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Purina Cat Chow offers a case study on bringing home the bottom line
by Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.
I don’t know about you, but any campaign that includes a Myers-Briggs-type personality test for cats is a winner in my eyes.
But will identifying five feline personality types put you on the fast track for promotions, raises and bonuses? When layoffs loom, will the boss say, “Yes, I know we have to let 80 percent of our people go. But she’s the one who helped us figure out that Gigi was a Bossy Cat and Mimi was a Scaredy Cat”?
No.
It takes more than creativity — let’s face it: It takes more than communication — to help you become a player in your organization.
It takes bottom-line business results. And that’s what communicators at Purina Cat Chow delivered in their Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Silver Anvil Award-winning campaign, “Way of Life Experience.”
In 2004, the 25-year-old brand was losing market share to its competitors, specifically Iams, whose scientific positioning had helped it gain ground. The folks at Purina decided to go beyond diet to position the brand with a whole-cat approach that included exercise, dental hygiene, emotional well-being and companionship.
Enter the Purrsonality test, tour and attendant publicity efforts.
Communicators could — and did — report PR results, like placements, impressions and event attendance. But the real results measured the bottom line:
The campaign helped Purina Cat Chow post a 2.7 percent increase in market share to lead the dry cat food category.
Want to be a winner? Instead of measuring whether communication occurred (placements, impressions, attendance), measure what happened because communication occurred.
Want more inspiration from organizations that measure and move bottom-line performance through communication? Check out PRSA’s The Business Case for Public Relations case studies. You’ll find profiles of best-in-class PR programs that have achieved bottom-line business successes.
Bottom-line communications
Want to master the art of developing communications that help you achieve bottom-line business goals?
- Read Ann’s “Setting SMART Goals and Objectives” handbook.
- Get more tipsheets on creating communications that get bottom-line business results on RevUpReadership.com.
About Ann Wylie
Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., a training, writing and consulting firm. She works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.
Copyright © 2009 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.
