Category Archives: Brand and Reputation
Bill Murray Visits RMPR
Today we had the honor of welcoming PRSA National President and COO Bill Murray to our agency to discuss trends he’s seeing in the public relations industry nationally, and how the national and local PRSA chapters are supporting the professional development of members.
Goodbye Chet. The Remembrance of a Remarkable Man
Photo by Andre Burger, Chet's grandson and lifelong photography student
From your first little note to me in 1975, complimenting something I’d said that was quoted in a PRSA publication, to our last conversation in December of 2010, the power of your friendship, the insight of your thinking, and the profoundly pragmatic advice you so freely offered have guided my career and much of my personal life.
Your sense of yourself was such an interesting part of knowing you. In November of 1990, you opened a presentation to the PRSA Foundation with the phrase, “In the afternoon of my own life . . .” During that presentation you predicted that if your computer was right you would live until approximately 2010. You did a little better than that.
In a private note to me written last year, after I had asked you a question and for some guidance, your reply began, “Sure, especially in the evening of my life.” Perhaps this is the most important lesson among the many I learned from you: The power of candor, which I have come to define as “Truth with an attitude, promptly given.”
KDWB needs a Perfect Apology
Minneapolis radio station KDWB is the latest organization to feel the sting and power of victims angered by an inadequate apology. The radio station’s pain comes from loosing advertisers because the station still refuses to take adequate responsibility for its gaffe of broadcasting a parody of Hmong. One advertiser left saying the apology was “Inadequate.”
The most powerful action in reputation recovery and rehabilitation is to apologize. If you want or need forgiveness, you’ll need to apologize. “Wait a minute,” you say, “The lawyers won’t ever let me apologize.” Well, let’s talk about apology, understand it, and then we’ll get back to the attorneys.
Management avoids apologizing by using an amazing array of avoidance strategies. There’s self-forgiveness: “It’s an industry problem, we’re not the only ones,” “Let’s not blow this out of proportion.” There’s self-talk: “It’s only an isolated incident,” “It’s never happened before,” “Not very many were involved,” and “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Look for self-delusion: “It’s not our fault,” “It’s not our problem,” “We can’t be responsible for everything,” “It won’t happen again,” and “Life can’t exist without risk.” Or how about lying: “I don’t know,” “We’ve never done that,” “It won’t ever happen again,” “I am not a crook,” and “I did not have sex with that woman.” Read more »
Five Reasons Why CEOs Lose Their Jobs
Every year in the spring, at least one of America’s business magazines publishes a new study that talks about why chief executives are canned, traded out, retired, or otherwise disposed of. While the language might be new, the reasons remain relatively similar year to year.
While some of the lists are pretty long, what they tend to have in common are the top five reasons. Here they are.
Number 1: Failure to Perform
This really makes sense. If you can’t get the job done, how can you effectively lead an organization? This is the second most crucial success trait of a leader. The most important, of course, is identifying and moving the organization toward strategically important destinations. Read more »
Guaranteeing Media Clips = Marketing Strategy. Really?
I’m always amazed at the spam e-mail and cold sales calls I receive from other agencies when our client work goes public. I recall one call from a New York agency telling me that they could generate better consumer media results than my client’s current agency (my agency), and this came the day after the client’s product appeared on the Today Show. That one made me laugh.
Recently, I received a series of spam e-mails that made me angry. I was added to an e-mail list guaranteeing 60-100 articles a year for my product/service — another in a long line of vendors seeking to commoditize PR tools. Never mind that I am a competing PR firm. What made me break my red editing pen in half was that agency’s positioning statement. Clicking through to the agency’s web site, I read that their differentiator is that they infuse PR with marketing strategy.
So, according to this agency, guaranteeing clips equals marketing strategy. Sigh. Here we go again. Read more »
NFL Players’ Union Fumbling in the PR War: Good Lessons on What Not To Do
Interesting commentary about the NFL labor unrest from the Philadelphia Eagles’ blog, in which Jason B. credits the owners and critiques the players union for turning the tide in the PR war for the support of fans.
The blog article credits the owners with having a well prepared and crafted message about the final negotiations delivered by chief counsel Jeff Pash, arguing that they presented a pointed yet reasonable account of their offer and willingness to compromise on the issues (albeit most were peripheral issues). Meanwhile, the players’ union figurehead, DeMaurice Smith, offered no proposals or even a response to the owners’ new proposal in rants that were angry and vague. Instead, he invoked dead players as an obvious plea for sympathy and reiterated the demand for 10 years of financial data, which in Jason B’s experience is unreasonable because it would set a new precedent in private business.
Authenticity and its Impact on Brand Engagement
We live in a culture inundated with fake – artificial sweetener, knock-off designer bags, virtual reality, etc. It’s no wonder many consumers seek something that feels personal and real amid mass-produced goods and experiences. This search for authenticity is shaping consumer purchasing habits and the brands to which they give their money and loyalty.
Brand authenticity in its most basic form is the harmony between what a brand says, what a brand does and what a brand is. There are many different ways that a brand can be authentic, and different degrees of authenticity. Risdall’s Strategy Team has explored the importance of authenticity and its impact on brand engagement in our new Special Report, intended to spark your curiosity and get you thinking about how your brand can authentically engage with customers.
In the Spring 2011 Special Report: Authenticity, we examine:
- Six classifications of authenticity: From Originality to Transparency, brands can express an authentic point of view through a variety of lenses.
- How to nurture authenticity: Becoming a truly authentic brand is no easy road, and there are a number of considerations to take into account when deciding if and how your brand can generate authenticity.
- The benefits of authenticity: Authentic brands earn consumer trust – and this can translate into enhanced loyalty, increased value and more.
Discover how your brand can leverage authenticity to engage customers by reading the free Spring 2011 Special Report: Authenticity. We’d love to hear your feedback and get your ideas on what makes an authentic brand.
Why is it so hard to apologize?
The most powerful action in reputation preservation, recovery and rehabilitation is to apologize. If you want or need forgiveness, you’ll need to apologize. If you want to inoculate yourself or organization against litigation, apologize. If you want to detoxify an adversarial situation and dramatically reduce contentiousness, apologize. If you want to neutralize and dramatically diminish chatter, bloviating, bellyaching, needless, mindless media coverage, apologize.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute” you say, “The lawyers won’t ever let me apologize.” Okay well, let’s talk about apology, understand it, and carefully think through where we might apply this strategy, and then we’ll get back to the attorneys.
Management avoids apologizing by using an amazing array of avoidance strategies. There’s self-forgiveness: “It’s an industry problem, we’re not the only ones,” “Let’s not blow this out of proportion.” There’s self-talk: “It’s only an isolated incident,” “It’s never happened before,” “Not very many were involved,” and “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Read more »
Acronyms, Abbreviations and Accolades
The weekend of January 22, I began a three-year term on the Universal Accreditation Board (UAB), which is comprised of nine public relations associations and administrates the APR (accredited public relations) examination.
I didn’t accept this opportunity without a fair understanding about what I was signing up for; therefore, I’m pleased to share that amid the overwhelming amount of acronyms and abbreviations – is any organization without its own jargon (even communicators who shun insider’s speak?) – I have reason for enthusiasm. Read more »
From popularity contest to strategic tool: Social media coming of age
Our staff came back abuzz with ideas from the Minnesota PRSA Professional Practices Confere
nce last week. One of the more refreshing lessons came via friend and colleague Gabby Nelson, who leads public relations and social media marketing efforts for Select Comfort. When asked how she and her team can add social media duties to their accountabilities, she replied that they don’t add them like additional tactics, but proved their value and prioritized social media efforts to replace some other, more traditional, communications. In fact, she elaborated by sharing the story of how they tested social media for a sale of a particular mattress, which had no budget for marketing. It increased sales so noticeably that executives practically fell over themselves to let them do more.
She’s shared the stories many times, but some of the people I’ve talked to seem to miss the point. The moral of the story is not that social media works. (Psst, that’s not a secret anymore). And the moral is definitely NOT that we should all be Tweeting and Facebooking more. Gabby and her team are my heroes for two very strategic insights that represent much more courage and broad-based business acumen on their part:
1) Social media must be tied to a strategic business objective. Gabby and her group determined social media was a way to reach certain audiences efficiently with targeted sales messages (later adding customer service and other conversations). And because they took that approach, they were able to prioritize it over other communications tools with less ROI. And they tested it. How many of us have the courage to let tactics go away? Too often today, we see organizations scrambling to add social media profiles to their to-do lists, only to have them languish with no purpose. Start with the business objectives, the brand and the audience – let those be your guide and prioritize.
2) Without a content strategy, social media is just a popularity contest. Public relations, by definition, maintains two-way relationships with key audiences. Social media can be a great tool for monitoring the environment, but all too often there’s no ongoing strategy for engagement. We have to stop asking silly questions like “How many followers do you have?” and start asking critically, “What do you have to say that anyone cares about?” Content can mean everything from surveys and testimonials to instructional videos and product information. And that means we as practitioners must know our business and the audiences inside and out. Social media without a focused purpose is like any other “junk mail” and will soon be filtered out, much like our e-mail spam filter, which I’m told filters out more messages than it lets in by a wide margin. Saying you have 2,000 followers is like saying you have 2,000 e-mail addresses; it has little strategic value unless you know how to use them. Instead, let’s focus on what we have to say, what our audiences want, and what we need out of our conversations – let that be your content.
Gabby’s Select Comfort team did more than just start tweeting and Facebooking. They put social media in the strategic spotlight for scrutiny, with measureable business objectives and a clear content strategy. Those are magic words in PR. Let’s hope that as social media comes of age, we hear them more often.