To say that the past year hasn't been a happy one for the technology industry would be an understatement.
But for 3Com, many of whose technologies were among those hardest hit when telecom tanked and dotcoms took a dive, it's been an especially ugly period. The company has
undertaken a major turnaround effort, cutting costs and working to generate renewed interest in its products.
In his comments regarding FY 2002 third quarter results, CEO Bruce Claflin said, "There is increasing interest from enterprise customers to leverage new technologies, but this
too is against a backdrop of careful capital spending. So for the near term, we do not look to improving market conditions to restore profitability; rather, it will be through
disciplined cost and expense management."
3Coms has three separate business units with three separate PR teams. As part of the PR team for the corporate center, Robert Glazier is charged with one of the most important
tasks in this company revitalization: He is responsible for ensuring that key executives are in the public eye, repeating key messages, and that key media are covering them.
Measurement has been a key tool for Glazier and his team in evaluating how well the turnaround message is going over with the press - and in keeping senior management satisfied
that the revamp is making news.
PRN: How is measurement playing a role for you as 3Com works to emerge from all the bad news that has surrounded the technology industry over the past year and a half?
R.G.: We are using CARMA's iMEDIAte and BIZ360. A lot of what we have done from the corporate center has been planning and tracking corporate reputation and following our
turnaround story.
The measurement has basically been keeping us a little bit ahead of the curve with what's happening in the industry.
We are gauging our success getting key executives out at speaking opportunities, following up to see whether the mentions are actually getting in the press.
PRN: How do those two media analysis tools complement each other?
R.G.: CARMA is the best we've seen as far as offering quantitative results. BIZ360 provides the qualitative insights we need. A lot of what the executive team wants to see is
how the program is progressing.
We have the tools that enable us to show them where we were two years ago as far as corporate brand and corporate reputation and where we are now - how the program has
progressed.
The execs are also able to see specific clips and pie charts on media relations so they know [what we've accomplished].
PRN: Having access to this data around your media hits helps you to keep senior executives apprised of the company's branding position. But how does it help you as you plan the
course for future branding efforts?
R.G.: Measurement basically allows us to gauge the success of our previous efforts.
A lot of what we do is look at specific reporters. If we see we're not getting the coverage we want, we can subtly revisit our strategies and revisit our relationships with
those reporters. And it allows us to build on successes with other reporters.
We used to have to do this manually or worse, go on gut. Now we're able to show our executives and our own teams, these are the reporters always remembering to include us as a
top tier leader in this category. We're able to see the graphs, and we can see whether they're covering fiscal reports, whether they're covering what we've intentionally put out
there from our PR programs.
PRN: The technology sector has provided a lot of angst for PR pros in your industry - and at your company - recently. But in terms of measurement, what does the technology
landscape look like?
R.G.: I think it'll be interesting to see what other things emerge.
Our jobs have been made a lot easier over the last two or three years. Even with systems like CARMA's where there's a lot of very labor intensive use of people [to analyze
media hits] instead of automated technologies, [technology] has made our jobs a lot easier in terms of being able to adjust [and respond to data quickly].
Company
3Com
HQ: Santa Clara, CA, 408/326-5000
URL: http://www.3com.com
Measurement
Vendors: CARMA, Biz360
Biz360, MediaMap Team with Factiva
Glazier noted in his interview with PR NEWS that Biz360, one of his vendors of choice, had recently teamed with Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters company which offers global
news content. In fact, both Biz360 and MediaMap announced last week that they will now offer access to Factiva news and data as part of their measurement and reputation tracking
services. MediaMap will offer the Factiva content as part of MediaMap Performa, and Biz360 will integrate it into Market360. (Rochelle Adams, A&R Partners for Biz360, [email protected]; Jon Widman, PAN Communications for MediaMap, [email protected])
(Contact: Robert Glazier, 408/326-5562)