Of Babies and Bathwater

This blog post, ‘Fire Your PR Agency’ by Jason Calacanis, founder and CEO of Mahalo, was sent to me by a client and I thought it’d blog well, so I’ve taken what was to be my email response and posted it here.

I agree that you can, conceivably, do PR yourself. But I think the value in the article is more useful if titled “How to support your PR firm’s efforts”. Better to keep the baby and change the bathwater, as it were. Jason is a natural press agent himself even if he doesn’t own up to it - so PR comes easily, naturally to him… and what he is suggesting requires a completely different set of skills than most entrepreneurs have and therefore they do require the support of a quality PR outfit.

I know plenty of PR firms, however, that can do more harm than good. In fact, I can provide a list. I’ve hired and fired several. Often because my colleagues and I were their lone source of ideas, which flies in the face of what Jason is suggesting, as he thinks this is a good plan. I don’t. While I appreciated the recognition that I was, in fact, brilliant, I’d have liked to have other ideas heard as well. It gets lonely when the only voice you hear is your own. This is not the same as providing your PR firm with information, resources, and access, which is critical and as this blog goes on to recommend. It is a partnership between client and agency.

Still, although I believe his premise – that you can do this yourself – is flawed, he makes some excellent points:

1. Be the Brand: It is easy for Jason to say this, he is his brand. This is useful if the leadership is savvy, well-spoken and political, or at least enthusiastic. Not every CEO is, and in fact, it is sometimes dangerous for firms to become too attached to their founder as it limits later growth, flexibility and potential M&A activity.

2. Be everywhere: This is simply blocking and tackling for start-ups. Too many engineer types think their better mousetrap will drive people to their door. Well, for that I have one word: Betamax.

3. Always pick up the check: The most important point Jason makes in the entire blog post is here: “If you're not a social person, learn to be, because it's your job if you're at a startup company.” See my comment above, #1.

4. Pitching as Jason uses it here is a euphemism for selling. The best PR opportunities aren’t ‘sold’, just like few of the best products are actually ‘sold’. That’s just PR 101. But I know that too few PR types have graduated that class, and others, while aware of it, are pressured by their clients or bosses to do just that. Sell, sell, sell. Ink, ink, ink. I once had a PR agency drop a couple of three ring binders on the conference table to indicate the amount of press they generated for a similar firm. Leafing through it, it amounted to page after page of one paragraph reprints of press releases. And this was a nationally recognized PR firm. Oddly, scrolling to the end of his post, Jason comments to measure press by the pound. Bullsh*t. You can’t blog about targeting appropriately and suggest measuring success by the pound in the same post. That’s oxymoronic.

5. The critical comment in point #5? “Spend just 30 minutes researching the journalist you're pitching.” PR folks can be lazy. Hire ones who aren’t.

6. His point #6 essentially states to make certain the client, not the agency, has the journalist relationship. Actually, both is important, but once again, good common sense is so rare it bears repeating.

7. Number 7’s key takeaway: “Your job as a subject is to say things concisely and with few words.” Not a reason to fire a PR agency. A good reason to have one, even if they only act as editors.

8. Invite people to "swing by" your office. Of course. Journalists are supposed to become your friends. Invite your friends for a visit. Remember what we learned in Kindergarten: To have a friend, be a friend.

9. Attach your brand to a movement - absolutely. But this works only if the environment allows for it. Generally good business advice, but certainly not a reason to fire a PR firm. A good PR firm can find opportunities to do just that.

10. Embrace small media outlets. Again, PR 101.

Further, don’t mistake media relations (making certain you are visible, acting as a resource for reporters, etceteras) for public relations. The former is easier and often used by weak PR firms as an indication of progress. It isn’t. Media relations is a tool, not an objective. Also, regarding hiring PR firms: The key is in the evaluation, and in the evaluation, the key is the people. Make certain it isn’t the A team selling the agency and the B team doing the work. Know who is on the account and their backgrounds, and hold them to their commitments. They need to be savvy, connected, creative, inventive. This needs to be determined upfront, because success or failure in PR can only be measured on the back end.

The Antique Selectric

A recent back-to-school shopping trip with my pre-teen son did plenty to remind me of the widening generation gap between us. Navigating through brands I'd never heard of and styles that will, one day, define the cultural lowlight of his generation (just as parachute pants defined mine) – helped me acknowledge that the pigment had indeed left my hair, never to return.

An annual report called the Beloit College Mindset List – you may recognize it as common fodder for chatty 'lite rock' morning radio hosts – reminds us all not only of the generation gap and differences in our cultural context, but the pace of change in today's world. This year's study calls out sixty points of reference that the typical 18-year-old, born in 1990, takes for granted. These include:

• Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Disneyland in Orlando.
• The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno.
• Caller ID has always been available on phones.
• IBM has never made typewriters.

Had the Beloit study existed when I entered college, my elders would have likely been reminded that I never knew the country without a space program, had never listened to radio for anything but music, and automobiles always had air conditioning. In turn, upon turning 18, my son will have never known mobile phones without cameras, grasp the concept of a paper map, or have enjoyed music on anything larger than an iPod.

And forget the iconic Selectric… he won't even know IBM as a consumer brand.

The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce

This, from the New York Times:

"...nearby was Anton Zimin, 26, an advertising copywriter, who said he was quite familiar with (a recently deceased novelist, radical, and historian) but doubted that others in his generation were. He said people his age have lost touch with the struggles of their parents and grandparents.

"The problem is that now, it's all about consumption - this spirit that has engulfed everybody," Mr. Zimin said. "People prefer to consume everything, the simplest things, and the faster, the better."

The radical author to which the 26 year old refers is Solzhenitsyn. The consumerism he laments is not American, as the young copywriter is Russian. He speaks of the consumerism of Russia.

In this age of instant gratification and the global village of modern communication, what it took America to bring upon itself in 50 years of mass consumerism, Russia has done in half the time. In the dog years that technology offers, I figure they'll be mirroring our insurmountable national debt, credit crisis and housing crunch by next May. Sarcasm aside, there have always been those who looked to burgeoning economies abroad and spoke of the opportunities to be had there - and these still exist. Moreover, so do opportunities to do it better this time, correct old mistakes, and find new solutions. Unfortunately, between China's dismal environmental record and Russia's corruption, this opportunity may already passed for those countries' leaders, but not yet for the companies looking to build a better world there, and back here at home.

One of these things are not like the other

What do you do when you spend big bucks to outfit and sponsor the USA Olympic Basketball team, only to discover that a key member is not part of your stable of endorsers? The US roundball team was recently photographed in Las Vegas, and questions have been raised regarding how Dwight Howard is curiously positioned, as he is the only member of the team not endorsed by Nike (instead, he shills for Adidas). It is an interesting statement on the importance of brand identity not only in the product design and advertising areas, in a broader contexts as well. For more on the intriguing "daNike Code" conspiracy, it is laid out in this interesting blog entry from CNBC's sports business reporter, Darren Rovell: http://www.cnbc.com/id/25513177

Happy Half Year

Ask any self-respecting eight year old their age, and if it has been more than six months from their birthday, they’ll proudly declare their age – “eight” “And a half”

And so it should be with business, taking time to note our progress at the halfway point, acknowledge our growth and correct our mistakes। If you even have a written marketing plan you are further ahead than 70% of businesses, according to some reports, and if you ever look at it to benchmark progress and plan activities, I’d bet that number soars to 90%। Too often we allow the business plan or marketing plan to be created and then sit on the shelf, a handsome trophy of several months’ work, to be dusted off and updated in every consecutive year। This July, let’s look at doing something completely different, as the guys of Monty Python might say, and actually evaluate the document and our efforts against it to date। How many projects are complete? How much growth has been realized? How many goals reached? How many assumptions disproved? Which projects no longer valid?

Then use the start of the second half of the year to recalibrate and refocus, because unlike that eight – and a half – year old, our company’s growth cannot be presumed.

“Houston, we have a problem.”

All that planning, all that preparation, the harried last minute changes. The product launch ‘event’.

Then, whew, it’s over. Watch it sail forth like a balloon released in the park, bidding the new product a farewell with little consideration of where – how – when – it lands.

Product launches are critical, and by and large there is a critical date or time attached to the launch, the GA (general availability), the press tour, the cocktail party, the trade show demo. All this requires planning, preparation, and harried last minutes adjustments to the plan. But then what?

Without proper consideration of the next steps, the product is just as likely to fade as that balloon will drift to the ground. A product launch is not the end to itself, but rather should be treated not as balloons but like launches of space craft, the start of greater exploration and understanding of the world around it. Product refinements are determined, distribution strategies adjust, the environment changes.

Or not.

Your launch can resemble a balloon release, a faint effort without consideration for the direction the winds may take it, hoping as we do that the winds will be favorable and our carefully planned launch will result in organic interest.

Treat your launches like a rocket, with the fanfare and resources required not only to capture the imagination, but with a longer term plan in mind for long-term revenue contribution, expanding market share, and to continue to address the problem it was created to solve.

That requires an additional step, but offers a giant leap in the promise a new product can have on the bottom line.

An Old School Measurement Discounts the Internet

In my salad days selling radio, one of the compelling reasons for radio was its influence on individuals at the point closest to the point of sale – that is, in the car on their way to go shopping. It intimated radio’s conversion - the power of radio to convert listeners to buyers. A recent survey took a similar notion – influence on the consumer’s buying decision – and it doesn’t look good for new media.

Regarding electronics, "The Internet and Consumer Choice” study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that just 27% of mobile phone sales were significantly impacted by the web. The figure was only 23% for real estate, and surprisingly (to me, anyway) only 17% for music choices. (I’m a big fan of Pandora.com and its ability to introduce new artists, so perhaps I’m a bit of an early adopter there.)

Still, the role of the internet in researching purchases has not changed – 90% of respondents indicated that they still use the web for product research. For marketers, that means that on the web, content is still king – and that market awareness, visibility, credibility and brand building are critical on product websites. Conversion, however, appears to remain elusive.

Think radio. My former employers would love me for that plug.

Green is the new green

From my office in McKinney, Texas, where the city slogan is “Unique By Nature” and recent commercial developments include a LEEDS-certified Wal-Mart, an office building with their own rainwater cistern, and a Toyota dealership that used recycled materials in the construction of the building, I cannot help but recognize that the once nascent green movement trend is now a fully fledged market force.

Of course, you didn’t need me to tell you that. If you are like most Americans, you likely made a green-focused buying decision in just the past few days.

Time was when status was flaunted with clothing stitched with the right logo, cars sporting the correct nameplate, and even dogs of the proper pedigree. Today, status is increasingly conveyed not by the green spent but the green saved – both eco-logically and eco-nomically. This is a new culture of conspicuous non-consumption.

From tags on our emails imploring recipients to consider a tree before printing an email (whatever happened to the ‘paperless office’, anyway?) to organic household cleaners and hybrid vehicles, a product’s “environmental impact” has seen a spike as a key decision-making factor for consumers. But how committed are we to green products? After all, Americans tend to read diet books instead of dieting – do we also buy green products instead of truly living green?

A 2007 study by the New York Times indicated that only 36% of buyers of the Toyota Prius said that gas mileage was a factor in the decision. Moreover, fully 51% of Prius owners indicated that their purchase was fueled (no pun intended) by the fact that the Prius “makes a statement about me”. So, if we were to extrapolate this to all green-based purchase decisions, what does this mean for marketers? It means green claims are more at risk, not less, in the face of such (currently, anyway) superficial commitment. After all, if you’ve made a purchase as a personal statement, you don’t want to later find out that the product against which you leveraged your valuable personal image is in fact a fraud. Under these circumstances, the credibility of your product's 'green-ness' is additionally critical as it makes your environmental claims more subject to rumor, innuendo, and the whims of fashion. Marketers using ‘green’ claims to sell more product without credible evidence to support the messaging are subject to a backlash that could deleteriously impact the product, related products, the company and even the more established green movement.

Here then, from Environmental Leader, are five guidelines for effective environmental marketing:

1. 70% of Americans say quantifying the actual environmental impact of a product or service is influential in their purchasing decisions, so make specific claims about the quantitative impact of your green approach.
   
2. 74% of Americans indicate that a connection between the product/service and the environmental issue influences their purchasing decisions, so stay relevant regarding landfill waste, ozone, or emissions.
   
3. Make the claim and the support of it visible. Americans reach out to websites and product packaging for information.
   
4. Like all marketing messages, make it consistent across all language, images and branding activities.
   
5. Communications that include some sense of context, as well as a “work in progress” tone, will be more credible and less subject to criticism than claims suggesting that a product is the answer to all society’s ills. Even cereal companies claim that their product is only a part of a healthy breakfast!

Green is the new green. But tread carefully or it could become the new red. As in ink.

UBS: Uncertain Brand Strategy?

Peter Kurer, chairman of the bank UBS, which is arguably the world’s largest wealth manager and the bank most highly leveraged in sub-prime mortgage loans, was recently quoted by Reuters as suggesting that the damage to their reputation (read, brand) from the sub-prime mess will “go away after two or three years”.

That’s not brand management, that’s brand abdication. “Goes away?” Brand reputations don’t “go away”, they are merely replaced by new perceptions. What has Kurer in mind for replacing a brand perception damaged by $37 billion dollars in asset write-downs and two recent requests for emergency cash infusions?

Time heals all wounds? Not so fast.

Small gods

I recently discovered that a friend considers himself a Luddite because he has so far resisted the seemingly inescapable social pressure to own a mobile phone.

Having just returned from CTIA, where the discussion among the assembled wireless companies and network equipment providers was once again on the subject of providing more data access, services, collaboration on mobile devices - and I feel somewhat like an anthropologist among the crowds because I still know at least one 18-49 year old without mobile service at all. That's right, forget mobile internet and collaboration apps... he is lacking even simple mobile voice communication.

Actually, I am very sympathetic - and in fact envious - of my friend's postion on mobile phones. As Jerome Lawrence wrote for the play Inherit The Wind, "Progress has never been a bargain. You have to pay for it. You can have a telephone, but you lose privacy and the charm of distance. You may conquer the air, but birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline."

Today we clone livestock and can grow a heart in a petri dish. We 'google' or 'wiki' information at our fingertips and can quickly become a skeptic, if not an expert, on any topic under the sun. We live and work in orbit 220 miles above the earth. We TIVO our favorite programs and thus appear to control the fabric of time. This week, a 'man' even announced his pregnancy.

Mobile phones have already allowed us to master the concept of being omnipresent. Success with these other endeavors will bring us closer to be omnipotence too. Small gods, each one of us.

So I cut my friend a break. Those who refuse the latest gadgets aren't Luddites. Just human.

D'oh!

Have you seen the the WaMu ad with the bald customer who, excited at the 'free services' at Washington Mutual (WaMu), fantisizes about driving a sporty ragtop as his hair grows - then billows - in the open air?

It disturbs me on so many levels.

The brief CGI sequence where his follicles are seen growing out of his scalp gives me the willies, plus I'm not certain the point of trying to convince people that a large bank will excite them. Beside the fact that it is a totally unreasonable claim - I mean, its a bank, not a Disneyland e-ride. Why is that a critical brand message anyway, given the country's current financial meltdown? Credibility, stability, authority, yes. Excitement? That's the last thing I want from my bank.

Now, adding insult to stupidity, CNBC's Jane Wells reports they've co-opted Homer Simpson, the icon of American stupidity, by trademarking the term Whoo-hoo (spelled intentionally with the 'h' as to not to be conflict with Homer's trademark widely known 'Woo-hoo' - honestly, look it up on their website, "Whoo-hoo" with a 'TM') and posted it visibly on billboards in bright colors all over urban America.

I must've missed that episode... "Mmm, donuts" I remember, "Mmm, beer" I recall seeing several times, but the episode where Homer and Bart go to make a deposit and Homer groans, "Mmm...WaMu Free Checking™ account with one style of check for free. WaMu will not charge ATM fees for cash withdrawals, but non-refundable ATM operator fees may apply. Foreign currency exchange and transaction fees may apply to wires and card transactions. Other banks involved in wire transfer may also charge fees. If your account is open and in good standing on your anniversary date you’ll receive a $0.03 reward for each Debit MasterCard® purchase transaction made within the last year up to a $250 reward. Ask about other fees applicable to your account."

Nope, I missed that one. Right along with my confidence in WaMu.

George Carlin - Visionary

"If you nail two things together that have never been nailed together before . . . some shmuck will buy it from you."

George Carlin uttered these words thirty years ago, and the only thing this visionary was missing from that statement, in itself an abbreviated marketing plan, was the question of distribution.

The cyber flea-market that is eBay, folks, I have now realized, is the answer to Carlin's distribution problem. Its the most effective method of distribution since Sam Walton sold his Ben Franklin franchises. It's toast with Elvis' image, its a box of rocks, its baby naming rights. Most recently, it is a cornflake in the shape of the great state of Illinois: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/odd_illinois_corn_flake.

There is no harm in listing the item for sale (although let's hope it was done during one of eBay's free listing promotions) but it is in the buying I find questionable. After all, I don't think there is a corn flake made that doesn't resemble one of the plains states. I mean, come on, people, its CORN. It's in the DNA of a flake!

Or is it Obama-mania?

Either way, add Carlin to legendary names like Ogilvy, Porter, and Godin. Pure genius.