A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other things I find interesting.
Talkin' 'bout my generation: Cathryn Sloan pokes a hornet's nest by writing that every social media manager should be under 25. Let it go, my fellow Gen-Xers. Someday she'll be looking over her shoulder, too.
Getting a bad reputation: Another lesson from Penn State is that nothing stays hidden forever, despite our best efforts. It's the dark side of what I was told by the person who gave me my first job in PR: Sometimes your greatest achievements in public relations are what doesn't happen, the stories that don't get reported.
Video's the thing: We shouldn't need to be reminded of the power of video to tell our stories, but those of us lookingto invest more resources into video appreciate the affirmation.
Speaking of videos, here's a cool one from where I work.
Showing posts with label Penn State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Penn State. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
The Spin Cycle, 7/16
A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other things I find interesting.
We Are... The Penn State scandal is yet another reminder that behavior and decision-making trumps all. Want me to tell how to improve your image and get good PR? Do the right thing.
Groupon Grows Up: Groupon is trying to distinguish itself from its myriad competitors. One idea I like: Groupon Rewards, which would help counter the problem I identified in this post about the challenge for Groupon in distinguishing itself from its rivals.
Anatomy of a PR Disaster: CNet takes an in-depth look at the Netflix price hike/Qwikster debacle, another one of my favorite punching bags.
We Are... The Penn State scandal is yet another reminder that behavior and decision-making trumps all. Want me to tell how to improve your image and get good PR? Do the right thing.
Groupon Grows Up: Groupon is trying to distinguish itself from its myriad competitors. One idea I like: Groupon Rewards, which would help counter the problem I identified in this post about the challenge for Groupon in distinguishing itself from its rivals.
Anatomy of a PR Disaster: CNet takes an in-depth look at the Netflix price hike/Qwikster debacle, another one of my favorite punching bags.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The Spin Cycle
A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other
things I find interesting.
Pepsi Sees Dead Pop Stars: Pepsi's decision to launch a marketing campaign employing the image of the late Michael Jackson provoked a visceral reaction in critics, who observed that you can draw a line from Pepsi to Jackson's demise, given that his dependence on painkillers apparently started with the burns he received while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. I doubt many consumers will take the connection that far, but certainly the incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire remains the strongest association between Pepsi and the King of Pop. To me, it's unseemly because Jackson, despite how much he profited from his talents, and his own responsibility for his behavior, was a man exploited from a young age by people who should have taken care of him, something that continued all his life -- and now unto death.
Apple Pays Less in Taxes than Warren Buffett's Secretary: Well, not really, but the House that Jobs Built has found legal ways to avoid paying ton billions in taxes, and the Flack thinks their response has been rather tone deaf. But unless they plan to change their behavior, or lobby for changes in the tax code -- which the Flack suggests might be in order -- how else are they supposed to respond? It may be time for people to finally come to terms with the fact that Apple, whatever its cultural cachet, is just like any other large corporation, doing what it can to maximize profit. We need to treat them no better, nor any worse, than any other corporation that does the same.
Coke and Pepsi Want to be Your Friend: The cola wars are moving to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, which to me raises a question: Do consumers really want to engage with every brand out there? I just want to drink soda. That's about where my desire for a relationship ends. I realize that if more and more live much of their lives on social media, a brand can't be invisible and survive for long. I find, however, that not long after I like a brand on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter, I end up regretting is soon after. Maybe it's just because no one has done it right yet.
The Purpose-Driven PR Agency: I'm wrapping up with this item about Edelman's new corporate responsibility practice as a follow-up to last week's item about Penn State hiring the PR giant to help it be more transparent in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. Maybe they hired the right guys after all. Time will tell.
Do you have an item for the Spin Cycle? Send me a reply or DM on Twitter to @jepotts.
Pepsi Sees Dead Pop Stars: Pepsi's decision to launch a marketing campaign employing the image of the late Michael Jackson provoked a visceral reaction in critics, who observed that you can draw a line from Pepsi to Jackson's demise, given that his dependence on painkillers apparently started with the burns he received while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. I doubt many consumers will take the connection that far, but certainly the incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire remains the strongest association between Pepsi and the King of Pop. To me, it's unseemly because Jackson, despite how much he profited from his talents, and his own responsibility for his behavior, was a man exploited from a young age by people who should have taken care of him, something that continued all his life -- and now unto death.
Apple Pays Less in Taxes than Warren Buffett's Secretary: Well, not really, but the House that Jobs Built has found legal ways to avoid paying ton billions in taxes, and the Flack thinks their response has been rather tone deaf. But unless they plan to change their behavior, or lobby for changes in the tax code -- which the Flack suggests might be in order -- how else are they supposed to respond? It may be time for people to finally come to terms with the fact that Apple, whatever its cultural cachet, is just like any other large corporation, doing what it can to maximize profit. We need to treat them no better, nor any worse, than any other corporation that does the same.
Coke and Pepsi Want to be Your Friend: The cola wars are moving to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, which to me raises a question: Do consumers really want to engage with every brand out there? I just want to drink soda. That's about where my desire for a relationship ends. I realize that if more and more live much of their lives on social media, a brand can't be invisible and survive for long. I find, however, that not long after I like a brand on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter, I end up regretting is soon after. Maybe it's just because no one has done it right yet.
The Purpose-Driven PR Agency: I'm wrapping up with this item about Edelman's new corporate responsibility practice as a follow-up to last week's item about Penn State hiring the PR giant to help it be more transparent in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. Maybe they hired the right guys after all. Time will tell.
Do you have an item for the Spin Cycle? Send me a reply or DM on Twitter to @jepotts.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The Spin Cycle
A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other things I find interesting.
Penn State hires big-name PR firms: In the wake of the Sandusky scandal, Penn State writes a few big checks to fulfill its pledge to be more transparent. Penn State needs to change its culture. Will these firms help with that?
Netflix Stock Takes a Dive: A few weeks ago, after I heralded Netflix's recovery, a Facebook friend noted that its stock was still in the tank. So sue me. Bottom line, though, is that the lessons learned from the whole episode are still relevant.
The Disney Institute: Disney is building up quite a little side business helping companies become, well, become more like Disney. The New York Times, in reporting on The Disney Institute's growth, seems almost apologetic:
Disney, which employs 64,000 people in Orlando alone, has its own employee difficulties, of course. Union spats arise, and some cast members — Disney-speak for employees — chafe at the company’s strict rules, although it recently lifted a facial-hair ban and now allows women to forgo pantyhose. Disney’s sugary customer service can also startle visitors who aren’t used to such uniform cheerfulness.
But vast numbers of consumers love it, and the company is routinely showcased in business books, like “The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company,” for its hospitality and efficiency. For instance, the company has spent so much time studying its park customers — more than 120 million of them globally last year — that it places trash cans every 27 paces, the average distance a visitor carries a candy wrapper before discarding it.
New York City journalists, perhaps you'd like to visit America sometime. It's a lovely place.
Penn State hires big-name PR firms: In the wake of the Sandusky scandal, Penn State writes a few big checks to fulfill its pledge to be more transparent. Penn State needs to change its culture. Will these firms help with that?
Netflix Stock Takes a Dive: A few weeks ago, after I heralded Netflix's recovery, a Facebook friend noted that its stock was still in the tank. So sue me. Bottom line, though, is that the lessons learned from the whole episode are still relevant.
The Disney Institute: Disney is building up quite a little side business helping companies become, well, become more like Disney. The New York Times, in reporting on The Disney Institute's growth, seems almost apologetic:
Disney, which employs 64,000 people in Orlando alone, has its own employee difficulties, of course. Union spats arise, and some cast members — Disney-speak for employees — chafe at the company’s strict rules, although it recently lifted a facial-hair ban and now allows women to forgo pantyhose. Disney’s sugary customer service can also startle visitors who aren’t used to such uniform cheerfulness.
But vast numbers of consumers love it, and the company is routinely showcased in business books, like “The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company,” for its hospitality and efficiency. For instance, the company has spent so much time studying its park customers — more than 120 million of them globally last year — that it places trash cans every 27 paces, the average distance a visitor carries a candy wrapper before discarding it.
New York City journalists, perhaps you'd like to visit America sometime. It's a lovely place.
Friday, March 2, 2012
There are disasters, and then there are disasters
Here is a list of the top 7 "PR disasters of 2011." Regular readers know I have some issues with the term "PR disaster" as I noted here and here and here, the latter being in reference to the Netflix fiasco, which made the top 7 list.
Certainly, each of the examples listed created negative publicity for the organizations and people involved, though publicity and public relations are not one in the same. But to label them PR disasters in some ways trivializes the poor decisions and improper actions of these organizations and their leaders.
To me, a public relations crisis is when your response to a problem, and in particular your communications strategy, makes the situation worse. Netflix is an example of a company with a PR crisis and a genuine crisis -- which I define as the failure of an organization to carry out its basic mission or fulfill its responsibilities to its stakeholders.
Technically, Penn State's response to the allegations of child sex abuse against Jerry Sandusky, and the alleged cover-up by other university officials, was a PR crisis under my definition, because the university's response made things worse. Yet the worst of what the university and its leaders did was not harming the institution's image -- a byproduct of their actions -- but failing to intervene to keep more children from being victimized.
Remember, public relations is not merely about boosting the image of your organization. It is about counseling leadership to make decisions that are in the best interest of both the organization and the public, and figuring out how to reconcile these interests when they are in conflict. We all remember the foot-in-mouth disease suffered by BP CEO Tony Hayward during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. His insensitive comments made a bad situation worse. But the real problem was the millions of gallons of oil floating in the ocean, and all the kind words in the world weren't going to make that go away.
Certainly, each of the examples listed created negative publicity for the organizations and people involved, though publicity and public relations are not one in the same. But to label them PR disasters in some ways trivializes the poor decisions and improper actions of these organizations and their leaders.
To me, a public relations crisis is when your response to a problem, and in particular your communications strategy, makes the situation worse. Netflix is an example of a company with a PR crisis and a genuine crisis -- which I define as the failure of an organization to carry out its basic mission or fulfill its responsibilities to its stakeholders.
Technically, Penn State's response to the allegations of child sex abuse against Jerry Sandusky, and the alleged cover-up by other university officials, was a PR crisis under my definition, because the university's response made things worse. Yet the worst of what the university and its leaders did was not harming the institution's image -- a byproduct of their actions -- but failing to intervene to keep more children from being victimized.
Remember, public relations is not merely about boosting the image of your organization. It is about counseling leadership to make decisions that are in the best interest of both the organization and the public, and figuring out how to reconcile these interests when they are in conflict. We all remember the foot-in-mouth disease suffered by BP CEO Tony Hayward during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. His insensitive comments made a bad situation worse. But the real problem was the millions of gallons of oil floating in the ocean, and all the kind words in the world weren't going to make that go away.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Held hostage
Holman Jenkins had a recent column in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) describing the symbiotic relationship between junk-food brands like Pepsi and McDonald's, and the activists that protest those brands' products and marketing. It includes this gem of a line: "To build a brand is to create a hostage."
In context, Jenkins refers to the fact that activists who protest a brand rely on the brand's value to help them promote their cause. But I find the line a useful reminder that as organizations, we do not truly own our brands. We build them, we cultivate them, we are their caretakers; but our brands actually belong to the constituents we serve, whether they are customers, donors, members, etc. The corollary to this is something that my boss has said time and again: Your brand is not what you think it is. It is what the public thinks it is.
This helps to explain, in marketing and PR terms, the reaction of Penn State alumni to the firing and recent death of legendary coach Joe Paterno, who lost his job in the wake of the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Whatever you think of Penn State's decision to Paterno (unfortunate but necessary) or the manner in which its board went about it (graceless and unprofessional) there is something startling -- and troubling -- to those of us outside the Penn State bubble in the rabid manner in which the loyalists have defended Paterno to the very last.
And it's not just surprising to me. I think it caught the current administration, including the board, off guard as well. It's become clear to me that, despite the great education that Penn State appears to provide, alumni of all stripes clearly believe that Penn State's brand was Joe Paterno. Not just football, which was what the institution was clearly trying to protect in its failure to address the accusations against Jerry Sandusky, but JoePa himself. When the board quickly and bloodlessly fired Paterno, they trashed the brand in the eyes of the faithful.
Pennsylvania State University, in other words, did not own Paterno, so to speak, nor did they own the football program he led for so long. Paterno belonged to everyone who considered themselves a Penn Stater. When they say, with such tremendous pride, "We Are Penn State" they mean it quite literally, in ways that the people now charged with leading the institution seem scarcely able to comprehend.
In context, Jenkins refers to the fact that activists who protest a brand rely on the brand's value to help them promote their cause. But I find the line a useful reminder that as organizations, we do not truly own our brands. We build them, we cultivate them, we are their caretakers; but our brands actually belong to the constituents we serve, whether they are customers, donors, members, etc. The corollary to this is something that my boss has said time and again: Your brand is not what you think it is. It is what the public thinks it is.
This helps to explain, in marketing and PR terms, the reaction of Penn State alumni to the firing and recent death of legendary coach Joe Paterno, who lost his job in the wake of the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. Whatever you think of Penn State's decision to Paterno (unfortunate but necessary) or the manner in which its board went about it (graceless and unprofessional) there is something startling -- and troubling -- to those of us outside the Penn State bubble in the rabid manner in which the loyalists have defended Paterno to the very last.
And it's not just surprising to me. I think it caught the current administration, including the board, off guard as well. It's become clear to me that, despite the great education that Penn State appears to provide, alumni of all stripes clearly believe that Penn State's brand was Joe Paterno. Not just football, which was what the institution was clearly trying to protect in its failure to address the accusations against Jerry Sandusky, but JoePa himself. When the board quickly and bloodlessly fired Paterno, they trashed the brand in the eyes of the faithful.
Pennsylvania State University, in other words, did not own Paterno, so to speak, nor did they own the football program he led for so long. Paterno belonged to everyone who considered themselves a Penn Stater. When they say, with such tremendous pride, "We Are Penn State" they mean it quite literally, in ways that the people now charged with leading the institution seem scarcely able to comprehend.
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