A Lesson Learned From Miley

Planned PR stunts come in many forms. You could hold a press conference where you hand a giant check with lots of zeroes to a worthy organization, you could hire a stunt man to para-glide into your Grand Opening, you could even rent a famous person to make an appearance and pretend they are close friends with you for a special occasion. These are all wonderful ways to gain positive attention for your business.

Then there are planned PR stunts with negative connotations. Follow me here. A celebrity is a branded business. It has income streams, expenses, and a thought over marketing plan. To include PR. They have a target market. The fastest way to gain widespread loyalty within a target market is to do something terrible enough that your fans come to your defense, but not too terrible that they abandon you. It is exactly the root of the Paula Dean "scandal" and it is exactly the root of the Miley Cyrus mayhem. Guess what folks, if you are unhinged by her skanky "dance moves" - you aren't the target market!! You are the other side of the global conversation happening where Miley fans are becoming diehard Miley fans. Yes it's wrong, disgusting, a terrible example for children... But that, my friends, is marketing.

There is no denying her antics, or that of her publicist, raised her exposure. Every media outlet has covered the story, its all over your newsfeed, hell it made you open this very blog! Every page view adding advertising value to the source site. It flat out pays to stir the pot. So how can the small business owner cash in on this calculated marketing move with dignity?

Now I'm not suggesting you strap on a nude colored bikini and parade around a stage in front of millions of people to move more units. But I am suggesting you analyze your target audience. What dumb thing can they relate to doing and then do that dumb thing. Or at least write about doing that dumb thing. An embarrassing error in an email, a misuse of a texting term ("here I thought my associate was proclaiming his undying love for me and it turns out LOL doesn't mean "lots of love"), use your media of choice to embarrass yourself, just enough that your target relates, not enough that they abandon you. The more public the better. If done right, you get a conversation started where your loyals reLate and say "we've all been there", increasing loyalty, word of mouth advertising, thanks for the teaching opportunity, Miley.