Retailers' press release activity: market signals for stakeholder engagement?
Abstract
Purpose
To increase understanding of the role, content and effectiveness of press releases.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative and quantitative analyses of UK supermarkets' press releases in 2001/2002, a medium previously little researched in marketing, are undertaken.
Findings
Supermarkets seek stakeholder engagement on diverse issues with different mixes of groups. Treating releases as market signals demonstrates the important role of the press as filters and interpreters. Intended messages frequently fail to reach target audiences, and when they do can be significantly reinterpreted, so that positive claims are reported critically and negatively. Larger chains apparently produce more releases and gain more newspaper coverage, but generally volume of releases does not improve likelihood of press coverage.
Research limitations/implications
The nature of qualitative data, the limited time frame, and possible omissions from source archives.
Practical implications
As level of coverage varied independently of turnover, higher release activity of larger chains was questioned. Seeking differentiation through press releases becomes problematic with the press as filters.
Originality/value
This paper increases knowledge of press releases as market communications, and contributes to the literature of market signalling, notably emphasising the press as important signal intermediaries.
Keywords
Citation
Whysall, P. (2005), "Retailers' press release activity: market signals for stakeholder engagement?", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 No. 9/10, pp. 1118-1131. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560510610752
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited