The McRae Agency
Consumer Product Case Study
Solatube International Inc.
Consumer Tip Sheet Program
Summary
Solatube International Inc., based in Vista, Calif., is the innovator and industry leader of the tubular skylight product. Solatube revolutionized the skylight industry in the 1980s by developing a tube-shaped skylight that offered a compact, leak-proof, inexpensive alternative to traditional box skylights. Both trade and consumer media were important audiences for our public relations program. While Solatube received extensive coverage in the trade press, the company was having a hard time getting coverage in the consumer media. The traditional new product press releases simply were not being used.
The client did not have a budget for formal market research, so we conducted our own research, utilizing a national clipping service to track all mentions of Solatube in the news, as well as tracking all competitors’ coverage. Each month, we produce an in-depth report to track results of our publicity program, as well as examine the competitions’. Additionally, we have interviewed a number of the company’s constituents, including installers, competitors, Solatube’s CEO, head of R&D, home owners, dealers, news media, contractors, architects, professionals, companies who have installed the product, etc. This is a process that has taken place over time to provide additional knowledge to our base of information about the company and its products. We have attended dealer conferences and gone along on both commercial and residential installations to learn more about the process. We have done an audit of competitors’ web sites and have even monitored home improvement chat rooms. We have conducted ongoing research through the Internet for the latest findings on the various benefits of natural light. We have tried to utilize every vehicle possible (without conducting formal research) to get information. Through our research and reports, we were able to determine that Solatube was indeed receiving considerably more coverage in trade media. While this was a key audience for them, we all agreed that a big market was being missed by not having greater coverage with consumer media, including print, radio and television.
In order to break into consumer media, we would need to try something completely new. Up to this point in our public relations program, we had largely focused our press releases on the introduction of new products. Because Solatube is heavily involved with research and development and staying at the top of technology within the industry, this was a critical aspect of our program. The trade media also “ate up” these announcements since it fit their demographic – builders, architects, designers, etc. The consumer media presented a much tougher “nut to crack.” They were unreceptive to new product announcements and we needed to figure out a way to get their attention with something that they could actually use. After considerable brainstorming, our agency came up with a new concept – “Solatube’s Home Lighting Tips” – that would serve the purpose of a news release but be presented in a visually interesting, non-traditional format. These consumer-focused tip sheets would work together as a series of story angles and would be distributed to key print and broadcast media over the course of several months with the idea being that one of these would eventually strike a chord with a particular contact. By providing the consumer media with information on topics they were interested in – such as how to make your home sell faster or how to make a productive home office – we were offering a story and not just a self-serving new widget announcement.
While unique from the traditional news releases we were already doing for Solatube, these tip sheets would need to be included in our existing monthly budget, without interrupting work on a myriad of other PR activities for the client (after all, we could not abandon the “nuts and bolts” part of the program during what was essentially an experiment into the consumer market). The audience included consumer news media (print, radio and television) in the United States and later, in Canada.
It would take careful planning to get the “alternative news release” concept into a form that we could present to our client, who was very sensitive to expenses. We were careful not to present an idea that would be expensive to implement, because we knew any extravagant copy writing, design or printing costs would never be approved by management. Therefore, we needed to come up with a format that could be produced in house within our existing budget.
First, we came up with a preliminary list of tip sheet topics. We familiarized ourselves with the publications and programs on our consumer “wish list” and identified various angles that could be used to capture their attention. The result was a starting list of more than a dozen tip sheet concepts (from how adding natural light can lift one’s mood to making a home office more productive). Next, the design issue needed to be addressed. We would need to rely on our own creativity and basic computer programs to design a tip sheet that would be reader-friendly and eye-catching on a shoe-string budget. Our solution was to create a tip sheet template using Microsoft Publisher and send it to a small local print shop to be printed with a metallic blue foil ink. This ideal format “reflected” (pun intended) Solatube’s key feature – a high-tech reflective tubing that allowed it to capture as much daylight as a box skylight several times its size. Best of all, the printing of the mastheads cost only pennies a sheet. We presented the tip sheet series to our client contacts, Solatube’s marketing manager and the vice president of sales and marketing. They couldn’t have been more thrilled! The ideas were completely different from anything we had done in the past, and best of all, we weren’t asking for more money to do it. They were anxious to give it a try.
Results
Within the first few months of the program (designed to take place over 12 months), we had already received tremendous feedback from the consumer media. Although it is sometimes difficult to trace exactly which tactics in a comprehensive PR program trigger a response, we know that the home selling tip sheet has been directly responsible for an interview on “Home by Design” radio as well as a story by syndicated columnist Michael Walsh of Universal Press Syndicate which has (so far) resulted in hits in daily newspapers in at least 11 of the top 35 U.S. markets, including the Houston Chronicle, Atlanta Journal, Arizona Republic and Kansas City Star (with an estimated 3.7 million cumulative impressions). Additionally, the tip sheets have recently been added to Solatube’s new website for even greater exposure. We were also able to make in-roads with Bob Vila (the top of Solatube’s wish list), and secured segments on PBS’ “For Your Home” and various Home & Garden Television (HGTV) programs. Solatube has continued to show an increase in sales, with 1998 figures up by 38 percent over 1997. So far, 1999 sales are up by 20 percent. This is the result of a synergistic marketing program, with the tip sheet being one very valuable tool for achieving our goals.
Solatube’s consumer tip sheet program received a first place award for technical writing from the Public Relations Society of America.
Applicability Strategic planning, writing, media relations