But here’s the disconnect.

This has been on my mind for awhile. I’m disappointed when a craft brewery puts lip service into their brand about being radical, experimental, unique or bad-ass, and their product falls short. If your flight of craft beer is uninspired and forgettable, no amount of strategic messaging, advertising campaigns, quirky copy, or re-branding will matter. A forged personality will only take you so far before the poor quality product or service is exposed.

The positive call to action? Create (or drink) amazing beer. Be confident and unafraid in how you position your company. You may lose some of your audience. (But you’ll lose everyone if your product stinks.)

If you are the CEO, owner, or decision-maker in your company, take the time to research and get to know the key journalists and/or bloggers that follow and cover your industry, whether this is on a local, regional, national, or international level, as well as a consumer or trade media level.

Just because the journalist covers your industry, though, does not guarantee they will do a story on your company. But, you can try to build a relationship with them initially in a well-researched, genuine way.

First, do your homework. Research and identify the journalists. Read several of their past articles. Know what they are writing about. You may decide upon closer inspection that they may not be interested in what you have to offer.

If the journalist is a good fit, get in touch through their preferred method of contact. Respond to or offer a comment on their most recent story. Begin building rapport. Don’t pitch them. Don’t pull a Mikey and blow up their voice mail. They are badgered by people—public relations folks especially—all the time. Treat journalists like real people.

Also, start small. I get a kick out of prospects that say, “I want to be on the cover of Men’s Health.” That’s great and possible. It may be a wise strategy, however, to approach smaller publications initially. Why? Because they have time for you. And often, big publications or higher profile media outlets look to smaller publications for story ideas. That story could be yours. If it is newsworthy, the story will sell itself.

Building rapport with journalists is important because they will probably cover your business in some way, and it may reach a point that you are not calling them anymore. They’re calling you.

Say you’re one of the many companies who said, “Blogs are big right now. We need a blog.” You create one and all you do is share news about your business. And, you update it even less than your company website’s “News” or “Press” page. Blogs should be places where people who want to pay attention to you can get useful, insightful information on a regular basis.

Are you concerned that you will fall into obscurity if you do not use social media to share information? Outlets such as blogs, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter offer cool, new opportunities to promote your business and interact with your audience; however, businesses jump on the bandwagon too fast without first examining the need to do it, the benefits, and the possible consequences.

It is important to thoughtfully develop and protect your image on the web. Negative publicity or projecting the wrong image can cost you. So, be sure to research and examine the opportunities and to make prudent decisions about what’s best for your company.

No matter what, when your marketing or public relations campaign is carefully developed and focused on identifying the best communications tools to meet your objectives, the rest will fall in place. Social media may or may not be the answer.

It seems that lately people have been more prudent in their spending and are saying no to immediate indulgences, or even putting off purchasing something important.

If you have traditionally communicated the tempting, immediate gratification of the impulse buy in your advertising and sales messages, it may not resonate as well with your frugal audience. Try this approach instead: communicate the abstract, long-term value of whatever the purchase or investment may be.

A good example I saw recently was a New York Life billboard with a simple, holiday gift theme. What impressed me first was that the billboard was well designed, uncluttered and readable. It said, “give a selfless gift.”

There is immeasurable value in that message, while knowing the long-term benefits that life insurance can offer. And, it taps into the giving spirit of the season and the importance of family.

I researched online about New York Life’s approach, and learned these boards were one component of an entire advertising campaign. There was also an online competition for people to submit their own ad headlines or concepts. This web-based interaction with customers leads me into my next strategy, but that’s in the queue for later.

Stay tuned, dear reader.

As you re-evaluate and develop your marketing materials, get personal. Call your clients and ask them about their experience with your company. If they hang up on you, then maybe that’s an indication of greater problems you need to address.

With the positive feedback you receive, use it to develop testimonials, real stories, success stories, case studies, and client biographies. Use these stories to put a face on the client experience with your company. This approach could differentiate you from the competition that may have the same bulleted list of selling points as you do, that same list of features and benefits. These success stories, however you present them, may resonate more easily with your customer base.

I noticed a good example of “making it personal,” during the holidays. It was the series of Best Buy commercials. A Best Buy employee tells the story of how an individual came in to choose a cell phone for a loved one. The Best Buy employee shares a brief, candid story about how he helped the customer; the satisfaction both they and the customer shared through that experience; and how that gift made the family’s holiday special.

Just so you understand where I’m coming from, I usually criticize and/or ignore commercials and I’m not a gadget person. But, this commercial caught my attention. Maybe in the spirit of the season, it pulled at my heartstrings.

I give them props for taking it to the heart of the customer experience.

As we move bravely into 2009, I’m eager to meet with people, find out their concerns, and hopefully offer some ideas in regards to marketing communications, public relations and advertising efforts. Here are few questions to mull over:

Do you think marketing, public relations, and advertising have a direct impact on sales? How many of you are cutting back on or avoiding these efforts because “times are tough”? If marketing increases sales, why stop now? And, why stop when you may have a chance of standing out in your industry?

Below is the first of five cost-effective communications strategies to help you to continue to market your business, or to begin taking advantage of new opportunities during tough financial times—or any time. By “cost-effective,” I don’t mean cheap. These strategies will most likely require some money, as well as time for planning and execution. They may or may not be helpful to you. If you know this stuff already—great! You’re on the right track.

Strategy 1: Define and live your brand.

Does your business have a personality? Are you committed to living it out? Does your business have a mission or set of values? Do you have a consistent look and feel in your marketing materials and communications efforts with customers, the public, and the media?

Often people think brand is simply a company’s logo. That’s not it. A logo is a tool; it’s a component. Brand has external components, from how your Web site is designed to what colors are selected, but brand is ultimately intrinsic to your business.

For example, when’s the last time you lived out your tagline? Is it unique to you? Or, could your tagline easily be printed on another company’s business card?

Sometimes I think of brand like a house. Is your home in order? Do you need to clean or reorganize? Do your customers know what your house is built on? How’s the foundation? Do they know what they’ll get if they come over?

It can be fun—yet difficult—to go through the process of creating a brand for your company. And, if you don’t, you may risk having an image created for you, based on the public’s assumptions or your clients’ perceptions. That image could be inaccurate, or possibly negative. You may not like it.

Living your brand cannot be an act. You have to make sure that you can easily adhere to it in everything you do, from client services and employee relations, to marketing, advertising, and public relations efforts. Also, be sure to give your employees the resources they need to live the brand and effectively communicate it; otherwise, they’ll devise their own way that may send the wrong message about your brand.

Last week, MarketingProfs’ Get to the Po!nt e-newsletter discussed “A Skeptical Look at Word-of-Mouth,” based on an article by Michael Antman. He makes the point that some businesses rely too heavily on word-of-mouth strategies as their sole form of business development. MarketingProfs sums up a few of the reasons why that approach is shortsighted:

•    Recommendations [via word-of-mouth] are subjective and uncontrollable.
•    Word-of-mouth is limited in reach and easily subverted.
•    There’s no substitute for case studies, sophisticated sales-support tools and mass communications vehicles such as advertising, public relations and print and electronic collateral.
•    “[R]elying on organic word-of-mouth is practically a guaranteed way for a small or medium-sized business to stay small or medium-sized.”

Relying solely on word-of-mouth can limit your reach and quality of your message. If this is your main way to gain business (and the way you want it), here are a few tactics to correct misinformation or negative sentiments spread about your business:

Find the source. Examine why the information about your company is incorrect or negative in the first place. Can you identify a specific incident or unhappy customer? Or you may need to look closer to home at whatever marketing materials you do have, your sales team, and possibly yourself.

Respond professionally and politely. If the source is a person or other business, respond and try to resolve the issue. The response may need to be public and/or in person. If you need to clean up your word-of-mouth on the Web, research and review the web sites, blogs and other press that have mentioned your business. Respond to them in a prudent, yet timely way, with correction information.

Be your own critic. Examine your marketing materials, even something as simple as your business card. Does it clearly communicate the goal of your business or how you want to be perceived? You may find out that it is you or your sales team that aren’t communicating effectively. Decide if you do indeed need other marketing, public relations or advertising tools to clearly communicate your business’s purpose.

Own up. Be open and honest about your efforts to change or fine-tune the incorrect perception about your company. Ask trusted colleagues, friends, and even customers to help you.

Be generous. Develop customer appreciation incentives for referrals that lead to new, paying business. Give away something for free. Make a charitable donation. Generosity is quickly recognized and admired.

Enforce consistency. Develop messaging or talking points about your business that are consistent across all communications vehicles (web, print, speaking engagements, interviews). Inconsistent messaging may be the root of your word-of-mouth issues.

Turn down new business. Word-of-mouth efforts may bring prospects to your door. Evaluate the quality of those prospects. Are they the right customers for you? If not, say no. You might find the perception they have of your business is not what you want it to be.

If you don’t care what people perceive and communicate about your business via word-of-mouth, ask yourself, how much is this costing my business in the long term if I don’t fix the problem?