Strategic Public Relations

Does Your Brand Have a Point of Difference or a Red Flag?

During a recent hotel stay, I saw a brochure promoting a cultural destination that singled out two of its accomplishments. This destination was chosen as “one of six best buildings in the world for 2007.” It was also the first building of its kind in the world to meet a set of exacting environmental specifications.

While both accomplishments were surely hard-earned and worth touting to some degree, are these dusty factoids drawing visitors to this destination? Similarly, if it turns out I’m the tallest marketer in the 45202 zip code, does a basic fact do anything to establish my abilities?

When choosing ways to differentiate your brand from the crowd, claims like “first one in the world” seem like a safe bet. But if these claims don’t resonate with your target audience and reinforce your goal they’ll come off as overcompensation.

The next time you’re establishing a brand, topic or source with a target audience make sure you ask an important question on behalf of your audience: “Who cares?” This will help you stand out for the right reasons.

Altered Reailty VI uploaded by Yushimoto

GM Taps Social Media for Recession Communications

WSJ’s Digits blog tipped me off to this commercial from GM that was launched online via YouTube and Facebook, I assume in lieu of media buys, as it filed for Chapter 11 protection.

To call this a case study in crisis communications is an understatement. GM lost nearly $82 Billion in the last four years. The 10-year-old company filing for Chapter 11 protection makes for the fourth-largest filing in U.S. history and the largest for an industrial company.

This topic is worthy of its own web site. And there is one.

GM Reinvention is harnessing the dividends of GM’s social media 401(k) program when it needs it most. The company is being as transparent as possible to tell their story on what’s next. If GM had not been establishing itself over the years in social media, this effort simply would not be as effective. Social media won’t solve GM’s problems, but it will help the company keep an open line of communication in troubled times as it prepares to rebuild. Let’s hope they reach their new goals.

Get the Picture or Get Lost – Why PR Needs Visual Thinking

Between PR Newswire and BusinessWire, around 2,000 press releases go out over the wires each day.

Wow, 2,000 press releases! How many of those actually contain news? Noise from traditional PR tools across fragmented media channels are fueling bad pitches and stunts that have little or nothing to do with helping the client’s business.

As a result PR people are struggling to help clients stand out – in any way possible. But more isn’t the solution to any problem. Better is the answer. How do we improve?

We must embrace the visual.

Visuals decrease our word count and increase our effectiveness. And in a Web 2.0 society it's become cheaper and easier to make our efforts über visual. The evolution of news and search is making this visual leap essential.

The rest of this post is actually available as a free .pdf file that you can grab here if you're interested. This is also cross-posted to The Bad Pitch Blog.