Strategic Public Relations

Does Target Need a Blog?

Does Target need a blog? The short answer is Yes and No.

A Customer Blog is Overkill for Target
Two general reasons to start a corporate blog are to engage customers in a dialogue and to bring a new, authentic and transparent dimension to a company. But is this necessary for a brand as well-known and as popular as Target? It's so well-known that 96 percent of American consumers recognized the bullseye, beating out the apple and the swoosh in a 2002 brand awareness poll.

Target, the nation’s fifth-largest retailer, outspends Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest, in marketing and is one of the most creative marketers in retail. This combination of bucks and brains has vaulted Target to “cool retail icon” status. Affordable design is the common thread integrating everything Target does—from its advertising and promotions to its products and store environment.

And while Target is not officially blogging, the volume is also up to 11 online. AdRants reports that Target offers a desktop application aimed at teen girls to “splash the Target brand all over their desktops.” up2d8 lets them design their own desktop backgrounds, organize their calendar and stay current with the latest fashion, music and Target products. Customers can also sign up for the online version, giving them web access.

Based on its success, I predict Target will turn the up2d8rs into a community. They’ll be able to swap desktop backgrounds, festooned with one of the best logos ever, and they’ll probably gain access to other consumer-generated media tools. Would this, um, target audience create a free blog at up2d8.com? Probably.

Target is one brand that could skip creating their own customer blog, slowly build a community of passionate customers and then give them the tools to promote the bullseye brand.

For all we know, Target is taking Scoble’s advice. Robert Scoble spoke with the retailer’s PR team back in May.

A Blog for Target Employees is Long Overdue
Moving from customers to employees, Target does need an employee-focused blog. The best possible store environment can be dashed by a surly store employee. We’ve all been waited on by someone that made you want nothing more than a hasty exit. An employee blog could immerse employees in the Target brand, identify HR issues, strengthen employee relations and help recruit new employees.

Target could learn a lot from:

• Honeywell: The manufacturer created a ”Career Blog” so potential candidates can get a read on company culture from current, passionate employees.
• Labor Unions: Most alarming is that the union already hosts blogs for Target employees to give them a voice in the hopes they can organize them. The Target Stores Employees’ Web Site aggregates blog posts from current, and even potential, employees.
• Current Employees: Honeywell’s positive experiences impact search results should any current employees blog about a negative experience. As Target is not officially blogging, a quick Google search turns up Target employee B. Ron.
  
  B. Ron writes openly about his experience setting the store with “some f&*^head from corporate.” “I will tell you, if it weren't for real morons this company might be bigger than Wal-Mart. What am I saying, everyone that works at Wal-Mart is a moron!”

Target needs to engage its employees in a dialogue and give them a voice. Left unchecked, labor unions and its unhappy employees will impact customer opinion of this top retailer.

tags: Target, Wal-Mart, Honeywell, public relations, PR, advertising, marketing, blog, retail, consumer-generated media

Dilbert Blogs!

Scott Adams is blogging, per Business Blog Consulting. I'm assuming the Dilbert blog is designed to get more material from his nation of fans that identify with life on a cube farm. He IS encouraging comments, within a few simple guidelines. With so many rich examples of dysfunctional corporations out there, Adams is sure to pull in the traffic.

At the opposite end of the spectrum sits Honeywell. It has an HR Blog that gives recruits a read into the culture at this Fortune 100 company.

Some welcome, healthy skeptics may think this smacks of synthetic transparency, but I think it's a great idea. Every company has its evangelists, why not engage them to tell others why they like their job?

tags: Scott Adams, Dilbert, corporate blogging, Honeywell, blog, comic strip

Blogger Hacks Customer Service

ABC News World News Tonight just profiled blogger Paul English and his "Cheat Sheet to Find a Human." English has figured out hacks past the Byzantine customer service phone menus for more than 100 companies.

It costs companies $1.00 per minute to put a human on the phone with a customer, .40 cents per minute if that human is in India. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology is designed to eliminate the need for human intervention and save the companies money.

Paul English’s blog and extensive IVR hack list is a great example of the power of a passionate consumer. If your company is on the list, perhaps you should consider revisiting the voicemail jail you’ve built for your customers?

Can You Hear Me Now?
In the time these customers are on hold, or trying to figure out the confusing menus, they can go online, create a blog (for free) and tell their story to several human beings. With Google and RSS behind their ire, your company generates negative word of mouth without even knowing it.

UPDATE: It looks like this story is old news. Colin McKay of Canuckflack posted on this hack back in early September--1.5 months ago! The hack appeared in the PC World article "20 Things They Don't Want You To Know" which includes 19 other tips for dealing with tech vendors.

tags: Hacks, blog, customer service, word of mouth

Pajamas Media: Kryptonite's Polar Opposite

When solving a problem, the simplest answer is usually the best one. Pajamas Media (PM) realized this after launching their new company, Open Source Media. The blogosphere quickly pointed out that the name was already in use by a popular radio show (more popular than ever thanks to a week's worth of Google Juice).

PM could have responded in any number of ways, including silence while they huddled with lawyers crafting the safest a response. Instead they simply admitted the mistake and reverted back to their original name. Problem solved.

The Need for Speed
While PM's outcome provides a stark contrast to the Kryptonite Bike Lock conclusion, these blog relations case histories do share one common thread. Both stories unfolded very quickly. PM's new company officially launched on Thursday, November 17. Instead of celebrating through the weekend, PM quickly spotted the issue and responded on Tuesday, November 22. Problem spotted and resolved in less than one week's time. Phew!

Kryptonite unfolded almost as quickly. In one week less than three weeks, the first bikeforums.net message was posted and the story moved to blogs, then national media and it ended with Kryptonite announcing a product exchange program that PR News claims cost the company at least $10 million.

The fact that PM's crisis had a positive result in a shorter period of time points to the benefit of defining your target audience's online space, monitoring it and (eventually) participating in it.

UPDATE: Kryptonite PR Manager Donna Tocci stopped by to correct my timing above: >>It felt like three weeks, but what you mentioned actually unfolded a lot quicker - in a week.  Concern arose on a forum as you mentioned, bloggers picked it up a day or two later, national media picked it up day 3 and we had an outline of a plan announced by day 5.  Bloggers keep telling me their opinion is that our plan outline wasn't as fast in coming as it needed to be, however, please don't make us any slower!  :) <<

I was impressed that Donna saw this post hours after it was published via an IceRocket search and quickly joined the conversation to point this out. It was no surprise when I saw on Shel Holtz' blog that Donna is now blogging. You learn by doing. Welcome to the fray Donna.

New USA Today & Superman Movie Blogs

USA Today's Kevin Maney and Superman Returns added blogs to the sphere recently. While neither one blazes new territory, they’re worth a quick review.

Born to Blog
Kevin Maney’s journalistic style is perfect for blogging. His blog for USA Today joins the ranks of the New York Times’ David Pogue and countless other tech journalists before him. The blog’s design is clean; I especially love the evolution of the newspaper’s color-coded sections from clunky bars on the left hand of the screen to subtle boxes at the top of the page…just in case you forgot who owned the blog. Of course, the big ad blocks also help you remember you are on MSM turf. BusinessWeek, take note!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a blog?
I’m conflicted over the Superman Returns blog. Here’s what I like: behind the scenes video. Movie blogs serving up video should have no problem generating buzz for their film. Unless the film really stinks. Less than official movie blogs will promote this fact, having the exact opposite effect.

Super fans will dig the director’s video blog, served up on the site through an appropriate and technically impressive comic-book interface. But it goes one step further and provides “transparent clips” rather than polished, produced footage. Playing perfectly to the blog medium, they cut to director Bryan Singer staging the shot with the cameraman to give the footage a rougher, behind the scenes quality.

Goofus and Gallant
My love for the super blog stops there; the downloadables are sparse at best with only buddy icons and, yawn, wallpaper to offer. So while both blogs have their high points, the Superman Returns blog gets the Goofus and Kevin Maney’s blog gets the Gallant.

More on Movie Blogs
One of the smartest movie blogs was one of the first: Spiderman 2. Launched in April of 2003, this blog encourages its fans to start blogging, offering a “how to blog” primer and Spiderman-branded blog templates for download.

Feed a fan content and get blog traffic, teach a fan to create their own content and get box office sales.

The templates bypass the blogosphere’s promotional taboo and bloggers' ad-posting aversion. The blog was kept active after the film premiered, making sure there was a second wave of activity to coincide with the DVD release.

tags: movie blog, superman returns, blog, Kevin Maney, USA Today, marketing

Open Source Media Stumbles

But will they fall? Technology news junkies saw the coverage around the Open Source Media project. The launch was handled deftly by Voce Communications. The AP reports that OSM:

will seek to blend traditional journalism with the freeform commentary developed through the emerging Web format known as blogs.

Some 70 Web journalists, including Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation magazine, have agreed to participate in OSM. It will link to individual blog postings and highlight the best contributions, chosen by OSM editors, in a special section.

One “small” problem, there is already a popular radio program called Open Source Media. Anyone with access to Google can tell you this. The radio show details the back and forth the organizations have had over this naming gaffe, elevating it to meme status pretty quickly. Dan Gillmor analyses the situation in his Odd Start for Open Source Media post. Jeff Jarvis' sound advice is to admit the mistake, rename and move on (QUICKLY).

Pajamas Media should announce online this very weekend that they are working on a new name and will announce it a week from Monday. Why? It…

• stops the "Pajamas Media screwed up" snowball from getting any/much bigger
• builds anticipation for the new name (so it better be original and not suck)
• allows Pajamas Media to build on the impressive coverage they've had to date
• establishes credibility and good will for doing the right thing.

When companies realize they lose control over the message in the blogosphere, they get scared and tend to make a bad situation worse. What companies don’t realize is that, while you lose control over the message in the blogosphere, you gain the freedom to screw up. Bloggers forgive, even reward, honest companies and vilify ones that backpedal or try and do anything other than the right thing.

If Pajamas Media is "open" about this poor naming choice, I predict they'll become the cat's pajamas. If not, they'll simply be remembered as, drum roll..."Doph! en" Source Media. <rim shot> Sorry.

tags: Open Source Media, Pajamas Media, blog, Dan Gillmor, Jeff Jarvis

Game On for the Super Bowl Ad Blog

BlogPulse has asked me to dust off my Super Bowl Ad Blog and be a lab rat panelist, for their second annual Super Bowl Blog Panel. Panelists will blog a play by play of all the ads on their individual, password-protected blogs (sorry!).

And there will be plenty of ads on which to opine. According to MediaPost, ABC has already sold 84 percent of the available airtime, but this will fluctuate as marketers get nervous and change their plans. No surprise considering a :30 spot costs as much as $2.6 million this year. $150 million in total airtime. That's a lot of cash to spend on a dead marketing vehicle.

This was my post mortem on last February's game:

Blogs usurped the bowl ad buzz this year, ensuring the game was better than the ads. You could head online and find out the latest about any and all ads. We created buzz bigger than 1984 for ads that never stood a chance.

Volvo did it right. Online and offline, every element supported the larger campaign. Volvo even bought keywords on Feedster around "super bowl" + ad. Marketers were smarter this year and cashed in on pre-game attention using very integrated campaigns.

But the bottom line is that this cycle creates more buzz than ever before the game and makes it simply impossible for the creative to live up to the expectations.

Shortly after this post, I uncovered the Lincoln Fry blog which ignited a fake blog meme that has morphed over time, but is still discussed nearly a year later. Hopefully this year will be half as fun.

At least this year, I won't bitch about the Roman numeral logo, just all of the "extra large" clichés we're sure to see used to market the game.

tags: Super Bowl blog, Super Bowl XL, fake blog, blog, BlogPulse, advertising

GM Blog Retires on 1st Birthday

GM's Smallblock Engine Blog, the corporate blog that started it all, retires today after a year of celebrating the 50th anniversary of GM's smallblock engine.

GM's Fastlane blog gets most of the credit for establishing GM’s leadership position in the CGM space, but Smallblock’s significance to the history of corporate blogging should not be overlooked.

Start Small   A product-focused event blog brings a tight focus to content, as well as an end date to the project. Bringing this level of definition to a company's first blog project makes for an easier sell internally.

Test, Refine, Launch  Smallblock allowed GM to get some experience under its belt and learn by doing before launching the Fastlane blog. Smallblock authors were product managers, not highly visible and opinionated executives like Bob Lutz. This lowered the risk of entry considerably. In hindsight, I wonder if Fastlane was the first idea for a blog and Smallblock was created, in some part, to help ensure a successful launch.

Long-Term Results  While the last Smallblock post may be today, I hope the site will stay online. All of this content is already cataloged in search engines and helping GM stay at the top of searches on this topic. Pulling the site down because it is no longer being updated would be foolish and a wasted investment of time and resources.

Debbie Weil brings us more on the Smallblock blog's retirement at Business Blog Consulting.
More on why event blogs can be a very effective tactic.
More on how GM leveraged its Fastlane blog to stem media criticism.

tags: GM blog, public relations, media relations, LA Times, PR, advertising, marketing, branding, brand, Fastlane, Smallblock, blog

Amazon Taps into the Long Tail

Amazon announced it will sell books online—by the page. This is not a ploy to spoil the end of mystery and suspense novels. This is Amazon's competitive response to eBay's own long tail-inspired sales initiative.

Seth Godin saw this "page by page" approach on eBay awhile ago. Amazon has been quick, and smart, to jump into the fray. The Long Tail gets longer and creates some interesting publishing opportunities in the process.

tags: long tail, Amazon, media, books, eBay

Reuters Typo: You Must See to Believe

Reuters brings us this humorous reminder of how everyone needs to proofread their work. Read the lead paragraph for a good laugh and a reminder that everyone makes mistakes.