During the Los Angeles Lakers’ run to the NBA title this past spring, Scott Harris, founder and president of Mustang Marketing in Thousand Oaks, Calif., bought purple bagels, wrapped them on plates with purple ribbons, and delivered them to current and prospective clients. Emails poured in throughout the week praising the clever marketing, which boosted Mustang’s brand-building strategy. Here are five tips for generating publicity for your business and building customer loyalty for a brand:

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1. Show good taste. Josh & John’s Homemade Ice Cream in Colorado Springs, Colo., created a new flavor called Panamanian Golden Fudge to help promote a frog exhibit at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The owners even agreed to donate a portion of the sales to the zoo. “It has received a lot of local publicity,” says Joe Hodas, vice president of brand communications at Vladimir Jones, a full-service agency in Colorado Springs that worked on the promotion.

2. Give the royal treatment. At Wayzata Dental in Minnesota, customers can relax with a heated neck pillow, listen to an iPod, hook up to Wi-Fi, and watch a movie. Such pampering has a way of attracting positive publicity and building brand awareness. “It’s the Nordstrom of dentistry,” says Chip R. Bell, coauthor of Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers.

3. Have something worthwhile to say. Conduct a customer survey designed to generate relevant insights for your industry, and publish the results. “You can get publicity in magazines, TV, and radio, generate speeches, and use the data to write articles — and even a book,” says Mike Schultz, president and founder of Wellesley Hills Group, a management consulting, marketing, and lead generation firm in Framingham, Mass.

4. Have a blast. Pitch for PR offers a daily email blast for subscribers looking to pitch their products or their business. The blasts are sent to bloggers, Web site managers, reporters, and publications looking for fresh, interesting content. Best of all, the service is free.

5. Become a radio head. When you hear “We have open lines” on your local talk radio station, call to talk about issues that your business solves, says Robert Smith, CEO of Champion Media Worldwide in Loves Park, Ill. Another brand-building option is to host your own radio program, or launch a local cable access TV show.

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