for articles that could be published in magazines, trade publications, or ezines on the Web. These same articles can become free reports that you use to market to prospects. This is how you beat the competition with your brain, not your wallet.
A great core story will make this easier. Right now I’m working with two women farmers who’ve created a way to put images on fruit. Yes, that’s right, the apple you give your kids could have Sponge Bob on it. Their core story is about the health of Americans and how eating more fruit increases your life expectancy. Here is one of their press releases. Note that it is full of interesting information—one of the keys for getting your press release picked up.
PRESS RELEASE: OBESITY IN AMERICAN CHILDREN QUADRUPLES; FAST-FOOD COMPANIES TO BLAME?
A study conducted between 1963 and 1970 showed that obesity among children ages 6 to 11 years old was at about 4 percent of the child population. A similar study conducted between 1999 and 2002 shows that obesity is now at a staggering 16 percent.
Many trends have contributed to these factors. Among them is that large corporations have become much more aggressive in their marketing to children. And with good reason. In 1960, children influenced about $5 billion in spending. Today, that number is $500 billion—quite an increase.
The number of products corporate America markets directly to children has gone from 52 products in 1994 to more than 500 products today. A study of grade-school children showed that 96 percent of them could recognize Ronald McDonald. The only other figure with recognition that high was Santa Claus. The golden arches as a symbol are more recognized than the Christian cross.
One company’s solution: Two women in Burlington, Washington, who run a small farm called AMF Farms have lobbied and received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to see if images on fruit can spur on children eating more fruit.
AMF Farms began by offering minipumpkins with cartoon characters painted on them. These products gained national distribution with such chains as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway, and Albertson’s. Once they perfected the art of mass-producing painted pumpkins, they made the next step, which was embossing edible images on fruit.
AMF Farms can paint just about any image on fruit, particularly apples and pears. States Michelle Younquist of AMF Farms, “Imagine how much more likely your child would be to eat an apple if it had Dora the Explorer or Sponge Bob on it.”
AMF Farms is currently working with large growers of fruit to spread the usage of cartoon characters on fruit. They can also emboss logos of famous sports teams and corporate logos of companies that want to promote the eating of more fruit.
According to the Journal of Agriculture and Chemistry, people who eat the USDA daily recommendation of five or more servings of fruits and vegetables are half as likely to get cancer and 20 percent less likely to get heart disease (America’s two biggest killers).
“This is just something we can do to help, but we’re a small company,” says AMF Farms cofounder Liz Mitchell. “We’re trying to do our part to get children healthier. If this one thing can get a child eating an apple per day, it’s worth every thing we’re going through.”
To learn more, go to www.fruitdeco.com.
This is an effective PR piece because it starts with a newsworthy pain point. Every day there are articles in the news about the problem of obesity in general, especially child obesity. The PR piece is also effective because it uses mainstream and well-respected sources for its data. It reads like a news article without needing much editing. The article presents a company doing something right by offering one small solution to getting kids to eat healthier. Because the article is not focused on AMF per se but on important issues that will be of greater interest