By Yvonne Meacham Buchanan

Wouldn’t it be deadly dull if everything was the same? One type of breath mints: Tic Tacs cinnamon. One flavor of ice cream: pistachio. Variety is the spice of our lives. It’s what makes the eyes twinkle, the taste buds tingle, and the ad guys rich. If every toilet paper was squeezably soft, what could you say about Charmin?

As we all know, though, every toilet paper is squeezably soft (unless you’re in a public restroom – where do they find that stuff?). But Charmin was the first to call itself squeezably soft, and they communicated this message every chance they got using a variety of methods (a spokesperson who couldn’t resist squeezing the Charmin, soft focus product shots, splashy magazine ads, billboards, you name it.) This is what’s known as differentiating a product. It also positions the product within its marketplace: if Charmin is squeezably soft, where does that leave its competitors? They’ll have to come up with another “position” because that one’s already been filled.

The above is an example of how advertising positions and differentiates. But who has the bucks to do an expensive ad campaign like this one?

Let’s take a look at how we can do the same thing (albeit on a smaller scale) with public relations.

A public relations program for differentiating Charmin might work something like this:

• Attend the major bathroom product trade shows. Set up meetings in advance with bathroom paper analysts and the editors of Toilet Paper: Just Kleenex On a Roll?, Two-Ply Gazette, and Bathroom Products Journal. (Of course, I made these up)
• Hold a “Softest Toilet Paper” contest. Publish the results; Get media coverage. Send demo products to toilet paper reviewers.
• Get Charmin’s spokesperson on the popular talk show, “Potty Talk.”
• Garner an industry award. Send a press release.
• Do a press tour of the bathroom paper trade magazines.

I won’t go on because I’ve still got that product demo image in my head, but you get the idea. In all of these activities (called “tactics” in PR lingo), the key message would be reinforced, like a mantra: squeezably soft, squeezably soft, squeezably soft. Pretty soon, the target audience (people who use toilet paper) find themselves thinking: “I think I’ll buy Charmin this time. I don’t know why, but I have this feeling it must be squeezably soft.”

For larger organizations like Charmin’s parent company, Procter & Gamble, a combination of advertising, marketing, merchandising and public relations is used. But if you can only afford one avenue, public relations can be an effective, low-cost way to differentiate and position your company, its products or services.

Yvonne Meacham Buchanan is a public relations instructor for PR Essentials, an online public relations course available through Careers in Public Relations http://www.careers-in-public-relations.com.