Your software company is poised to revolutionize the IT marketplace forever, but the junior agency AE who's pitching your story to the press is mispronouncing the word "Linux,"
as though it were a "Peanuts" character.
In the world of PR, there are thousands of languages to master, and we're not just pontificating about globalization. When you bring a new agency or staff member on board, are
you incorporating a cultural immersion experience into their training? If your only plan is to saddle each new recruit with a dictionary of jargon, a cheat sheet from a white-
collar sales pitch and a phone, you're not likely to yield a decent ROI.
As elementary as it may sound, field trips play a critical role in the education process for media relations practitioners. "The best way to learn your client's business is to
get your hands dirty," says David Margulies, president of the Margulies Communications Group in Dallas.
Case in point: the education of Sandy Hu, a major player on Ketchum's Kikkoman account. Her first order of business when she joined the team was a tour of the soy sauce plant.
"Soy sauce is fermented, like wine," explains Hu, a former food editor and now senior VP and director of the Ketchum Food Center in San Francisco. After witnessing the
manufacturing process, Hu understood the differences between "naturally brewed" soy sauce (like Kikkoman's) and other types that have caramel coloring and other artificial
ingredients added. Armed with this knowledge, she and her staff were able to speak more fluently on the subject and convinced editors at Prevention magazine to begin
calling for "naturally-brewed" soy sauce in their recipes, as opposed to plain ol' soy sauce. "It's the same idea as 'extra-virgin' olive oil and 'pure' vanilla extract," she
says. Editors may not be referring to Kikkoman by name, but the distinction has given the brand a competitive advantage on supermarket shelves.
An Ounce of Prevention
Field experience also can give PR counselors the insights they need to react quickly in a crisis, notes Margulies, who once rode a milk truck at 4 a.m. on behalf of a dairy
client to observe the driver's interactions with b-to-b customers.
"The experience proved important later on when the company had a recall situation," he says. "Whereas other people might have gone straight to the press, we realized that the
customers already had more trusting, personal relationships with the route drivers, and that it would be better to have the bad news coming from the drivers than from some
corporate bigwig." In light of this epiphany, the dairy rallied its drivers to spearhead the recall - and tempered what might have become an explosive media story.
Many corporations have pre-existing training programs for retail clerks, technicians, sales reps, fleet crews and security officers; it just doesn't occur to senior PR
managers to enroll their agency teams and in-house staffers in the programs. When Miller/Shandwick Technologies nailed the account for Xerox Engineering Systems - a division that
develops large format printers and scanners - agency VP Matt Lloyd and senior AE Daryl Richard made a pilgrimage to the sprawling campus of Xerox Document University in Leesburg,
Va. There they received a three-day crash course on the reprographics marketplace, including case study critiques and a hands-on opportunity to play with both Xerox and
competitors' products.
Two months later, the agency launched a new wide-format printer for Xerox and landed ink not only in the mainstream press, but also vertical pubs such as Desktop
Engineering and Quick Printing. Lloyd and Richard were primed to talk tech with the trade press.
Old School Benefits
Of course, the benefits of cultural immersion are nothing new to major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot - both of which routinely dispatch their agency teams in smocks
to observe customers in their natural store habitats. "We look for people who are willing to invest in and learn about our business," says Carol Schumacher, VP of PR for Home
Depot.
Similarly, The Container Store mandates that all of its new hires (regardless of position) spend a week working in a store to fully understand the company's culture and
philosophy. "When you're talking about retail, the immediate assumption is long, grueling hours on your feet, little pay and no advancement," says Audrey Keymer, PR supervisor for
the Dallas-based chain, which claimed the top spot in Fortune's latest list of top U.S. employers. "You really have to be in the store environment to see for yourself that
every employee here is empowered to make management-like decisions." Being in the trenches offers proof that the philosophy touted by senior management is more than just lip
service. And the enthusiasm that bubbles from seeing that ideology in motion goes a long way in keeping media interviews upbeat, she says.
Role-Playing
Visits to the front lines are perhaps most beneficial because they encourage media pitchmasters to think like journalists. "If you were a reporter and you were writing a story
on fire-fighting, you'd get a lot more out of riding around with the fire department than simply sitting in a room with the fire chief and talking about hoses," says Jeremy
Porter, director of PR services and strategy for the Enliten Management Group, an Atlanta firm specializing in counsel for start-up ventures.
Margulies, a former investigative reporter for ABC's southwest affiliate, agrees. "It's about watching how employees interact with their customers...hearing their war stories
and concerns. You have to roll up your sleeves and go in there and find the unique angle to pitch to the media, because if you're just talking to [employees] by phone, they
aren't going to give it to you. They don't think anything they do is unique because they do it every day."
The goal of the PR expedition isn't so much to learn how to do other people's jobs as it is to digest the essence of a corporation by watching its business in motion.
"It's not so much about me being able to bake a loaf of bread, drive a truck or fly an airplane," Margulies says. "Although I did get to fly the flight simulator for Southwest
Airlines. And that was pretty cool."
(Hu, 415/984-6128; Keymer, 214/654-2000; Lloyd, 617/351-4144; Margulies, 214/368-0909; Porter, 770/441-2973; Schumacher, 770/384-2828)
Educate Us
Is your corporate PR department planning an innovative training expedition for in-house media relations staffers or outside agency counsel? Tell us what makes it unique. Or
better yet, let us see for ourselves. The curious reporters from PR NEWS might just like to participate in basic training. Email ideas to [email protected].