It’s A Numbers Game

The other day I emailed a PR for some information about a brand. The reply I got was, ‘I don’t work on X Brand, so I will forward it to my colleague and she will email you.’ It wasn’t a complicated request at all, but somehow it felt implicit in the reply that I should have known that she wasn’t responsible for X Brand. I waited a bit…half a day I think, and got an email from the right person so had to start negotiations all over again. It got me thinking that this happens all too often: agencies need to work across all their brands – even if it’s scant knowledge, it is better than none at all. Blantantly refusing to deal with a brand that doesn’t fall into their particular remit is shortsighted and Jesus, irritating. It cannot be that hard to stuff a sample in an envelope even if you don’t work on the brand. Checking in the bible that is The Diary Directory, my rudimentary maths calculates that, of the 26 pages devoted to beauty brands, each with roughly 105 brands to a page, it amounts to an approximate total of 2730 brands. If each brand has its own invidual PR, or even if one PR looks after two or three brands, I am supposed to know who the hell you are, how?

It’s all very well to live in a bubble where the brand you look after is the one you live and breathe, but please spare a thought for us writers who need a knowledge bank of absurd proportions to ‘get the right person’. Maybe shifting the onus onto the writer to find someone to deal with a request that is going to bring your agency’s client publicity shouldn’t be this hard. Just a thought.

Oh and a final PS arising from Twitter comments when this post originally went out, it would be 100% lovely if all PRs could keep a price list handy for all brands. There is nothing more soul destroying than phoning for a price on deadline to be told ‘sorry, X is on voicemail, do you want to leave a message?’

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9 responses to “It’s A Numbers Game”

  1. lady jane grey

    Well, the branch I work for has nothing to do with fashion or beauty (unfortunately), but still, we have brands. I’m repsonsible for few brands with lots of different versions in lots of different countries and although I have some idea about the brands of my colleagues, I don’t know any details about them. And I definitely wouldn’t dare to send out their samples, or give any info about their brand. I did it once and it was a huge problem and conflict – everybody guards its brand and is a ruler over them. I got explained that if everybody was giving out info and samples, etc. criss/cross you couldn’t control the flow of info anymore – and well, it’s true (if you have lots of brands, of course). So now I forward every tiny question straightway to the brand-manager, even when the answer would be easy.
    And I can imagine, how sensitive they are about these issues in the fashion and beauty branch… That’s how it works in an office full of marketing & PR people !

    Reply
  2. The Beauty Assistant

    I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one occasion BBB (it doesn’t happen very often!) Having experienced both sides of the industry (I started out in beauty PR, working for P&G brands in an incredibly busy (and very unhappy) press office), I have a good perspective on how both journalists and PRs work.
    As a PR, I always passed on a call to the relevant team. This wasn’t through laziness or a lack or regard for the journalist, but through the sheer enormity of my own workload. I worked across 5 very busy accounts, and was regularly working until 10 / 11pm. When I already had 30 send outs to do in a day (all of which had to be carefully recorded), I wasn’t prepared to take on more by doing what I regarded as other people’s work.
    I agree, as a journalist, it’s irritating to have to wait, and yes it’s a problem the agencies have to address (it’s easily solved – HIRE MORE PEOPLE!!), but spare a thought for the poor PR Assistant who will still be in the office long after we’re tucked up in bed!
    Jx

    p.s. I did always keep a price list for all brands next to me for any price or stockist requests, which I agree isn’t rocket science! x

    Reply
  3. GreatSheElephant

    I agree about the price list but I’m going to have to go with the others on the question of brands you don’t work on. For one thing the client is paying to have the PR concentrate on their brand, not spend time on someone else’s.

    Reply
  4. MagpieSparkles

    Yes I agree with previous comments – I’ve worked in a few agencies and we never liaised with anyone else’s clients or had any knowledge of their brands- even basic.

    I work client-side now and it’s the same – if I happen to get a question about another product I refer the question on to the relevent team who has the expert knowledge.

    Reply
  5. BeautiK

    I never usually disagree with you BBB, but I’m afraid I am going to join the comments this time in saying that this is an unfair post and reeks of someone who has never slogged it out as a pr assistant. Like the Beauty Assistant, I too have worked in both industries, and while I can clearly state that the grass is greener on the journalist side, I can easily empathise with the pr side.
    I don’t know what pr agency you spoke too, but most account managers will be working across a minimum of four or five brands (ie overloaded already) and so will pass you over to the correct account manager out of courtesy to you as opposed to out of laziness- why would they supply you with vague overviews of a brand when the girl at the next desk can supply you with everything you need?
    However, saying that, whoever the pr girl was who didn’t have her price list on her should be ticked off for sure.
    My final point is that without the beauty pr’s of this world, us beauty journalists would not be able to function and vice versa. Let’s not forget that.

    Reply
  6. Michelle (BeautyEditor.ca)

    Sorry I have to agree with BBB here – ultimately, PRs are paid to serve the client and the client is me! (Yes I know it’s the beauty companies that pay their bills, but if they’re not developing good relationships with journalists then they don’t have much of a business do they?)

    I’ve been an editor for 5 yrs now and in all that time there’s only been one PR company that stands out. Why? A few reasons, but mainly because if you ask the wrong person for info, or contact someone who is too senior (I’ve done both many times), they never let you know it and handle your request all the way through. FAST. Incidentally they handle a number of P&G brands so aren’t some small time shop with too much time on their hands.

    Too bad this is the exception in PR, not the norm.

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    I worked in a huge multinational company dealing with 1000’s of clients and companies. I have to agree with the other posters here that I had enough just to keep on top of my clients, knowing all of the details of their files etc without taking on anything else. Plus if I helped out one person, 20 more would call just wanting a ‘quick favour’. If I proved helpful, despite knowing it wasn’t my client I’d end up being pestered for more and more, that’s just the nature of the business. So it might have seemed like I didn’t care but if I got queries about clients other than my own, they got passed on. Otherwise the office would have been chaos!

    Reply
  8. Anonymous

    PRs and journalists are their to serve the same clients – beauty brands…. WIthout these major brands magazine would fold through underfunding and PR agencies would cease to exist….

    Reply
  9. LionLovingTiger

    I’m not sure how it works in other agencies however in my office, we work in small teams across brands – each team has their own allocation of accounts. If the main account handler is unavailable, there will be, nine times out of ten, another member of that particular team there with sufficient knowledge to assist with any media enquiry.

    I wouldn’t have enough knowledge of another team’s accounts to assist the majority of the time, but would always be able too find someone who could help.

    Tx

    Reply

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