Strategic Public Relations

"Blogs are Sooo 2003"

Great. Just as Bill Gates himself gives blogs and RSS the nod, BusinessWeek shifts the attention span of corporate America and moves onto Wikis with its latest article "Somthing Wiki This Way Comes."

Were it not for the forthcoming Global PR Blog Week, which ironically is being organized using a Wiki, I would not be wading into this technology yet.

Maybe it is because I live in Cincinnati, but, heck, blogging is still new. I'm not going to bury my head in the sand and ignore wikis or avoid using the technology, but I will not be embracing it anytime soon or shifting my focus from blogs.

Phew. That felt good.

Marketing in an Emerging Country

My agency recently briefed a group of Ukrainian citizens on marketing as part of a Cincinnati-Ukraine sister city project. We spent a half-day discussing marketing, advertising and public relations. At a follow-up meeting, I worked more closely with two citizens who are also business to business marketers—one gentlemen works for an electronics manufacturer, the other works for a liquid petroleum gas provider.

We discussed their approach to direct mail, advertising, Internet marketing and trade shows and it was no surprise to learn that they face the same challenges we do. We also covered a wide range of public relations topics, from corporate governance and government relations to crisis communications and media relations.

The biggest difference was the challenge and frustrations involved with being a Ukrainian company. Ukraine is an emerging business market and customers make assumptions based on this fact. Before an international customer finalizes their first sale, they typically visit the manufacturing facility. Less to check the manufacturer’s quality assurance processes and technical capabilities, but more to confirm first hand that the company is presenting itself accurately. Both companies are ISO Certified. You cannot get ISO Certified selling snake oil out of the trunk of your car.

Both companies have international customers, Israel- and Poland-based for example. This means more than two languages, it means two of everything—including legal considerations. We discussed ways to address the above credibility concern and outlined steps to help customers do business with them more quickly and efficiently.

The truly international mechanics of their work reminded me that most North American agencies still do not truly conduct global marketing. They outsource it to a local firm. Think Global, Implement Local. That is how it should be done to leverage the cultural elements in each country. But it reminds me of earlier days when full-service marketing was a new, sought-after offering. Agencies would outsource the public relations portion of the business, or they acquiesced and hired a pr person, in an effort to get the ad business.

Speaking of the global marketplace, the bulk of public relations bloggers are getting together for a week-long, online discussion in July. Based on the program Trevor Cook has put together, it looks like plenty of interesting topics will be covered. The ever-prolific Steve Rubel will be interviewing San Jose Mercury News’ Dan Gillmor and NYU Department of Journalism Chair, Jay Rosen.

So bookmark it and mark your calendar. And if this is the first time you’re reading about this event, you should check out some of the great PR blog links to the right.

The Media on Internet Speed

Several news items today show electronic media evolving.

Shocking Satellites: XM Radio is in talks with shock jocks and looking into satellite video service for cars. If XM Radio does begin to provide this service, will they be able to resist the temptation to offer ads? One of their key selling points for their 60+ channel radio service is that they are not ad supported. If they do keep this new service ad free, satellite radio/video become media outlets that only public relations can influence via news channels.

Online Journalists Need to Blog: Online Journalism Review’s Dan Froomkin calls fellow online journos to “learn the lessons of blogs.”

...the various tools used by the blogging community are brilliantly evolved for the medium—and they work. The fact that a lot of people use these tools to generate badly spelled, overly personal, non-journalistic, unedited pap should not get in the way of us embracing blog tools and philosophy.

—SNIP—

...a newsroom-wide blog could very well give readers a better feel for the day's offerings than our increasingly chaotic home pages. So I think that at least a portion of every online news site's home page should be turned over to some sort of blog space, where journalists can post items and readers can post comments, effective immediately.

Good stuff, but I would argue that bloggers should also learn the lessons of journalists. Froomkin indirectly supports this thought:

The blogs that many people read these days are creating a terrible echo-chamber effect. The blogosphere includes a lot of one-note wonders whose bread and butter is, ironically, riffing off the stories they read in online newspapers. To the extent that they attract reader comments, they can be very insular.

Real people are the antidote to the blog echo-chamber. And real people are what journalists can and should and do inject into the blogosphere, by telling their stories, by encouraging them to tell their stories themselves, and maybe even by "posting" what we hear from real people as blog entries.

I wrestle with this. But I still wind up contributing to the echo effect. Heck, this very post does. My preference is to only post original content, but this medium promotes/demands frequency.

Think about it. If you do not see new content on a blog for two weeks, what do you think? "Hmmm, I wonder if they've stopped blogging for good?"

Bottom line? Blogs are shifting media roles, at least temporarily. As the online medium as a whole impacts more traditional media, it will be interesting to see what other changes emerge.

Ries on P&G: “Big companies don’t launch brands, they buy them.”

After positive response to the Al Ries interview below, I asked him about the $13 billion “brand father” Procter & Gamble. In responding he provides some insight into the mechanics involved in building a brand.

SPR: A.G. Lafley just reorganized P&G into three global units. Any thoughts on this recent move or P&G as it relates to brands?

Ries: One of the major themes of our new book, The Origin of Brands, is the fact that most new brands are launched by entrepreneurs and not by big companies like Procter & Gamble.

In the last 20 years, Procter & Gamble, the world's most magnificent marketing machine, has bought 16 brands and relaunched them as P&G brands. They include everything from Oil of Olay and Old Spice to Tampax and Iams.

That's what most big companies do. Instead of launching their own brands, they buy them from other companies. I have a lot of respect for the marketing savvy of the people at P&G and frequently comment favorably on the strategies developed for many of their brands—the launch of Crest toothpaste and Scope mouthwash in particular.

But in the last few decades, I've had this nagging thought in the back of my mind. With all of P&G's marketing smarts and financial muscle, why don't they launch their own brands rather than buy them?

This is not an indictment of P&G. Most big companies do the same. They buy rather than launch. PepsiCo bought Mountain Dew and Gatorade, for example, instead of launching their own caffeinated citrus and sports drinks. Actually PepsiCo did launch a sports drink, All Sport, which went nowhere. So they spent $13 billion to buy the real thing (Gatorade along with its corporate parent Quaker Oats.)

Why do companies like Procter & Gamble miss the boat when it comes to launching new brands? There are three reasons.

1. An advertising-driven launch. Most big companies will not launch a new brand without the backing of a substantial advertising budget. Yet a successful new brand is usually built around a new category that can take years to develop.

That's why many successful new brands start slowly using primarily PR techniques. Starbucks, Gatorade, Google, Red Bull, to name a few. Entrepreneurs who have the patience to hang in there while the market develops introduced these brands and many others.

Red Bull, for example, took four years to reach $10 million in annual sales and another five years to reach $100 million. Any big company that took a look at Red Bull in its early days would have said, "There's no market there. We can't afford a big ad budget to launch an energy drink brand."

By the time the market develops, it's too late for a me-too brand.

2. A research-driven name. You can't create a new category with a line-extension name. Invariably, new categories are dominated by new names created especially for the category. Red Bull, not AriZona Extreme Energy. PowerBar, not Gatorade Energy Bar. Amazon.com, not BarnesandNoble.com. Dell, not IBM personal computers. Nickelodeon, not the Disney Channel.

With marketing history clearly in favor of new names rather than "stretched" names, why do companies continue to take the line-extension path?

They do research.

When asked which brand name he or she prefers, the average consumer invariably chooses the familiar name.

3. A broad distribution plan. With a substantial advertising launch, a new product needs broad distribution to make the economics work. So companies pressure the distribution with discounts, two-for-ones, free merchandise and sometimes the payment of slotting fees.

The odds are stacked against such a plan. New brands take off slowly and with little selling at point of sale, most new product launches are bound to fail. A recent Nielsen BASES and Ernst & Young study put the failure rate of new U.S. consumer products at 95 percent and new European consumer products at 90 percent.

A better distribution plan is to start "narrow," often with a single chain. Charles Shaw (Two-Buck Chuck) started with a single chain (Trader Joe's) in a single state (California) and became the fastest-growing table wine ever. Newman's Own salad dressing was launched in a single supermarket (Stew Leonard's in Norwalk, Connecticut). The store sold 10,000 bottles in the first two weeks.

With narrow distribution, you can often arrange special displays and promotions that increase your brand's chance for success.

Al Ries on The Origin of Brands

On a participatory journalistic whim, I landed an e-mail interview with author, brand guru and PR proponent, Al Ries. Ries is a legendary marketing strategist and the best-selling author/co-author of 12 books on marketing including our favorite “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR.” Most recently, he published ”The Origin of Brands.”

While discussing everything from Mach 3s and Martha Stewart to Red Bull and Botox, Ries was kind enough to provide Strategic Public Relations with some brand insights. He also feels that for pr professionals to seize the day, they need to own the brand launch and the risks that come with it.

SPR: Where there any specific incidents or trends that fueled “The Origin of Brands?”
Ries: Yes. We have worked with many large companies and have generally been unsuccessful in getting them to launch new brands to dominate new categories as they emerge. These include: IBM, Digital Equipment, Xerox, Western Union, Tambrands and many others.

Invariably, these companies wanted to put their established names on an emerging category rather than using a new name.

As a result, they lost control of the category to a new company with a new brand name. IBM personal computers, for example. Even though IBM was first to introduce a 16-bit serious, business personal computer and even though initially the IBM PC dominated the category (with more than 50 percent of the market) they lost out in the long run to the new brands, Compaq and Dell.

SPR: What are a few of the key ideas we will find in the book?
Ries: Every category will eventually diverge creating endless opportunities to build new brands.

The best way to assure the long-term domination of an emerging new category is to make sure your brand is first in the mind. We repeat, first in the mind, not first in the category. Red Bull in energy drinks, Starbucks in European-style coffee houses, etc.

You still have a chance to be a strong second, if you're not first in the mind. To be second, you need to be the opposite of the leader. Listerine is the bad-tasting mouthwash, so Scope became a strong No. 2 brand by being the good-tasting mouthwash. Your parents drank Coca-Cola, so Pepsi-Cola became a strong No. 2 brand by appealing to the younger crowd. The Pepsi Generation.

Note: A .pdf summary of the book is also available.

SPR: You are a believer in the power of public relations. Which brands use PR most effectively/aggressively in your opinion?
Ries: The best example is Botox. After 8 years of PR only, Botox became a $300 million brand. It's very hard to find Botox examples because most companies jump in way too early with an advertising campaign. You should allow the PR to run its course before using advertising.

The reason that Botox was not advertised for eight years is because the application to remove frown lines in the forehead was "off-label" use of the product. According to FDA rules, it could not be advertised.

Starbucks is another brand built almost entirely by PR.

SPR: What is the biggest challenge facing public relations in gaining more widespread acceptance?
Ries: PR people have to learn to do two things: (1) Think more strategically and (2) Vigorously stress the need for the PR function to run the launch of all new brands.

Sometimes, PR people do not try to take charge of the launch of new brands because they don't want to take the responsibility if the brand happens to fail.

SPR: Martha Stewart's case is calling the wisdom of brand personification into question. Do you think Martha's brand can survive without her? Do you think brand personification is a good idea?
Ries: No, we don't think the Martha Stewart brand can survive without her, but we do think that brand personification is a good idea.

For every failure (Martha Stewart) there are many successes. Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Donald Trump, George Foreman and many others.

SPR: Brands come and brands go, what do long-term brands have in common?
Ries: Brands are shorthand symbols for categories. Instead of saying "I wear an expensive Swiss watch," people will say, "Look at my Rolex."

The day the expensive Swiss watch category dies is the day the Rolex brand will die.

Canada Dry ginger ale was a big brand when I was a kid but it's a small brand today because the ginger ale category is small.

SPR: What are some of your favorite brands and why?
Ries: Laura has her own favorites but mine are Tod shoes, Corvette cars, Newcastle Brown Ale, Varilux lenses, Olympus cameras and Mach 3 razors.

These brands (and many others) are distinctive in the sense that no other brands can duplicate their performance and they are also of high quality.

RSS/Browser Integration Begins

The AP shows us the shape of things to come. Opera and RSS...somewhere in this there is a "fat lady sings" reference. But I digress.

This news should help speed up the adoption of RSS. At this point, I just assume/hope the next releases of Netscape and Explorer will also offer RSS readers.

Consumers Can Tell You Where to Put that Ad

OK, the marketing community clearly needs to revisit a few rules of engagement or risk completely alienating consumers. We're paid to be creative. Sometimes this is simply limited to an ad or a pitch...sometimes it involves the delivery of the ad or pitch. Guerilla marketing for example focuses on new methods of message delivery in a crowded/competitive environment.

This does not mean we have to find every free space left in the world to get our messages in front of our target audiences. I have been confronted with advertising on everything from restroom urinals to fresh fruit. Sorry for the extreme examples, but they are as legitimate as they are unfortunate. And in both cases, there was a better way to deliver the ad.

* Public Restroom: Ads are now being tastefully displayed in restrooms instead of artwork. This is much less intrusive and the ads are easily ignored, as you are not spending much time in these locations.

* Grocery Store: Floors sport small ads to direct customers to specific aisles/products. This also makes more sense. You're already shopping and if you want to ignore the ad you can do so quite easily by walking right by/over it.

My initial ad placement examples raise more questions about marketing gall than anything else. The second set considers the consumer and gives them the option of ignoring the ads. Far too often, this is not the case.

* Spiderman: Spiderman gets a Goofus and a Gallant for ad delivery. In the past they have tapped into their target audience's tech-savvy tendencies to their mutual benefit. More recently, they tried to move ads from the bullpen walls down to the bases. Bad idea. If they are willing to spend that much money, why not create Spiderman-edition Cracker Jack boxes? The box could help send kids to the Web site to see the movie trailer.

* History Channel: We've all been confronted with in-flight ads before. But "A Penny For..." has seen a new twist—turning your seat back tray into a billboard. Most in-flight ads are easier to ignore. And while you can always refrain from using your tray, you should not have to make that decision to avoid an ad.

In defense of Spidey and the History Channel, it could have been MLB and the airlines bringing these ideas to marketers. But even then, we should consider the consumers. If we are so zealous for a new ad placement opportunity, I am sure consumers would be more than happy to tell marketers where they can put their ads.

Scrub the Date

From the "learn from your mistakes" files, flash back with me about five years…

—insert squiggly lines and harp music here—

We were planning a special event designed to build customer relationships and get media attention. Local executives were teamed up with school kids for a half day of shadowing. It culminated with a luncheon and a motivational sports figure speaking to the group. There were plenty of photo opps—from students in a professional environment to the luncheon itself.

The event took place in Tucson, Arizona. We had a local client contact we were working with and the planning went just fine. I headed to Tucson the day prior to conduct media outreach and make final preparations. It was then I realized an issue around the timing of the event.

The event was taking place on May 5th, Cinco de Mayo.

The end result? Not nearly as much media coverage as we wanted. In hindsight, the fact that we got ANY coverage at all was miraculous. Breaking through the coverage of this holiday in a southwestern market clearly shows the event was newsworthy.

In the client’s defense, they were paying us to handle the event. Even though a few client contacts were based in Tucson, it's our job to identify conflicts like this during the planning stages. In my defense, Cinco de Mayo was not as widely celebrated as it is today. But this was a mistake that could have been avoided.

Needless to say, I've since developed a thorough date scrubbing process to make sure there are no conflicts. Start national and go local, review your client's calendar (fiscal and event), check industry events for your client and target audiences (school calendars in this case) and even look at a master calendar like Chase's. Aiming for the slowest news hour of the day and news day of the week is not enough.

Flash forward to present day. The holiday is not the same for me now. I skip the Corona’s and quesadillas. But I've never had a problem with event timing since.

Will RSS Readers Clog the Web?

Wired magazine reports on a growing concern about RSS traffic eating up bandwidth. "RSS feeds proliferate (almost every major American newspaper site and blog has one) and as more and more Internet users adopt readers, websites and bloggers are starting to feel the weight of thousands of hourly pings."

I know this is an apples to oranges comparison, but it reminds me of when everyone was convinced the Internet would collapse. The good news in this article—unless you're Bloglines in which the entire ad, er, piece is good news—is for Mac users. There is finally a newsreader for the Mac platform. While it is not free, it does track Atom and RSS feeds.

Monday Miscellany: Webfeed, Safety and Heresy

Contentious' "Let's rename RSS" contest has a winner: Webfeed. Will Webfeed become the alternative name for RSS? Poynter's Steve Outing has his doubts. So do I, if only because it never works that easily. Take beta and VHS technology for example. When videotapes were first introduced, the only thing VHS had going for it was market share. Beta offers a higher quality product—which is why television stations and video production crews still use it. But it didn't matter; all VHS needed was market share to become the de facto consumer format. So, even if Webfeed should replace RSS, I won't be doing a find/replace anytime soon.

Speaking of blogs, Seth Godin commandeered "A penny for..." today as part of a blog tour to promote his new book. His take on business blogs is a good one: the only danger for a business blog is in its safety. The content style encouraged by blogs—frequent updates of opinionated thoughts—does not mix well with a chain of approvals and legal reviews. All you really need is a disclaimer folks.

What recovery? The advertising industry is reporting a recovery, but print outlets are not seeing it just yet. Newspapers and magazines are still somewhat thin. TV is not complaining, however, what with May sweeps in full swing and the final episode of Friends asking Super-Bowl sized prices for a :30 second spot.

Well, in line with Seth's advice, I will say those prices are greatly inflated. When any sitcom ends such a long run with this kind of fanfare, the show has already jumped the shark. My personal favorites—MASH, Cheers and even Seinfeld all needed to end when they did. Friends is late in my opinion.