Press and publicity management: the Dyson case

Abstract

Entrepreneurial businesses are, by definition, different from large corporations. Thus, although the objectives of marketing communications of both types of firm are the same the ways in which each carries them out is different, and, whereas the nature of corporate marketing communications is well researched and understood, the nature of entrepreneurial marketing communications is largely unresearched. Entrepreneurs are restricted in their use of a wide range of marketing media favoured by larger organisations as a result of resource constraints. Thus, according to Stokes', entrepreneurs favour word‐of‐mouth marketing communication because it costs nothing. However, they could avail of other media. This article analyses the ways in which the entrepreneur, James Dyson, harnessed independent press publicity to create sales of his innovative new vacuum cleaner in the years from 1993 to1998. In particular it considers the content and linguistic style of the newspaper reports and how they influenced people's buying behaviour. The study was undertaken using a contemporary historical research methodology.