Services

Eicher Communications offers a full-suite of services aimed at making your company or organization perform at it's peak. Please enjoy the overview of our Services below.

Strategic Planning

Just as your company has a long-term business plan that identifies your purpose, your goals, and your key priorities (and if you don’t, you should!), so too must you have a focused public relations plan. Strategic planning is a key strength of Eicher Communications. We work closely with your executive and marketing teams to get a clear understanding of your goals so that we can develop the public relations strategies that will help you best achieve them.

  • How do you want your company and its products/services to be perceived?
  • Who are the various audiences that influence and make the buying decision?
  • How do they gather information?
  • What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your company and each of its products?
  • What’s the current market atmosphere?
  • What future trends are on the horizon?

Questions like these are what you can expect to hear from us as we begin working with you, because we believe the strategic planning process is crucial to the success of your program. The information we gather leads us to develop strategies and action plans that focus people and achieve results.

Success Story

When global interactive education vendor Promethean expanded into the U.S. market, Eicher Communications assessed the market by speaking with educators and opinion leaders, researching buying trends, media coverage, and perceived competitors. Through the ensuing SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis we determined that Promethean’s ACTIVboard system could and should rise above the fray of ordinary interactive whiteboards. We developed the concept of a “Collaborative Classroom System,” and designed a program that used a variety of well-timed public relations tools to position the company as a global leader in the research and design of collaborative education systems, and to educate teachers and administrators as to the system’s benefits, uses and successes.

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Reputation Management

We help companies determine how they want their publics to perceive them and what will allow them to achieve their goals. Whether you need to demonstrate expertise, staying power, customer-centered service, or your partnership philosophy, we’ll research trends and talk with you, your customers, and the media in order to frame your reputation.

Success Story

Prior to signing on with us, Spectrum K12 School Solutions (formerly 4GL School Solutions) was perceived only as a technology company that provided large urban school districts with automated forms for Individualized Education Plans in special education programs. The company wanted to communicate to its audiences that it was far more than a technology company, rather, that it was the thought leader in management solutions for all special populations, and that its products were beneficial to districts of all sizes.

Eicher Communications developed compelling benefit statements that were used throughout a strategic, multifaceted program that included association sponsorships and endorsements; placing customers and other opinion leaders as speakers at key conferences; placing feature stories written by customers and internal special education experts; and commissioning a white paper that clearly demonstrated Spectrum's vision.

The results are impressive: In 2005, Spectrum realized 40 percent year over year growth and more than doubled the number of students served nationwide. The company’s ENCORE! solution and numerous customers have been featured in education trade journals such as District Administration, Scholastic Administrator, American School Board Journal, and the Journal for Scholarship and Practice. For two years running Spectrum’s ENCORE! solution has been named a finalist in the Software & Information Industry Association’s prestigious CODiE Awards, and in 2005 the company won the esteemed EdNET HERO Award.

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Company and Product Launches

Simply talking about the wonderful features of your product misses the point. We develop messages that your audience cares about by finding out what problems they are trying to solve or what their pain points are. We then connect your product/service to that need.

Success Story

Founded in 2009, Performance Matters quickly became known in its home state of Florida for its comprehensive, integrated assessment, data management and teacher effectiveness solutions for K-12 schools and districts. Customers reported enormous success and satisfaction with the solutions, so the company decided the time was right to accelerate their expansion efforts. In 2011 they hired Eicher Communications to help launch the company and its products to a nationwide audience. We met with senior management, spoke with customers, and researched the issues Performance Matters' products were designed to address. Armed with this information we created benefit-driven Message Statements that would become the basis of all communications pieces moving forward. Customer success stories were documented to reflect a variety of district situations and demographics. Concurrently, a series of news releases was developed, each promoting the benefits of the solutions and customer successes, while at the same time connecting to current issues for maximum news exposure. At the next Florida Education Technology Conference, we set face-to-face meetings for company CEO Woody Dillaha to speak with editors/reporters for the leading education technology publications, and explain how the Performance Matters system helps districts gather, analyze, and use data to improve teacher effectiveness and student performance. In the first three months alone, news stories appeared in District Administration, eSchool News, SchoolCIO, T.H.E. Journal, and Technology & Learning, with more on the way. But most important, Performance Matters has now expanded into 12 states, and sales are up more than 50 percent over the previous year.

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Publicity

Our news releases and news stories have won a variety of awards, but more importantly, they win the attention of editors and reporters who cover preK-12 education. We excel at identifying story opportunities that cast a positive light on our clients and help maximize exposure. We do this with in-depth analyses of the subject at hand and by linking it to bigger trends, issues, and topics of interest to reporters. Being “outside” counsel allows us to provide clients with a fresh and objective look at any potential topics.

Success Story

Spectrum K12 School Solutions (formerly 4GL School Solutions) wanted to keep their ENCORE! special population management software in front of district superintendents and other high-level administrators through a steady stream of media placements. We have placed stories in high-circulation publications, both print and electronic, such as The Heller Reports, School Business Affairs, CEC Today Online, T.H.E. Journal, Yahoo! Finance, and much more. The stories highlighted Spectrum as the choice of forward-looking districts, and as a thought leader and market leader in the eyes of industry leaders, peers, and journalists. Stories about ENCORE! kept to the messages of addressing users’ pains and managing all special populations.

Success Story

Pearson Digital Learning has four distinctive product lines, each with annual sales goals and each with a part in the company’s role as a comprehensive solutions provider. Every year, Eicher Communications creates a detailed matrix of where the company’s audiences are, what publications they read, and what conferences they attend. We also analyze issues and trends and work with PDL product managers and sales management to identify the “stories” that will resonate with customers and editors alike. The result is a steady stream of placements – news items, product announcements, trend stories, customer case studies, byline articles and reviews – that keeps PDL in the news and in front of their audiences in a way that promotes awareness and understanding of their products and mission.

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Case Studies

School administrators are no different than consumers. When considering a significant purchase, they put a great deal of stock in first-hand experiences of colleagues. That’s why Eicher Communications firmly believes that application stories, or case studies, should be part of almost every proactive PR program, and over the years we’ve gotten darn good at it.

The purpose of a case study is to tell potential customers how an organization or individual solved a problem using a product or service. But we’re not just talking about a quote from a customer who says they love your product. Case studies done the Eicher Communications way go beyond testimonials by defining the challenge, stating the solution and, most important, quantifying the return on investment. We work with our clients to identify which stories need to be told. We then document them in formats that can be used on web sites, in marketing brochures, for writing speakers proposals, and for placing publicity stories.

Success Story

Archipelago Learning's Study Island is a web-based, high impact, low cost standards mastery solution that was having trouble moving beyond its early reputation as providing test preparation only. Part of our strategy was to document case studies of customers that were successfully using all facets of the comprehensive program. One such example was Vero Beach High School in Florida. We interviewed teachers and principal Eric Seymour and created a case study that became the basis for a wide variety of story angles we then pitched to numerous publications. The result was feature stories, first person byline articles, and commentaries that appeared in eSchool News, Education Week, Principal Leadership, and the monthly magazine of the National Federation of State High School Associations.

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Speakers Bureau

We develop and maintain programs that identify and place your internal experts and customers as session presenters at key trade shows and conferences. Our service includes creating a master schedule, studying RFPs, recommending opportunities, identifying and interviewing potential speakers, writing proposals, and acting as the liaison between you and the event coordinators.

Success Story

On average, Eicher Communications places 10 speakers per year at key conferences and trade shows targeting educators at all levels, from district superintendents and curriculum administrators to principals and classroom teachers. They include the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development), Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC), National Title I Conference, National Dropout Prevention Conference, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, among others. The benefit? Educators and administrators from around the country are hearing about the successful use of our Clients' solutions directly from their colleagues. Endorsements simply don't get any more valuable than that.

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Media Coaching

Our media coaching can help you and your staff to prepare for hostile interviewers and difficult audiences with training on how to form messages and deliver them with efficiency and composure before groups, cameras, and reporters. You can learn to come through a news interview and deliver a positive message – with the right help.

Success Story

In preparation for a national media tour, we developed succinct message statements that supported a new product solution being launched by NCS Schools (now Pearson Digital Learning). We then put five executives through an intensive daylong training, complete with video feedback. We took them through “softball” interviews, ones that were a little more combative, and finally a tough “60-Minutes” style interview, all with feedback on better communicating the messages in very brief, and possibly combative, situations. After pointing out individual strengths and weaknesses, we identified two staffers who indeed turned out to be top performers with the media and produced several positive stories.

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Trade Show Support

Eicher Communications partners with you at industry trade shows by providing training for your representatives, setting appointments with the media and developing briefing documents. We look at the news or message that you are trying to communicate and help you decide on your best representative, whether it is the vice president of product development, the CEO, or a customer.

Success Story

After coming under new ownership, Knowledge Adventure had a low profile in the education market. We took them to the National Educational Computing Conference and scheduled 11 media appointments for the vice president of product development in which we demonstrated a new product, made new connections, and obtained product reviews and inclusion in feature articles in publications including: Learning & Leading With Technology, District Administration, eSchool News, Teaching K-8, Library Media Connection, Multimedia & Internet @ Schools, and Technology & Learning. Now Knowledge Adventure is once again at the top of education reporters’ lists when they think of elementary reading and math products.

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