Listening Campaigns: Don’t Take the Bait

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Posted on April 23, 2012 
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At an industry conference last week, a well-respected communications exec was sharing with me that she is on a “listening campaign” this month and it has been quite fantastic the things she’s learning about her brand, customers and competitors.  As she was telling me this, she was looking over my shoulder for the next person to talk to.  We all have been the victim of the “over the shoulder” networker, the person who is looking for the next, better conversation after getting bored by you. Heck, we might even be guilty of that action every now and then. The irony, of course, is that this “listening campaigner” wasn’t listening to our current conversation.  Which brings me to one of the “actions du jour”:  listening campaigns.

At first I thought this was a brilliant concept – that you go on the road (virtually or figuratively) and just listen to what’s being said about your company, or your industry, or a particular person.  Talk less, listen more. Don’t judge. Don’t budge from pricking your ear and taking it all in.  Thousands of people are doing “listening campaigns” as you read this blog post.  Are listening campaigns actually hurting our ability to listen all the time? To know when to let others rule the conversation and to be a fly on the wall? To be in the moment and concentrate on your audience? The original intent of listening campaigns is a good one, but our inability to concentrate, our excellent multitasking skills and our innate fear of missing out make listening campaigns (emphasis on “campaigns”) a potentially useless exercise.

Why segregate this activity? Shouldn’t you always be listening, monitoring and learning in your markets? By being so deliberate are you avoiding important conversations taking place right in front of you? So, back to this person who wasn’t listening to me, and because I was just short enough she could longingly peer over my shoulders:  I had approached her because I wanted to give her a business card of someone who wanted her counsel.  If she had only made me part of her listening campaign she would have gotten some new business.  Maybe she still will – holding a grudge is as ugly as not listening.

(What’s your take on listening campaigns? Would love to hear your viewpoint.)

- Diane Schwartz

On Twitter: @dianeschwartz

 

Inspiration and Metrics: A Good PR Mix

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Posted on April 20, 2012 
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In Washington, D.C., PR News held its CSR Awards luncheon and PR Measurement Conference back-to-back on April 17-18. You can read about the CSR winners and the happenings at the Measurement Conference on our site, but I thought I might provide some commentary on what I observed at both events.

On Tuesday we hosted 150 people from agencies, nonprofits, government and corporate organizations, all vying for awards in 30 different CSR categories. Three things stood out for me at this gathering: the pride and commitment that communications pros have in their sustainability and community programs; their emphasis on the importance of employee involvement; and the acceptance speech on behalf of Hyundai’s Zafar Brooks—one of our CSR Professionals of the Year— by 14-year-old Brianna Commerford, a 2010-2011 Hyundai Hope on Wheels National Youth Ambassador. The poised teen really put CSR programs in perspective, saying Brooks “works so much for others and is so humble about it.”

Then, on Wednesday at the PR Measurement Conference—with the audience abuzz about the space shuttle Discovery’s D.C. flyover—I got the sense that measurement is still very much a vexing proposition for most of the 250 PR pros in attendance. Mark Weiner of PRIME Research and Johna Burke of BurrellesLuce set the PR measurement table pretty well to kick things off. Weiner emphasized that measuring doesn’t have to be expensive (as many PR pros think it is). “The simplest approach is to set an objective and strive quantitatively to meet or beat it,” said Weiner. The objective must be measurable, meaningful and reasonable, particularly to C-suite executives, he added.

Objectives also can’t be vague, added Burke, who believes in the SMART strategy of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely objectives.

Yet as the day went on, it was clear that while some measurement techniques can be relatively simple, linking PR with sales is a tough task. The Barcelona Principles, helpful as they are from an objectives standpoint, won’t help you much there. But for PR pros hesitant about measurement, Weiner had some sage advice: It’s better to be approximately right than to be totally in the dark.

Follow Scott Van Camp: @svancamp01

Hilary Rosen: Communicator Overboard

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Posted on April 13, 2012 
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Hilary Rosen, a managing director for strategic communications firm SKDKnickerbocker, pundit for CNN and, according to The Nation, a Democratic lobbyist, got a little too enthusiastic in her election year trash talk when she said on CNN on April 11, “Guess what—[Mitt Romney's] wife has actually never worked a day in her life.”

We can all agree that this was a dumb thing to say. The useful question for communicators to ask is: How did a professional communicator arrive at that point where that particular question was asked?

It’s fairly obvious that both the Democratic and Republican party hand out talking points to their spokespeople, who include members of Congress, members of the professional media, paid consultants and who knows who else. Was Rosen’s comment a failed talking point or did she just go overboard in her effort to advance a political point of view?

My guess is she went overboard in making the point that Ann Romney is not an expert on working (as in “job holding”) women’s economic issues and thoughtlessly lapsed into a common misconception that women who don’t have salaried jobs and stay home to raise children don’t really work.

She went overboard on behalf of a political party and said something dumb. We see this on the Republican side, too. By laying it on too thick, she became the story and lost credibility as a spokesperson.

The lessons here: As an advocate or spokesperson, don’t oversell, don’t pander, don’t exaggerate. Leave that to the candidates (or CEOs) themselves.

—Steve Goldstein

Follow Steve Goldstein: @SGoldsteinAI 

 

A Look at 3 Winning CSR Trends

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Posted on April 9, 2012 
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At PR News we’re getting ready for the CSR Awards luncheon in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, April 17, so we’ve been steeped in successful green, sustainability and community outreach campaigns. The work organizations and agencies are doing in these areas is good stuff, and always leads to a common question: How do these campaigns impact the bottom line and affect brand loyalty?

Recent public opinion research on “green” is mixed at best. In late March Cone released data showing that reported that 8 in 10 Americans don’t believe companies are addressing all of their environmental impacts, and just 44% trust companies’ green claims (PRN 4/2/2012 issue). Then on April 5, a Gfk MRI study found that while 65% of Americans agree with the statement that “preserving the environment is very important,” just 31% of adults purchased green household products in the last 12 months. So while U.S. consumers may think and talk green, they do not necessarily walk the green walk.

Yet organizations keep plugging away with innovative CSR campaigns—backed by extensive communications efforts—secure in the belief that in the long run (and when the economy swings back) they will pay off with brand loyalty from consumers. In looking at our CSR Awards finalists, I find some common CSR trends and threads:

Transparency: Most brands believe honesty is the best CSR policy. Paper company Domtar, for example, developed a tool that gives stakeholders the environmental skinny on each of its products, allowing potential customers to see the exact green impact of purchases.
Employee volunteerism: More and more, organizations are linking internal communications with CSR efforts. Take health insurer Wellpoint, which rallied 4,000 employee volunteers on April 30, 2011, to build gardens, paint classrooms and sort thousands of pounds of food and medical supplies for shipment overseas.
More CSR partnerships: Companies are realizing they can’t do CSR programs on their own. In 2011 Toys “R” Us teamed up with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to fight childhood cancer, and there are many more corporate partnerships with nonprofits, NGOs and community groups where that came from.

Bottom line: I’ve got CSR on the brain, and so does corporate America. However difficult it may be to win trust from consumers, the positive effect CSR programs are having on the environment and in communities is indisputable.

Follow Scott Van Camp: @svancamp01

Dear Wireless Carrier: So Nice to Hear From You

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Posted on April 3, 2012 
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I’ve been thinking of switching wireless carriers lately. It’s not that I’m unhappy with my current carrier—it’s more a matter of consolidating some family bills. As if on cue, a large yellow envelope appeared in the tiny mailbox in my apartment building’s lobby. It wasn’t easy to pull it out without tearing it.

The piece of mail was from my wireless carrier. Something about it told me it wasn’t just the usual junk mail. Maybe it was the color and texture of the envelope. Inside was a form letter from the company’s president of external affairs in New York. She makes a point in the letter of saying that this was a new role for her in the company and that she was a lifelong New Yorker. She writes, “No matter who your wireless carrier may be, when you think of our company, different things may come to mind…we’d like to add one more iconic image: the New York skyline. Over the past 12 months, we’ve taken great strides to become a true New York company.”

She briefly lists some of the company’s community and arts sponsorships, and then writes: “I don’t expect you to take me at my word on this. That’s why I’m enclosing recent editorials from the Daily News, the Queens Tribune and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that talk about the work we’ve done across the greatest city in the world.”

It’s a brief letter, with a nice font and plenty of leading between the lines. It was a pleasure to read.

Also in the envelope were four unstapled pages: three reprints of articles from the newspapers she mentioned, with old-fashioned highlighting of certain passages; fourth was a New York City map with the header “We Support NYC” that indicated the locations of the arts and community programs the company supports. The map itself is ingenious: While it purports to showcase the good works of the wireless carrier, it also cleverly raises awareness of the arts and community organizations themselves.

The whole package was so simple and so human. I got a sense of who the external affairs is as a person—only a New Yorker would be savvy enough to think in terms of distinct boroughs. I wasn’t burdened with too much information and too many pages. She made it easy for me to learn some new things about my wireless carrier. I would have instantly deleted an e-mail transmitting the same information.

Maybe this old-fashioned snail mail outreach worked for me because of the struggle I had pulling it out of my mailbox—I wanted some kind of payoff for my efforts. The bigger factor, I think, is that the wireless carrier took some time to think about who its New York customers really are.

And no, I haven’t made the switch in carriers—yet.

—Steve Goldstein

Follow Steve Goldstein: @SGoldsteinAI

 

 

6 Tips for Selling a Skeptic on Your Brand and Driving Customers Your Way, not Away

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Posted on March 28, 2012 
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Depending on your passions and personality, buying a car is either like death and taxes or it’s like vacations and massages. It’s either unavoidable or a much-anticipated joy.  I tend to fall into the former category where I dread the activity of buying a car, not because the car itself is a problem but the experience of buying one is painful.  Over the past few weeks, it’s been an anthropological journey assessing the many salesmen who’ve pitched me the benefits of their brand and failed miserably. So, in the spirit of helpfulness yet recognizing that Mike, Spencer and John (three salesmen from Acura, Jeep and Toyota) will not be reading this PR News Blog, I put forth some ideas for selling me a car the next time I drop by, and I wager that as a communications pro you’ll detect the relevance with your own brand marketing and evangelism efforts.  Here are six tips for selling your brand to a time-strapped, money-conscious, brand-knowledgeable skeptic:

  1. When asked why I would buy a Toyota over a Honda, do not say “Because Toyotas are just better.”  Give me the competitive facts but read me correctly; the fuel system and transaxle are less important to someone like me than safety and smoothness of drive.  (My husband cares even less about what’s under the hood and chassis than I do.)
  2. When asked for a test drive, do not assume the husband, rather than the wife, is the one to hand the keys to. Similar to when you’re in a restaurant and the waiter hands the check to the man. What year are we in?  (Check research on the gender most likely to buy cars and other big-ticket items.)
  3. The customer’s always right (especially about subjective items). Do not try to convince me that I want the sage green car when I am asking for midnight blue.  Cater to my preferences, even compliment my color choice.
  4. Don’t let a prospect walk out the door without getting her name.  If I’ve walked into your shop and committed time to the process, always find out my name and contact info so you can follow up. It might be annoying to customers (like me), but it’s probably more annoying to Management that you might have let a good one get away.
  5. Tell me the real price of the vehicle, not a price so low that sticker shock will set in minutes before the contract is (not) signed.  Transparency is always appreciated and might even sway me to spend a little more.
  6. Don’t assume your brand will sell itself.  I went into the process thinking Toyota, but my family and I were so turned off by the salesmanship at two Toyota dealerships that we lost interest. We not only fell in love with a particular Honda vehicle, but we had a great experience with the salesman and will recommend the Honda dealership to our friends and family.

You know this, but as a communicator it’s sometimes hard to control: It often comes down to the quality of the people who are in front of your customers and prospects everyday – whether in person,  on the phone or via email.  Don’t assume they know how to sell, or that your product sells itself.  Those days are over.

– Diane Schwartz

Follow me on Twitter: @dianeschwartz

 

 

 

A PR Homage to The Hunger Games

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Posted on March 26, 2012 
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If 24 PR executives were sent every year to the Arena to battle it out, would you watch? Would you be one of the “tributes” or better yet (worse yet?), would you volunteer to be a tribute to save your colleague from near-imminent death? No need to answer that, for thankfully such a dystopian future is fictional, popcorn-chomping fare.

But if you can hack into the buzz of the day, which right now is The Hunger Games, and consider how this story applies to you, then what might cross your mind? Perhaps it’s on the real world of Public Relations and fighting the daily battle to preserve reputation, break through the clutter, launch or wrap up a campaign, boost employee morale, drive more sales and measure your success (and failures).  Likely you’re not starving for action items.  If you are among the millions of people who paid to see The Hunger Games over the weekend, then you know this movie “has something for everyone” – that everyday you are playing a game of survival, dealing with decisions and authorities beyond your control. You form alliances and pick your battles.  You might get stabbed in the back; you might be rescued by an unlikely competitor. You might even find yourself handing over your last piece of proverbial bread to your teammate.

Your best weapon is your intelligence, but a little perspiration doesn’t hurt.

The mantra running through The Hunger Games is “May the odds be ever in your favor.”  To stay ahead in the game you know, however, that luck favors the prepared. So be prepared to, um, talk about the Hunger Games with your peers until the next blockbuster movie hits the big screen.

- Diane Schwartz

On Twitter: @dianeschwartz

 

A Cool Head in a Sea of Angry Customers

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Posted on March 19, 2012 
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We’ve all had to deal with angry customers. Disappointed clients, infuriated readers, resentful consumers—whatever your line of work, there’s somebody who’s not happy with what they bought from you.

If you’re a communicator working for a consumer brand, no matter how good your product is, no matter how accurately it’s been promoted, no matter how responsible a corporate citizen your brand is, somebody somewhere is angry at your company. If you’re at an agency, you’ve got a client right now who feels that what’s been paid for hasn’t been delivered.

The same holds for personal relations—somebody you’re related to or a friend you’ve known for years is holding a grudge because of something you said or did or didn’t do.

The question is, how do you handle the anger? Figuring out how to hear, absorb and respond to someone else’s anger is part of the job of being a professional in any line of work. And if you’re a PR practitioner, being able to deal with a customer’s anger in e-mails, on social networks, on the phone and in person can make your career.

I’m not a psychologist and can’t pretend to offer tips on how to handle an absolutely red-hot customer on Facebook, beyond trying to take the conversation offline. One way or another, though, you have to meet that person’s anger head-on. Most people avoid confrontation—that’s a basic fact. But if you can specialize in dealing directly with your company’s angriest customers or your agency’s most furious clients, you’ve got a calling card that’ll make you unique, valued and respected. Cool heads prevail—always.

—Steve Goldstein 

Follow Steve Goldstein: @SGoldsteinAI

Goldman Sachs Director’s Exit Interview For All the World To See: Toxic and Cautionary

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Posted on March 14, 2012 
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Greg Smith, executive director at Goldman Sachs, resigned today and he wants the world to know that the environment at the Goliath investment firm is “now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.”  The New York Times today is running Smith’s tirade against Goldman Sachs in the Op-Ed section under the headline “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs.” What a “get” for the New York Times, what a forum for Smith and what a HR and PR nightmare for Goldman Sachs.  Smith writes with a certain sadness that the firm he once loved is now devoid of culture and morals, a place where fast money is put above client need, where greed is baked into every morsel of client advice. This is just one employee complaining and this will blow over from “story of the day” to yesterday’s news, right? My prediction is it will have legs – that Smith was in a position of power and influence at Goldman Sachs and if the firm is savvy, it will address this op-ed with its employees, seek feedback from all ranks of the company, and listen more carefully to its clients, who are unlikely to pull their business but more likely now to ask questions.

We all know that if a company were to allow its employees to write an op-ed piece about their experience that might be viewed by say, more than 2 people, a certain percentage of these writings would not be positive musings about their former employer.  Imagine if once a week, the New York Times were to run a “Why I am Leaving (fill in blank of company name)” – would we run our businesses differently? Would we treat our employees and clients differently?  Would we listen more carefully and would we be able to look every customer and employee in the eye when we talk about our brand? Most likely we would.

Diane Schwartz

 

You Don’t Work Weekends — Or Do You?

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Posted on March 13, 2012 
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It’s been noted that Monday through Friday is a typical work week in North America, with weekends freed up for everything but work. There are exceptions with the occasional business trip that bleeds into the weekend or a project that needs extra attention, but overall, we turn it off on Friday afternoon and rev our work engines again on Monday.

If you say “Ha!” to that, then you are right.  Social media has changed our work habits, and my question to you is whether FaceTweetPinGoogTubeSquare, otherwise known as the Social Web, has altered your work habits to the point where you find yourself tweeting work-related items on a Friday night, reading industry-related blogs on a Saturday night, pondering which business videos to post on YouTube during your Sunday morning walk, noticing that the majority of your Facebook friends are work-related,  and not knowing whether to use Pinterest for work or play.  We are indeed tangled in this Web where work and play get knotted up, and finding a balance between the two can be a second job. But keep up the good fight, because taking real breaks from your job benefits you, your employer and your customers/clients. But I will submit that if you never think about work during the weekend, never take a peek at what’s going on in your work Web, then you might want to think about what makes you passionate.  Those passionate about their work cannot totally disconnect just because the calendar says it’s Saturday….imho.

Diane Schwartz

On Twitter: @dianeschwartz

 

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