By Richard Laermer
People seem scared to move too rapidly. Is it the war? The fear of the unknown in a mercurial economic environment? Or does the dot-com bust still affect our brains, what with
the bloodthirsty media scaring giants into shutdown mode.
Many mid-to large-size corporations are desperately seeking to bring their lofty and misguided PR efforts back to earth a wee bit, hope this helps for PR managers:
What's With The Message?
A small but prevalent point is that journalists spent much of the 1990s bemoaning the pervasiveness of buzzwords. The 90s are history, but many companies have not adjusted
(i.e., rid themselves of) their words to fit their targets. You have to remember that in order to make sense, you have to be sensible and forthright - and say something that
people want to hear. It's not slogans. That worked in the 90's. Maybe.
Conglomerate Wisely
Media consolidation has definitely changed American media. Who pays attention to which media, and how can you qualify what is real and unbiased? It's up to you to take a stand
and then make sure you are not pussyfooting around by saying, "If I say such and such about AOL, then Fortune won't write about me." Try again. And make the point.
Please Stop Using 'ROI' In Every Sentence
The dot-com economy bubble went kaput so the first budgets to be cut were those for PR and marketing. "There's no ROI in media coverage!" cried C-level types. Introducing your
PR folks to your sales folks provides a clear measure of PR ROI, and it's a mind-blowing wonder more companies aren't doing this. Let everyone know the benefits each side gets.
What a mindset.
The Post Dot-Com Battle Is For Sensible Dollars
Not all Web destinations disappeared. Lo and behold, survivors are the ones that had an old-fashioned business model, rather than ones based on getting and/or spending VC
dollars. It's a smarter barrier to entry now, all clichés aside. This isn't going anywhere, so if you "do business on the Net," shout out, sista.
Honesty Will Out
Sadly, there are too many examples of large corporations falling because the board decided that they could fudge the numbers and lie about their actions and then shy away until
the drum sounded. Being honest has become more than keeping the balance sheet accurate. Nearly everyday someone else is cowering. I can't understand why folks don't offer some
real results in the form of answers that say, "We messed up."
It's CSR Real
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a necessity if you want to exist in a moral world. It is not enough to throw money at the Sierra Club. Making a positive contribution
to the community -- and talking about it -- is crucial to sustaining growth. Don't be immodestly off-kilter -- get with the relevance of the program.
Not Finding But Keeping A PR Firm
Knowing what you want to accomplish is a first step to measure results (ROI again!): Choice is key. Identifying a group of PR agencies that can present proposals is harder than
it used to be. Size matters, expertise probably more -getting most bangs for bucks no longer means hiring a blue-chip PR agency. (These days you can get fired for hiring IBM.) If
an agency comes out of the blue with, "We have some ideas for you," listen even when you think you're okay with that current agency of record.
Content to Be Content-Free
When is a tactic in PR saying something, and when is it an excuse for a billable hour? Does anybody really know what necessitates a release? These are the queries you should
take to your PR and marketing folks. It's well past the golden hour when everyone can just send a release because, "We need to be in the news."
Crisis, Man!
A generation of managers has retired and we miss them already. These are the folks who worked their way up and were not sure whether an MBA had value. They were old-fashioned,
in a good way. Many of today's managers matured (or not) during the 1990's and as a result there is less real management skill at the top of the pyramid.
When marketing management is weak it is time to look at some of the case studies of yesteryear. If you are in a corporation lucky enough to have had a generation previous to
you, go and seek it out. Nothing you are experiencing hasn't happened before. If you think about this replay of 1985 you get that it's a pretty good time following a terrible one.
Yes, the bottom line is still bottom line management. In a time where corporate spending is up, it still seems many companies are pulling back their PR budgets for fear of what
it will do. But the slashing of 2001 and 2002 is supposedly over, so what's there to be scared of? This is the time to reconsider. After all, everyone is awake again.
Los Angeles-based Richard Laermer, CEO of RLM PR, is author of "Full Frontal PR: Getting People Talking About You, Your Business Or Your Product," Bloomberg Press, 2003. He can
be reached at: [email protected]