Media training for consumer brands – five top tips

Our media training courses for consumer brands are increasingly popular among property PRs and in-house media relations teams.

That’s because shrewd public relations consultants realise that it’s one thing to secure an interview with a journalist or news outlet. But whether your spokesperson makes the most of that opportunity is another thing. Even worse, is the risk that they might lose control of the interview and say the wrong thing. You’ll have earned some publicity – but not the sort you want.

So, if you’re looking for media interview advice for consumer brands, here are five things that you and your spokespeople should bear in mind.

1. Think about the audience

It sounds obvious but the main reason why any kind of communication fails is because the communicator doesn’t think about the people that they’re talking to. In our media training courses for consumer brands, we encourage participants to focus on the media outlet that they’re talking to. Is it, for instance, the Daily Mail or BBC Breakfast? Similarly, you might be talking to Retail Week or the Manchester Evening News. 

The points you make and the examples and stories that you use to illustrate them and prove them will all depend on the audience. You’ll also have to think about language. There may well be words and phrases that work well for the trade press or a business title, but which won’t land with consumer audiences. Even if they work out what you mean, you’re literally not speaking their language and so you’ve erected a barrier between you.

2. Define your message

Once you know who you’re speaking to, you can start to think about what you’re going to say to them. There are two elements here. There’s the message that you want to get across but there’s also what your audience wants to hear. You might be very clear with that message but if it doesn’t resonate with the audience then it’s wasted. Similarly, you could give the journalist lots of useful information which works very well for them and their readers, listeners or viewers, but this information might not be helpful to you.

In our media training workshops for retail brands we provide templates and techniques to help spokespeople to prepare in a way that will enable them to connect with their audiences while also putting across key messages.

3. Introduce examples

Examples, case studies, stories and even simple anecdotes are gold for journalists. They also work well for you as the interviewee. They illustrate what you’re saying, after all, how many times in our daily lives do we say for instance or just imagine. But they also prove your points.

For example, you might be doing an interview about the integrity of your supply chain. By introducing some examples of the steps that you take to improve sustainability, to protect those who make your products and to drive down costs, you’ll come across as more persuasive.

In our media training for consumer brands, our media trainers who are also working journalists (operating under strict non-disclosure agreements) will often ask about the story behind a product. Journalists will want to know where the inspiration came from. We’re interested to hear how the product came to market including changes you might have to have made in response to market research. If you’re talking about your talented and dedicated teams, we’ll want to hear more detail about these individuals. Paint a picture for us.

4. Take the initiative 

Often at the start of our media training courses for consumer brands the participants will give short answers during the role play media interviews. People often think that this is the safest option – they don’t want to say too much. They’re also under the impression that it’s the journalist who should be driving the interview. The interviewee’s job is simply to answer their questions.

However, we point out that the interviewee will almost always know more about the subject than the journalist. As we move onto the next set of interviews the participants on these media training workshops for consumer brands begin to realise that they can take the initiative. They can set out their stall and deliver their key message right at the start of the interview and take more control. Not only does this allow them to make more of the opportunity but it also reduces the chances of the journalist asking some difficult or irrelevant questions.

As working our journalists, our media trainers know that it’s when an interviewee is not giving them anything interesting and relevant that they’ll look to make some mischief just to get a story. Taking the initiative during media interviews can help prevent this.

5. Look out for difficult questions 

One important lesson that we teach in our media training for retail brands is that you need to do your thinking before you do a media interview. Having to deal with a difficult or controversial issue that you had not thought about beforehand can turn a media interview into a nightmare.

We work closely with property PRs and the in-house communications teams of consumer brands to help them to identify difficult or left field questions that might be thrown at their spokespeople. In some cases, it’s obvious. But in others the “While I’ve got you here…”, question can really throw an interviewee. It can even cause them to say something that takes the whole interview in a different – and dangerous – direction. 

In some situations, you simply cannot identify every difficult or irrelevant question that a journalist might throw at you. That’s why in our media training for consumer brands we teach a number of techniques to help interviewees to move away from these potentially dangerous subject areas and to get back to their key messages.

Media training for consumer brands

Come and talk to us about media training for consumer brands. We work closely with PR consultants and in-house press offices to increase the chances of their clients’ and colleagues’ media interview going well and promoting their business as a result. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.