Strategic Public Relations

Strategic Public Relations Update

I'm still here, honest! But I am moving a bit slower these days, due to my recovery from the accident. Keep coming back. I'll be posting sooner than later. Thank you.

The Heightened Investor Scrutiny Circus

You know a business problem is serious when it becomes oversimplified in an article, addressed with "three simple tests" and distributed in nearly every Sunday paper nationwide.

USA Weekend just ran a story telling readers how to "shield investments against corporate scandals." It focuses on "three simple tests to tell a good CEO from a bad one."

The goal of the piece makes sense—know what you're investing in and why.

But it bothers me that how a CEO parks his or her car is used to illustrate one approach to picking a company's stock. I can see the headlines now: "Left-handed CEOs deliver poor stock performance." It will be interesting to see if similar approaches present themselves and even more interesting to watch companies respond.

Positioning of a company, it products, services and people has always been important. More than ever, it must be thorough, consistent and part of the culture.

As it relates to this topic, Phil, Tom and I have kicked around the topic of thought leadership and CEO as rock star. Some think both approaches are dead. I think the latter is, but thought leadership is more important than ever before. Perhaps we should revisit this topic in light of the above.

"An Opinion is Worth 80 IQ Points"

This is a phrase we often use at work concerning almost every type of marketing message. It basically means—substance sells and fluff smells.

Tom Murphy understands this idea. He just upgraded his blog, PR Opinions, complete with new URL.

It is interesting to note that the facelift and new URL also bring PR Opinions a credibility boost. Tom is putting his money where his mouth is, spending time and money to develop his blog. It is a move we all benefit from.

Bad segue: I return back to work tomorrow. As a result I hope things will be getting back to "normal." I also hope this includes more posts so I can share a few new ideas. Stay tuned.