Nudge customers into referring your business. When that PR person gets you into the newspaper, make reprints of the article and frame them, include them on your website, into your brochure, pop them into your newsletter, put them on your counter, stick them in your store window. A bit of time. A lot of credibility. Trade shows can enhance your credibility and so can free demonstrations.
Free consultations can do wonders for it and so can free samples.
If you're a discounter, glitz can sabotage your identity. Run a full-page ad in a regional edition of a national magazine. Just running the ad won't net much credibility for you, but the reprints you display, mail, incorporate into other marketing, and proudly disseminate will. And if they don't say, Time, they'll say some other prestigious publication. I'm not talking zillions of dollars here.