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Whirlpool Meets the Mothers of InventionBy PR News EditorsWhen you think of great inventors, the common image is male: Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Thomas Edison, and so forth. Women inventors have historically not received the PR boost they deserve. And that is not because women were late to the game: as far back as 1715, when Benjamin Franklin was only nine years old, Sybilla Masters invented a mill that enabled the American Indian corn crops to be processed into a multitude of different food and cloth products. However, Masters did not live in a proto-feminist era and the patent was issued in her husband Thomas’ name. Fast forward to 2006 and the idea of women inventors is still viewed by many as something of a history niche. But at Whirlpool Corp., the notion of encouraging and promoting women to find their inner Sybilla Masters resulted in one the company’s most intriguing PR efforts: The Whirlpool Brand Mother of Invention Grant. Part old-fashioned competition, part modern-day female empowerment and part test lab for potential Whirlpool products of tomorrow, the promotion took root from eagle-eyed employees who noticed a curious development among stay-at-home mothers. “The idea came from a group of employees,” recalls Audrey Reed-Granger, director of public relations for Whirlpool Brand. “It started as an e-mail about a story on a trend called ‘momtrepreneurs’ – mothers who left the office environment to raise their kids but who still worked from the home. Our employees asked if there was anything we can do with that, since these mothers are an important part of our consumer base.” Reed-Granger consulted with the company’s PR agency, ZENO in Chicago, and with her internal marketing colleagues. The result was unanimous enthusiasm. “Everyone fell in love with it.” However, Reed-Granger was adamant that any promotion would need to have a serious business aspect to it and not just come across as a one-shot “job well done” pat on the back. The Whirlpool Brand Mother of Invention Grant was designed to identify momtrepreneurs with visionary ideas for important new inventions. Unlike the colonial Sybilla Masters who could not own her own patent, the momtrepreneurs under the Whirlpool tutelage would not only possess their patents but also gain the connections to build their businesses via seed money and quarterly professional input from Whirlpool executives and their professional partners. Planting The Seeds For Grassroots PRWhen the time came to announce the launch of the competition in January 2005, the main PR tactic for spreading the word was as unconventional as the competition itself.For Jana Rhodes, the senior account executive at ZENO who headed the agency’s PR push for the promotion, the emphasis was not on the expected main media targets (morning television news shows, high circulation newspapers and magazines). Instead, Rhodes aimed her PR viewfinder in the direction where most mothers were looking. “We did not go for network TV, but we did a lot of local level news programs,” she explains. “We wanted to reach moms who are so busy that they don’t have time to watch the morning national television news or read the newspapers from start to finish.” Reed-Granger made herself available for interviews on numerous local news programs. Rhodes points out this helped to give the story more of a local feel. Indeed, the notion of a grassroots movement served to personalize the story for its target audience. “We worked with small business associations in different states and connected with local business groups online,” adds Rhodes. “We found that some moms got their news of this by word-of-mouth – someone caught mention of it on the local news and passed it along to them.” Whirlpool also offered some in-store PR promotions to catch the attention of the moms who were able to get away from the home for a spin of shopping. Hello, Mama!For Reed-Granger, the lower-keyed PR push brought the right results.“It worked out beautifully,” she says. “We were expecting 250 entries, 500 maximum – we received more than 1,700 entries. And we were asking people to think, fill out forms and come up with original ideas. Not lightweight ideas – this was not just a recipe contest with something you already have. These moms had some incredible thoughts.” From this pool came six winners in September 2005, with the grand prize champion honors going to Theresa Riep of Scottsdale, AZ. Riep received a $15,000 grant, a $3,000 stipend to create a state-of-the-art home office and new Whirlpool appliances. However, Riep’s winning entry is not yet available for public consideration. “We can’t tell you since she doesn’t have a patent yet on her idea,” explains Reed-Granger. “I can say that it is an innovation around child safety.” Riep and four of the other five winners were also brought to Whirlpool headquarters in Benton Harbor, MI, in November 2005 for a “business boot camp” that included discussions with Julie Aigner-Clark, founder of the Baby Einstein product line, and Brook Noel, founder and president of Champion Press Ltd. (The sixth mom could not attend that session due to – what else? – family matters.) Reed-Granger notes the winning moms will receive “friendly counsel” on a quarterly basis from Whirlpool’s in-house experts on aspects of patent law, business plan writing and grassroots marketing. Whirlpool is planning to make the Whirlpool Brand Mother of Invention Grant into annual event. Sybilla Masters would’ve been proud. Lessons Learned: Encountering EntrepreneursWhen entrepreneurs are the target of your PR promotion, here are some sterling tips worth remembering:
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